Better Homes And Gardens Ham Hock And Barley Soup

There's nothing better than a bowl of hot, nourishing soup on a cold day. These robust, mostly one-pot recipes are easy to prepare and most can be made in advance.

Pheasant (or guinea fowl or chicken) and barley broth (pictured above)

Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min
Serves 4 as a meal

1 pheasant, ideally corn-fed – you could use guinea fowl or any other game bird instead, or even a chicken
1 glass dry sherry
1½-2 litres water, or enough just to cover the bird
4 shallots, peeled and left whole
4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 bouquet garni, (broth posy), made up of thyme, sage, celery leaf, flat-leaf parsley all tied together into a bunch
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
100g barley
100g porridge oats
300g mixed chopped root vegetables – carrots, parsnips, swede, potatoes or any that take your fancy; omit or add what you like, but carrots are essential
1 bunch seasonal greens – kale is especially good here
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the whole bird in a deep, heavy-based pan, add the sherry and enough cold water to cover, then add the herbs, shallots, garlic, cinnamon and star anise. Slowly bring it up to a simmer, then poach on very low heat, so the liquid is barely simmering, for 30 minutes. The essential thing here is to not boil the stock at any point, because that will dry out the bird. You should end up with a poached bird and a lovely, clear, light broth.

Add the barley, oats and chopped root vegetables, and carry on cooking at a very low simmer for 30 minutes, until the grains are cooked through. Add the roughly chopped greens and cook, still on a low, barely simmering heat, for 10 minutes more.

Lift out the bird and carve it into eight pieces – you can take the meat off the bone, too, if you like, but I find it stays juicier on. Return the jointed bird to the pot – if it's still a little pink on the bone, simmer for a few minutes more, then season to taste and serve.

Brown lentil and chard soup

A delicious, nutritious, warming Lebanese treat that's usually served on meat-free days and at Lent. The more lemon you can take, the more Moorish the soup.

Prep 10 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4 as a meal

175g brown lentils
2 medium white onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
150ml olive or rapeseed oil
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large bunch chard (swiss is great), washed and roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 3 large lemons – you will need at least 150ml

Rinse the lentils, then put them in a pot and cover with a litre and a half of cold water. Bring up to a simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes , until the lentils are nutty but not soft.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan until it's almost smoking. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring vigorously, on a high heat until deep brown caramel in colour – you're not looking to soften them, but to crisp them up fast, so they impart their onion sweetness into the oil and dehydrate.

Drain the onions through a fine sieve, reserving the oil. Put the onions on a plate lined with kitchen paper, to soak up excess oil, and pour the reserved oil back into the frying pan. On a low heat, gently fry the garlic slices until golden, then drain, again reserving the oil.

When the lentils are ready, slowly pour the onion and garlic oil into the simmering pot – be careful, because it may spit. Add half the crisp onions and simmer for a further 10 minutes, then stir in the chopped chard, season to taste and cook until the chard is done to your taste.

Just before serving, stir in the fresh lemon juice, then ladle into bowls, sprinkle on the rest of the crisped onions and eat hot.

Ham hock and roast squash soup

This is the ideal soup to make while you're watching TV or just pottering about the house.

Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr 45 min
Serves 4 as a meal

1 small brined ham hock/knuckle (ask the butcher to trim off the fat, but keep the it for cooking), desalinated in a bowl of cold water in the fridge overnight
150ml fresh apple juice, or sweet cider
4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
4 shallots, peeled and left whole
1 large bunch sage
2 litres water
1 large butternut squash or 1 small sweet pumpkin
150g butter, to whisk in at the end (optional) – you can just drizzle on a little oil, if you prefer, but butter is much more luxurious
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the ham, apple juice, garlic, celery, shallots and half the sage in a large, deep, heavy-based pan. Add the water, to cover (add a little more if the ham is not quite covered), then bring up to a simmer. Leave to bubble gently over a very low heat for an hour to an hour and a half, until the meat is falling off the bone. Do not add any seasoning at this point, because the ham may already be quite salty.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5. Roast the whole squash for 45 minutes to an hour, until soft to the touch and dark brown in colour. Leave to cool completely, then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (discard or save them for toasting), then spoon out the flesh.

Lift the cooked ham out of the pan. Leave the stock to cook, without boiling, until reduced to one litre. When the ham is cool enough to handle, strip the meat off the bone and cut it into bite-sized chunks.

Put the squash flesh, the rest of the sage and the butter in the reduced stock, then blitz smooth with a hand blender. Taste, season accordingly, then stir in the pieces of ham and serve with good bread and, perhaps, a little blue cheese crumbled over the top so it melts into the soup.

Fish soup

If you wanted to make this even quicker and easier, use bought-in fish stock and any white fish fillet.

Prep 15 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4 as a meal

For the stock
1 small onion, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
4 small (or 2 large) gurnards, scaled and filleted (ask the fishmonger to remove the gills, and to give you the head and bones for the stock base), or any firm white fish fillets
1 glass dry white wine
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
1½ litres water
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

For the soup
1 small celeriac, peeled and cubed
100ml cream
50g clarified butter, or 50ml rapeseed oil
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced
150g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
100g spinach leaves
Allioli, homemade or shop-bought, to serve (I make mine with confit garlic and the oil it was cooked in)

In a large, deep, heavy-based pan, saute the onion and garlic in the oil for six or seven minutes, until softened. Add the fish bones and head, the wine, parsley and bay, and add the water. Bring to a rolling boil, cook for 25 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve into a large bowl, season to taste and discard the solids.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 190C (170 fan)/375F/gas 5. Put the celeriac and cream in a roasting tray lined with a large sheet of foil, season with salt and wrap up in the foil. Roast for about half an hour, until soft and mashable with a fork, then tip into a food processor and blitz to a smooth puree.

In the same stock pan, heat the butter or oil, then saute the fennel and potatoes just to sweat and soften a little. Season with a good sprinkling of salt and white pepper, then return the stock to the pan and cook at a low simmer until the potatoes and fennel are just cooked. Stir in celeriac puree and turn down the heat to avoid it catching. Stir in some allioli to taste, then adjust the seasoning again and stir in the spinach leaves.

Season the fish fillets, gently lay them skin side up on top of the soup, then cover the pan, turn off the heat and leave to cook in the residual heat for eight to 12 minutes, depending on size – essentially, you are steaming them.

Carefully lift out the fish and transfer to a warmed plate. Ladle the soup into bowls, top each serving with two fish fillets (or one if using larger fish) and serve with more allioli, crusty bread and lemon wedges for squeezing over.