Clever Confit

Cooking seems to be getting ever-more complicated. Nobody just puts food in the oven now a days.  It must be at the very least - brined for a week, smoked for a day, braised in the Sous-vide overnight and finished on the Josper grill. Well, maybe only if you are after a Michelin star but here is a trick which is super easy and extraordinary good. And what is more is really great for entertaining because it is cooked already and all you have to do is reheat it. 

Confit is a medieval method of preserving meat by salting it and then cooking it and conserving it, by submerging it in fat. The fat prevents any oxidisation and this method was commonly used to preserve meat before the invention of the refrigerator, especially in the South-West of France. The original word "confit" was the term used for preserving fruit in sugar, hence the French word for jam - "confiture", but now refers to mainly fatty cuts of meat such as goose, duck and pork, as traditionally it should be confited in its own fat. These tougher cuts of meat tend to be the cheapest but I have to admit, as much as I love a bargain, I am not fond of lumps of unctuous fat and I usually tend to steer clear of pork belly.  The beauty about this method of cooking though, is that practically all the fat is rendered away during the cooking process, just leaving you with succulent meat and the crispiest skin you ever ate. The most important thing however, is that you start with a nice meaty piece of free-range belly. You do not want a piece of solid fat, so choose carefully. For a more Kosher option try duck legs. They are equally delicious and equally versatile to use up in Cassolet and Garbure.

I salt and flavour the meat over-night with a dry rub. Some prefer to brine it but I don't think it is necessary. This cut of meat is also immensely popular in Asia, so when it comes to flavourings, I tend to go one of two ways - classic French incorporating Thyme, Black Peppercorns, Juniper and Fennel Seeds or Chinese style with Star Anise or five spice, ginger, Sichuan pepper and Soy. Interestingly these combination of flavours, from two such diverse countries, have much in common.  Time and time again we can see that the great recipes from across the world have evolved with so many similarities, simply because they work and stand the test of time. Indeed, both countries would agree that fatty meats such as duck or pork belly are best served with a sweet/sour accompaniment to cut the fat. In France this would traditionally be braised red cabbage; in China maybe a plum sauce. 

This method of cooking is once again tremendously fashionable and a modern twist would be to serve your pork belly with smoked eel, beetroot and horseradish or maybe with seared scallops, cauliflower puree and crisp pork popcorn but whatever you serve it with I guarantee it will be amazing.  After all it has withstood the test of time.

Duck Confit
If you are wish to preserve the duck legs then you will need to salt them for a couple of days, but if you are planning to eat them imminently then 12 hours is plenty. I always chuck a few cooked new potatoes in with the duck in the oven.  Cut them lengthways and place them cut side down in the pan. They will roast beautifully in the duck fat and are ready when they are crisp and golden brown.

4 large duck legs
30g rock salt
1 tbsp Juniper, crushed
1 tbsp black peppercorns
4 Garlic cloves, sliced
4 Sprigs thyme or rosemary
800g duck fat (in most supermarkets) melted

Scatter the salt into a flat dish. Lay the duck legs on the salt, skin side down. Distribute the crushed juniper, peppercorns, garlic and herbs evenly over. Cling film, press with a weight and marinate overnight (12 hours). 

Wash off the marinade and pat dry with kitchen cloth, place the duck legs, skin side down in a saucepan. Cover with the melted duck fat and bring the temperature to 85ºC, cook for 3 hours in a preheated oven (95- 100°). You know you have reached the temperature 85/90ºC, there is no bubble breaking the surface; the fat is kept just under simmering point. I cook mine in the slow-cooker on low for 5 hours. Alastair Little says you know when they are done as it will be "showing a lot of bone as the meat rides up like a mini-skirt on a white thigh." With a slotted spoon lift the leg out of the duck fat and reserve.

In a dry heavy based pan on medium heat, crisp and colour the duck legs on the skin side 5 – 7 minutes until golden brown. If your duck legs have been in the fridge then roast the duck legs in a hot oven, skin side down for about 15-20 mins until hot all the way through and the skin is totally golden brown and crisp. 

Chinese Style Crisp Confit Belly of Pork with Caramel Sauce
You can use any herbs or spices you like to flavour the pork belly. Just decide what you want to serve it with and use complimentary seasonings.

1 piece free-range British pork belly,pork belly (skin on) around 1.25kg in weight
2 tbsp. rock salt
1 tbsp Five Spice (Peppercorns, Star Anise  Cloves, Cinnamon, and Fennel Seeds.)
Large know of fresh ginger, pealed and sliced
Small head of Garlic, sliced through lengthways
800g duck fat (in most supermarkets) melted, or pork fat if you have it.

Rub the flesh of the pork all over with the five spice apart from the skin.  Scatter a flat dish with the salt.  Place the pork skin side down on the salt and place the garlic and ginger on the top.  Cover with cling-film and press in the fridge for 12 hours. Wash off the marinade and pat dry with kitchen cloth and place the pork, skin side down in a saucepan. Cover with the melted duck fat and bring the temperature to 85ºC, cook for 3 hours in a preheated oven (95- 100°). You know you have reached the temperature 85/90ºC, there is no bubble breaking the surface; the fat is kept just under simmering point. I cook mine in the slow-cooker on low for 5 hours. You should be able to insert and remove a skewer very easily all the way through the thickest part of the meat and skin.  Remove from the fat and press once more in the fridge to insure a flat skin surface. This helps when roasting.  When ready to use, cut into strips or cubes (it is very difficult to cut the skin neatly once cooked as it is so crisp). Place skin side down in a heavy based saucepan with a little of the fat.  Start crisping up the skin, but be careful as it can spit. Roast in a hot oven until hot all the way through and the   skin in totally crisp and brown.

Caramel Sauce:
100g palm or soft brown or demarara sugar
5tbsp dark soy sauce
1 red chillies, chopped
2cm (3/4in) piece grated ginger
1tbsp Sesame oil
Freshly squeezed Lime

Put the sugar in a pan and gradually melt until boiling. When caramelised add the soy to stop it cooking.  Be careful as it may splutter. Return to the heat and add the chilli and ginger.  Heat until all the sugar is incorporated. Add the sesame oil and lime to taste.

Return of the slow-cooker

I am finding it really hard these days to even get near my computer to write my blog.  It used to be my kids who hijacked the laptop, limiting my writing time to "after bedtime" hours, by which time I was usually ready for bed myself. But now it is our latest addition to our household, Rudy the kitten who has managed to usurp all the computer time.

Since I am still refusing to put on the heating during the day, he has decided that this is the only warm place in the house.  And I have to agree it is getting quite cold out.  The first dusting of snow was on the ground yesterday and it is just the time of year that the slow-cooker is dragged out the cupboard, dusted down and put to good use once more. The house is full of the smell of cooking and everyone gets to come home to a hot dinner. 

I had my heart set on some slow-cooked lamb and usually I choose shoulder as it is so fatty that it always holds up beautifully to hours and hours of gentle heat but Hughie, the other half is incredibly fussy about his meat and shows a huge amount of hostility to even the smallest amount of gristle or fat on his plate.  Wishing to avoid confrontation of any sort, I opted for leg of lamb.  Amazingly, due to the fact that leg is so often on special offer in the supermarkets, this proved to be the same price as shoulder. I was worried that the meat would be dry but after 8 hours in the slow-cooker it was meltingly soft, juicy and tender. I based the whole dish on a variation of Machoui which is a North African recipe for whole slow-cooked lamb, originally sealed in a fire pit which would have effectively created the same environment as the slow-cooker in gently steaming the meat, which what results in it being so succulent  You could equally successfully adapt it for Kleftiko, which means "stolen meat".  This is the Greek version of the same dish. According to legend, this dish would be made with a lamb stolen from a flock as it grazed on a hillside. The thief would cook the meat over many hours in a hole in the ground, sealed with mud so that no steam could escape to give him away."

I wanted it to be a one pot dish. I had a lot of Celeriac in the fridge so I used predominately used that, but this is a good dish to use-up any root vegetables you have to hand.  For the spices I used a mixture of Seasoned Pioneer's Fajita Seasoning Spice Mix and Ras-el-Hanout  Spice Blend, which I especially love with its pretty rose petals. To this I added extra cumin, some freshly ground fennel seeds and some fresh coriander. I could not have been happier with the way this dish turned out. It is barely a recipe though because you can use whatever spices you like, whatever veg you like, whatever beans or you like or maybe chickpeas but whatever you choose, I guarantee it will be delicious.















Slow-cooked Spiced Leg of Lamb with Coriander and Butter Beans
This dish can just as easily be cooked in the oven, on a very low heat, wrapped in tin foil to create the steam.

1 leg of lamb on the bone
1 tin of good quality plum tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 bunches Coriander
2 tins Butter Beans

Spices - use what ever you have to hand.  I used - 
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp fennel seeds, finely ground
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp Fajita Seasoning Spice Mix
1 tbsp Ras-el-Hanout  Spice Blend
1 tbsp Sea Salt

Mix the spices all together including the salt. Stab the lamb with a sharp knife is several places, deep into the flesh.  Insert some garlic into each cut and as much spice mix as you can.  Massage the remaining spice mix all over the lamb.  Peel and chop the celeriac, or any other root vegetables, into 1" chunks   Put in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Roughly chop one bunch of coriander and add next.  Add the tin of tomatoes.  Finally top with the leg of lamb.  Cook for 8 - 10 hours on slow.  When the meat is falling off the bone, do just that.  Remove any fat or skin and roughly break up the meat into nice size chunks.  Pour off the sauce and veg into a saucepan.  Skim if necessary, although there shouldn't be very much fat.  Add the drained butter beans and the other bunch of chopped coriander and bring to the boil.  Check the seasoning and when perfect add the meat and bring back to the boil.  (You can do all this in the slow-cooker if you like).  Serve with some Cous Cous or Bulgar Wheat, drizzled with really good extra virgin olive oil.

Fabulous Fennel

I love Fennel.  I know it is meant to be a bit of a "love it, or hate it" vegetable, but I just think it is an acquired taste. But I don't think I really understood fennel until a late age. Now I think is so super versatile and clean and fresh, I just can't wait for it to appear in early summer.  I love it raw, sliced as thinly as possible and dressed with lemon juice, peppery extra virgin olive oil and a little salt. I love it baked until melting tender with loads of Parmesan cheese.  I love it roasted or barbecued until caramelised and golden. I love it's seeds in curries, fish stews, sausages and marinades.  I love its fronds, stuffed into the cavity of a fish before roasting.  And of all the herb teas, fennel is my favourite. Strangely enough though, I hate alcohol with a fennel or Anise flavour. Pernod, Raki, Ouzo, Pastis - Yuk!  And it is not like me to turn down a drink.

What I particularly love about fennel is it's ability to cut the richness of fatty fish, pork or sausages.  Hugh, the other half, is hugely fond of Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes, a book which he permanently has by his bedside and It was he who first requested this sausage dish with braised fennel, waxy potatoes and lemon.  It is a spring like dish, hearty enough to stand up to chilly evening, yet refreshing, zesty and clean. Just what you need to wake you up after a winter of heavy stews and casseroles.  The perfect transition from Winter to Spring. The Luganega sausages are hard to come by and very expensive if you ever should, but I discovered some fantastic Italian sausages at our local butchers Robert Edwards which work very well.  They are quite spicy, which is really nice but not very fennely, so I add fresh fennel and fennel seeds to my recipe. Waxy potatoes are not as popular in England as in the continent.  We seem to prefer our potatoes more floury.  Look out for Charlotte, Anya, Ratte or Pink Fir Apple Potatoes. The other thing I like about this recipe it is a one pot meal which means less washing up.  

The second recipe is from Simon Hopkinson's recent, brilliant T.V.show and book "The Good Cook". Here the fennel is slow-roasted and the juices are whizzed up with the Parmesan at the end. The first time I made this recipe I was convinced it wouldn't work. I had never used Parmesan in this way, but it amalgamates with the fennel juices and results in a lovely creamy sauce, perfect with the braised fennel.

Two of my favourite fantastic fennel recipes - so even if you think you hate it, why not give it another go.

Fennel Sausages Braised with Lemony Potatoes and Bay Leaves

Adapted from Rick Stein.  The original recipe is more just like roast vegetables but I have added twice as much water to create more of a stew. You can finish this off in the slow-cooker if you like.  It makes a fabulous meal to great you after a hard days work.

450g/1lb luganega sausages (available from specialist Italian or
Continental grocers), or other nice meaty pork sausages.
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 heads of fennel, trimmed and cut into 4/6 wedges, depending on size, lengthways (save the fronds)
750g/1½lb small waxy potatoes, peeled and each cut into quarters
2 lemons, pared zest and juice
4 fresh bay leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
240ml/8fl oz water

If necessary, twist the sausages into 7.5cm/3in lengths and separate them and then cut into individual sausages. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a 26cm/10in flame-proof casserole dish. Add the sausages and fry until nicely browned all over. Lift them onto a plate and set aside. Add some more oil and the fennel and fry until golden. Next add the garlic and the fennel seeds. Fry for a few minutes more. Stir in the potatoes, browned sausages, lemon zest and juice, bay leaves, ½ teaspoon salt and ten turns of the black pepper mill. Pour over the rest of the oil along with the water, cover tightly with the lid and bake for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Or cook for 4 hours on slow in the slow-cooker. Remove the lemon zest and Bay leaves. Sprinkle with chopped fennel fronds.

Braised Fennel with Butter and Parmesan

Adapted from Simon Hopkinson. As I said, I am not a fan of Pastis so I miss that out and use extra Vermouth instead, but if you do not have any, white wine will work well instead. Delicious served on it's own or along side some roast lamb.   

750g/1½lb fennel bulbs, trimmed, halved, trimmings reserved
50g/1¾oz butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp dry vermouth or white wine
Splash Pastis (optional, alternatively add more dry vermouth)
60g/2oz Parmesan (or similar vegetarian hard cheese), grated, plus extra for serving
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

Melt the butter in a casserole dish over a low heat. Place the fennel into the butter cut-side down, and scatter around the trimmings. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and increase the heat. Add the vermouth, Pastis or white wine. Cover with a sheet of foil loosely pressed down on the vegetables, and put the lid on top. Place into the oven to cook for 30 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and turn over the fennel. Return to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until very tender when poked with a small, sharp knife. Preheat the grill to high. Remove the fennel from the dish. Place in a warmed shallow oven-proof dish cut-side up, cover with foil and place in the oven while you make the sauce. Pour the trimmings and cooking juices through a fine sieve suspended over a small pan. Warm through and add 45g/1½oz of the Parmesan. Blend with a hand blender until smooth and creamy (about the consistency of pouring cream). Pour the mixture over the fennel and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Place under the grill and cook until the surface is pale golden-brown and slightly bubbling around the edges.

Phở Good

Vietnamese is the new Thai.  Restaurants such as Pho Cafe and Bahn Mi 11 are popping up everywhere. With their use of lots of fresh vegetables and herbs, the food is somehow even cleaner, fresher and zingyer than Thai.  From the Goi Cuon (Summer Rolls), which are like a salad, rolled up in rice paper to the" Pho", Vietnam's national dish, a delicious broth with flat rice noodles,  flavoured with spices and finished with loads of fresh herbs and chilli, it is all really exciting and vibrant.  


Phở (actually pronounced fuh) is traditionally a beef based broth made with left over bones including leg bones with plenty of marrow, charred onion, charred ginger and spices including cinnamon, star anise, black cardamom, coriander seed, fennel seed, and clove. The broth takes a few hours to cook and is finally served with lots of accompaniments including flank steak, beansprouts, spring onions, fresh coriander, mint, Thai basil, fresh chillis and finally, a squeeze of lime.  These garnishes are added by the dinner, which is what keeps the whole dish so fresh and lively. The Vietnamese are also fond of adding the famous "Rooster Sauce" (to use it's more polite name), to their Pho, as well as Hoi Sin Sauce which seems a bit of a shame considering the lengths they go to to make their super tasty stock. But what really attracted me to this dish in particular is that it was so good at using up left-over bones.  Roast chicken is a family favourite in our house. A good medium free-range bird is about £5.00 and can still feed my family, with two smallish kids, very generously.  But the thought of getting another meal out of the scraps, always makes me happy.  My mother of course, would have religiously made Chicken Soup with any left-overs and don't get me wrong, nothing can beat it, but sometimes you fancy a change.  


Every culture seems to have a variation on making the most of an expensive luxury, such as meat and in our current situation of economic downturn many of us are looking at ways to make the pennies go further.  With a hint of spring in the air, I am pining for cleaner, fresher flavours but still needing a damn good kick of heat to warm me up, in this somewhat bracing start to March and take my word for it, nothing is more perfect than Pho.

Phở Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)
Makes enough for 4
Broth
1 left over organic free-range chicken carcass plus any bones
1 large onion peeled and cut in quarters
1 large head of garlic, cut in half
Very large knob of fresh ginger, sliced in half lengthwise
roots and stems of 1 bunch of coriander
2 whole star anise
8 cloves
1 stick of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

3 Black cardamon pods
1 teaspoon palm sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
salt (or to taste)

for serving
16 ounces dried phở noodles
4 spring onions, chopped
Large handful of beansprouts
Coriander, freshly chopped

Mint, freshly chopped

Thai Basil, freshly chopped

Fresh Red and Green Chillis

Limes
Sriracha hot chili sauce
Hoisin sauce (optional)


Pick of all the nice bits of meat from your chicken and shred it up. Put into the fridge. Place the onion, garlic and ginger in a roasting tray and put under a full grill, turning often. You want the surface to be partly blackened as it adds a wonderful smoky flavor to the soup without making it bitter.  Just before they are ready, add all your spices and toast lightly.  Place the chicken bones into a large saucepan.  (You can use a slow-cooker set for 8 hours on slow). Add all the other ingredients for the soup around the chicken. Add water until the top of the bones are just covered. Bring to a boil over high heat. When the water comes to a boil turn right down and cook very slowly for 3 hours. Soak the dried pho noodles in warm water for about 30 minutes to rehydrate them. Chop up your condiments and have them ready. When your broth is done, strain it through a fine mesh sieve and skim off any excess fat. Taste the soup, add more fish sauce if necessary and then check for salt. Add more as necessary.

Drain the noodles and add them to the hot soup. Split the noodles between 4 bowls and top with the chicken and then ladle on the hot broth.

Serve this all the accompaniments and everybody just helps themselves.                                         

                                    

   


Tales of Pigling Bland is hosting Fuss Free Flavours' "Frugal Food Fridays" this month.  I thought this was a perfect recipe.


Being so green, I thought it fitting for an entry at Very Good Recipes for a Saint-Patrick's Day Challenge.

Less is More!

People at the moment seem to be choosing to eat less meat. It has become a bit fashionable to concentrate more on the vegetables, hence the massive serge in celebrity chef cook books about vegetables, as they all fight to jump on the bandwagon. Admittedly Jane Grigson wrote her vegetable book a good while ago and then her daughter Sophie followed suit with her own version some years ago. Nigel Slater has been banging on about growing and cooking your own for quite a while now, but then Sarah Raven, the queen of gardnening pawn, has just published her "Garden Cookbook" and even Hugh Fernley-Whitingstall dumped his signiture meaty dishes for the veg. And mark my words, there will be a glut of more veg books to come, in the near future. 

Some of this veg revival is economical. Growing your own is de riguere right now and shame on you if you are not on an allotment waiting list. Also the price of meat is demanding a reassessment in how much and how often we can afford to eat it. The fashion is to eat better quality meat but less of it and let the vegetables take pride of place on the plate. Secondly of course there are many good health reasons to eat less meat, mainly in an aim to cut down on the dreaded saturated fats.

Apart from vegetables, other great ways of making your meat go further, is to add carbohydrate such as grains, pasta and rice. Poorer cultures have learnt out of necessity how to make a little feed more and it is to these cuisines which we should turn if we want to learn a thing or two. So I have relentlessly been researching dishes from all around the world to bring you the very best ideas in saving money, saving your health and yet still producing delicious food. I have come to the conclusion that rice is a very good place to start.

Rice is such a fantastic food. It is an excellent source of fuel for our body and easily digested so the energy it supplies becomes quickly available to our working muscles, brain and body organs. Carbohydrates fill you up and around 85% of the energy that rice supplies comes from carbohydrate. Carbohydrate powers the body and helps to keep us moving. It is stored in our muscles and liver and released when we need it. Rice does actually provide a little protein as well but it is low in fat and cholesterol free.

I am convinced that although fad diets will come and go, eating a well balance diet of mainly fruit and vegetables and carbohydrate with a less amount of protein and dairy, is and will always be, the healthiest and most sensible way to not get fat and to loose weight if you need to.

Rice is present in so many countries cuisines that you can find fantastic recipes from all over the world. One recipe which seems to turn up in several different countries alone is Arroz Con Pollo, simply meaning Chicken with Rice. I found recipes from pretty much every country which Spain ever colonised at one time or another and that is quite numerous, including Central and South America, North Africa, the Caribbean, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. I love it when a recipe, clearly from one county, in this case Spain, turns up, almost identical, across the other side of the world in a country such as the Philippines. Why has it been passed country to country, one generation to the next? Because it has stood the test of time and it works.  

Arroz Con Pollo

I cooked mine in the slow cooker but you can just as easily cook on the stove top.
Serves 4
4 free-range chicken thighs, skinned, boned and all excess fat and sinew removed

Olive oil 
3 good quality chorizo sausages, about 200g, cubed
3 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
2 medium onion, finely sliced
Few sticks of Celery, finely chopped

2 red peppers, cored and finely sliced

1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, finely chopped or dried oregano
2 cup water
Large pinch of Saffron

A few fresh bay leaves
2 cup uncooked paella rice (or Risotto rice)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat up a large heavy bottomed saucepan and add a good glug of olive oil. Add the onions and celery and fry until the onions are translucent and just turning golden brown. peppers and cook for five minutes more.  Add the chorizo, herbs and garlic and fry for a few minutes more.  Don't cook for much longer as all the fat will come out of the chorizo. Season to taste. Meanwhile, heat the cup of water in a saucepan and when boiling add the saffron.  Add a teaspoon of salt and remove from heat and allow to infuse. Add the chicken to your peppers, the saffron water and the rice.  Add your bay leaves.  Cover and cook slowly on the stove top for one hour or tip the whole lot into a slow cooker and set on low for 3 hours. 

Slow-roast

I don't know about you, but last year was a hard one for us.  Hugh's first year in business, on his own and my lack of enthusiasm of working weekends has left us pretty brasic.  This Christmas holiday, instead of going out and eating out, we have spent a large percentage of our time, going for walks (free) and eating at home (cheap).  This combination has always been a challenging one, especially as Hugh has another self-elected vocation, unfortunately unpaid, as a personal health and safety officer, which means that there is absolutely no way that we are going out and leaving the oven on. Ever!  Hence the recent glut of slow-cooker curries and stews. And as much as I love curries and stews, once in a while you really crave a proper roast. And so, I am very excited to say that I have finally come up with a solution.  I suppose it is more pot-roast but the results are really good. For some reason I just never thought you would get a really nice, rare bit of meat if you cook it slowly but of course when you think about it, there is no reason why you can't.  I know all these monocular gastronomy chefs have been experimenting with just this concept for years and when I went to The Fat Duck, many moons ago, I remember having a particularly amazing piece of duck which had been cooked for about 12 hours and yet still looked like it was almost raw.  I imagine it had been cooked sous-vide which is apparently de rigueur now a days, as any of you will know who watched Masterchef.  Call me old fashioned but I just can't get that excited about about cooking anything, vacuum packed in a waterbath.   


Anyway, back to my recipe.  I have experimented long and hard to perfect this recipe with the sole purpose of being able to go out for a hearty three hour walk and come home to a beautiful piece of rare roast beef, potatoes, vegetables and gravy all ready for you to eat 15 minutes after you get home.   When it comes to the cut of beef, buy what best you can afford. Top-sirloin is probably the best and then top-rump, top-side and finally Silverside.  I usually settle for somewhere in the middle.  3/4 of a kilo is about £6.50 and will feed a family of four nicely and still leave some left over for delicious roast beef sandwiches with lashing of horseradish.   Finally if you want to slow cook a piece of beef, invest in a leave in meat thermometer which should set you back about £5.00.

Rare Roast Beef in the Slow-cooker
You can use any vegetables you want. These are my favourites.  Strangly the vegetables will not cook at all much in the slow-cooker, even though they are in there for hours.  They need to be almost cooked before they go in.
Serves 4
750g piece of beef 
4 fat cloves of garlic
Small bunch of Thyme
Few bay leaves
12 New Potatoes, cut in half
2 Medium Parsnips, peeled and cut in four lengthways
2 Carrots, peeled and cut in four lengthways
2 heads fennel, cut into wedges
8 shallots, peeled whole if smallish
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water


Bring all the vegetables to the boil in a large pan of salted water.  Boil gently for about 5-10 minutes until nearly completely cooked.  Drain well.  Season your meat well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Brown the beef in a large frying pan over a medium high heat in some olive oil.  If there is room add some of the potatoes, face side down until golden brown. Make sure the meat is golden brown on all sides.  As you take one thing out the frying pan, add some more vegetables.  Next add the parsnips, fennel, carrots or shallots and again sauté until they are a lovely brown colour.  It is worth taking time at this stage, as it is pretty much all the cooking you have to do.  The slow-cooker does the rest.  As each lot of vegetables are done put them straight into the slow-cooker. Add the thyme and finally pour over the water and the balsamic.  Add a little extra salt and black pepper and place the meat on top of everything.  Insert the thermometer into the middle of the piece of meat.  Set cooker on low for two and a half hours. The more cooked you like your meat the longer walk you can have. Add 15 minutes for roughly every 10ºF.


When you get back, put on a pan of water to cook your greens.  Remove the meat.  Check the temperature.  Rare beef should be 60ºC/140ºF, Medium rare is 66ºC/150ºF/ Medium 71ºC/160ºF.  If it is still under, chuck it in a hot oven for a bit.  If it is right wrap in tin foil and allow to rest on a plate. Remove all the vegetables (You can put them in the oven to keep hot if you like.) Tip all the gravy into a saucepan and reduce the sauce until it tastes delicious.  Add a knob of butter if necessary to mellow the flavour and any extra juices from the resting meat. Check seasoning. Meanwhile cook your greens and then you are ready to go.  Serve with lashings of horseradish sauce.

A Cracking Curry

I am a little curried out at the moment.  My slow-cooker lends itself so happily to curries, that I think I might have almost overdosed recently and so when I saw that the Sweet Heat Challenge, over at  Food, Foot-ball and a Baby  this month, was "Lets Rock Indian", my first thought was actually, "Lets not."  But then I needed something really super-easy for dinner that I could chuck in the slow-cooker and forget and I remembered this really delicious chicken dish that I found in Anjum Anand's "Indian Food Made Easy" and I had been vowing to make again.  This is a very authentic, traditional curry which appears to derive from Kerala, in South West India where Black Peppercorns are thought to originate from. 

What I love about this recipe is that the main spice is black pepper and I often forget what a fantastic ingredient it is.  Although I throw it into almost everything I cook, I often overlook it's fragrant, almost floral perfume.  It has a hint of citrus and manages to be really over-powering but incredibly delicate at the same time. However, like any spice I suppose, black pepper looses its aroma really quickly and it seems the finer ground it is, the quicker it looses its fragrance.  So when the recipe says course ground, I recommend that the consistancy you are aiming for is more cracked than ground.  If you can't be bothered to hand crack your pepper then make sure you just pulse it in a coffee grinder, shaking it well between each pulse and do not over-grind.

Chicken with Peppercorns and Shredded Ginger
I have upped the ginger in this recipe, just because I love it and adapted it for the slow-cooker but you can just cook it on the stove top if you like.  Reduce the cooking time to two hours, as slow as possible.

Marinade
9 or 10 large cloves of garlic, peeled
20g fresh ginger, peeled
1 tsp garam masala
1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 3 tbsp hot water

Other ingredients
1 kg chicken joints, skinned with all visable fat removed
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 green chilli, to taste
20g fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tbsp ground coriander
salt, to taste
200ml water
1 tbsp coarse ground or crushed black peppercorns
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp lemon juice
1 large handful of fresh chopped coriander

Blend the garlic, ginger, garam masala and stock together to make a paste with a hand blender. Then cover the chicken with it and leave in the fridge for at least an hour. I leave it over-night. Heat oil in pan and add the onion and sauté for 6-8 minutes until brown. Add the chilli, ginger, ground coriander and salt, leave to cook for about a minute. Add the chicken to the pan and brown each side. Pour in the water and pepper, bring to the boil then tip the whole lot into the slow-cooker.  Cook for 3 hours on slow.  Tip the whole lot into a large saucepan and turn up the heat and leave for 3-4 minutes to reduce the sauce. Stir in the garam masala, lemon juice and coriander and serve.

Never Dal

Life is never dull with my slow-cooker because there is always some new challenge to test its proficiency. Lately, I have been cooking a lot of dals with spectacular results.  Dal is far from dull. There are so many varieties, it is a little bid daunting. Moong dal (split yellow lentils), Toor dal (Yellow Pigeon peas), Chana Dal (split peeled chickpeas), Masoor Dal (Red Lentils) and Urad dal (split black lentils) and Mung dal (Mung beans) are just some of a long list. But once you have found your favourite it will become a staple in your diet. 


A dal is simply a dish made from any dried pulse, pea, bean or lentil which has been stripped on its outer hull and split. In fact the word dal means to split. Particularly popular in Southern India where the diet is vegetarian, they are a fantastic source of protein as well as being high in fibre which helps lower cholesterol.  They contain practically no fat and are high in folate and magnesium, Iron and B vitamins.

I have finished my dal with a Chaunk or to use the more recognisable, Punjabi word Tarka, hence the familiar Tarka Dal.  It is very common to finish your curry with a flavoured or tempered oil of some sort and you can add all sorts of spices and flavours.  I use Ghee as a base but you can use oil and add cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, fresh green chilli, dried red chilli, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, onion or garlic.  The dal recipe that I give below is so full of flavour that I simply garnished it with just my favourite, fried garlic, which I love.


After the onslaught of meat over Christmas, this is just what I am craving and wonderful way to start a happy and healthy New Year.  

Channa Dal

I have cooked this in the slow-cooker but you can cook it on the stove top just as well.
1 cup yellow split peas (Channa Dal)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 large knob of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt 

2 cups water
5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped

Rinse the dal. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When the oil is hot add the onion and ginger and lightly fry until golden brown. Add the spices and briefly fry. Add the water and salt and bring to the boil.  Tip into the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.  If you do not have a slow-cooker, cook very slowly on the stove top for a couple of hours.  When meltingly tender, add the chopped coriander.  In a little saucepan put the garlic just covered with vegetable oil.  Heat over a medium heat until the garlic is golden brown.  Remove immediately and spoon straight over the dal.  Do not leave the garlic in the saucepan for long as it will carry on cooking and may burn.

A Christmas Curry

I seem to have overindulged on Christmas Cooking Specials this year.  Thankfully, I have always managed to miss them before, too busy dealing with the kids and Christmas and cooking, I suppose.  Yesterday, however I watched what seemed like several hours of Jamie cooking his Christmas eve, day and boxing meals.  And then tonight I somehow managed to watch another three, almost in a row.  Starting with Nigella, moving on the Nigel Slater and finishing with Kirsty.  I think I have seen enough Christmas cooking to put me off the meal for the rest of the year and there is still two days to go the actual event.  


I do find all these programs strangely addictive but Jamie just seems a bit too spoilt now, in his vast mansion in Essex, surrounded by stunning countryside and his beautiful walled garden and a kitchen twice the size of mine, in lean-to in one of his many out-houses.  I know it is not the season to feel jealous, but I do!  In fact, as the program drew to an end and he was cooking up something in one of his many  greenhouses, scattered around his estate, for the first time ever I simply couldn't take any more, turned it off and went to bed.  


As for Nigella, I have missed most of her previous programs so I can't be sure but I got a feeling that she has been re-housed.  I'm sure her previous set could have passed for a stunning town house in Belgravia but she seems to have down-marketed, to a still very large terraced house in possibly Kilburn.  I don't know who lives there, but I am sure she certainly doesn't.   I wondered whether this was a recognition from BBC 2, that endlessly watching programs about super-rich "chefs" is just getting a bit sickening.  


Of course that is the trouble with these lifestyle cookery programs.  We buy into the whole perfect dream and believe that if we make Nigella's Chilli Jam, our lives will somehow be transformed into her perfect one; that we too will be cabbing round the West End, looking beautiful and drinking Expresso in Italian coffee shops, after a late boozy night out at yet another glamorous party, before effortlessly entertaining for some influential and impotant friends at home, instead of the reality which is being stuck at home, watching T.V.


As for Nigel Slater, I can't believe, in this day and age that the BBC can't be a little more honest about his lifestyle.  Why are there these awful shots of, clearly, someone else's family inserted into the program every fiveteen minutes.  Can't you have Christmas if you are gay.  Are you not allowed to celebrate if you don't have a wife and kids.


Anyway, as I said, I now feel so inundated by this Christmas cooking overkill that I decided to make something a bit different.  A Christmas curry.  This is not as mad as it may seem.  With it's blend of delicious spices; ginger, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, chilli and bay, it really is as seasonal as mulled wine.  It is infact a classic Massaman Thai curry and very delicious.  

Massaman Curry
This recipe comes for Rick Steins Far Eastern Odyssey which I have adapted for the slow-cooker but can just as easily be made in a casserole.

1.5kg blade or chuck steak (cut into 5cm chunks)

2 tins coconut milk

2 cinnamon sticks

300g waxy new potatoes (such as Charlotte)

8 shallots

1 quantity Thai massaman curry paste

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp Tamarind

1 tbsp palm sugar

75g roasted peanuts

Handful of Thai sweet basil leaves (optional)

Cut the potatoes into even size chunks. Peel the shallots.  Leave them whole, if they are not too large. Fry the beef  in a frying pan in small batches in vegetable oil, until brown on all sides. Drain of excess oil and tip into the slow cooker.  Add the shallots and potatoes to the slow-cooker. Pour off any excess oil from the frying pan add the curry paste and briefly fry.  Add the coconut milk and bring to the boil. As soon as it is boiling, remove and pour over the meat in the slow-cooker. Add the Tamarind, palm sugar, fish sauce and cinnamon sticks.  Cover and cook for 10 hours on slow or 6 hours on high. If you do not have a slow-cooker, cook slowly on the stove top.  Make sure you have a heavy bottomed saucepan and that you check often to make sure that it does not catch.  When meltingly tender, stir in the peanuts, scatter over the basil if using and serve.

Massaman curry paste
15 dried red chillies
1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground
1 stick cinnamon, ground
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
3 cloves, ground
5 peppercorns, ground
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 tbsp Tamarind
1 heaped tsp shrimp paste
1 - 2 sticks lemongrass, chopped
1 large knob of ginger, chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce

Soak the chillies in water for 10 minutes and then de- seed.  Dry-fry the dry spices in a wok to release the flavours and then grind to a powder in a coffee grinder. Add all the other ingredients and grind or blitz to a fine paste with a hand blender.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 months.

Sweet Heat is being hosted by Lemon Clouds and Lemon Drops this month with a Christmas Theme.  I thought this spicy Christmas curry was worth an entry.