Posts tagged parsnip

Braised Pork Cheeks with Parsnip Puree

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Braised Pork Cheeks with Parsnip Puree

P

ork cheeks are such a delight to braise slowly in wine. After 3 hours quietly stewing they are pleasingly tender with a melt in the mouth texture. Beautiful served atop something creamy and comforting like some garlicy mash potato but I love the sweetness of the parsnips here and their velvety texture.

You can get pork cheeks at any good butcher and they are cheap as chips but are such a show stopper! If you can only get hold of ox cheeks, you can use the same recipe just upping the cooking time to 5-6 hours and adding more stock/wine – they are about 10 times the size after all. Two ox cheeks will easily feed 4 unlike pork cheeks where I usually allow 2-3 per person.

Serves 4

  • 12 pork cheeks
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 1 carrot
  • 6 banana shallots, finely chop 2, cut the others into halves.
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 2 large garlic cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked
  • 400ml red wine (roughly – I didn’t measure)
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped to serve

Parsnip Puree

  • 500g parsnips
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 200ml milk
  1. Heat the oven to 160 degrees and get a large casserole dish on the hob over a medium heat and add a splash of olive oil and heat.
  2. Coat the pork cheeks in the flour and some salt and pepper and dust off the excess. Add them to the pan and brown quickly on all sides for just a few minutes and then set aside on a plate.
  3. In the same pan, add the finely chopped carrot, celery and shallot and sweat for about 5-8 minutes on a light heat until starting to soften and caramelise.
  4. Add the halved shallots, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary and some good seasoning and stir for a few minutes.
  5. Return the cheeks to the pan and mix.
  6. Add enough red wine to just come up the sides of the dish. Crumble in a stock cube and top up with enough boiling water to submerge the cheeks but not so they are drowning.
  7. Pop in the oven for about 3 hours. Check the liquid level now and again, it should be reducing so after the 3 hours, you have a nice reduced thick sauce but the meat is by no meats drying out. Top up with more liquid if needed OR remove the lid if its too thin so it can reduce a bit.
  8. After about 3 hours, the cheeks should be beautifully tender, the sauce reduced and the top of the cheeks browning. You can pop the dish back on the hob to reduce some more if needed.

Parnisps

  1. Peel and chop the parsnips into chunks and add them to a saucepan with the milk and then top up with water to cover. Add the bay leaf and some cracked black pepper.
  2. Bring to a simmer and simmer gently for about 15 minutes until they are just tender – don’t over cook of they will be water logged, undercooked and you’ll get a lumpy puree!
  3. Drain the parsnips making sure you reserve the hot milk. Remove the bay leaf.
  4. Blend the parsnips in a blender with some salt and pepper and some of the reserved cooking milk but don’t add all at once. Add more of the milk as you blend to get the desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning.

To serve, spoon a lovely pool of parsnips puree onto a warm plate. Top with a few pork cheeks and some of that lovely thick sauce and a scattering of chopped parsley! Serve with some braised leeks and peas or greens of choice!

Pheasant, braised lentils, parsnip puree

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Pheasant, braised lentils, parsnip puree

T

his recipe opitimises Autumn and seasonal eating. I’m in dangerous territory of sounding like we make a regular event of it, but my more manly other half spent last weekend trekking the Wiltshire countryside surrounded by more tweed than the Queen’s wardrobe and enough flatcaps to make Prince Philip smile. Long story short, if you can’t invisage this little gathering, he went on a shoot day and…you guessed it… brought home some pheasants!

This time of year is a great time to start indulging in warming comfort food and eating what the seasons dictate. I heard pheasant, my stomach thought, bacon, parsnips, chestnuts and all things festive.

S

o out came the trusty Le Creuset for what might be, its last outing in this Putney kitchen. As you’ve probably not noticed, I’ve not been as active as I have been this past year. Having spent the past year arranging our membership into the first time buyers club, we are finally nearly there. Touching distance. Packing distance. But just enough time for one more roast before my faithful kitchen that has served me so well these past years in London, gets packed away and upgraded to a new humble abode. 

WINE: We were feeling a little like we’d overindulged in the alcohol that night, but this would have been lovely with a Pinot Noir.

Serves 2

  • 1 whole pheasant, gutted and plucked
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 4 rashes or smoked, streak bacon OR 1 small pun net lardons
  • 1 bunch thyme, leaves picked
  • Handful of dried mixed mushrooms
  • 1 glass dry white wine
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 4oz Puy lentils
  • 2 parsnips
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 200ml milk
  • Beurre manie – 1 knob of butter, mashed into a paste with 1 tsp flour. Use at the end for thickening the sauce without creating lumps. The butter will also add a gloss.
  • Steamed greens – kale, savoy cabbage etc (opional)
  1. Start by preheating the oven to 200. In a large heavy based casserole dish, heat a knob of butter and some oil. Season the pheasant and then brown the whole bird on all sides until its looking golden and the skin is crisping. Remove to a plate and set aside.
  2. Turn to heat down to a medium level and add the chopped onion and fry quickly until beginning to soften.
  3. Add the bacon/lardons and cook for a few minutes.
  4. Finally, add the garlic and thyme and cook gently for just a few more minutes.
  5. Turn up the heat, add the wine to deglaze the pan. Gentle simmer to reduce the alcohol.
  6. Add the pheasant back to the pan, chuck in the dried mushrooms and then add a good 200ml or so of the hot chicken stock.
  7. Place in the oven for 50minutes or so until cooked through. Baste a few times during cooking. 
  8. When the bird has been in for about 30 minutes, start on the lentils. Simmer in the remaining chicken stock for about 18 minutes until just tender but with a definite crunch.
  9. Once the pheasant has cooked, remove onto a plate to rest. Pop the casserole dish back onto the hob and simmer the juices and roasted ingredients. Add the lentil (liquid and all) and simmer to combine. Simmer until reduced. Then add the beurre manie and cook out until beginning to thicken and turn glossy.
  10. Serve with steamed greens like kale or savoy cabbage

Parsnip Puree

  1. Peel and roughly chop the parsnips.
  2. Add to a saucepan with about 200ml milk and then top up with water until covered.
  3. Add a few whole peppercorns from your grinder if you can OR a good pinch of cracked black pepper.
  4. Add the bay leaf
  5. Simmer (watching as the milk has a tendency to over boil) for about 10 minutes or until they are very tender but not waterlogged. 
  6. Once the pheasant is at its resting stage, you’re ready to make the puree.
  7. Remove the parsnips from the liquid which you need to reserve.
  8. Add to a processor with seasoning, a good splash of reserved milk and a knob of butter. Blend to get the desired consistency adding more milk if needed (You can also use a masher).