Beef in beer with mushrooms and onions

Serves 3

2 short ribs of beef
300g piece of a stewing cut of beef (I used a very well marbled bit of flank)
3 firm medium onions
1 450g btl of 'best' type bitter ale
Vegetable oil
Butter
2 tsp Worcester sauce
1 bay leaf
100g mushrooms
Salt, pepper, 1 clove head

Heat two frying pans.  Add oil and butter to each.  Slice onions finely and evenly across the grain and brown them in the larger of the pans, without seasoning, over a high heat, until crisply darkened.  Stir regularly so they don't burn.

In the smaller pan (add less butter) brown the meat well.  Once the meat is browned, add both meat and onions to a small casserole dish and pour the ale into the beef frying pan.  Scrape the residues of caramelisation into the liquid as it bubbles over the heat, then pour into the casserole.  Don't season.  Top up with water if required to almost cover the meat.

Bring up to a simmer.  Skim off any scum that arises.  Place a circle of greaseproof paper or tin foil over the contents of the casserole, place on the lid and simmer very gently for at least 3 hours.

Slice and saute the mushrooms over a high heat until liquid is released and almost evaporated.  Add to the casserole.  Season well including crushing the clove head.  Skim off excess fat with a spoon.  Remove the bay leaf.  Remove the bones, slice the beef, Simmer uncovered for a further 20mins to reduce the sauce.

Epic frankfurter sandwich

Poach franks
Blanch savoy cabbage leaves
Boil some sliced onions
Grate some mature cheddar
Toast bread and butter

Assemble: Bread, v generous smooth Dijon mustard, cabbage, franks, onions, cheddar, season, other bit of bread.

Pizza Hawaii-Savoyarde

Ingredients:

Bought Hawaiian pizza
Lardons
1/2 onion
Creme fraiche
Cheese of some sort
Chilli powder

Fry the lardons in a little olive oil.  When done, remove, leaving fat behind.  Fry onion in this fat, having sliced with the grain, aiming mainly to soften/sweeten them.  Top pizza with lardons, onions, a few dollops of creme fraiche, a little extra cheese, salt, pepper and a dusting of chilli powder, before cooking.  Enjoy.

Lamb neck stew with onions, white beans and gremolata

Serves c.6

3 neck fillets
5 onions, sliced thickly across grain
2 bay leaves
1/2 btl dry white wine
2 tsp anchovy paste (or 2 anchovy fillets, chopped)
1 large jar butter beans
1 tin borlotti beans
Squeeze lemon juice

Garlic, parsley, lemon zest

Brown meat well, cut into 1.5cm bits.  Sweat onions in oil and butter until golden/yellowed.  Deglaze lamb pan with wine, add all to onions.  Add the bay leaves and anchovy paste, season lightly and cook on a very low heat for 2.5 hrs.  Add beans, gently simmer with beans 45 mins, finish with lemon juice. Generous pepper.

Chop gremolata ingredients separately then stir together - chop lemon zest after grating it also.  Better if parsley is dry first.  Serve stew not too hot and sprinkle gremolata on top just before serving.

Shoulder of lamb baked with provencal vegetables

1 shoulder of lamb
4 tomatoes
1 small aubergine
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
3 large onions
4 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
Handful basil

Slice the vegetables very thickly.  Sit the lamb on the vegetables, layered up as best possible with the basil in between.  Pour some olive oil over the lamb and season very well.  Pour a small glass of water in the tray.

Bake at 210C for 30mins to get the browning going.

Bake another 2 hours uncovered at 150C.  Baste the vegetables if required to prevent burning.

Cover loosely with foil and cook for another 1-2 hours, or as desired, at 150C as before.

Allow to rest before serving with a little olive oil drizzled over.

Italian beef stew with vegetables

1 btl red
400g large diced feather blade steak (or another stewing cut that you like)
4 small onions, peeled whole and quatered leaving the root intact (or just very small onions peeled and left whole)
2 sticks celery, cut into 1.5 inch lengths, then each lenth cut into 3 or 4 batons
2 medium carrots, peeled, qartered lengthwise and again cut into 1.5 inch lengths
4 tomatoes, halved, seasoned, oiled and roasted at 150C for approx 1 hr.
1 tbsp herbes de provence
1 cup frozen peas
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree/concentrate
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil
Butter

To cook this in a minimum of time you need to be using two pans from the off: A wide frying pan and a stew pot.  Heat a film of oil with a small amount of butter in both.

I feel a preliminary marinating phase is pretty optional here, particularly if it will sit in the fridge for a day or two between having been made and serving.

Sweat the onions in the stew pot over a moderate/high heat.  When they are softened and a little coloured, add the celery, saute again for around 5 minutes then add the carrots.

Meanwhile fry the beef in batches in the pan over a high heat, aiming to well colour each surface of each cube, spacing them out as you fry, and not burn too many fragments.  Remove to a dish when done.  If the meat has large sinew threads going through it, then when dicing it you can try to dice it along these lines then cut out some of the sinew once it is on the surface of a cube.  This is one advantage of buying the meat in a whole peice.

Add the herbes de provence to the veg pot, along with the chopped garlic.  Stir for 3 seconds.  Add the tomato puree.  Cook until it has lost its red raw colour.  Add the reserved and browned meat.

Empty excess fat from the frying pan and pour the bottle of wine into this (assuming it fits) over the heat.  Scrape the base of the pan well and let the wine bubble, then empty into the pot.  Add boiling water to cover if needed.

Season only lightly and bring to a simmer. Skim off any scum that arises to the surface.  Adjust the heat (or lid's adjarness) to a very low simmer and leave to cook for around 1.5 hours.  At this point add the roasted tomatoes then cook for another 1.5 hours.  Don't be afraid to cook it for longer if it looks like it needs it, particularly if the meat is well interlaced with fat.

Just before serving add the frozen peas and simmer for a while to cook them.  Taste, season generously with both salt and pepper, spoon off any excess fat from the surface (if needed; some is fine) and you can always leave the lid off to let it reduce for a while also.

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes.  It sounds like a bit of an effort when you describe it like this but it really isn't, particularly as it needs no other vegetable accompaniment.  If you make it carefully with nice meat, and I do recommend trying to find feather blade steak, then nothing could be nicer.

Minestrone soup (2 stage)

Basically you boil/poach the meat first then make a soup with the meat and the stock...

Serves c.8 generously

Full ingredients list

1 bacon hock (preferred), or 1 very large slice (300g) of slab bacon (like unsliced streaky bacon; not pancetta)
300g of stewing steak (eg. skirt; chuck; brisket)
1/2 btl red wine
5 onions
4 carrots
1 thing of celery
4 cloves garlic
2 cans whole plum tomatoes
Large bunch of thyme
1/2 spring or other tender cabbage
Handful green beans
Handful garden peas (assuming frozen here)
c. 100g small pasta shapes eg. little stars or orzo
3 tbsp very finely chopped flat leaf parsley (measured when chopped)
4tbsp vegetable oil
100g butter

To serve:
Grated parmesan cheese; extra virgin olive oil; ground black pepper

Stage 1

Place the bacon in a small pan.  Cover with cold water and bring to a boil with the lid on.  Boil for roughly 5-10 minutes.  This is to rid the joint of excess saltiness and is a vital (and easy) step.  Dump it into a sink, wash it with cold water.

Place the bacon, beef, and some of the stock vegetables, all finely sliced, in a snug pot.  Ie. 3 onions; 2 carrots; 3 sticks celery; all the thyme.  Add a bay leaf/parsley stalks/whatever else you have.  Pour over the wine and top up with cold water.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer off any scum that arises then adjust to a very slow simmer.  It takes time to adjust it to the right level, over the heat, because if your heat is at its lowest level the boil will be very sensitive to exactly how 'ajar' the lid is.  Poach like this for 4 hours.

Stage 2

Empty the above into a colander over a bowl once cooled for 20 minutes.  It's practical here to put the liquid and meat (separated) in the fridge until the next day.  Discard all the other vegetables in the stock.

Chop all the remaining vegetables finely.  In the vegetable oil sweat them adding each five minutes after the last in the following order: Onions; celery; carrots; garlic (briefly) then add the canned tomatoes.  Slice these against the back of a wooden spoon.  Cook like this for 5 minutes.  Chop the meat small then add this along with the stock.  Add more liquid if you think there isn't enough (this is bulk cooking!), and cook at this point for 1 hour.

Add the cabbage, finely shredded, and green beans cut into 1cm lengths.  Simmer another 20 minutes.

Add the pasta shapes and when they are nearly done add the frozen peas which only need to simmer briefly.

Add the chopped parsley at the very last moment and season well with salt and pepper.  You can also adjust the flavour with sugar if there is insufficient sweetness or red wine vinegar for acidity.

Top each serving with grated parmesan cheese, and pour a little extra virgin olive oil over then finish with extra pepper.  Should work!

Pork braised with cider, onions and cloves

This was a regular on the menu of The Earl Spencer in Southfields where I briefly worked in 2010.  I'm not sure where the recipe came from, and I never saw it cooked there, so I have sort-of made this recipe up.  But it works really well.

Waitrose sell thick pork belly slices which have had the skin removed from them, which are great for this.

Serves 4

600g pork belly slices (see above), cut into 1.5 inch cubes
500ml clear, dry, probably sparkling cider
2 tbsp cider vinegar
3 onions, halved vertically, peeled then sliced very finely across the grain
2 tbsp vegetable oil
20g butter
5 cloves
4cm stick of cinnamon
1 dried red chilli
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

In your largest, widest and heaviest frying pan, heat a thin film of oil.  Season the pork pieces with pepper then lightly colour them in batches in this pan.  Adjust the heat up or down as you need to, to keep things moving along.  A frying splash preventer is very handy for this stage.

Meanwhile in a large casserole dish sweat the onions in the fats until lightly coloured, stirring regularly.

When each batch of pork is cooked, remove it to a plate then pour excess oil from the pan.  Deglaze the pan with the cider, scraping the base with a wooden spoon and allowing to simmer.

When the onions are done assemble everything in the casserole dish, including any juices that have come from the meat, and salt well.  Adjust the heat to a very low simmer indeed, and simmer with the lid adjar for 1.5-2 hours.  This should allow the sauce to reduce to a nice concentration by the time the pork is tender.  If it needs to reduce further simply remove the lid completely for the final half hour of cooking.  Pick out all herbs and spices before serving - remembering how many cloves you added.

Serve with kale and steamed potatoes.  The trick(s) to cooking kale is to remove all bits of stem, soak in cold water for 10 minutes in advance of cooking, then cook for 3 minutes in a large volume of rapidly boiling and heavily salted water.

3 steps to caramelised onions

I think this makes it as quick as possible.  No sugar necessary! Although it wouldn't hurt, depending on what you are going to do with them.

Onions

Butter

Salt

Peel the onions leaving some of the root attached.  Halve vertically then slice across the grain as finely as possible.

Melt butter in a very large saucepan.  The larger the base then the greater the contact area with the heat, and the greater area to evaporate water from also.  The vertical sides will help you stir and the lid is needed for stage 1.

1)  Over a medium heat, add the onions, season with salt, stir, then place on the lid. The steam that is created will begin to wilt the onions.

2)  After five minutes remove the lid and sweat, stirring occasionally (not so often as to slow everything down), still over a medium heat.  This is the longest phase and is about driving off the moisture in the onions.

3) Once the onions seem fully softened, translucent and most moisture has gone, you can now turn up the heat to high and stir constantly.  This will allow you to rapidly create dark, rich caramelised onions.

If you want to turn the onions into a kind of relish or accompaniment for cold meat or pate, you can pour in some beef stock or braising liquid at the end that will very rapidly reduce down.  Scrape the base of the saucepan as it bubbles then leave to cool.

This is slightly blokey, I admit.  On toast with scrambled eggs, leftover roast beef and feta cheese.

Roast leg of lamb with sauce soubise

Roast Leg of Lamb

Take your leg of lamb out of the fridge well in advance to come up to room temperature.  Massage with olive oil, season well and place in a roasting tray.  Squeeze over just a small amount of lemon juice.

The only way I now have confidence roasting large joints to be served pink is with a thermometer that is inserted into a thick part of the joint, not too close to a bone, and that stays in the joint in the oven with a wire connecting to a display outside.

Roast for 20 minutes at 220C then remove from the oven.  Add a knob of butter to the tray which will melt, then baste the meat with this mixture of oil and butter.  After basting remove excess fat from the tray to a mug (seems illogical but works) for later bastings, if desired.  Add a large glass of dry white wine to the tray, a whole head of garlic, sliced across horizontally and both cut surfaces facing down, and several sprigs of rosemary.

Place the roast back into a lower temperature oven, say 180C, to finish cooking.  When the thermometer display reads 58C, remove the tray from the oven and the joint from the tray onto a plate to rest for 20 minutes.  The temperature will continue to rise considerably in the centre of the joint, and perfectly pink is around 65C.

Re-place the tray into the oven for five minutes for some additional crusting of the garlic.  Then place on a hob to scrape together all juices into a sauce.  Add a tiny splash of water if required and you may like to transfer the tray contents into a small saucepan to reduce, and by simmering emulsify, before serving.

Mint Sauce

Simmer 50ml of water and 1 (proper) teaspoon of caster sugar in a very small saucepan for 1 minute.  Pour into a serving bowl.  Add 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped fresh mint and 1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar.  Stir well and leave to cool.

Sauce Soubise

Simon Hopkinson's lovely sauce soubise recipe is available here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/all-the-tricks-of-the-trade-625970.html?pageToolsFontSize=200%25

Redcurrant Jelly

As well.  Home-made if you are very lucky.

Tartiflette Savoyarde

Reblochon is quite an expensive cheese.  Probably because it tastes so good.

Other than clarifying that you should use waxy potatoes, I really can't improve on the brilliant recipe in the link below.

Tartiflette Savoyarde

Poached skate wing with Lyonnaise potatoes and aioli

Here is another fantastic recipe for new potatoes, or any waxy potato.  Maris peer or rattes work well.  It makes a delicious accompaniment to fish, particularly with a pungent aioli to offset the sweet melted onions.  Colouring the potatoes in batches will actually help reduce the cooking time.

Lyonnaise potatoes

New or waxy potatoes, olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, finely chopped parsley

Peel and halve onions vertically, then slice across the grain very finely.  Melt butter in a large, heavy based pan, preferably that you have a lid for.  Salt and sweat the onions, stirring regularly, until melted and gilded light brown.  Remove.  Slice potatoes to the thickness of a £1 coin, or as thick as you wish depending on variety.  There is no need to peel them.  Blanch them for 30 seconds (boiling time) in salted boiling water, drain, dry in a tea-towel then brown in batches over a moderate heat in olive oil and more butter in the same pan.  Return the onions and all the potatoes to the pan with chopped garlic and season with salt and pepper.  Cook covered over a low heat or in the oven, adding water if you are worried about catching, for 30 minutes or until tender.  Finish with chopped parsley.

Poached skate wing with aioli

Skate wings have a very unpromising appearance but are fantastic value and eating the meat off the wing couldn’t be easier.  To serve with Lyonnaise potatoes.

Cut the top and bottom off a lemon, place on one end and remove the bitter pith in curved cuts with a sharp knife.  Slice the lemon and place in a casserole with sufficient cold water to cover the fish, with a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of peppercorns.  Lay in the skate wings and bring up to a nearly-boil, removing from the heat and allowing the fish to finish cooking in the liquid for 5 minutes.

For the aioli, I like to use half extra virgin olive oil and half flavourless oil such as sunflower, lemon juice and grated lemon rind, salt, white pepper and grated garlic.  It’s absolutely crucial to taste for balance of lemon acidity with saltiness, and pungency of garlic.  Don’t be afraid to make bold adjustments of flavour.  

The technique is the same as mayonnaise: put 2 egg yolks in a bowl with all other ingredients except the oil.  Whisk until lightened in colour and slightly thickened; a damp cloth under the bowl will help.  Add oil drop by drop at first while whisking, then in a thin stream until thick.  Taste and adjust.