Slow-Cooked Beef Stew

I love the flavour of slow cooked beef, and I love eating stews this time of year when it starts getting cooler. But I hate overcooked, mushy vegetables. This recipe takes a bit more work in the kitchen, but in the end gives me the best of both, tender, fall apart beef and cubed root veggies which still have their shape and texture.

slow-cooked beef stew

You will need:

• 2 pounds beef - I get a mixture of oxtail and stewing beef or skirt cut into cubes. 
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups water
• salt and pepper

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 small, or 1/2 large swede, peeled and chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
• any other veggies you want to add
• water
• Worcestershire sauce

  

  Assorted veg and herbs for an Autumn stew

• 2 tablespoons corn flour/corn starch
• 1 tablespoon cool water

1. Place the beef into a slow-cooker along with the onion, garlic, bay leaves, and water. Set on low and leave to cook for at least 6 hours, but let it go for as long as you can. I will usually put it all in the pot the night before and leave it to slow cook overnight and through the day. Otherwise, put it all in the pot in the morning and let it cook through the day.

2. About 45 minutes before you're ready to eat, remove the beef from the slow cooker to a tray and strain the stock into a large pot. Add in all the chopped vegetables, topping with water if needed. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 15 - 20 minutes or until the vegetables are all cooked.
Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce. 

3. Make a thin paste using the corn flour and water and add to the pot, stir until it begins to thicken. Remove the ox-tail bones from the meat, shred, and add it all to the pot.

4. Let simmer a few more minutes until it is all piping hot.

Serve in a bowl with thick slices of bread.

Alternately, leave the potatoes out of the mix of root vegetables and make a separate pan of mashed potatoes. Serve the stew over the mash.


 The beef: I like using cheaper cuts of beef as they will be cooked for a long while. Skirt steak has very long muscle fibres that can become very, very tough if not cooked properly. Make sure to cut against the grain of the muscle when cubing. It should be either slow-cooked for several hours, or cut into strips against the grain and flash fried for a few seconds.

Ox tail provides a depth and richness to a stew. It can be quite fatty, and that can overwhelm a dish, which is why I use a combination of both skirt/stewing steak and ox-tail.

My son who does not eat stews, gravies, or any root veg besides carrots and potatoes gets a deconstructed stew with a serving of beef, a serving of mashed potatoes, some of the cooked carrots and peas.

Fish Chowder

 

We're at a funny time of year here in England. The days are getting longer and everywhere there are signs of summer, but temperatures have been quite cool in recent weeks. My body is telling me though that it's time for eating lighter foods - chicken, and fish, and loads of salads. But the cool evenings tell me it's still a time for soups and stews and other warming foods.

I decided to listen to both these internal messages and made a delicious seafood chowder for our dinner one night.

I like dishes that are versatile - ones that can be altered to fit what is in season, and what is in your fridge, and that can be put together without a lot of fuss and bother. This recipe ticks all my boxes.

You too can cook up this seafood chowder in under 30 minutes.

Seafood Chowder

Ingredients:

2 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped (or 100gm lardons)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 pints chicken or vegetable stock
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 pack fish pie mix (an assortment of cod, haddock, and salmon pieces)
1 bay leaf
1 pack seafood mix (prawns, mussels, and squid)
Seasonal vegetables, cooked and cut into bite-size pieces



1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 generous dash Tabasco sauce
1 pint milk
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Cut the bacon into pieces and cook until browned in a heavy-bottomed pot  (I recommend the SKK stew pot)
2. Add a tablespoon of olive oil if needed, then add the chopped onions and carrots and cook until softened. 
3. Now pour in the 2 pints stock and bring up to a boil.
4. Add the diced potatoes and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to a simmer, add in the fish and the bay leaf and let it cook for 5 minutes. 
6. Add the pre-cooked mixed seafood and let simmer a further 5 minutes. 
7. Reduce the heat and add in the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
8. Bring up to heat without boiling before serving. (Boiling milk can cause it to curdle, especially if you are using fat-free)

Serve with crusty bread and butter or oyster crackers, if desired. 

Seasonal vegetables: The image I have used has corn as it's vegetable and that is a very traditional addition to many chowders. This time I happened to use green beans and asparagus because that is what was in my fridge, but the next time I may use something completely different.

Fish and seafood: Likewise, you can use any fish to make this dish. I happen to buy the fish pie packs because they are cheaper but also provide a bit more variety than buying a whole fillet of a single fish.

This recipe made 4 generous servings.


Above image by Rootology (Own work by uploader (cooking by uploader, too)) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Delicious Roast Duck

In the weeks before the Yule celebrations, I asked my sons what they would like to have for dinner the night of the Solstice. We knew we were having turkey on Christmas Day, but decided we wanted something different for our own meal.

After a bit of discussion, we decided we were going to have a roast duck. Now duck, as you know, is a rather fatty meat, so you can't just stick it in the oven and forget it the way you can a chicken.EVen so, I was pleasantly surprised at what a delicious roast dinner could be made for not a lot of effort.

I think our duck turned out rather well.

 

Roast duck with duck-fat roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes

To start - preheat your oven to 200c/400f/about Gas Mark 6

The roasting tin

Roasting tray with cooling rack

Because a duck has a lot of fat underneath the skin, you need to be prepared for that before even putting it into the oven. It is recommended that you use a roasting tin with a rack to hold the duck up off the bottom of the pan. 

I don't happen to have a roasting rack, but I do have a wide roasting tray, and a metal cooling rack that just happens to fit perfectly inside. This was ideal for roasting our duck. (I've also used this method for cooking sausages in the oven)

 Preparing the duck

Skin has been pierced with skewer

The next step is to make sure most of the fat underneath the skin can get out. What you don't want is a lot of pressure building up from boiling hot fat under the skin.

To do this, simply poke lots and lots of holes in the skin over the entire surface of the duck. I use a metal skewer for this job, but a small knife would also work.

After this, sprinkle a bit of salt and some ground black pepper over the top, and put it in the oven. I don't cover the duck while roasting, but if I thought it was getting too brown could cover it over with foil.

Roasting time

Very handily, duck takes the same roasting time as other meats. 25 minutes per pound, or per 500 gram, plus 25 minutes. If you prefer duck meat a little rarer, make it 20 minutes per pound/gram plus 20 minutes.

Ozeri The Epicurean LED Kitchen Scale

Don't forget to check the weight! If it isn't printed on the packaging,  you can weight it on your kitchen scales.If you don't have a set of kitchen scales, get one. I find that when it comes to getting dry ingredients exact for recipes, a set of scales is much more accurate than measuring cups.

I have both a digital scale and a basic mechanical scale, but tend to use the digital scale more.

While the duck is cooking

Our duck weighed 2.1kg, or about 4.6 pounds, giving me a total roasting time of 125 minutes. (2 hours, give or take)

Because a lot of fat can come out of the duck, you will need to check it about every 30 minutes and drain any accumulated fat out of the tray. Otherwise it will get very hot and begin spitting all over your oven, and possibly on you when you open the door.

I drain the fat by picking the duck up using a large carving fork, then pouring the fat into a waiting bowl. Duck fat is ideal for roasting vegetables, so don't let it go to waste! Keep it in your fridge for roasting root vegetables.

I poured about 2 tablespoons of the fat onto my roasting tray with the quartered potatoes and a roughly cut up sweet potato. This then went into the oven to cook the final 45 minutes.

You'll know the duck is cooked when the juices run clear. After 1:45 minutes, check by pushing a skewer into the meaty portion of a leg or into the breast. If the juices are clear, then the duck is cooked. If they aren't clear, let it cook in the oven another 15 minutes and check it again.

The Giblets

Sometimes duck comes with the giblets tucked up inside the body cavity. No one is ever really quite sure what to do with these, since very few people actually like the liver, heart, and other bits.

I like to place these in a pan of simmering water and cook them for about 30 minutes. The resulting stock can be used to make a gravy, or can be added to a stuffing mix.

Most of the time, I cheat and get my stuffing out of a box. Just replace the required boiling water with boiling stock for a change of flavour. And while you're at it, dice up the cooked giblets and add those to the stuffing as well. This can either be cooked separately in a casserole dish, or can be stuffed into the duck's cavity.

To go with our roast duck dinner, I made roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, and cooked carrots and green beans to go on the side.

A tart cranberry sauce or an orange sauce would go nicely on the side as well. 

What about leftovers?

This particular duck could easily feed a family of 4, with leftovers for a soup.

I'm feeding a family of 3, so have a bit more in leftovers. But I do love making a soup.

I made a very simple Asian-themed soup using the leftovers from our duck.

Duck Soup 

To start, place the duck carcass and any leftover meat into a large pot along with a quartered onion, a carrot (break it in half), and a couple smasked garlic cloves.  Add a couple bay leaves, a few peppercorns, and a large pinch of salt then cover it over with water.

Bring that up to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and allow it to simmer for as long as you can. The longer the better here to pull as much goodness and flavour out of the bones. I simmered this particular duck for about 5 hours. The resulting stock could have been a satisfying meal all on it's own.

Once it's simmered long enough, take it off the heat and leave it to sit until it has cooled. If you have time, let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next day, if you wish, you can remove any solidified fat from the top. Just stick that in your bowl of reserved duck fat.

Strain the stock, and pull as much meat as possible off the bones. Discard the bones and cooked vegetables. Add the meat back to the stock and bring it back up to a simmer.

Add soya sauce, tasting after each addition until you get the right level of flavour that you want. I use a low sodium soya sauce so had to add quite a bit.

Add in some shredded cabbage, leek, kale, or other leafy green vegetables. Cook another few minutes.

Add in a packet of Chinese rice noodles. Stir and leave to simmer another few minutes.

Taste for seasoning, adding a bit more soya sauce and some black pepper if needed.

Serve hot in deep bowls.

Fish Chowder Made Easy

Do you ever have one of those days when you look at what you have on hand and think "What on earth can I make using that?" Well, so do I.

This week, the mystery ingredient is fish. Now, normally I would make a fish pie or a seafood risotto, but I didn't really want to spend that much time on cooking and besides I forgot to buy any risotto rice this week.

October weather has been quite mild this year, but come evening time temperatures are starting to dip, making this an ideal time of year to start having soups.

And there is my inspiration, I decided to make a fish chowder. A quick check in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook just to see how they did their clam chowder, and to get an idea on how much milk they use and what herbs or flavourings they add.

This is what I came up with.

Fish chowder

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 4 medium potatoes,diced
• 1 large onion, diced 
• 1 pack seafood selection (prawns, mussels, and squid)
• 1 pack fish pie mix
• Dried thyme
• Dried parsley
• Worcester sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste, but start with about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 cups water
• Vegetable stock cube
• 2 heaped teaspoons corn flour (corn starch)
• 2 cup skimmed milk

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed stewing pot. Add the chopped bacon and cook until crispy.
2. Add in the potatoes, onion, packs of seafood and fish, and stir to mix. Add in the dried herbs, worcester sauce, salt and pepper, water, and vegetable stock. Stir. Bring up to a boil then reduce heat. Leave to simmer about 10 - 15 minutes, until the fish is cooked and potatoes are soft. Uing the back of a wooden spoon, smash some of the cooked potato into the side of the pot and stir back into the soup.
3. Stir 2 heaped spoonfuls corn flour(corn stach) with 2 cups skimmed milk and pour in. Taste and adjust seasoning. Bring back up to a simmer and stir 1 - 2 minutes until it begins to thicken.

Serve with slices of buttered bread.

Spicy Butternut Squash and Chickpea Soup

This is one of my most favourite winter-warmer soups. Made as is, it is a delicious vegan option.
In our house, we do eat meat so I like to add either bacon or bits of cooked ham. Either way, it's very nice. Add in a slice of crusty bread and perhaps some butter (or an olive oil spread) and you have the perfect meal for a Winter day.

Spicy Butternut Squash and Chickpea Soup

Number of Servings: 6

Butternut Squash

You will need:
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
2 Teaspoons Cumin
1 Onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Red Chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
850 mililiter Vegetable stock (1.5 pints)
1 tin Chickpeas (Garbonzo beans)
salt and pepper to taste


Instructions:
Fry the onion for 3-4 mins in olive oil at a moderately-high temperrature until brown. Add a little of the stock if needed to stop it sticking.

Add the chilli, garlic and spices, stir and cook for 15 seconds.

Add the butternut squash and stir to coat in the spicy mix. Add about 3 tablespoons of stock, cover and leave to cook for 5 mins over a medium heat.

Add tomatoes, remaining stock and half the chickpeas, season well, stir, bring to the boil, then cover and cook over a medium heat for approx 20 mins or until the squash is tender.

Let it cool a little, blend, and then add the remaining chickpeas. Bring back up to heat and serve.


Non-vegetarian butternut squash soup


You could roughly chop about 250 grams cooked ham and add that to the soup after blending,
Or,
Chop 3 - 4 sliced smoked, dry cure back bacon.
Cook this on a low eat with a small amount of olive oil until crispy.
Add the onions and cook down slowly until browned.
Continue to follow the recipe as directed above.

How do you chop up a butternut squash?

This video demonstrates how to cut up a squash a lot better than I can explain it.

Roasted Gammon, then Ham and Bean Soup with Cornbread

Last week for Boxing Day I cooked up a small smoked gammon roast for our dinner. Today, I am cooking up the leftover with two types of beans to make a ham and bean soup. I'll serve this up with homemade corn bread.

Because my elder son doesn't eat soups I've kept a few slices of ham to the side for him which he will get along with some cooked carrots and, provided he still likes it, a bit of the cornbread.

Roasting a Gammon (Ham)

Roast gammon

Cooking time: 25 minutes/ 500gm (1 pound) + 25 minutes

Gammons roast up a bit different from other joints because they've been cured, usually in brine. This makes them incredibly salty if you're not careful.

I prefer a smoked gammon, but of course you may prefer unsmoked. The cooking directions are the same regardless.

To start, remove the joint from whatever packaging it might be in and submerge it completely in a pot of cold water. Let it soak at least 6 hours to help pull out as much salt as possible. I generally let it soak overnight, giving it a good 12 hours. Change the water after 6 hours, or in the morning if soaking overnight.

Discard this soaking water. Rinse out the pot and fill it again to cover the gammon over completely.

Now put the pot over a meium heat and bring the water up to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and let it cook for all but the final hour of the total cooking time.

A 5 pound gammon joint would  therefore be cooked. 25 X 5 = 125 + 25 = 150 minutes, or 2 hours 30 minutes. You would boil it for 1 hour 30 minutes, then bake it for 60 minutes.

Out of the water, into the oven

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/400f/200c

Place the gammon on a rimmed baking tray or into a roasting pan. I use skewers if necessary to prop it upright in the pan.

Very carefully (because it is hot!) use a sharp knife to cut the rind off, leaving the layer of fat behind. Use the knife to score the fat into a diamond pattern.

I now like to stud each diamond with a whole clove, then sprinkle demerera sugar over the top before placing it uncovered into the oven.

Serve this gammon with a bit of English mustard and perhaps some roasted potatoes or parsnips, and a side of autumn vegetables.

Ham and Bean Soup

Ham and bean soup

I think there is nothing better than a hearty ham and bean soup on a cold winter evening.

You can use tinned beans, but it's cheaper to use dried beans. You just have to allow time for soaking and cooking them.

You'll need about a pound of beans, dried.  I grew up using butter beans, I've seen other recipes that use northern beans. I say, use what you've got to hand and don't fuss about it. For my soup tonight I'm using what I had in the pantry - so half a pound each of lima and kidney beans. These I covered over with water in a bowl to soak last night.

At lunch time today I drained the beans and placed them in a large cooking pot along with most of the leftover chopped ham and a finely chopped yellow onion. The gammon was still plenty salty so I didn't add any salt to the soup - remember, you can always add more salt but it is rather difficult to remove. If this gammon joint had come with a bone in, I'd have added that though.

The soup is now simmering on the cooktop where it will remain until we are ready to eat this evening. I give it a stir occasionally and will taste it for seasoning about 15 minutes before we're ready to eat.

Corn Bread

I use the recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. However, I reduce the total amount of sugar by about half because otherwise it's too sweet. For the cornmeal I use masa harena.

Ingredients

Corn bread

1 cup plain flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 - 4 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup lard, melted (the original recipe calls for cooking oil or shortening, but I don't use these as they are dreadfully unhealthy)

Method

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 9X9X2-inch baking pan, set aside.
Stir together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.
In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and melted lard. I use the glass measuring jug. Add this all at once to the dry mix. Stir until it is just moistened. It will be lumpy.
Spoon the batter into the baking pan. Bake in the oven at 425f/gas mark 7 for 20 - 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.

Or, do what I do and serve hot and slathered with lots of butter along side the bowl of ham and bean soup.

Generally, I crumble my cornbread into the soup then add a dollop of butter over the top.

Chicken, Leek, and Sweetcorn Soup

Chicken, leek, and corn soup (with carrots)

One of my favourite soups this time of year is a chicken, leek, and sweetcorn soup.This particular recipe that I use is so easy that anyone can make it. I generally make a soup a day or two after cooking a roast chicken dinner.The chilli serves to lift the flavour without adding spicy heat. However, feel free to leave it out should you not want it.

Recipe

Main ingredients

You will need:

• 4 cups Chicken stock
• 1 - 2 cups cooked chicken meat
• 2 leeks cleaned and chopped
• 4 ears corn (Or 1 cup frozen corn)
• 1 red jalapepeno chilli deseeded and diced
• Optional: 1 x 400gm tin creamed corn 
• salt and ground back pepper

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients to the chicken stock. Bring up to a boil, decrease the heat and cover. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add other root vegetables if desired, just chop into bite size pieces first.
3. Serve with crusty bread or rolls and butter.

Leeks

Leek

Leeks are a vegetable that grow partially in the ground, partially above ground. They are alliums and related to onions and garlic. The leek has a mild onion-y flavour and goes very well as a stand alone vegetable or combined with mild flavoured foods such as with chicken, pork or some types of fish.

The leek will need to be trimmed, cleaned, and sliced. Then slice the leek in half length-wise and cut each half into 1/4 - 1/2 inch wide strips.

How to clean a leek
The key to cleaning a leek is plenty of running water.

1. Peel off the outer leaves.
2. Trim off the darker part of the stalk. Save those for making a stock.
3. Trim off the root fringe and about 1/4 inch of the stalk.
4. Pull back the outer leaves enough to see where the dirt is hiding, hold the leek under running water, and rinse off as much as you can find.
I prefer not to cut the leek down lengthwise every time though this does make cleaning easier. In some dishes I want to cut the leek into rings, which is not really possible if I've sliced it in half already!.

Chicken

Chicken stock

Use a whole chicken or leftovers from a roast chicken dinner. Or do as I like to do and use reserved chicken carcasses plus the wings that have been kept in the freezer.
Place the chicken in a pot, add in the reserved leek stalks, a few black peppercorns, a bay leaf, some thyme, and a bit of salt.
Add in enough water to cover.
Place on the heat and bring up to a boil. Cover, decrease the heat, and let it simmer for at least 40 minutes. The longer you can leave it to cook, the better the stock will be and the more tender the chicken.
Once cooked, remove the chicken. Let the chicken cool and strip off all the meat.
Strain the liquid and return it to the pot.

Sweetcorn

sweetcorn

You can, of course, use frozen corn for this dish, but if corn is in season it's a good time to get a few fresh ears and trim the kernels off yourself.

Parboil the corn to start. Place the ears in a deep pot. Add in just enough water to cover and boil the ears for about 5 minutes. If you picked the ears yourself, they're probably quite fresh. If you bought them from the grocery store or supermarket though, there's a chance the ears are several days old, in which case the sugars will have started to break down.

Counter this and bring the sweetness of the corn out by adding a teaspoon of vinegar (cider vinegar works well) to the water.

Once cooked, remove from the water and cool. Then you can easily remove the kernels from the cob.

Do this using a sharp paring knife. Hold the ear at a 60 degree angle from the surface on a cutting board. Using a sawing motion, cut down each side of the cob to remove all the corn.

Strain and add the cooking water from the corn to the chicken stock if you want.