There is nothing quite like a comforting bowl of soup to warm you through to the core. It also makes a cheap, easy and filling meal. This large pot of soup is enough for around 10 portions.
It's also something Oliver likes "helping" with in the kitchen. Lets just say I'm messy when working in the kitchen - but when Oliver is helping..... there is stuff EVERYWHERE. Still - I wouldn't swap those precious moments for anything.
1 large ham hock
500g red lentils
500g peeled floury potatoes
3 stalks celery
1 large onion
3 bay leaves
5 dried chillies
1.8 litres of water
1 tablespoon of Margiold Bullion Powder (or 2 > 3 vegetable stock cubes)
Oliver put the ham hock, quartered onion, chopped celery, chillies and bay leaves into the pot. Add the water.
Oliver added the water in 3 batches.
We cooked this in the pressure cooker for 1 hour. I then removed the ham hock.
Oliver had spent the last hour playing chopping the potatoes (that I had sliced) up with a cookie cutter into teeny weeny bits. I must admit - there were loads on the floor..... so we scooped them all up and he spent another 15 minutes at least washing them in the sink and playing with the tap....
The potatoes and lentils then went back into the electric pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients for about 20 mins. After cooking, I then blended these with a stick blender until smooth.
Serve the soup with some flaked meat from the ham hock on the top. Yum !
We kept half the ham back for making wraps. 1.2kg ham hock from the butchers cost just £2.50 and yielded 570g of meat.
Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - February 2012
Mmm, looks absolutely delicious, and it would seem you have a chef in the making!
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