I think celery is a wonderful ingredient for soup. It can seem on the surface a bit of a nothingy vegetable; great for adding a bit of crunch to a salad but not particularly interesting in its own right.

Don’t get me wrong. I love celery in a salad but it is usually a bit part player.

But when cooked, it is transformed. The flavour deepens and intensifies. And combined as in this soup with the saltiness of smoked pancetta and a strong blue cheese, such as a Stilton or Blue Vinney, I really don’t think you can achieve much more pleasure in a bowl of food than this.

I make my celery soup with chicken stock plus a sprinkling of crispy pancetta to serve, but for a vegetarian version simply leave out the pancetta and use vegetables stock instead.

This is a perfect soup for a light but indulgent lunch and is also interesting enough for a starter when you have friends over for dinner. Its taste belies how simple it is to make. My children will eat it quite happily, but only if I omit to tell them there is any blue cheese in it.

Celery and blue cheese soup with crispy smoked pancetta

Serves 4

Large knob of butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
5 large sticks of celery, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
800ml chicken stock, hot
75g blue cheese
50g pancetta, diced

In a large pan melt the butter and gently fry the onions until golden. Add the celery and potatoes and toss in the butter for a couple of minutes.

Pour in the hot stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the celery and potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile fry the pancetta in a little more butter until crispy. Place on some kitchen towel so they are not too greasy.

Liquidise until smooth and then return to a gentle heat. Crumble in the blue cheese and stir until it has melted in. Check for seasoning at this point, but I’d be surprised if you need any.

Serve in bowls with a sprinkling of crispy pancetta. Soup doesn’t get sexier than this!

Firstly I put it down to the meal planning, which has made me think much more carefully about what and how we eat.

And secondly, it’s due to writing this blog, which I’ve been doing for almost three months now. It’s certainly helping to keep me on my toes, forcing me to be more creative in the kitchen, try out lots of new recipes and even develop my own dishes.

This week, I think, has been a particularly good one mealwise. Lots of highs and not a single low.

As it was the half term holidays, we got to enjoy some big meals at lunchtime with lighter meals in the evening. I much prefer eating this way. We even had roast chicken for Friday lunch, which is always such a treat.

The first high has to be our romantic Valentine’s meal, once the children were tucked up in bed. We enjoyed a scrumptious pan-fried duck breast salad with mixed berries and walnuts from a recipe by the wonderful Karen Booth over at Lavender & Lovage.

Pan-fried duck salad from Lavender & Lovage

I can’t plan a romantic meal without chocolate featuring on the menu, so we followed the duck salad with a gorgeous chocolate and raspberry mousse, adapted from a recipe I found on the Riverford website. I’ll post my interpretation of this recipe soon.

Chocolate and raspberry mousse

Later in the week I cooked a delicious celery and blue cheese soup. I don’t mind admitting it was out of this world. I know soup isn’t normally something to get excited about, but there was something really quite sexy about this one. Again I promise to post my recipe in the next few days.

Celery and blue cheese soup with crispy smoked pancetta

I tried out some lemon and ricotta pancakes as a mid-week pudding, ahead of Shrove Tuesday, and these were a fantastic success. I adapted a recipe I found in The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, which I borrowed from the library at the weekend. I look forward to testing out and playing with more recipes from here in the coming weeks.

Lemon and ricotta pancakes

And my final legal high of the week was a spicy chorizo and butter bean soup I made for a light supper on Saturday evening. I wasn’t really expecting much but it was packed full of gutsy flavour. Yet again, recipe to follow shortly.

So here it is then. Last week’s meal plan in its entirety…

Monday 13 February
Lunch: butternut squash soup (F)
Dinner: tortilla and salad

Tuesday 14 February
Lunch: ham salad rolls followed by love heart jam tarts
Dinner: (kids) beef casserole and baked potato (F) (adults) pan-fried duck breast salad with mixed berries and walnuts, followed by chocolate and raspberry mousse (recipe coming soon)

Wednesday 15 February
Lunch: hummus and salad wraps
Dinner: pumpkin & parsnip cassoulet with homemade garlic bread

Thursday 16 February
Lunch: celery and blue cheese soup followed by lemon and ricotta pancakes
Dinner: chilli con carne (my husband made a mild version for the children)

Friday 17 February
Lunch: roast chicken, roast potatoes and steamed vegetables
Dinner: leek and potato soup

Saturday 18 February
Lunch: baked potatoes and salad
Dinner: Spicy chorizo and bean soup (recipe coming soon)

Sunday 19 February
Lunch: mutton casserole and spicy corn bread (F)
Dinner: Bread, cheese and salad

F = from freezer

I am rather partial to wraps at the moment. I like to eat them stuffed full of salad, cheese and different dips. They make for a really simple supper at the end of a busy day.

This haricot bean and garlic dip is  one of my favourites to have in a wrap. It’s also great served as part of a mezze. Similar to hummus, it is very cheap to make. The garlic is roasted with rosemary giving the dip a soft smoky flavour, which isn’t overpowering.

Haricot bean and garlic dip

4 heads of garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
2 stalks fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 (400g) tin haricot beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp ground cumin
5 tbsp soured cream
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 190°C/gas 5.

Toss the garlic in two tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and then loosely wrap in foil along with the rosemary. Bake on a tray for around 45 minutes until the garlic is soft and the skins come off easily.

In a saucepan, heat the remaining oil and fry the onion until it is golden brown.

Squeeze the garlic out of their skins into a food processor with the onion, haricot beans, cumin, soured cream, lime juice and a little of the rosemary. Season well with salt and pepper. Blend until it resembles porridge. You don’t want it too smooth; it’s good to have a bit of texture. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Pour into your serving dish and garnish with a sprinkling of paprika.

I seem to be going through a bit of a phase a the moment baking savoury muffins for our lunch boxes, and this is my latest creation.

It actually started life as a pizza muffin. My daughter Jessie loves pizza toppings and asked if we could make a muffin with these same ingredients. So we gave it a go. But despite being very tasty, they just didn’t quite taste like pizza. Which is why we’ve named them olive and mozzarella muffins instead.

Olive and mozzarella muffins

Makes 12

60ml sunflower oil
180g self-raising flour
130g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
Salt
1 tbsp dried oregano
130g black olives, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100ml plain yoghurt
275ml milk
1 tbsp tomato puree
125g mozzarella, chopped

Preheat oven to 200°C/gas 6. Oil and line a 12-hole muffin tin with baking paper or muffin cases.

Sift the self-raising and wholemeal flour into a large bowl, along with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the salt, oregano and black olives.

In another bowl, mix together the eggs, yoghurt, milk and tomato puree. Pour these wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and very gently combine together. Carefully stir in the mozzarella pieces, keeping back a few pieces to place on top.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and pop some extra bits of mozzarella on top of each one.

Bake the muffins in the oven for around 25 minutes until they well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Eat warm or cold.

I’ll keep working on the pizza muffins and I’ll let you know when I’ve sussed them!

If you are looking for a twist on the traditional pancake this Shrove Tuesday, why not give these delicious lemon and ricotta pancakes a go?

Adapted from a recipe in The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano, they are temptingly light and fluffy with a hint of citrus zing.

Lemon and ricotta pancakes

Serves 4

4 eggs
250g ricotta cheese
35g plain flour
50g caster sugar
2 unwaxed lemons
50g butter for frying
Honey to serve

Separate the eggs into two large bowls. Whisk up the egg whites until they form soft peaks and put to one side.

Give the egg yolks a quick beat. Zest the two lemons and add to the yolks. Sieve the flour onto the yolks, then add in the ricotta and sugar. Gently mix together.

Fold in the egg whites gently so you don't lose all that air

Spoon a quarter of the egg whites into the rest of the pancake mixture and carefully fold in. Once combined, gently fold in the remainder of the whites.

Melt enough butter to cover the bottom of your frying pan. Spoon in the pancake mix. You need around a tablespoon of mixture for each small pancake, and you should be able to cook around four at a time, depending of course on the size of your pan.

Fry your dainty pancakes until golden

Fry the pancakes for a couple of minutes until tiny holes appear on the surface. Flip them over and cook for another two to three minutes until a gorgeous golden colour.

Keep the pancakes warm until you’ve cooked them all. Then serve immediately with a drizzle of honey and a good squeeze of lemon.

Food snobs will roll their eyes to see a recipe for chicken tikka masala. It’s not an authentic Indian curry, is it? No-one in India actually eats it, do they?

But I really don’t care. Chicken tikka masala is one of my favourite dishes to order in an Indian restaurant. It’s so moreish and familiar and comforting. And I think it deserves its place as one of Britain’s favourite meals.

And it’s the restaurant style chicken tikka masala my husband recently decided he wanted to have a go at making at home. We came across a recipe by The Curry Guy, aka Dan Toombs, and Jason just had to give it a go.

Dan’s recipe is excellent and, if curry is your thing, I really recommend you try it. It’s a good family meal as it’s creamy and softly spicy rather than fiery hot. But it’s not a quick dish to throw together. If you want to make it the way they do in restaurants, there’s quite a lot of preparation involved.

But when it comes to preparation, my husband Jason is undoubtedly your man. He’s measured and methodical, whereas I am messy and impatient. At the end of one of my cooking sessions, you’d think a tornado had blown through the kitchen. But when Jason is in charge, order and serenity reign.

Talk about tidy in the kitchen...

His first job was to make up a big batch of curry gravy, which Jason reckons took him about two hours. And when I say big, I mean big.

This curry gravy will keep us going a while!

This sauce forms the basis of many of the curries you’ll come across in an Indian restaurant. Apparently you can use it to “make everything from mild kormas to violently hot phall curries in no time”.

Dan’s recipe makes enough gravy for eight curries and it freezes well. So one down, seven more to go! I’d quite like to give his recipe for madras a whirl next time.

Anyway back to the tikka masala. Once you’ve got the gravy, you then need to pre-cook your chicken. Again you can freeze this and use in a number of different chicken curry recipes.

However this time Jason decided to scale down the quantities (our freezer couldn’t take much more!) and made just enough for this one dish. This stage took around another hour.

So once you’ve got your gravy and your chicken, you’re then ready to bring these together with more spices and cream. This final stage takes another hour.

Stirring in single cream

And – if you really want it to look like the chicken tikka masala you’d order in your curry house – you can also add a few drops of red food colouring.

Now doesn't that look a fantastic colour?

So all in all, it’s quite a complicated recipe and it takes time. Jason spread the different stages out over three separate days. But it is worth it. It is exactly like a chicken tikka masala you’d have in a restaurant. Both our daughters, who are aged six and three, really enjoyed it too. We served it with cucumber raita just in case it was too hot for them, but the spice wasn’t a problem for either of them.

A big hit with all the family

And we’ve now got lots of lovely gravy in the freezer all ready to transform into seven more curries in the coming weeks. Can’t wait!

If you’d like to give this chicken tikka masala recipe a try, you’ll find it here on Dan Toombs’ website.

I spent this afternoon in the kitchen with my two girls baking these oh-so-easy jam tarts for their Daddy for Valentine’s Day.

I offer them up to you now, at this late stage in the day, just in case you’ve failed to remember it is 14 February tomorrow and you need a very quick idea to help rustle up a little loving something for your own loved one. Chances are you’ll have all the ingredients you need in the fridge and store cupboard. Go with any flavour jams you fancy.

OK, so it’s not sophisticated baking but I’m sure you’ll receive a warm smile when you present a plate full of these lovelies to the love of your life. And if you can get any children you might have around the place involved in their preparation, so much the better.

Love heart jam tarts

230g plain flour
Pinch salt
115g butter
2-3 tbsp cold water
Strawberry or raspberry jam, lemon curd – you choose!
Icing sugar

Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Many hands make light work. Apparently.

Use a knife to gradually mix in enough cold water to bring the mixture together so that you can form a ball in your hands. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.

Smear with butter a 12-holed tart tin.

Sprinkle the work surface and your rolling pin with flour. Roll out the pastry until about 0.25cm thick. Use a circular cutter to cut out 12 circles and place in the tart tin, pressing gently into place. Save the rest of the pasty for the heart lids. Prick the bottom of each one with a fork.

Bake the circles in the oven for six minutes until lightly golden. Remove and leave to cool for a few minutes.

You may need to use your fingers to slide the jam off the spoon. Licking of fingers may therefore be necessary.

Carefully (or not so carefully depending on your helpers) spoon a desert spoonful of your chosen jam/s into each tart.

Roll out the leftover pastry and using a heart-shaped cutter cut out your heart lids. Place these on top of each of your tarts.

I give you my heart!

Return the tarts to the oven for six to eight minutes until golden brown.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before carefully using a knife to gently slide each tart out of the tin and onto a wire rack. When completely cool, arrange on a plate and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Highs

My other half has requested that I let him cook more often. Since I’ve been meal planning, I’ve tended to choose dishes I’ve fancied cooking and my husband is feeling a little left out when it comes to happenings in the kitchen. His wish is most definitely my command, in this instance anyway.

For ages he’s been talking about having a go at a chicken tikka massala. You know, like they do in Indian restaurants. It took him three days but he got there. And it was bloody gorgeous. Thanks to The Curry Guy for the recipe.

Chicken tikka massala

Another high was a delicious pasta and aubergine dish I read about on Feeding Boys and a Firefighter, Pasta alla Norma; one I’ll definitely be making again.

Pasta alla Norma

Lows

I felt such a domestic goddess on Saturday night, when the rest of the family were tucked up in bed, stirring up the mixture for  spicy corn bread to bake in the morning for breakfast. While it was very tasty, the corn bread just didn’t work first thing in the morning with our bacon and eggs. Just too stodgy. So we decided it would be best to eat the remainder with a meaty stew later in the week.

Spicy corn bread

So here is a day-by-day guide to our last week of food…

Monday 6 February
Lunch: cheese and chutney rolls
Dinner: salad wraps with haricot bean and garlic dip (recipe coming soon)

Tuesday 7 February
Lunch: ham salad rolls
Dinner: squash risotto

Wednesday 8 February
Lunch: hummus and roasted vegetable wraps 
Dinner: Pasta alla Norma

Thursday 9 February
Lunch: cottage cheese with pineapple rolls
Dinner (kids): fish fingers, chips and peas (adults): ham & cheese omelette and salad

Friday 10 February
Lunch: olive and mozzarella muffins
Dinner: ratatouille with garlic bread (recipe coming soon)

Saturday 11 February
Lunch: chicken tikka massala
Dinner: sausages and mustard mash

Sunday 12 February
Lunch: AWAY
Dinner: Bread, cheese and salad

F = from freezer

Please don’t be squeamish about this cut. I’m not asking you to cook tongue after all! When pig cheeks are slow cooked as in this dish, they have the most divinely succulent and unctuous texture and taste like they should cost a fortune. They’re actually cheap as chips. My butcher sold me six cheeks for just £4.

Pigs cheeks might not be that easy to find though. You probably won’t come across them in the supermarket and I don’t know of any butchers around us that would have them on display. I always order them in advance from our local butcher in Frome.

The first time he got them in for me, I was given almost the whole side of the pig’s head complete with ear (times six), and had the rather daunting task of removing the little cheek cushions from within these mounds of skin and sinew. Needless to say I learned from this experience and now always ask the butcher to remove the meaty morsels for me.

The pig cheeks, prepared by my lovely butcher

This dish sees the pig cheeks slowly cooked for four hours in vegetables, stock and wine and is the ideal comfort food for a chilly February evening. The addition of caraway gives the sauce a beautifully rich and intense flavour. The cheeks are served simply with a celeriac and potato mash. I’ve based my recipe on one by Anton Edelmann.

My whole family loves it – yes even my daughters who are six and three. Perhaps they are too young for the thought of eating cheek to be off-putting. Next I have to persuade my mother to try it when she comes to visit at the end of the month.

Braised pig cheeks with celeriac mash

Serves 4

6 pig cheeks, trimmed of fat
Salt and pepper
Flour for dusting
3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 leek, washed and cut into 1cm chunks
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm chunks
2 celery sticks, cut into 1cm chunks
2 garlic cloves, sliced
100g tomato puree
½ bottle dry red wine
300ml beef stock, hot
½ tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 bay leaf

For the celeriac mash

Half a celeriac, peeled and chopped
4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
100ml milk
50g butter

Preheat the oven to 140°C/gas 1.

Season the pig cheeks and dust with the flour. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large ovenproof pan and fry the cheeks until golden brown. Remove from the pan and keep warm on a plate.

Add a little more oil to the pan and add the onions, leeks, celery, carrots and garlic and fry gently until just beginning to brown. Pour in a little of the red wine and the tomato puree. Cook gently to reduce the wine and caramelise the puree. Gradually add the rest of the wine, reducing down each time until you have a lovely rich dark sauce.

Return the cheeks to the pan and pour over enough stock to cover. Add the peppercorns, caraway seeds and bay leaf and bring to a gentle simmer.

Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for four hours. Stir occasionally and add more stock if it begins to dry out.

Towards the end of the cooking time, boil the potatoes and celeriac in a pan of salted water for around 10 minutes. Add the butter, milk and a little seasoning, and mash well.

When cooked, take out the cheeks and keep warm. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan. Bring the sauce to the boil and reduce until it is good and thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the cheeks on the mash and generously spoon over the sauce. Enjoy!

Highs

The award for my food highlight of the week has to go to braised pig cheeks.

Braised pig cheeks with celeriac mash

Most people I’ve mentioned this dish to have given the same rather squeamish response but it is truly an amazing meal. You’ve got to try it. And it’s so cheap too. I got six pig cheeks from my butcher for just £4 and that’s enough to feed four people.

You slow cook the cheeks in red wine and vegetables until they are sumptuously tender and practically melt in your mouth. Pure heaven on a plate. I’ll post the recipe on the blog very soon. I promise.

Another food highlight, a regular in our house during the winter months, was the sausage and cabbage bake. Savoy cabbage is particularly good this time of year and so I entered my bake into the In Season Challenge over at Bake It, Make It, where you’ll find more recipes using this marvellous vegetable.

Lows

It’s been a tricky task coming up with what I’d call a low this week. So I’m plumping for what was more of a disappointment. Not in the dish itself but in my daughters’ reaction to it. I baked Lorraine Pascale’s pumpkin and rosemary muffins. My husband and I thought they were delicious but the kids weren’t convinced.

So here’s what we ate last week:

Monday 30 January
Lunch: pasta salad
Dinner: sausage and cabbage bake

Tuesday 31 January
Lunch: carrot, coriander and ginger soup
Dinner: cottage pie

Wednesday 1 February
Lunch: pumpkin and rosemary muffins 
Dinner: braised pig cheeks with celeriac mash

Thursday 2 February
Lunch: butternut squash soup, ham salad rolls
Dinner (kids): spaghetti bolognese F (adults): beef stew and parsley dumplings F

Friday 3 February
Lunch: rice salad
Dinner: baked potatoes, garlic mushrooms and salad

Saturday 4 February
Lunch: stir fried spring greens and noodles
Dinner: AWAY

Sunday 5 February
Lunch: AWAY
Dinner: butternut squash soup and bread rolls

F = from freezer