Hearty Ham Soup - and a Hot Air Balloon !

I'd just made soup for tea, when I looked out the window yesterday evening and saw a hot air balloon out the window. 

We do see a lot of them round here at this time of year - but this balloon was VERY low and coming into land just a couple of fields away from our house. I yelled at Oliver to hurry and grab his shoes and  30 seconds later, we leapt into the car to go and find out exactly where it was coming down.

"We're going to be too late Mummy!" Oliver cried from the front passengers seat. 

Thankfully, luck was on our side and the balloon was just touching down as we got out the car.

We waited as they clambered out of the basket...... 

Then we watched them pull the canopy to the ground !

They all had to get on the end of the rope. Lots of pulling involved.

It's pretty spectacular stuff to see a great big hot air balloon coming down.

Finally, it came to the ground - but still took quite a long time to deflate.

After that, it was all packed on to a trailer and at that - we went back home for tea !


Anyway - here is the soup recipe for you.

I make it in my electric pressure cooker which has a 6 litre capacity and cook for 1 hour at pressure.

250g red lentils
1 large smoked ham hock
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 bay leaves
4 medium dried chillies
1 tsp ground ginger
2 sticks celery, stringy bits removed then diced.

Basically, shove the whole lot in the pressure cooker, then top up to the 6litre mark with water.

Bring to pressure and then cook for 1 hour. Once releasing pressure, skin the hock and remove the meat, adding the meat only back to the soup.

That's it ! couldn't be simpler...

Ham, Potato and Red Lentil Soup - Cooking with Oliver !

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