Posts tagged red wine

Easter Lamb Shanks in Isolation

April 12, 2020 Comments Off read Meat, Uncategorized

appy healthy Easter where ever you are…likely and I hope at home.

I’ll breeze over the obvious and get straight to the recipe. Lamb at Easter is an absolute essential for me growing up. So two lamb shanks hidden in our freezer were a winner. I bought them back from a visit home to Wiltshire a few months ago so with some classic vegetables and a special bottle of wine from the archives, we indulgenced elegantly for Easter this year and talked relentlessly about how lucky we are.

The sun was just a bonus on a glorious Easter in our cosy Brixton flat. The balcony was showing at its best and the perfect setting for our late Easter lunch. This lunch feast is a simple one to put together with minimal ingredients.

Serves 2

Lamb

2 x lamb shanks
1 red onions, sliced
2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly sliced
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 lamb/beef stock cube
250-350ml red wine
Dill & mint to serve (optional)
Mint sauce to serve (optional)

Potatoes

New potatoes – enough for 2 appetites

Vegetables

A mixture of greenery. I used 1 leek, asparagus and a handful peas for 2 people.

Start with the lamb. Preheat the oven to 160.
Heat a little oil in a heavy based casserole pan (like a Le Creuset). Season the lamb shanks and then sear in the pan until browning on the outside – just a few minutes, don’t spend too much time here. Remove and set aside.
Add the onions to the pan and gently brown for about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic, carrot and rosemary and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the lamb back to the pan and increase the heat.
Add the wine and simmer for a few minutes.
Crumble over the stock cube and then top up with boiling water until the liquid just reaches about 3/4 way up the shanks. Not fully submerged.
Cook with the lid on for 1 hour then remove the lid and continue to cook for another 1 hour 30 minutes.
About 30 minutes before the lamb is done turn the oven tup to 190. Cut the potatoes into halves and spread on a baking tray. Season and drizzle with some sunflower oil. Roast in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until golden and crispy keeping an eye on them.
Once done, turn the oven off and let everything sit and wait while you finish the veggie. Boil the vegetables for only 2-3 minutes, drain and then season well and add a knob of butter.
To serve, sprinkle some chopped dill and mint over the lamb and the potatoes.
Enjoy!

Fillet Steak, Red Bordeaux and a 60th Birthday

May 27, 2015 Comments Off read Meat

What a truly fantastic and relaxing week. May is my favourite month. Not only is it is filled with selfish Birthday treats but my favourite ingredients are coming into season! The days are light and longer, a natural prescription for the post February Vitamin D deficiencies we all seem to develop if my fellow London commuters are anything to go by! So, a May holiday break back to my favourite place in the world down at Lands End. I’ve been visiting this little village haven since I was seven where I ironically celebrated my own birthday. I will never forget the patio bbq and days spent thrashing around in the surf. Was it warmer in May 16 years ago or was I just better at embracing the cold!? However I am not the 60 year old this year that this post proudly boasts. This year, it only seemed natural that we’d return here to my pa’s mutual favourite home-away-from-home to celebrate his 60th Birthday. Smooth beer, fresh fish and chips, sea air by the lungful, feisty surf and the stickiest chocolate cake….what could we all want more!? Well….fillet steak and a flashy red bordeaux would go down nicely…?

RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT: Mellow music, sunsets dog walks on the beach, lighthearted chatter, slurping, chewing, all topped off with a competitive and crude (at times) game of scrabble. Followed by coffee and chocolate cake! Seemed to work for us anyway!?

Serves 4

Green vegetables and some hearty homemade potato wedges are a great accompaniment here! The sweet, slow cooked juicy onions act as a delicious sauce that doesn’t detract from the flavour of the steak. Fillet steak, with very little flavoursome fat, is not the most notorious for being full of flavour hence why classic blue cheese or peppercorn sauce are often used. But I wanted a sauce here that wasn’t too powerful!

4 fillet steaks
2 large white onions
2 red onions
Thyme leaves
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
Salt and Pepper
Vegetables to serve
Hand cut potato wedges to serve

If you can, remove the steaks from their packaging/wrapping in the morning and place on a wire rack or plate to ‘dry’ a little in the fridge.
Start with the onions. Heat a frying pan to medium low heat. Slice the onions in half and then slice into think half moons. Heat 1-2 tbsp of light oil in the fry pan and very gently soften the onions for about 15 minutes. Keep the heat low and make sure they don’t begin to catch. You want to end up with lovely soft, sweet onions that are just begging to brown.
Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Add the chopped garlic and the thyme leaves and cook for a further 5 minutes or so. Once ready, cover and set aside but keep warm.
Remove the steak from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking. Season all over well with salt and pepper and drizzle over a little oil. If you like, slice a garlic clove in halve horizontally and use it to rub over the steak flesh. It just adds a subtle flavour. When ready to cook, heat a frying pan to a high heat. Fry the steaks on the below timings to your liking. As the last few seconds come around, spoon over about a 1tsp of butter per steak and baste.
Its really important to rest the steak after! I cannot stress this enough especially with fillet steak! Don’t be tempted to just slap on the plate and eat. The meat needs to rest so the juices that are forced to the centre during cooking can settle out and diffuse out within the meat. This is where the flavour is! It also provides you with those all important juices for adding to your onions.
Once cooked to your liking, place the steaks on a large piece of foil and wrap up tightly to rest and collect the juices. Rest for at least 10 minutes.
Reheat the onions if needed and cook any vegetables you wish to serve with this
After 10 minutes, open the foil and steaks. Pour and resting juices into the warm onions. Serve the steaks topped with a generous spoonful of juicy sweet onions to act as a sauce!

Cooking times:

I’m a medium rare steak lover so I always go for this timing so I’ll admit I’ve never tested the others accurately! But I presume they do the trick! All based on a 2cm thick steak. As a rough guide, add 1 minute for another cm.

Blue: 1 minute each side
Rare: 1½ minutes each side
Medium rare: 2 minutes each side
Medium: 2¼ minutes each side
Medium-well done: 2½ – 3 minutes each side.

Steak Choice:

Everyone seems to have their favourite steak cut and there are many that are simply not popularly seen especially in supermarkets. Each cut has a purpose and is great for different occasions, recipes or side dishes and sauces. Below is a very brief guide to help with some of the more well known and eaten cuts. First, a few things to note when choosing.

FAT: The fat content is important for two reasons. It is where the flavour is! When it cooks, the fat melts into the meat. This not only adds flavour but helps keep the steak succulent!

LOCATION: The more tender the steak, the less work the muscle has done. Therefore, a relatively unused muscles such as the loin will be more tender, and therefore usually more expensive

Sirloin: melt-in-the-mouth and succulent with some fat marbling. Lots of flavour but lacks flavour compared to a rib eye for example.

Rump (and my favourite cut): A large steak with huge flavour. It needs a long time to hang and a good cooking time as it can be tough if rare.

Fillet/Loin: Buttery tender and soft. Little or no fat so therefore very little flavour. It also cannot be hung and aged for long. My advice on a day to day basis is to opt for any other steak for economical and flavour reasons as you’ll be much more satisfied!

Rib eye: Lots of fat marbling provides a rich flavour.

Minute steak: Thin, cheap, can be cooked quickly. It can be tough however but if often seen for use in sandwiches!

T bone: The cut is part sirloin, part fillet so the cooking time is hard to judge…and then there is the cumbersome bone…

Roasted Duck, Carrot and Orange Puree, Red Wine Sauce

December 17, 2013 Comments Off read Poultry

This week I christened the kitchen of my new London flat. I bagged myself a feathery topped bunch of bargain carrots from Portobello Road market in my fleeting lunch break; a seasonal orange for companionship and festivity; a couple of fatty winter warming duck legs and some obliging red wine (of which I am not short of these days…). Flat hunting had evoked far too many saddened hours separated from my apron and camera so a free evening midweek was the perfect time to be reunited. Whilst it tasted delicious, I’m still to work on the lighting in my new environment….

Serves 2

2 duck legs
Bunch carrots (About 4 large carrots), peeled and chopped
25g butter
1 orange
250ml red wine
250ml beef stock
½ onion, diced finely
1 small carrot, diced finely
2 garlic cloves
Bunch of thyme
1 knob butter
1tbsp flour
Handful of greens to serve

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Season the duck legs generously on the skin side and roast for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until crisp and tender. Turn the heat down to 190°C after about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, fry the diced onion and carrot in a little oil until soft. Add one of the garlic cloves finely chopped and the thyme leaves and fry for a further few minutes.
Turn up the heat and add the red wine and simmer for a few minutes. Add the stock and simmer briskly for about 20 minutes until the sauce has reduced by half.
Once reduced by half, sieve and discard the vegetables and return to sauce to the clean pan. Season to taste and simmer very gently while you do the puree.
Heat half the butter in another saucepan and add the chopped carrots. Add a whole clove of garlic (in skin) and 2 big strips of orange peel. Add enough water to just cover the carrots and simmer for about 10-15 minutes until really soft and almost all the liquid has been reduced.
Puree the drained carrots in a food processor with the remaining knob of butter and some seasoning. Add a splash of the reserved liquid if you like to thin it out and then keep warm.
Return to the red wine sauce. Mix together the knob of butter and the flour to form a paste in a small bowl. Whisk this, bit by bit (as you may not need all of it) into your simmering sauce which will thicken and turn glossy. Simmer until thick enough and ready to serve,
Serve the puree topped with the roasted duck legs and a liberal drizzle of your red wine sauce. Serve with some cooked greens.

Slow Roasted Shredded Pork Cassoulet

March 7, 2013 Comments Off read Meat

So last year I entered a competition. I’m not going to lie, I did it because the prize money was £20,000 and all that was required was a classic British recipe. I thought, well hey, I can cook, I’m British, why not…..So that summer I was chosen to take part and went for some filming. Loyd Grosman was my judge. He tasted and commented on my dish while I sat apprehensively perched on the edge of my stool gazing intensely into his face like an interrogator. However, he handed me a shiny red rosette and I went on my way through….However, I’m afraid it stopped there. But BOY is it YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This recipe also appears in a cook book to accompany the TV series but for all you folk who don’t want to buy it- tut tut….here it is. Unfortunately they didn’t show my interview on the episode. I think I was too normal for Wednesday night entertainment…….

Serves 6

1kg pork shoulder, skin removed and reserved for cracking
1 red onion, chopped
200g smoked bacon lardons/pancetta
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 bay leaf
175ml red wine
Handful dried wild mushrooms, soaked in 200ml boiling water (reserved)
A few large rosemary sprigs, leaves chopped finely
7-8 large sage leaves, chopped finely
Handful of thyme, chopped finely
400g tinned tomatoes
400g haricot beans (2 tins)
Extra chooped herbs to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180°C
Heat a splash of oil in a heavy based casserole dish and brown the pork all over. Transfer to a plate and set aside
Add the onion and bacon and fry for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft and the bacon is crispy. Add the garlic and bay leaf and cook for a few minutes.
Increase the heat and pour in the red wine to de-glaze the pan and simmer for a few minutes
Drain the soaked mushrooms, reserving the liquid, and chop them roughly. Add to the casserole dish with a generous handful of the chopped herbs and cook for a few minutes.
Add the tomatoes and season.
Add the pork and top up the liquid using the reserved mushroom stock until it comes about ¾ the way up the sides.
Bring to the boil then place in the oven with a lid for 2 ½ hours
After this time, remove from the oven and add the drained beans. (If there is only a small amount of liquid in the tins, add this too as it will help thicken). Return to the oven without the lid and cook for about 30 minutes more to brown the meat and thicken the sauce.
Remove from the oven when ready and use forks to shred the pork among the cassoulet. If it needs thickening, reduce on the hob or add more mushroom stock if too thick.
Garnish with lots of freshly chopped sage and rosemary and a heart attack inducing shard of cracking!

All that’s left to do is sit down and enjoy with a leggy red wine and (hopefully) wonder why it wasn’t worthy of £20,000!

WINE: For a delicious and affordable treat, try a classic red Bordeaux. And what would be better than a glass of Château Grand Village, 2011 Bordeaux Supérieur. Being the second vineyard of the infamous Chateau Lafleur it a more economically friendly and delightful alternative if you haven’t got the budget for the real deal. Available at Armit Wines.

Best recipe in the book….certainly beats whats on page 157………..(bet you want to know what that is now….)

Red Wine Poached Fillet steak on Horseradish Risotto

November 20, 2012 Comments Off read Meat

The first years harvest of our own homegrown (miniature I add) horseradish roots was the most judicious and pleasing reason to bring out the humble roast a few weekends ago. Star of the show, grated generously like hot, fierce confetti for a meaty beef groom and a fluffy, brunette, Yorkshire bride!

However, I love the smack this root gives and thought it would go dreamily in one of my favourite dishes- risotto. So this Sunday, instead of a roast, I opted for a rather extravagant (but all the same, delicious) wine poached steak to top my horseradish risotto. Drizzled greedily with a thick deep red wine reduction and some seasonal kale, I am set for the week!

200ml red wine
2 thyme sprigs
1 sprig rosemary
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
200ml beef stock
tbsp butter
tbsp flour
100g fillet/sirloin steak per person

Begin by adding together the wine, stock, herbs and garlic and one a medium heat, simmer until reduced by about half the amount.
It is important to ensure that the heat is too high so that the liquid is not boiling but gently simmering so your don’t boil your steak but poach it. Add your steak making sure that it is covered in the liquid but not drowning.
Poach gently for about 7 minutes for medium depending on the thickness of you steak. Mine was about 2cm thick.
Remove from the heat and allow to rest, covered, while you do the sauce.
Turn up the heat again and simmer to reduce by about half again.
Mix 1 tbsp of butter with 1 tbsp of flour in a bowl until you have a paste. This is called a beurre manie and is a method I regularly use to thicken sauces without the flour going lumpy and as a way to get yet more butter into a recipe!
When you have a soft paste, whisk this into the sauce and allow it to thicken. The addition of the butter will also add a nice creamy shine to your sauce. Once it is to the right texture, taste, season and sieve.
This can be served on anything from butternut squash, potato, celeriac or parsnip puree but I served mine on a horseradish risotto. I simply made a plain risotto recipe (minus the parmesan) with the addition of some rosemary and thyme and added 3 good tablespoons of fierce horseradish sauce (per 200g rice).
Top the risotto with your poached steak and drizzle with a splash of red wine sauce and some nutmeg seasoned kale.