The 21st Century Housewife's© Leek and Ham Risotto with Cherry Tomatoes

This recipe is delicious – perfect comfort food for this time of year – and you probably have most of the ingredients for it already in your store-cupboard and freezer. In fact, it is a great way to use up any leftover ham you might still have tucked away in the freezer after the Holidays. If by any chance you don’t have any ham left, just buy a thick slice from the deli counter and chop it up. Don’t worry if cherry tomatoes are too pricey or not available. You can either chop ordinary tomatoes up finely and use them instead.

Risotto does require pretty much constant attention and stirring, but not much effort, and as it only takes about twenty minutes or so to make. This is why it is one of my favorite quick and easy dinners. Risotto is quite rich, so servings do not need to be all that big (in fact this recipe wills serve at least four hungry adults). You don’t really need to serve anything with this, although I’m sure no one would complain if you served some nice hot rolls or a small green salad alongside it.

2 tbsp butter
3-4 leeks, thinly sliced and washed and drained thoroughly
2 cups Arborio or other risotto rice
1 glass white wine
1 litre hot chicken stock
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup cooked ham, chopped in bite sized pieces
¼ cup light cream

Melt the butter over low to medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the leeks and sauté until they begin to soften. Add the rice and stir to coat with the buttery leek mixture. Cook for a minute or so, but don’t let the rice start to brown at all. (Turn the heat down a bit if it starts to do that.)

Add the white wine and stir in until it absorbs. Now add the stock gradually, stirring after each addition until absorbed. Once you have added all the stock, the rice should be cooked, but still “al dente”, with just a little bit of bite.

Stir in the peas, cherry tomatoes, ham and cream. Cook, stirring pretty much constantly, until the cream has absorbed and the peas, tomatoes and ham are heated through.

Serve on warmed plates.

The 21st Century Housewife's© Easy "Green" Pasta with Pancetta

I’ll be posting some festive recipes soon, but for the moment I’m concentrating on easy, delicious recipes that make life less stressful at this busy time of year. This recipe is just right for one of those evenings after a long day, or after an exhausting session of Christmas shopping. It is so easy, and perfect for using up the lovely autumn vegetables we are getting now. Leeks and courgette (zucchini) are plentiful and they taste delicious. I like to use cubed pancetta (Italian bacon) in this recipe, but if you want to keep this recipe vegetarian, just use an extra tablespoon of olive oil and leave out the meat. It really is so quick to put together - okay, there is a little light chopping involved, but that can be quite therapeutic after a rough day!

You can use any pasta shapes you like for this, although penne is a good one to use as it is budget-friendly. By all means use whole wheat pasta if you want to ramp up the fibre and vitamin content; I did not have any the night I took the photograph so I used white pasta, but it makes no difference to the finished dish what sort you use. The recipe will serve 4 hungry people.

1 tablespoon olive oil (2 tablespoons if you are leaving out the pancetta)
70 grams of chopped pancetta (or bacon lardons)
(You can use 3 or 4 slices of streaky bacon, chopped, if you can’t find pancetta.)
3 leeks (white part only), washed and cut in thin slices
1 courgette (zucchini), washed and cut in fairly thin half moons
(Slice the stem and end off, then cut the courgette in half lengthwise, and then slice - this will give you half moons)
generous handful of frozen peas
250 grams pasta shapes
4 generous tablespoons ready-made basil pesto
2 tablespoons half fat (low fat) crème fraîche or sour cream

Prepare the vegetables and heat a medium size frying pan with a lid to medium heat. Add the pancetta or bacon (or heat 1 tablespoon oil in the pan if you are not using meat). Toss the pancetta (if using) around for a minute to allow some of the fat to release. Add the leeks and courgette (zucchini).



Drizzle 1 tablespoon oil over the vegetables and toss with the pancetta. Cook for about five minutes and then put the lid on and stir occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften and the pancetta is cooked.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large saucepan in plenty of boiling salted water, according to package directions.

Add the pesto and crème fraîche or sour cream to the vegetables and pancetta in the frying pan. Stir and heat through.



Drain the pasta and return to its pan. Add the vegetable and pancetta sauce to the pasta and toss to coat.

Serve with a nice glass of red wine - you deserve it :)

The 21st Century Housewife's© Leek, Beef and Beer Stew with Carrot and Parsnip Mash

This is a gorgeous, warming stew for a blustery winter’s evening. The carrot and parsnip mash gives a lovely hit of color alongside the stew, and it’s a great way to get your antioxidants this time of year.

This recipe will serve four, but don’t worry if there are only two of you, the leftovers taste lovely if you cool them quickly, store in the fridge and re-heat thoroughly the next day!

For the stew:-
2 tablespoons butter
3 or 4 leeks, washed and sliced in thin slices
about 500 grams of chuck steak, cut in chunks
275 ml bottle lager beer (I use Coors light)
250 ml beef stock (ready-made or from a cube is fine)
1 bay leaf
1 generous spoonful of red pesto or tomato paste (tomato puree in the UK)
150 grams orzo

For the mash:-
3 – 4 carrots, washed, peeled and cut in chunks
3 parsnips, washed, peeled and cut in chunks
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350℉ or 170℃.

In a large stove top to oven safe pan /casserole dish with a lid (I use a large shallow one by Le Creuset but a deeper one will work just as well), melt the butter over medium heat. Add the leaks and fry for a few minutes until they are beginning to soften. Stir in the beef and cook until browned, stirring pretty much constantly.

Pour in the lager and the beef stock. Bring the mixture to the boil. Stir in the bay leaf and the red pesto or tomato paste.

Put the lid on the casserole and carefully put in the oven. Cook for an hour and fifteen minutes, stirring once after about forty minutes. If it looks like it is cooking too quickly, lower the heat a bit.

When there are about ten minutes left to go, steam the carrots and parsnips on the stove-top until tender. Drain and mash with the butter and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside to keep warm, or place in a covered casserole dish in a low oven.

Remove the stew from the oven and place the casserole on a heat-proof surface. Add the orzo and stir. There should still be a fair amount of liquid in the stew, but if not, add a bit of boiling water just so the orzo has liquid to absorb. Stir again.

Cover the casserole and return to the oven for ten minutes. Remove once again and check the liquid level. If it has all been absorbed, add a tiny bit more boiling water (only a little!). Return the casserole the oven for five to ten minutes more. At this point, the orzo should be tender and most of the liquid should be absorbed.

Serve the stew and mash with some warmed crusty rolls.

By the way, it is easy to make vegetable mashes and they are a healthy alternative to mashed potatoes served with just about anything. As well as carrot and parsnip mash, you could try parsnip and turnip (swede in the UK) or butternut squash and sweet potato. Just steam the vegetables and mash with butter and seasoning as above.

Parsnip, Potato and Leek Gratin

Autumn is a capricious season. One day it’s crisp and colourful with the leaves a spectacular display of gorgeousness, the next it is damp, bone chilling and grey, making you want to go and hide under the duvet. As the nights draw in, I crave warming, delicious food that not only tastes good, but also fills the house with wonderful smells so that as soon as you walk in the door you are enveloped by comfort and cosiness.

For this reason, I've always made a lot of gratin dishes in the Autumn months. They are always well received and they are also easy on the cook. There is a fair bit of slicing involved, but after that it is pretty much an assembly job. They are also easy to cook – you simply put them in a low oven for an hour or so and voila, dinner! Easy on the pocket in these days of economic meltdown, gratins hold beautifully in the oven if everyone is eating at different times on busy Autumn evenings. 

I was keen to incorporate some vegetables from my organic veg box in my gratin this week so decided to experiment with parsnips and leeks.  The results were delicious.  You do need a bit less liquid when you are making this sort of a gratin as parsnips and leeks release some of their own liquid during cooking.  (Be sure to drain the leeks well after you wash them as the last thing you want is watery gratin.)   I always use half fat (2%) milk for health reasons, but if you wanted a richer dish you could use full cream milk instead.  I recommend using cheddar cheese in this dish as its strong flavour really compliments the root vegetables.  In fact, this is an ideal dish for vegetarians, provided you use a vegetarian cheddar. The recipe that follows can be a meal in its entirety; simply add a little something green and crisp on the side. It could not be easier to prepare, and it is absolute heaven to eat. However, if for you potatoes will never be more than a side dish, this gratin is equally delicious as a partner to any meat or fish.
 
1 – 2  large baking potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and thinly sliced
4 medium leeks, washed, drained and very thinly sliced
5 large (or 7 medium) parsnips, washed, peeled and thinly sliced
2 vegetable stock cubes
2 handful of bread crumbs
3 handfuls grated cheddar cheese
2 ½ cups (that is roughly a pint, or 600 ml) milk
 
Prepare the vegetables.  Mix together the bread crumbs and cheddar cheese in a medium size bowl.  Finely crumble the stock cubes into this mixture and stir to combine. 
 
In a large casserole dish, begin to layer the gratin.  Start with a thin layer of potatoes, then of parsnips and then leeks.  Sprinkle with one third of the cheesy breadcrumb mixture.  Repeat with another layer of potatoes, parsnips and leeks and again sprinkle with one third of the cheesy breadcrumbs.  

For the third layer of vegetables, reverse the layering order and start with the parsnips. Follow with the leeks and finish with a layer of potatoes.  Do not sprinkle the last portion of breadcrumb mixture over top just yet.
 
Heat the milk in a saucepan or in the microwave until it is just warm (not boiling).  Pour the milk over the gratin.  Now sprinkle the last one third of the cheesy breadcrumb mixture over the top of the gratin.  Bake at 170ºC ( about 350ºF) for about an hour and a half. The gratin is done when the vegetables are tender (a good way to check this is to insert a dinner knife in the gratin - it should slide in really easily) and and the top is golden brown.

Cool any leftovers quickly. They will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator and are delicious rewarmed. Be sure to reheat until piping hot.