Provencale Beef Daube

Delicious magazine recipe

Serves 4

• 1 large celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 7 sprigs fresh thyme and parsley plus handful fresh parsley leaves for persillade
• 1kg lean braising steak (or venison)
• 4 tablespoon olive oil
• 225g thick cut rindless streaky bacon cut into strips
• 3 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 6 fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced, plus 1 fat clove, sliced for persillade
• 600ml red wine
• 200ml beef stock
• 350g carrots cut into chunks
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 2 salted anchovies rinsed (optional!!)
• 3 large strips pared orange zest
• 20g softened butter
• 20g plain flour
• 100g small black olives (optional!!)

Make a bouquet garni by cutting celery in half and sandwiching the bay and herb springs in between. Tie everything into a tight bundle with some string.

Cut the steak into large chunky pieces. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large casserole over a high heat. Brown the beef in batches until well coloured all over. Season. Add the bacon to the pan and fry until golden brown. Set aside with the beef. Add the reminaing oil and the onions to the casserole and fry for the 10-12 minutes until richly browned. Add the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes more. Add the wine and simmer vigorously, scraping the base of the casserole to release the caramelised juices, until the liquid has been reduced by half.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees (130 if fan and gas 2).

Stir in stock, then return beef and bacon to casserole with carrots, tomatoes, anchoives, orange zest, bouquet garni, season. Cover with foil and tight fitting lid and cook in ove for 2 hours or until meltingly tender (I found cooking for 2 hrs, drinking some passionfruit martini's and forgetting it for another 2 hours worked wonders!).

Shortly before it is ready make the persillade garnish by chopping together the parsley and garlic. Mash the butter and flour together to make a thickening paste (beurre manie).

Remove daube from oven, uncover and skim off any excess oil. Discard the bouquet garni and orange and bring to gentle simmer on the stove. Whisk in beurre maine paste (if needed) a little at time until thickened. Stir in olives. Simmer for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with the persillade garnish. Serve with honey roasted carrots and parsnips and new potatoes.

Passionfruit (Pornstar) Martini's

• 1 part vodka (vanilla vodka if available)
• 1 part passoa (passion fruit liquor)
• 3 chunks lime
• 1/2 passion fruit
• 2 parts passion fruit juice (or orange and passionfruit juice)
  

Put the limes into the bottom of a cocktail shaker with the seeds of the passionfruit and crush using a muddler or stick.

Add the vodka, passoa and passionfruit juice and ice and shake well.

Pour into Martini glass and serve.

Camembert Fondue

Great for parties or snacking in front of the TV :) Blue brie would also be lovely for this if you like blue cheeses.

• 1 crusty loaf from supermarket fresh section
• 1 whole camembert
• 1 splash of white wine
• 1 garlic cloves very thinly sliced
• Olive oil

PReheat oven to 180 degrees

Slice the top off the loaf and scoop dough out of the inside leaving a rim of around 1/2 inch to make a bowl shape, with a lid.

Rub the inside of the bowl and the lid with olive oil.

place the whole camembert inside the bowl, score across the top with a knife. Push the slices of garlic into the cheese and then throw on the splash of white wine.

Put the lid on the bowl and wrap in tinfoil.

Cook in oven for 25-30mins, checking every now and again. It is ready once the cheese is molten.

To serve, put on plate and cut lid up into a few fingers to get people started. Once all the fingers have gone, start tearing into the bread bowl to scoop up the cheese.

Beef Carpaccio

Don't be put off by the fact that this is raw steak, if you like you steak medium rare you will love this, it is very very thinly sliced and the acidic quality of the dressing helps as well! It looks very impressive for a dinner party and is really easy to make.

• 1 very good quality fillet steak per 4 people (remember you are eating it raw, so the leaner the meat the better)
• 1 tsp dried rosemary or oregano
• pinch dried chilli
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• 1 tsp rock salt
• 1 bag rocket leaves or spinach, watercress and rocket
• fresh parmesan block
• salad dressing of choice (see later in instructions)

Crush in a pestle and mortar the rosemary/oregano, chilli, salt and pepper. Sprinkle it onto a plate and roll the sides of the fillet steak in it so it is encrusted and the top and bottom.

Heat up a heavy based frying pan so it is smoking, and very carefully press the encrusted sides of the steak onto the pan for 30 seconds each until it is seared all round. You just need to quickly colour the outside, do not cook the steak for long.

Wrap the steak tightly in cling film and place in freezer for 30 mins to an hour until it is firm (makes it easier to slice thinly) but not frozen.

Spread the salad leaves onto a plate and prepare your dressing. On the pic above we made a dressing by boiling 2 parts red wine vinegar and shaking it up with 1 part oil and 1 part lemon juice. But other dressing which go well are mustard or horseradish based e.g. 2 egg yolks in a blender or with a hand whisk, slowly add 100ml olive oil, then juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 tsp english mustard.

Take the steak out of the freezer, sit it on a chopping board and starting at one end and using a long very sharp knife, cut slices as thinly as possible (like parma ham).

Mum tip :) Once sliced, lay the steak on a piece of cling film and cover with another piece and then roll over the top with a rolling pin to make the slices even thinner.

Peel back the cling film and lay them on top of the salad leaves.

Drizzle with dressing and shave parmesan over the top to serve.

Roasted Honey Ham

I love making this, it's my mum's and Aunty Heather's recipe, isn't difficult at all and makes great moist ham to have in the fridge at home for making sandwiches with. Tastes a millions times better than the plasticky stuff from the supermarket and you get to cut it as thick as you want it ;)

• Gammon joint (any size, I have done it with huge joints for over xmas and parties and small joints like the one above just to use)
• Whole cloves (optional)
• Honey (smaller joint will only need 1 bottle of honey, a larger one would need 2)

First soak the joint in water (removes some of the excess salt and makes the meat more tender) preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Remove joint from water and pat dry.

Take a piece of tinfoil and fold it double, it needs to be bigger than the joint so it can eventually cover it, place it in a roasting tin. Put some honey in the middle of the foil where you are going to rest the ham. Put the ham on the foil skin side down (if you have a skin) and cover the ham with half of the honey (I pierce the ham with a knife as well at this point so some of the honey can penetrate into the joint)

Seal the tinfoil but not too tightly and put in oven for 20min per pound/450g (-20 mins) e.g. for a 3lb ham joint you would cook it for 40mins.

After the cooking time uncover the joint, turn it over, take the excess skin off and score the fat (again if there is any), use the whole cloves to stud the top of the ham. Cover ham with new foil and fat side up in roasting tin, cover with rest of honey.

Turn oven up to high and give it another 30mins cooking time.

Uncover and serve hot or cold

Garden Week 30th Jan

Tried to start a bit earlier this year!

Planted my January seeds in sets 2 weeks apart and so far have growing - tomato roma and tomato moneymaker, cauliflower all year round, oregon mange tout and onion rijsberger.

Got the wood ready for the two new beds, one on the left near the swing for kitchen and medicinal herbs and the other in front of the new greenhouse for the courgettes and squash.

Seed potatoes have arrived and are in the garage waiting, and bought a womery and a new composter for the season, looks like we are all ready to go!

Fish Pie

• 325g mixed fish (I used salmon, haddock and smoked haddock
• 75g raw king prawns
• 2 bay leaves
• 3/4 pint milk
• 25g butter
• 25g flour
• 1 tub light cream cheese with onion and chives
• Chopped fresh parsley
• 4 baking potatoes
• 4 sweet potatoes
• Cheese for topping

Put the 4 baking potatoes in a hot oven to bake for 60 mins.

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and put on to boil.

Put the fish in a pan with the prawns, the bay leaves and cover with the milk, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.

Strain the fish into a sieve keeping the milk you used to poach it in.

Once the sweet potato is cooked, mash and add a tablespoon of the milk used for the fish. Put to one side.

Melt 25g butter in pan and stir in 25g flour, keep on low heat until combined and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring. Then slowly add the poaching milk, stirring constantly until combined and thickened. Add the tub of cream cheese and stir in. Once all combined flake up the cooked fish and add to the pan with the parsley combining the fish and sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste at this point.

Take the baking potatoes out of the oven and slice in half lengthways. Gently scoop the potato out of the middle of the skins leaving the skins in tact as shells. Put the potato in with the sweet potato and combine.

Take each potato shell and fill with the fish and sauce mixture. Then either spoon or pipe the potato mix over the top of each potato skin. Sprinkle the tops with grated cheese and put the potatoes on a baking tray. Cook for 20-25mins and then serve.

Use any leftover fish and mash to make a traditional fish pie in a dish.