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Sunday Roast Brisket March 26, 2018

Filed under: Meat,Roasts — delishuss @ 10:57 am
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beef brisket (1)

Yesterday was a bit dull and dreary, perfect weather for a Sunday roast. After sifting through my bookcase of cookbooks, I decided on beef brisket. It was a choice between a more traditional southern style brisket from Gordon Ramsey recipe or a Jamie Oliver one. I asked the taste tester which he’d prefer and he gravitated towards the Jamie Oliver Mothership Sunday Roast Brisket one. I was a little intimated by the fact that there are Yorkshire Puddings to be made but I’d said I’d give it a shot.

A couple of things to call out, give the meat a good seasoning. I mixed an Oxo cube with the mustard and smothered the meat with it and I still felt it was slightly under seasoned. I’d go a bit easier on the blackcurrant jam as the gravy was a bit sweet for my liking. I also added a stock cube into the water for the gravy.

It’s a really satisfying plate of food and we have plenty of leftovers for all the other great recipes from the Jamie Oliver book (Save with Jamie).

Ingredients

2kg piece of beef brisket

Olive oil

2 large onions

2 teaspoons of mustard

1 Oxo cube

1 bunch of fresh rosemary

1.5kg potatoes

500g carrots

1 swede or parsnips

1 knob of unsalted butter

140g plain flour

1 tablespoon blackcurrant jam (I’d probably use 1/2 tablespoon)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

400ml beef stock

Vegetable oil

2 large eggs

100ml semi-skimmed milk

 

Method

Brisket

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius/325 degrees Fahrenheit/ gas mark 3.
  2. Heat a frying pan and add a glug of olive oil.
  3. Season the brisket with salt and pepper and brown in the pan.
  4. While the meat is browning, slice the onions.
  5. Once all the meat is fried off, remove and set aside.
  6. Fry off the onions until brown in the frying pan. Add to the bottom of a casserole dish. (You can do all this directly in the casserole dish if you have gas, I only have induction).
  7. Rub the meat with the mustard and Oxo cube and rosemary leaves. Add to the casserole dish.
  8. Protect the meat with a sheet of wetted greaseproof paper. This keeps the meat moist and keeps in the juices. Cover with 2 sheets of tin foil and place in the oven.
  9. I like my brisket shredded, so I left it on for 5 hours. If you prefer to carve it, 4 hours will do. Check it half way to make sure there’s another moisture; if not, add a little water.

Veggies

  1. While the meat is cooking away, peel the potatoes, halving any larger ones. The original recipe says to parboil in salted water for 12 minutes. I chucked them in microwave for 6 minutes.
  2. Press the potatoes down with a masher gently until the split a little. Shake in some olive oil and plenty of salt. Potatoes love salt.
  3. Place in the oven an 1 1/2 before the end of the brisket cooking time.
  4. Peel and chop the carrots and swede or parsnips. Cook in salted boiling water for 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and mash with the butter. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.

Gravy

  1. Remove the potatoes and brisket from the oven and pour out some of the meat juices into a jug. Keep the meat and potatoes warm.
  2. Up the oven temperature to 250 degrees Celsius, 495 degrees Fahrenheit, gas mark 8.
  3. Heat a frying pan and add the flour, jam, vinegar, stock and resting juices. Similar until you have a nice smooth consistency. Keep it on a low heat until you are ready to use.

 

Yorkshire Puddings

  1. Grab a 12 hole shallow hole bun tray and add some olive oil to each hole. Don’t go too crazy as the Yorkshire puddings will end up being greasy and soggy.
  2. Place the tray in the oven while you make your pudding mixture.
  3. Put the flour and salt and the eggs in a jug and whisk. Slowly add in the milk and whisk until you have a smooth consistency that’s not lumpy.
  4. Carefully take the tray from the oven, it’s hotter than hell. Make sure you have somewhere heat proof to place the tray. Fill each hole 3/4 way full and place them in the oven.
  5. Bake them in the oven until they have puffed up and are golden brown, roughly 10 minutes.

 

Carve or pull apart the brisket and serve with all the accompaniments.

 

 

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American Hot Pizza Pie February 11, 2015

Filed under: Favourites,Italian — delishuss @ 10:08 am
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So you’ll know if you have read my blog before that I love Jamie Oliver. He is my cooking idol. However, I must admit I find his recipes quite difficult to follow. I personally prefer each point of the cooking method numbered so that I don’t have to keep re-reading the paragraphs. I’m going to blame the recipe format for the fact that I made too much dough for each pizza and also missed what the purpose of the breadcrumbs was. Okay, okay, I will take a smidgen of blame for not reading the recipe before I bought the ingredients and started making it. Note to future self, read the recipe thoroughly both in advance of food purchasing and preparation.

I got this recipe from Jamie’s cookbook, Save with Jamie. I’m doing a 12 week health and fitness challenge, not quite sure that this recipe fits in the scope of healthy eating but it was delishuss. A little of what you like is good for you, right?

Here’s a few things that I wish I knew before I started this one. The dough recipe will make about 3×12 inch pizzas. I depends on your outlook whether you think 12 inch is medium or large :-0 I made 2×12 inch pizzas and there was too much dough. I know the intention is that it’s a pie, so it’s going to be thicker, but I found it a bit doughy to be honest.

You can freeze the uncooked, prepared pizza as well.

The breadcrumbs go on the pizza tin’s base before you add the dough. Given that I forgot to add this, I can only assume that because my pizzas stuck to the bottom of the tin that this is to prevent this happening.

So here goes (itemised method because that’s the way I like it):

Serves 4-5 people (original recipe states 8-9, I will let you be the judge).

Prep/cooking time = 1 hour + proving time

Ingredients

1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ’00’ flour, plus extra for dusting

1x7g sachet of dried yeast

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or leftover pork dripping

2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1x400g tin of chopped tomatoes

Red wine vinegar

50g ciabatta or stale bread

Olive oil

350g leftover cooked pork and crackling or 6-8 quality sausages (at least 80% meat)

1 red onion, peeled and finely sliced

25 slices of pickled jalapeno or 2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced

159g cheddar cheese or mozzarella

1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds

1 good pinch smoked paprika

Method

1. Put the flour and 1 heaped teaspoon of sea salt into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.

2. Add 600ml of tepid water to the well and stir in the yeast.

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3. Add the extra virgin olive oil (or the equivalent amount of leftover pork dripping, for incredible flavour), and use a fork to gradually bring in the flour, then pat together into a dough.

4. Knead on a flour-dusted surface until smooth and springy.

5. Place in a bowl, cover with a damp tea towel ( I used cling film/glad wrap) and leave somewhere warm until doubled in size (roughly 1 hour).

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6. Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the garlic and put it into a blender with the oregano, tomatoes and 1 tablespoon of vinegar or liquid from the jalepeno jar. whizz until smooth, season and put aside.

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7. In a food processor, blitz the bread into fine breadcrumbs. Oil the pizza tins, and lightly dust with the breadcrumbs.

8. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius, 375 degrees Fahrenheit or gas mark 5.

9. Knock the dough back (this means taking the excess air of it), then divide into 3 and stretch or roll out each piece on the flour-dusted surface using your tin size as a gauge.

10. Place in the tins, pushing the dough up to the sides to create a crust when cooking and then let them prove for another 15-20 minutes.

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11. Divide the sauce between the pizza bases.

12. Finely chop the pork and any leftover crackling, or squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, then sprinkle over the pizza.

13. Toss the slices onion in a drizzle of olive oil (prevent them cooking too quickly and burning) and scatter over the top with the sliced jalapenos or chilli and bombs of cheese.

14. Bash the fennel seeds and paprika in a pestle and mortar until fairly fine, then sprinkle over the pizzas from a height.

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15. At this point, you can cover the pizzas and freeze if not required.

16. Bake the pizzas for around 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the base is golden, puffed up and crispy.

Note: you can cook the frozen pizzas straight from the freezer, just add another 30 minutes to the cooking time.

This seems like an exceptionally long recipe but it the method itself is quite straight forward, so give it a go at the weekend when you have a bit more time on your hands.

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South American Style Brunch February 2, 2015

Filed under: Brunch,Favourites,Healthy Eating,Rice and Grains — delishuss @ 12:42 pm
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I recently started following Jamie Oliver on Instagram. Okay, I’ll admit it, I have a crush on him. I just love his food. It’s just rustic, with lovely accessible ingredients. I often buy cookbooks because the recipes look fantastic but I never end up making them because the ingredients are too hard to find or the recipes are too complex and I couldn’t be bothered. I’m all about hassle free cooking and I think Jamie is the master. Anyway, Jamie posted this recipe on Instagram recently and I loved the sound of it, so decided to give it a shot during the week. The original recipe uses Quinoa but I didn’t have any in stock, I substituted it for long grain rice and it worked out quite well. I will be saving this to my favourites for sure. I went a bit light on the chilli and chilli sauce, I will be a bit braver next time around.

Serves 6

Ingredients

200g quinoa

Sea salt

Olive oil

Pinch of cumin seeds

1 x 400g black beans or black eyed beans, drained and rinsed

1 long fresh red chilli, finely sliced

1 fresh jalapeno chilli, freshly sliced

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

A pinch of golden caster sugar

Extra virgin olive oil

Juice of half a lime

Freshly ground black pepper

6 large free range eggs

1 ripe avocado

200g of ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 spring onions, finely sliced

A small bunch of fresh mint

A small bunch of fresh coriander

Hot chilli sauce, to serve

Method

1. Cook the quinoa according to packet instructions, with a good pinch of salt. Meanwhile, add a good glug of olive oil to a frying pan and place over a high heat. Once hot, add the cumin seeds and then fry for 30 seconds, then add the beans and a pinch of salt and continue cooking for 5-8 minutes, or until crisp all over.

2. While the beans are cooking, place the sliced chillies into a bowl with the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt and set aside.

3. Drain the quinoa well, then drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and lime juice and season lightly. Spread on a tray and leave aside to cool slightly.

4. Transfer the cooked beans to a bowl. Wipe the pan clean and return to a medium heat with a splash of olive oil. Once hot crack in your eggs and fry to your liking.

5. Transfer the quinoa to a large serving plate, layer the eggs on top and spoon over the crispy beans. Halve and de-stone the avocado, then scoop out and dot over the flesh. Scatter the tomatoes, spring onions and chillies on top, then drizzle of some of the pickling juice. Pick and roughly chop the mint and coriander leaves and sprinkle on top, then add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and serve with plenty of hot chilli sauce.

Note: I used a mixture of Jalapenos in a jar and fresh. The version in a jar comes in a pickled sauce, so I just re-cycled this with a little sugar.

P.s. If you are a Jamie Oliver fan, I would highly recommend following him on Instagram, he posts a new recipe each day.

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Lemon Ripple Tart July 7, 2013

Filed under: Desserts — delishuss @ 12:47 pm
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I made this recipe a while back for a dinner party. It was a stinking hot day and all I could think of was my mum and my former home economics teacher harping on about keeping everything cold and not overworking the pastry. I thought it was going to be an unmitigated disaster but it actually turned out very well. I was telling my dinner guests about my episode with the pastry and they looked at me as if I had two heads on me and said who makes pastry nowadays. Part of my was thinking yep that’s a fair point and then when I was tasting the end results I was pretty chuffed with myself. I think it’s a cracker, I will definitely try this one again.  By the way, this is a Jamie Oliver recipe. If you have the time or the inclination I would probably make the pastry the day before.

Serves 10

Ingredients

6 egg yolks

5 eggs

270g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds removed

250ml lemon juice, plus the grated zest from the lemons

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g raspberries

1tbsp caster sugar

Icing sugar, for caramelising (optional)

 

Pastry

500g plain flour, plus extra

100g icing sugar

250g cold unsalted butter, cubed

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 eggs, beaten with a splash of milk

 

Method

1. For the pastry, sieve the flour and icing sugar onto a surface, then use your fingers to gently work in the butter till you have ‘crumbs’. Sprinkle in the zest, then gradually add the egg mixture till you get a ball of dough. Dust this with flour, flatten slightly, then wrap in cling-film and chill for about 30 minutes.

2. Grease a loose-bottomed 28cm to tart tin. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour and roll the pastry into a circle that’s 5mm thick and big enough to line the tart tin. Lightly press the pastry into the tin, trim off the excess, then cover with cling-film and put in the freezer for at least an hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Unwrap the tart case, line it with greaseproof paper, then fill with rice or dried beans. Bake the pastry in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and baking beans and return to the oven for about 15 minutes or until light brown.

4. For the filling, put the yolks, eggs, sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon juice and zest into a heavy-bottomed pan; whisk over a very low heat until the mixture starts to thicken. Stir in the button, making sure you get all the bits of curd from the bottom of the pan. When it looks like really thick custard and coats the back of a spoon, take it off the heat and let it cool a little. Give it a whisk, then strain through a sieve.

5. Mash the raspberries with the sugar in a small pan. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring continuously, until it starts to look like jam.

6. Spoon the lukewarm lemon curd into the tart and give it a shake so that the mixture spreads. Spoon the raspberry jam over the lemon and gently stir to create a ripple effect. Cool the tart for 30 minutes, if you like, dust the top with a layer of icing sugar and caramelise it with a kitchen blowtorch.

 

Broccoli and Bacon Orecchiette October 22, 2012

Filed under: Pasta — delishuss @ 10:14 am
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This is a Jamie Oliver recipe  (Jamie’s 30 minute meals) that I made a few additions to. Word of warning if you don’t like fish or a strong fishy taste then this is not for you. If you do then you’ll love it. I just fancied a bit of meat in this recipe so I added some bacon. I also think the sauce needed a little something so I added lemon.

Ingredients

125g Parmesan cheese

1 large head of broccolli

200g purple sprouting broccollini

1 heaped teaspoon capers

1 small dried chilli

3 cloves of garlic

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

500g dried orecchiette

3 slices of bacon, chopped

Juice of one lemon

Method

1. Trim the rind off your Parmesan and set aside. Grate the chunk of Parmesan in the food processor, then tip into a bowl.

2. Slice all the florets off the stalk of the large head of broccolli. Trim the florets off from the purple sprouting broccollini and chop up just the tender stalks. Put all the broccolli to one side.

3. Fit the standard blade attachment to the processor. Halve the large broccolli stalk and out into the empty processor with the anchovies and their oil, and the drained capers. Crumble in the dried chilli. Peel and add the 3 cloves of garlic, then pulse it all to a paste.

4. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Add the brocolli but not the brocollini to the water and cook. Add the broccollini about 4 minutes before the end of cooking.

5. Meanwhile heat a frying pan and add the olive oil. Fry off the bacon bits until brown. Add the sauce mixture to the pan. Stir, then pick and tear in some thyme leaves, discarding the woody stalks. Pour a wineglass of water into the pan and add the reserved Parmesan rind and lemon juice. Give it a good stir and turn the heat up to medium. Keep your eye on it, stirring every now and then.

6. Drain the pasta and broccolli in a colander, reserving some of the cooking water, and add to the frying pan of paste and bacon.

7. Fish out the Parmesan rind and discard. Add a big handful or two of grated Parmesan and a ladle or two of the cooking water. Carefully and quickly stir around and keep it moving until you achieve shiny, loose, lovely pasta.

8. Taste and correct the seasoning, then tip on to a serving platter and sprinkle of Parmesan. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and scatter over some oregano leaves.

 

Trifle May 29, 2011

Filed under: Desserts — delishuss @ 9:46 pm
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This is not a traditional trifle by any means. This is a Jamie Oliver recipe. It’s  yummy and it’s also quick and simple recipe to make.  An all round winner.

Ingredients

3 oranges

75ml limoncello

100g sponge fingers

250g mascarpone

2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

100ml semi-skimmed milk

1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

1 punnet of raspberries, or other seasonal fruit

1x 100g bar of good-quality dark chocolate, for shaving over

 

Method

1.  Squeeze the juice from  3 oranges into an appropriately sized serving dish. Stir in the limoncello and taste to check the balance of sweetness and booze, adjusting if necessary.

2. Cover the base of the dish with a layer of sponge fingers.

3. Put the mascarpone and icing sugar ino a separate bowl with the milk.

4. Finely grate over the zest of the lemon, then squeeze in the juice from one half. Add the vanilla paste or extract to the bowl and whisk well.

5. Spread the mixture all over the sponge fingers, then scatter over the raspberries and finely scrape over a little dark chocolate. Put into the fridge.

6. After dinner take the dessert out of the fridge. Serve over a little icing sugar, then serve. If you’re feeling a bit indulgent you can melt the rest of the chocolate in the microwave and drizzle it over the top.

 

Kinda Sausage Cassoulet November 21, 2010

Filed under: Favourites,Meat — delishuss @ 9:46 pm
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I tried this recipe this evening. It’s another one of Jamie Oliver’s 30 minutes meals. I thoroughly recommend this one. I’ll let you in on a little secret, I didn’t have any tinned tomatoes in stock so I had a jar of Gordon Ramsey’s pasta sauce in the press, so I used that.  Either way this recipe is awesome.

Serves 4-5

INGREDIENTS

CASSOULET
• 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 1/2 red onions
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1/2 a small bunch of fresh sage
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 2 leeks
• 400g good-quality chipolata sausages
• 3–4 thick slices of bread
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 x 680g jar of passata
• 1 x 390g carton of butter beans
• 1 x 390g carton of haricot beans

BROCCOLI
• 400g tenderstem broccoli
• 1/4 of a small red onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 ripe plum tomatoes
• 1 lemon

METHOD

CASSOULET

  • Slice 4 rashers of bacon about 1cm thick and add to a sturdy roasting tray with a few lugs of olive oil. Put over a high heat.
  • Halve, peel and slice 1½ red onions.
  • Pick the rosemary and most of the sage leaves and sprinkle into the tray with the bay leaves, keeping a few sage sprigs back for later.
  • Trim the leeks and peel back the outer leaves. Cut down the length of the leeks, then wash away any grit and finely slice. Add the leeks and onions to the tray with a few splashes of boiled water, stir, then leave to soften.
  • Lay the sausages in another roasting tray, drizzle and rub a little olive oil over them, then put under the grill to cook for 8 minutes. Stir your vegetables.

BROCCOLI Put a small saucepan on a high heat. Trim and discard the ends of the broccoli.

CASSOULET

  • Tear the slices of bread into large chunks and put into a food processor with a pinch of salt & pepper, ½ of the reserved sprigs of sage, 2 cloves of garlic and a good drizzle of olive oil. Pulse until you have fairly even, coarse breadcrumbs.

Stir the passata and the beans and their juices into the tray of vegetables.

BROCCOLI

  • Peel and coarsely grate ¼ of a red onion into a mixing bowl.
  • Crush over 1 clove of garlic.
  • Halve the 2 plum tomatoes, discard the seeds, then carefully grate them, flesh side down, through the coarse grater. Discard the skins left behind.
  • Add a couple of lugs of extra virgin olive oil, season carefully then squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon and mix.

CASSOULET

  • Take the sausages out of the oven.
  • Sprinkle half the breadcrumbs from the food processor over the veg and beans.
  • Lay the sausages dark side down and sprinkle over the rest of the breadcrumbs.
  • Pick the rest of the sage leaves, drizzle with olive oil and scatter on top.
  • Put the roasting tray into the oven on the middle shelf for around 4 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden.

BROCCOLI

  • Put the broccoli, stalks down, into a pan of boiling water and put the lid on.
  • Cook for a couple of minutes, or until tender.

TO SERVE

  • The broccoli should be tender by now, so drain it, then scatter on a platter and spoon over the dressing.
  • Toss quickly, and take straight to the table.
  • Remove the cassoulet from the oven and take to the table with a nice bottle of red wine.

Notes: I couldn’t get chipolate sausages, so I got some cumberland sausages instead and cooked them in the pan for longer. I also couldn’t find haricot beans so I popped in some cannellini beans.

I’m not a big fan of broccoli, so I used green beans instead.

 

Rogan Josh November 2, 2010

Filed under: Curries,Vegetarian — delishuss @ 9:55 pm
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This is another Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals. It’s pretty good but I think I would add lamb nex time.

CURRY
2 onions
1 medium butternut squash
1 small cauliflower
optional: 1 fresh red chilli
4 cloves of garlic
a bunch of fresh coriander
½ a 283g jar of Patak’s rogan joshpaste
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
100g prewashed baby spinach
1 x 500g tub of natural yoghurt

Method

  1. Peel and slice the onions and add to the large pan with a splash of water and a few good lugs of olive oil.
  2. Carefully cut the butternut squash in half across the middle (for speed I’m only using the seedless neck), wrap up the base and put in the fridge for another day. Quarter the neck lengthways, then slice it into 1cm chunks – no need to peel them .Add to the pan.Trim the cauliflower and remove the outer leaves. Cut it into bite-sized chunks, and throw them into the pan.
  3. If you want some extra heat, slice up the chilli and add it now. Crush in the unpeeled garlic.
  4. Finely chop the coriander (stalks and all). Reserve a few leaves for garnish and add the rest to the pan with a couple of generous splashes of boiled water.
  5. Add the rogan josh paste and the tin of chickpeas, with their juices. Season and stir well, then put a lid on. Cook hard and fast, stirring occasionally.
  6. Check and add a splash of water if it looks a bitdry. Stir, then replace the lid.
    Take the lid off. Do you need to adjust the consistency at this point? If so, you can add a generous splash of boiled water, depending on whether you want it drier or wetter. Or mash up some of the veg for different textures.
  7. Taste and add a pinch of salt, if needed, then add the spinach and stir through.
  8. Transfer the rice and curry into large serving bowls. Spoon the remaining yoghurt over the curry, sprinkle with the rest of the coriander leaves and take both bowls to the table.
 

Jool’s Pasta October 28, 2010

Filed under: Favourites,Meat,Pasta — delishuss @ 9:08 pm
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A lot of people wouldn’t be Jamie Oliver fans but I have to go against the grain on this one. I think he and his recipes are great. The ingredients are very easy to get and he does simple, tasty food. Here’s another one from the 30 minute meals series. The dish was lovely, I’m not very fond of fennel seeds so I think I would leave them out next time. They have an aniseed flavour, which is an acquired taste.

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the pasta

  • 4 spring onions
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 stick of celery
  • 1-2 fresh red chillies
  • 1 x 6-pack of good-quality sausages (approx. 400g)
  • 1 heaped tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 500g dried penne
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • A few sprigs of Greek basil, or regular basil

Method

To start: Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Put a large frying pan on a high heat. Put the standard blade attachment into the food processor.

Pasta: Trim the spring onions, carrot and celery. Roughly chop all the vegetables, then blitz in the food processor with the chillies (stalks removed). Add the sausages, 1 heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon of oregano. Keep pulsing until well mixed, then spoon this mixture into the hot frying pan with a lug of olive oil, breaking it up and stirring as you go. Keep checking on it and stirring while you get on with other jobs. Put a large deep saucepan on a low heat and fill with boiled water. Fill and reboil the kettle.

Pasta: Top up the saucepan with more boiled water if needed. Season well then add the penne and cook according to packet instructions, with the lid askew.

Pasta: Crush 4 unpeeled cloves of garlic into the sausage mixture and stir in 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and the tinned tomatoes. Add a little of the starchy cooking water from the pasta to loosen if needed.

Pasta: Drain the pasta, reserving about a wineglass worth of the cooking water. Tip the pasta into the pan of sauce and give it a gentle stir, adding enough of the cooking water to bring it to a silky consistency. Taste, correct the seasoning, then tip into a large serving bowl and take straight to the table with the rest of the Parmesan for grating over. Scatter over a few basil leaves.

Note: you can swap the celery for courgette also if you prefer.

 

Beef with Yorkies and roast potatoes meal October 27, 2010

Filed under: Favourites,Meat — delishuss @ 8:40 pm
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This is one of Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals. We were watching it on bank holiday Monday last and salivating. So I nipped out and picked up the ingredients. It was really awesome. Definately worth a try, don’t be put off by the number of steps involved.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the potatoes

  • 500g red-skinned potatoes
  • 1 lemon
  • 4 sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary
  • 1 bulb of garlic

For the Yorkies

  • Just under 1 mug of plain flour
  • 1 mug of milk
  • 1 egg

For the carrots

  • 500g small carrots
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 heaped tbsp caster sugar
  • Knob of butter

For the gravy

  • ½ a red onion
  • 12 baby button mushrooms
  • 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
  • 1 small wineglass of red wine
  • 300ml organic chicken stock

For the beef

  • 8 sprigs each of fresh rosemary, sage and thyme
  • 700g fillet of beef

For the seasonings

  • Olive oil
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt and black pepper

For the watercress salad

  • ½ a red onion
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
  • 1 x 100g bag of prewashed watercress

To serve

  • Creamed horseradish sauce
  • English mustard
  • A bottle of red wine

To start: Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Turn the oven on to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7, and place a 12 hole shallow bun tin on the top shelf. Put 1 large saucepan and 2 large frying pans on a medium heat. Put the fine slicer disc attachment into the food processor.

Potatoes: Wash the potatoes, leaving the skins on. Chop into 2cm chunks and throw into one of the large frying pans. Cover with boiling water, season with salt and cover with a lid. Turn the heat right up, and boil for 8minutes, or until just cooked. Fill and reboil the kettle.

Beef: Quickly pick and finely chop the rosemary, sage and thyme leaves. Turn the heat under the empty frying pan up to full whack. Mix the herbs together and spread them around the chopping board with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cut the fillet in half lengthways, then roll each piece back and forth so they are completely coated in herbs. Add the meat to the hot empty frying pan with a few good lugs of olive oil. You must turn it every minute while you get on with other jobs. Don’t forget to seal the ends.

Carrots: Tip the carrots into the saucepan and just cover with boiling water. Add 2 sprigs of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, a good pinch of salt, a splash of olive oil and 1 heaped tablespoon of sugar. Cook with a lid on until tender.

Yorkies: Put the flour, milk and egg into the liquidizer with a pinch of salt. Blitz, then quickly and confidently remove the bun tin from the oven and close the door. In one quick movement, back and forth, drizzle a little olive oil in each compartment, then do the same with the batter until each one is half full (any remaining batter can be used for pancakes another day). Place in the top of the oven, close the door and do not open for 14 minutes, until golden and risen.

Potatoes: Check that the potatoes are cooked through, then drain and return to the same frying pan. Leave on a high heat and drizzle over some olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, speed-peel in strips of lemon zest and add 4 sprigs of thyme or rosemary. Halve the bulb of garlic widthways, squash each half with the back of a knife and add to the pan. Toss everything together, then roughly squash down with a masher. Toss every 3 minutes or so, until golden and crisp.

Gravy: Reduce the heat under the beef a little. Peel the red onion half. Finely slice in the food processor. Add half the onion to the beef pan with a splash of olive oil, the other half to a salad bowl. Rinse the mushrooms in a colander and slice in the processor, then add to the beef pan. Stir everything around and remember to keep turning the beef regularly for 5 minutes.

Gravy: Remove the beef to a plate. Drizzle with a little olive oil, then cover with foil. Stir 1 heaped tablespoon of flour into the pan. Add a small glass of red wine and turn the heat up. Boil down to nearly nothing, then stir in 300ml of chicken stock and simmer until thick and shiny.

To serve: Drain the carrots, return to the pan, toss with butter and take to the table. Turn the potatoes out on to a platter. Smear 2 spoonfuls of horseradish sauce and 1 teaspoon of English mustard on to another platter. Quickly slice the beef 1cm thick, using long carving motions. Sprinkle over a pinch of salt & pepper from a height, then pile the beef on top of the horseradish sauce and mustard. Add any resting juices to the gravy and serve in a jug. Toss and dress the salad quickly, then get the Yorkies out of the oven, and take them to the table and tuck in with a glass of wine.