Beef Stew - A rare treat for a change of season!

There has been a distinct change of season around here.
Indications this week included:- 

• a request for porridge for breakfast,
•  wearing boots all day, 
• the first athletics of the season,
•  wood chopping and the first open fire of the season, 
• the searching for the winter school uniform and once again teaching tie tying, 
• wheat packs at bed time 
• and a strange yearning for beef stew!!

Stew is something each of us has mentioned missing from time to time since we largely gave up meat. So today (with our true vegetarian away) we decided we'd have one for old times sake. (Eva agreed to eat beef just this once as long as it was organic.)


It was delicious and warming! 
The recipe came from Jamie Oliver (a reliable source of all comfort foods I find). 
We put it in the slow cooker before we went to athletics around 11.30am and it was perfectly cooked at 7.30pm when we were ready to sit down.


The sprinkling of rosemary, garlic and lemon zest at the end tasted fantastic on this - it made a huge difference to the final flavour.

Beef and Root Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Gremolata in the Slow-cooker.

• olive oil
• a  little butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• a handful of fresh sage leaves
• 800g/1¾lb stewing steak (I used organic blade), cut into 2cm pieces
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• ½ a butternut pumpkin (squash), deseeded, peeled and roughly diced
• optional: a handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved (I couldn't get any but think they'd be great if you could)
• 500g/1lb 2oz small potatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• ½ a bottle of red wine
• 285ml/½ pint beef or vegetable stock
• zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• a handful of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Put a little oil and your knob of butter into a small frypan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes.

Transfer onion to slow cooker.

Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the slow-cooker with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and gently stir together.

Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt.

Put slow-cooker onto high setting for approx 2 hours, the switch to low for 5-6 hours until the meat is tender. Test by squashing  a piece of meat and if it falls apart easily it’s ready. (Note if you won’t be around to turn the slow cooker down just cook on low and switch to high when you get home if needed)

Once it’s cooked, you can leave it on low until you’re ready to eat. 

Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew just before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference – as soon as it hits the hot stew it will release an amazing fragrance.

Ladle into bowls and serve as is or accompanied by fresh, warmed bread and a bowl of steamed greens. 

Hope you are Enjoying the season where ever you are and which ever way it's changing!

Nicola

Fish Pie - A Family Favourite

I struggle a bit sometimes to find good ways to serve fish for all of us. So this was a great find. It is a Jamie Oliver recipe I found on-line. It is easy and delicious and the whole family enjoy it so we have it fairly frequently! I usually use salmon, whatever white fish looks good and some green prawns. The original recipe had a smoked fish but I'm not so keen on haddock. The cheese seems odd in the recipe - but it is just enough to give a richness - you don't really taste it as cheesy. It works.

ingredients

• 300g salmon fillets, skin off and bones removed

• 300g white fish (I used John Dory today) skin off and bones removed

• 125g king prawns, raw, peeled

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1kg potatoes

• 1 carrot 

• 2 sticks of celery

• 150g good Cheddar cheese

• 1 lemon

• ½ a fresh red chilli

• 4 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley 

• olive oil

•  a good handful of baby spinach, chopped

•  a couple of ripe tomatoes, quartered

method

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil 
• Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm chunks 
• Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes and cook for around 12 minutes, until soft (you can stick your knife into them to check) 

• Peel the carrot    

• Meanwhile, get yourself a deep baking tray or earthenware dish and stand a box grater in it 

I love this bit - a colourful tower!

• Grate the celery, carrot and Cheddar on the coarse side of the grater 
• Use the fine side of the grater to grate the zest from the lemon 
• Finely grate or chop your chilli 
• Finely chop the parsley leaves and stalks and add these to the tray

• Cut the salmon and smoked haddock into bite-size chunks and add to the tray with the prawns 

• Squeeze over the juice from the zested lemon (no pips please!), drizzle with olive oil and add a good pinch of salt and pepper 
• If you want to add any spinach or tomatoes, do it now 
• Mix everything together really well 

 • By now your potatoes should be cooked, so drain them in a colander and return them to the pan 
• Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper 
• Mash until nice and smooth, then spread evenly over the top of the fish and grated veg 

• Place in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes, or until cooked through, crispy and golden on top 
• Serve piping hot with tomato sauce, steamed veg or a lovely green salad

Wouldn't normally add tomato sauce - but it's in Jamie Oliver's Recipe and now Eva knows that  there's no stopping it! 

Nicola