cider with roses

Gammon Hocks.

Another Nigella special. Her latest book is Kitchen - don't deny that you haven't peeked at her lusciousness on TV show, and the recipes have been easily as much fun, i am finding treasures weekly. Not that this one was a massive success. The ham was tasty enough (and even better cold) but it was fiddly to separate from the bone and gristle, and it didn't make a satisfactory looking dinner plate. I would do it again (2 hours, bubbling in an litre of cider, with fennel seed and black pepper, for not a huge amount of money - £3.50 for a huge hock, if you are interested) but the main appeal is for this .. cidery citrus-bright pea soup.

A panful of residue ham stock, a kilo of peas and juice of a lime. 7 minutes at a simmer, liquidize and you have a worthy supper for 2 (and lunch tomorrow).

As a bonus, we made bird cake too; scraps of ham and cartilage mixed with bread crumbs, topped with ham fat skimmed off the stock pan. The pots are now hanging upside down from the washing line, away from the foxes.

Also tried this week: Nigella's Spring Chicken. Watch out for the tarragon; i enjoy - love - aniseed flavour, but the children were not so enthused. HOWEVER. The 4 or 5 left-over chicken thighs in pancetta-studded savoury jelly I scooped in to a dish of rice for Nigella's Pantry Paella. With a little chorizo and sweetcorn kernels added with the saffron at the beginning, and some spanking fresh spinach stirred in at the end .. fabulous. We ate piri piri fired crisps as a side dish and lay wrapped together in a carbohydrate doze, content and almost sated. The rest came later, or rather; we both came later, lazily, individually, together, where we sat. And then went to bed to read our books, hip to hip.