Cottage pie

The line up for the stew, brown the shins, remove, then soften onion and carrot, deglaze with the red wine, add bay leaves, mustard Worcestershire sauce, paprika and thyme. Cook until done, you could do this in a slow cooker, oven, stove or pressure cooker.

Prepare the vege, I used some pickling onions just simply peeled, small mushrooms and a large dice of carrot.

Once the meat is falling off the bone tender, pull the meat out on to a board and pull in to large chucks. Make sure to push the marrow out of the bones (discard the bone). Strain the liquid, and start reducing it, make sure to taste it so you don't over reduce and can adjust the seasoning. Add the vege and meat to the liquid and cook till it's almost a glaze.


Pile the mixture in to a dish.


Spoon over some pea purée (which you'd obviously make while the above part is cooking), A dash of lemon, cooked peas, salt and pepper with a small amount of garlic whizzed up.


Mash potatoes with some butter and milk, season well.


Spread it on top of the peas and score with a fork.


Grate some cheese on top.


And either place under a grill until golden, or you could prepare the dish the day before and then bake until hot and golden.

Quiche and tart

Ham, cheese and home-grown chard quiche. Always and quick and easy dish to throw together with a simple salad. Just make sure your fillings wont leach water, so we cooked and drained the chard before adding to the pastry shell, and don't add too much cheese as it can split.

I use a ratio of 3 eggs to 2 cups of milk for the custard. Cook for about 30-40 minutes at 170°C, you want it to be almost set in the center so while you let it rest for 10 minutes or so it will finish cooking on the bench.


There was some left over pastry, so for brunch the next day a quick cheese and onion tart was whipped up.

Pork and beans

Pretty similar to the baked beans I posted not too long ago, but this time pork and beans.


Well I did this in a pressure cooker, if you're not you'll have to soak the beans overnight. In a pot put some onion, pinto beans, garlic, carrot and celery (leave in large chunks so it will be easy to fish out later) then place in the pork hock. Cook until done (25-30 min for the pressure cooker; 45-60 min on the stove). I have to say I wouldn't recommend doing this on the stove, I'd probably put the hock in a slow cooker in the morning with the vege and that evening cook the beans in that stock.






Once the meat is cooked pull the flesh from the bone.


Spices for the bean sauce, coriander, fennel, paprika, chilli, mustard and salt.


Toasted and ground.


A fine dice of celery, carrot, onion, fennel, and in the small bowl some palm sugar grated. In a pot start to soften the onions in a little olive oil, when just starting to colour add the spices and toast until aromatic. Add the remaining ingredients and start to soften. Purée (I prefer to pass through a sieve) a good can of tomatoes. Pour the tomato in to the pan, add the sugar to taste and a large teaspoon of molasses. Add the beans and meat and cook until thick


Serve with some crusty bread and pan poached eggs (I think some people called it steamed eggs? Take a pan, I use a small heavy frying pan, get it up to heat and add a bit of butter, break the egg in to the pan and let it set slightly then add water, only a small amount, enough to stop it frying and start steaming. Use tilting the pan etc. to help shape the egg.)

Brunch

Brunch: Thick piece of toast, rocket, fried eggs, topped with crispy fried shallots and chipotle sauce.

Past couple of days in the kitchen

Burgers for dinner




Plaited bread


Steak with sautéed mushrooms and pepper sauce served with endive and roast potatoes


Steak marinating with bit of olive oil, paprika and garlic


Chicken vindaloo

Snow, muffins and toddy

Well the snow set in yesterday, and it's still going, and apparently will be all week. So it felt like a good excuse to get some baking done. And an even better excuse for a Hot Toddy, it only seems appropriate to drink one when there's a coating of snow on the ground. I made mine with a cinnamon stick, orange peal studded with cloves, calvados, honey and hot tea.


With the Hot Toddy warming me up I started on a batch of savoury muffins.

The basic recipe I use is, 2 cups flour, salt, 150g butter, 3tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk, 1 large egg (makes 12). To this I add sweet or savoury ingredients (add sugar to the mix if you're making sweet muffins).

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Place dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Slowly melt the butter on the stove.
4. Brush the muffin tin with some of the melted butter and dust with flour, knocking out the excess (if you're not going to butter your tin, reduce the amount of butter to 125g).
5. Mix the milk in to the butter, then lightly beat the egg in.
6. Put the filling ingredients in to the dry bowl. (I used corn, paprika, bacon, diced shallots, grated cheese, corn-meal (or instant polenta) and grated garlic(on a micro-plane).
   
7. Beat the wet in to the dry ingredients adding more milk if needed.
8. Divide mix in to the muffin tin.
   
9. Bake for about 20 minutes, you can check easily by pressing down on a muffin and if it springs back it's likely to be done, Other wise stick a skewer in and if it comes out clean they're done.
   

Out of the oven and cooling for 10 minutes before tipping out and placing on a rack to cool.


Perfectly cooked and moist.

Croque Monsieur, pork belly and potatoes

I bought a pork belly on the way home, it was a little big for just myself so I divided in to two. Both got cooked the same way though. (above is the belly with a layer of sage and sliced apple).


Vacuum sealed (double bagged).


Cooked for 50 minutes on high pressure.


I put foil around the meat to protect it from the grill. Oven set at 220°C, on fan grill.


Nice crispy crackling.


Pulled meat, and shards of crackling on a fennel, witloof and orange salad.


Second meal of the pork with potatoes (see below).


Onion, potatoes, garlic and shallots sliced.


Arranged in a dish and topped with butter.


Cooked until golden brown.


Croque monsieur topped with a fried egg and béchamel sauce, then placed under grill.
Way over the top but very tasty.

Steak!

Pretty simple meal tonight, rump steak and brandy mustard cream sauce, with fennel salad and sautéed potatoes.


Rump steak just out of the vacuum bag, it got sealed with olive oil fennel tops, sliced garlic, and thyme. Room-temperature and ready for the pan.


Two items this time saw the vacuum machine. Thinly sliced fennel and onion got vacuumed with grapefruit juice and supremes. It was left for about 20 minutes, by then the fennel and onion had softened.


All gone, very tasty, and glad I have some fennel salad left over.

Shin & Stout

Another meal for one, tonight beef cooked in stout, rich and tasty. The ingredients used are thyme, mustard, stout, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, shallots, onions, beef shin, worcestershire sauce; and mashed potatoes made from sour cream, butter and potatoes(obviously).

Dice up the onion, garlic, and one of the carrots.


Brown the shin on both sides. Remove from the pot. Add the diced carrot and onion and cook until soft and beginning to colour.


Test that the beer is of a suitable quality.


Pour the quality tested beer in to the pot along with a spoon of mustard, the thyme and bay leaves. Reduce. Once it has reduced by half put the beef back in and cook on high pressure for about 20 minutes (or I guess a slow simmer for about 60? if conventional).

While it's cooking, chop the remaining carrot in to bite size pieces, and peel the shallots. Cook the potatoes.

After 20 minutes, and 10 minutes on natural pressure release (or about 5-10 min before the 60 is up) remove the beef and strain the liquid discarding the vegetables. Reduce the liquid (if needed). Add the carrots, shallots and beef back to the pot with the liquid and cook for 4 minutes under pressure.

While it's cooking, mash the potatoes with butter and sour cream, season well.


Serve.


My favorite bit of the shin is the marrow.