Happy New Year! Hope
you've all had a lovely one. I was in the Highlands. Can't lose
really!
I don't really believe
in New Year's resolutions. It's January, it's cold, and therefore it
is not the time for diets. To be honest, I've never been on a diet in
my life, I love food too much. I eat pretty healthily and don't have
a sweet tooth (the recipes on here are the ones I make as a treat at
the weekend). I admit, I could try and sort out my crisp and wine
intake a bit more... but ah well. Life's too short. And now is the
time of year for comfort food.
As well as this, I got
some cracking Christmas presents which mean I absolutely have to make
lovely stodgy food! We now own a Le Creuset casserole dish and I'm
very excited! Plus I got a potato ricer, and they're supposed to make
the best mash ever.
However, we are on a
January budget... so it's time for cheap cuts of meat. I went to the
butcher and bought a pound and a half of beef shin for a fiver.
Brilliant. It does mean it has to cook for ages, but that's all the
better as it left me with a lovely lazy Sunday afternoon.
Preheat your oven to
150 degrees.
First, get your butcher
to cut your beef into casserole sized pieces (or do so yourself) and
toss it in a little bit of seasoned flour. Get some oil nice and hot
in your pan (either a big casserole dish that can go on your hob or a
large saucepan) and fry the meat off a couple of pieces at a time.
Don't do it all at once as it'll steam, you want lovely brown sticky
bits at the bottom of the pan.
 | |
| You want it WELL browned. (Although not burned, obviously) |
Put the meat to one
side, then fry off a couple of sliced onions and some sliced celery.
I also fried off a load of halved mushrooms, to make the cheap meat
stretch even further, but this is optional. You could add root veg if
you want? But I didn't want the sweetness of carrots or anything, I
want this to be really rich and savoury. While it's frying use your
wooden spoon to scrape up the brown stuff from the bottom of the pan
– that's pure flavour.
Once everything has
fried down nicely and picked up some of the colour from the bottom of
the pan put the meat back in and stir in a couple of tablespoons of
tomato puree. Whack up the heat and pour in as much red wine as
you're willing to spare, about half a bottle for us! Then top up with
some water or beef stock. You want the meat to be just about covered.
Shove in a few bay leaves and some thyme, then season well. Put a lid
on (or decant it into an oven proof dish, then put a lid on) then put
in the oven for ages. I reckon about three hours should do the trick.
Check it regularly to make sure it's not drying out, and add more
water if you think it's getting low. You could also put some tin foil
directly on top of the casserole underneath the lid to help contain
the liquid if you're really worried about it drying out.
Mash: Peel your spuds
and chop into fairly big chunks. (if they're too small they soak up
more water; no one wants watery mash) Boil in salted water.
My latest trick with
mashed potato (whether you have a ricer or standard masher) is to
leave the potatoes sitting in the collander for five minutes after
they're cooked. It stops them from being too watery as they drain
more thoroughly, but more importantly give off loads of steam and dry
out a bit. This isn't groundbreaking stuff, I probably saw it on the
telly, but it really does make a difference.
While they're doing
that, heat your butter and a little drop of milk over a low heat, and
season it. Then either tip your spuds back in and get mashing, or
send them through the ricer straight into the pan.
Serve with bloody great
piles of veg. Delicious. The rest of this is going in a pie.
This weeks soup:
Sort of potato and bacon. It's
an interpretation of a Simon Hopkinson recipe which made me realise
all my chives have died in the winter. It's cheap as chips and
surprisingly tasty (even without the chives):
Whilst making this I
was mostly listening to: Lots
of stuff. After all it was in the oven for three hours. But it
included Laura Marling and Bon Iver.
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