Beef , Barley & Ale Stew

I am shattered , I try to get one day a week working from home to avoid the 2hours each way commute but it just didn’t happen this week. We have plenty of quick recipes but stir fry, chops etc and LBF is a brilliant cook but he works hard too and  sometimes you want something with layers and slow cooking.

Thankfully our overflowing freezer steps in when time is short, I feel desperately organised getting a lump of brown something or other out in the morning to find by the evening it has defrosted to reveal a  delicous stew

One night this week a  beef and ale stew revealed intself. Thankfully stew only seems to improve with age often  better the day after cooking . Here served poured over some sauteed kale, nuggets of barley soaked in meaty gravy,  it had me licking my lips and rolling my finger around the bowl.

Beef , Barley &  Ale Stew

400g of Beef Brisket chopped into cubes
3 medium carrots roughly chopped
1 large onion roughly chopped
1 large leek
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 bay leaf
500ml dark ale
1 pint of beef stock
Dash of worcesterhire sauce
Several handfuls of pear barley
2 bays leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
Salt and Pepper

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper
2. In a heavy botton casserole dish fry the beef in a little oil until brownn
3. Add the onion , garlic and carrots. Cook until beggining to soften
4. Pour in the ale , stock and barley
5. Bring to a gentle simmer and add the herbs and worcestershire sauce
6. Cover and place the stew into the oven at 160degC for two hours until the meat is tender.

Pork, Chorizo & Bean Stew

This dish has it’s origins in my plan for a dinner of  tapas , but after a  busy week cooking a lot of little dishes had the potential to go horribly wrong and result in a lot of washing up  .So I scaled the dish back to one slow cook dish, throwing everything together and serving it with  plenty of freshly baked bread and wine.

The dish was lovely , heat from the chilli and paprika and a depth from the sherry. It might seem a little strange to use two types of beans but I like the different textures, but you could use potatoes as well.

We made some fresh foccacia from a recipe from the Domestic Goddess in Training

Pork, Chorizo & Bean Stew

200g pork shoulder cut into 1cm cubes
100g cooking chorizo cut into 1cm cubes
100g dried butter beans (soaked overnight)
100g dried chick peas (soaked overnight)
300g tinned tomatoes
1 large onion finely chopped
2  handfuls of stonned black olives
3 garlic cloves  finely chopped
1 tsp of dried chilli flakes
1 tsp of smoked paprika
Handful of chopped fresh parsley
1 pint of vegetable stock
Slosh of dry sherry

1. In a cast iron pot
2. Gently fry the garlic and onion with the spices and a little olive oil
3. Add the chorizo and pork shoulder to brown
4. Add the butter bean , chick peas , tomatoes , olives stock and sherry
5. Cover and place in the oven at 190decC for 1 hour.
6. Serve with fresh bread or rice

Tofu and Chinese Mushroom Stir Fry

I have been foraging properly picking  sloes and  rosehips but these require preperation, so  something quick and what is quicker than stir fry using  a little jelly ear fungi which grows on the elder trees around here.  I have a terrible habit of picking this fungi and leaving it in my pocket to dry out , it finds it into the washing machine pretty often

This made it into a lovely stir fry though , sliced and stir fried with a selection of vegetables and tofu . I love the bite of jelly fungus.

You can also dry the jelly fungus on string over a radiator once dry  it will keep for weeks , to rehydrate soak in cold water for a couple of hours .

A quick cheap meal using up lots of vegetables  with the jelly fungus , Broccoli , Onions , Green Beans and Courgettes all stir fried in a sauce of fresh Ginger ,  finely chopped Garlic a Soy Sauce

Hamper for a Camper from Natoora

I recently  got offered  a hamper from Natoora .  Hampers sometimes bring up thoughts of tinned spam and Quality Street,  but this is another league offering delicious Continental and English seasonal food, meat cheese , wine and fresh vegetables boxes,  with 24hr delivery anywhere in the UK,  its like Borough Market online

I am a total UI ( User interface) freak  , and this site is a real pleasure to use , details on each item include proper provenance,  clear pictures and  suitable accompaniments including wine  . Everything arrived perfectly packed with freezer blocks, each item wrapped in greaseproof paper with neat labels. The hamper arrived just in time for a camping trip.

I chose a range of cheeses, meat and vegetables . Although we get some lovely English cheese round here it’s pretty hard to find anything continental other than Brie . I even printed out some notes about each cheese from the website. Each cheese was a decent size ,not just tasting amount and at a good level of ripeness

(clockwise from top left)

• Langres a french cows milk cheese was deliciously oozing with background of smoked bacon
• Morbier semi-soft French cows’ milk cheese named with a layer of ash in the middle and a nutty aftertaste.
• Banon a northern Provence goats milk cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves and tired with raffia and straw. This helps to preserves the cheese which has a fruity and woody flavour

For dinner on the campsite I cooked a pasta sauce using Nduja Calabra a soft spanish salami the  flavour is at first quite sweet, then explodes with the full force of chilli pepper.

Nduja Calabra pasta sauce

Feeds 4

2 large onions
50g of Nduja Calabra
500g of tinned tomatoes
2 sprig of fresh oregano

1. Fry the onions in the Nduja Calabra til softened
2. Add the tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes , add a few leaves of oregano
3. Serve with freshly cooked pasta

Another great liver BBQ recipe this time using chicken livers and  prosciutto. from the hamper I have borrowed this recipe from from the Two Fat Ladies. Sweet, salty deliciousness especially with a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Chicken Livers and Prunes wrapped in Prosciutto

6 chicken livers cut in half
12 slices of prosciutto
12 prunes

1. Simply wrap a prune and half a raw chicken liver in a slice of prosciutto
2. BBQ or grill for just a few minutes on each side

I suspect some of my foodie freinds will be receiving gifts from Natoora over the next few months and they are offering free delivery right now ,so it’s a good time to try some new foods.

Summer Pickles

I am totally addicted to pickles,  there is nothing that can’t be significantly improved by the addition of a layer of spicy- sweet goodness, cheese , ham , even fish benefits from a few slices of gerkins or capers, ( if you dare risk tuna in the current furore I can reccomend tuna and gerkin sandwiches).  The whole top shelf of the fridge is devoted to a range of pickles and chutneys picked up from stall and shops, even outside houses.

Despite my addiction I have never tried making my own and pickle or chutneys. They do provide an excellent was of preserving bumper vegetables crops , so in preparation for our summer harvest , I spent last weekends rainstorm making pickles from the vegebox leftovers.

First I tried  indian Brinjal (Aubergine) Pickle, this is a recipe from Mamta’s Kitchen which is a fantastic source of easy to follow indian recipes.

Second a picalilli , this for me is luridly delicious, you can use any vegetables though cauliflower and green beans are a classic combination, I went for cauliflower and a cucumber , no beans on plants yet. Many of the recipes I read called for salting the vegetables first , but the recipe did not suffer from skipping this step

These pickles go there outing just a  week after making  when yesterday my mum & step-dad stopped by on their way back from holidays in Northumberland .  After
hours stuck in traffic jams we ate  in gorgeous sunshine . The pickles makng  perfect accomaniment to some home-boiled ham, , hunks of homemade bread, and biting mature cheddar, even a few pickled onions for extra pickliness.

I will definitely making more home-made preserves just need a few more gallons of vinegar and pounds of sugar

Picalili

300g cauliflower florets
1 large white onion finely chopped
150g of cucumber diced

Spiced Vinegar
500ml malt vinegar
2 tbsp of mustard seeds

Sauce

25g plain flour
1tbsp english mustard powder
½ tbsp turmeric, or to taste
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp malt vinegar

Method

1. Cut the vegetables into 1cm pieces
2. Put the vinegar and mustard seeds into a stainless steel saucepan, bring just to boiling point, lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes; allow to cool.
3. Mix together the flour, mustard powder, turmeric and ginger in a good sized basin, add the three tablespoons vinegar, stir to make a smooth paste. Pour the spiced vinegar over the ingredients, make sure the mixture is smooth.
4. Pour into a large saucepan and stir over a low heat until as thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon without running off.
5. Add to the thickened sauce. When this has reached simmering point simmer for one minute only, so the small pieces keep a good shape and texture.
6.  To bottle spoon into hot sterilized jars and cover.
   

Spicy Mutton Tagine

This was a fantastic recipe for mutton , but you could use lamb shoulder . It had real depths of flavour the mutton can definitely hold its own against the strong flavours

The key flavour here is an arabic spice blend , Ras el-hanout , thought a bought this pre-mixed blend I was tempted to make my own a ground mix of roasted spices, cardamom clove, cinnamon,parpika coriander, cumin, tumeric and rose petal .

The other key ingredient is  preserved lemon thse I did preserve myself , one of the last few from a jar made more than year ago .

The lemons and dried apricots for a fruity spiced sauce

Spicy Mutton Tagine

250g mutton, cut into small chunks
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp Ras el-hanout
500-600ml vegetable stock
75g dried apricots, chopped
1/2 preserved lemon, chopped
1 tsp clear honey

Serves 2

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Heat the oil in a large  cast-iron casserole and cook the meat until browned all over.
3. Add the onion , garlic, ginger, spice blend  fry for a few minutes until fragrant and the mutton is coated in the mixture.
4. Pour in enough stock to cover add the apricots and honey , bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
5. Place in the oven for 1.5 hours
6. Serve with cous cous

Saffrom scented Cauliflower and Cous cous

Few strands of saffrom
200g of cauliflower
100g of dried cous cous
500ml of boiling water
2 tbsps of fresh coriander
Juice of half a lemon

1. Pour the boiling water over the saffron in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil
2. Add the cauliflower and simmer for a few minutes
3. Turn of the heat pour in the cous cous
4. Cover and leave for 5 minutes
5. Stir in the coriander and lemon juice

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

Sweet potatoes are making a comeback in the vegebox  though my diets been  meaty recently . This was a quick and delicious dinner which would work well with butternut squash too but the sweet potato held its shape .

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

1 Onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
200g of red lentils
300g of tinned tomatoes
100g of sweet potato ,peeled & cut into 1cm cubes
1 pint vegetables stock
2 tbsps cumin seeds
2 tbsp of cardamon pods
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tsp finely chopped fresh red chilli
1 tsp of tumeric

Serves 2

1. Crush the spices in a mortar and pestle
2. Fry in heavy pan with a drop of oil
3. Add the garlic , chilli and  onions, fry until soft
4. Add the sweet potato and lentils
5. Pour over the stock , simmer for 40 minutes
6. Serve with brown rice

Chai Ceremony

After a long and stressful day I am performing my own tea ceremony making a large pot of chai , its one of the things I associate with summer mornings and late at night at last summers festivals when a large mug of chai was the only way to start and end of the day .

However I have never really had a go at making my own so decided to have a go , milk, water, black tea , cardammon , cloves , peppercorns , star anise simmered together for five mminutes ( strangely all ingredients I do have to hand) … big glug of sugar . Summer is on its way …..

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