Meat – Page 10 – Scandelights

Delia’s Shepherd’s pie with endive, walnut and stilton salad

Published on December 30, 2010 by HannaLeave a comment

When I invited my Swedish friends over for lunch I wanted to have an English theme, because it worked so well the year before when I had afternoon tea.

When the guests arrived I introduced them to mulled cider, dry English cider served warm with spices. Whole cloves, whole cinnamon, star anise, vanilla pod (or vanilla sugar) and a pinch of sugar makes the cider taste fantastic. I saw this on Jamie Oliver’s Christmas program last year and love it. We had some ginger biscuits and cheese twists with it.

For the actual lunch I chose to serve Shepherd’s pie which I hadn’t cooked before. I didn’t want to fail and trusted Delia, and her recipe was amazing. You find her recipe for four people here. As usual I guessed and didn’t follow the recipe completely. 🙂 I used 2 kg lamb mince which was enough for 13 people who nearly all had a second helping. I made a fresh simple salad to go with it with endives, stilton and walnuts. Really nice.

Delia’s Shepherd’s pie, serves 14-16

2 kg lamb mince

olive oil

3 onions, chopped

5 carrots, chopped

1/3 swede, diced

ground cinnamon

fresh thyme

parsley

plain flour

1 l beef stock

4 tbsp tomato paste

3,5 kg potatoes

a lot of butter

salt

pepper

grated cheese

1 large leek, sliced

Fry the onions until soft on medium heat, approx 5 mins. Then add the vegetables (not the leek) and fry for another 5 mins. Remove from pan. Fry the mince in the same frying pans (you need 2-3) in some more oil until it is brown. Add salt and pepper. Spread the cooked vegetables between the pans and add some flour, cinnamon, thyme, parsley and tomato paste. Add the stock and cover with lid for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Season to taste.

Peel the potatoes and cut into small pieces. Cook until really soft, about 25 mins. Drain and wait a few minutes before you mash them. Add salt, pepper and lots of butter (no milk this time) and mash them with an electric whisk.

Divide the mince between 2 large dishes and flatten. Spread the mash on top. Scatter the leeks and grated cheese on top. Bake for about 25 mins in 200C until they’re nice and golden on top.

Endive salad with stilton and walnuts, serves 16

4 endives

a stilton wedge

2 large handfuls chopped walnuts

extra virgin olive oil

Wash the endives and remove the outer leaves. Cut off the base and scatter the leaves on a big platter. Crumble the cheese on top and scatter the walnut pieces. Drizzle olive oil on top.

Venison steak with juniper berries and red wine

Published on December 23, 2010 by HannaLeave a comment

I’m staying with my parents in the Swedish countryside. It is lovely with the picturesque snow covered view and my mother makes the house so Christmassy the days leading up to Christmas.

My parents have a freezer full of game most of the time as well, and I love this. On Saturday mum made venison steak with juniper berries and red wine and I showed her how to make English roast potatoes, which my dad loved. Great teamwork and lovely food, but you might have guessed that already? 🙂

Venison steak with juniper berries and red wine, serves 3

500 g thick slices of venison steak (we had fallow deer)

butter and olive oil

a few juniper berries

a lage splash of red wine

Sear the meat in a frying pan with the oil and butter. Season with salt and pepper and the juniper berries. Pour in the wine and put the lid on. 5 minutes later remove the meat and let it rest. Slice it before serving and it will be nice and pink.

Sauce

butter

sauce flour

the meat juices

salt & pepper

concentrated game stock

cream

Make a roux with butter and flour. Add cream and the meat juices. Bring to a boil and add stock, salt and pepper.

Christmas dinner with friends, anchovies bake and brussel sprouts with bacon

Published on December 15, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

On Saturday we had a little Christmas dinner among friends. It was David, Gaby, Ian, Anna and me and Christopher and we all contributed to the dinner by bringing different dishes, and the result was a great smorgasbord of Christmas food with an international touch.

Anna (who has a Russian mother and a Finnish father) served homemade blinis with smoked salmon, chives and creme fraiche as a starter. Wonderful!

For the first time I tried making meatballs in the oven and then fry them afterwards, and they were perfect. 🙂

Instead of a main course we had a buffet with different dishes; David and Gaby’s amazing ham, Anna’s Salad Olivier (Russian salad with boiled eggs, potatoes, carrots, beetroots, frankfurters, gherkins, grated apple and mayonnaise), roast potatoes, meatballs, anchovies bake, brussel sprouts with bacon, carrots in orange butter, green beans and a shallots and red wine gravy. Really nice! 🙂

Ham with wholegrain mustard from Daylesford organic.

Gaby made a lovely crumble with apple and blackberries for dessert. After that we had some Christmas sweets, the almond biscuits with cream and jam, clementines, tea, coffee and quite a lot of port.

Apple and blackberry crumble with custard

I woke up poorly the next day though. 😦 I hate having the flu, but it is difficult to avoid it this time of year… I really hope I will be feeling better towards the end of the week, because I’m flying home to see my family and friends on Friday.

Anchovies bake, serves 6

10 large potatoes

1-2 onions

1/2 packet anchovies with brine

300 ml cream

butter

bread crumbs

salt

white pepper

Grate the potatoes and the onions. Butter a regular dish and fill it halfway up with potatoes and onions. Cut the anchovies fillets in small pieces and scatter them on top. Put the rest of the potatoes and onions on top. Pour over the cream and the brine from the anchovies. Place a few dollops of butter around the dish, and sprinkle over some salt and white pepper. Lastly cover the dish with breadcrumbs. Bake in 200C for 45 mins to 1 hr. The potatoes should be soft and the top crispy.

Brussel sprouts with bacon

500 g brussel sprouts

8 slices of bacon

butter

grated nutmeg

salt

white pepper

chopped parsley

Trim the brussel sprouts (a really boring job, but it has to be done. Take the outer leaves off if they look manky and cut off the white bits). Boil them in salted water for 10 minutes or so. They should be softer but still quite firm.

Cut the bacon in pieces and fry them crispy in butter. Add the drained brussel sprouts, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Add the parsley and serve straight away.

Short-cuts

Published on November 29, 2010 by Hanna5 Comments

I really like eating out at gourmet places where they have food I just can’t cook myself, and I dislike readymeals and want to cook everything from scratch as a principal. Sometimes though, I take shortcuts, and it is really nice to do so once in a while on a cold and dark November evening when you are just not in the mood to cook.

For this meal I used a readymade glaze (Newman’s own) and made some myself (reggae reggae sauce, worchestershire sauce, Heinz chilli sauce, English mustard, brown sugar, salt and black pepper) for the ribs. I used a Cajun spice blend for the potato wedges and I bought coleslaw and garlic bread readymade in M&S. And worst of all, I served a dipmix + creme fraiche with it. A Swedish dipmix called Holiday, that I really like with things like this, or crisps.

This is hardly called cooking, the oven does it for you, so this is what I did: Turn the oven on 200C. Put the rack of baby back ribs in a dish and brush the glaze on to it. Put it bone-side up and cook for 30 minutes. Wash potatoes but keep the skin on, cut into wedges and coat with olive oil and cajun spices, put underneath the meat in the oven. After 30 minutes, take out the ribs and turn the rack, brush on some more glaze. Put back in for 30 minutes. When 10 minutes is remaining, put the garlic bread in. Serve with coleslaw and dip/sauce. Done.

Rabbit stew with cider

Published on November 26, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

I know that eating rabbit might not be politically correct, but it is very tasty. More and more restaurants are serving rabbit and you can buy it from Ocado (like I did). The meat is very tender and juicy and looks and taste similar to darker chicken meat. The rabbit meat is just tastes a bit sweeter.

This was the first time I cooked rabbit, and after looking around on different recipes I realised that cider was a common accompaniement and went for that.

Rabbit stew with cider, serves 3

olive oil

300 g rabbit meat in chunks

4 slices streaky bacon, smoked, in small pieces

flour

1 large schallots or a small regular onion

1/2 fennel, in slices

2 carrots, sliced

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

1 dash concentrated game stock

500 ml dry cider

1 tsp honey

1 small garlic clove, pressed

1 tsp tomato paste

coloring agent (not necessary)

Fry the bacon in some olive oil and remove from frying pan. Fry the meat in the bacon fat until nice and brown, season with salt and pepper. Remove and put with the bacon in a casserole dish. Sprinkle on some flour and shake the dish to coat all the meat. Put the dish without lid in 175C for 5-10 minutes. Shake it and put it back in for another 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the fennel, onion and carrot in the same frying pan as before for a few minutes but don’t let them brown. Pour the vegetables into the casserole, add the cider, honey, stock and add the herbs too. Put the lid on and leave it in the oven for about an hour.

Strain the casserole after an hour and remove the herbs. Reduce the sauce to the thickness you want. I added tomato paste, garlic, salt and pepper and colouring agent. Serve with rice or roast potatoes.

Sunday roast: pork belly

Published on November 17, 2010 by Hanna3 Comments

We’ve really gotten into Sunday roasts the last couple of weeks without really thinking about it, but it is lovely this time of year with a proper hearty meal consisting of meat, sauce and potatoes, when the weather is cold and miserable outside.

I usually focus on the meat and the roast potatoes (which I now rock), but still have to work on all the trimmings and the Yorkshire puds, which I have never tried to make yet.

This Sunday we had a lovely pork belly roast. I made it once before, but it was a bit dry that time. Much better this time around! 🙂

More recipes for Sunday roasts: roast chicken with thyme, venison steak, poussins with rosemary and lemon.

Pork belly roast, serves 2

800 g pork belly

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Pour some olive oil into a roasting dish. Cut small incisions into the fat unless the butcher/supermarket has done that for you. Rub salt and black pepper into the meat, especially on the cuts in the fat, but all around. Place in the roasting dish. Put the dish into the oven on 220C for 20-30 minutes to crisp up the crackling. Then lower the temperature to 175C and cook for another hour. Let the meat rest 10 minutes before you serve it.

Roast potatoes, serves 2

5-6 Maris piper potatoes

2-3 tbsp goose fat

salt & white pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them i half or in three depending on the size. Put them in a pan and barely cover with cold water. Add some salt. Bring to a boil and let them cook for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, scoop out some goosefat onto a roasting tray, and put it in the oven to melt the fat. Drain the potatoes and place them on the hot tray. Make sure to push them aroud so that they are all coated with goose fat. Add salt and pepper. When the oven is turned down to 175C, place the potatoes higher up than the meat and cook for about an hour, until they are golden and crisp on the outside.

Serve with boiled carrot batons and a creamy gravy (make a roux of butter and flour, add milk and cream, meat juice or stock, some rowanberry jelly, colouring agent, salt and pepper).

Venison steak with perfect roast potatoes and port sauce

Published on November 10, 2010 by Hanna3 Comments

Christopher’s birthday last year was on a Saturday, and the poor thing had to work all day, until 8pm. I felt very sorry for him, so I tried to make the most of it when he came home. After a trip to Borough Market I cooked up a feast consisting of Jerusalem artichoke soup with fried scallops, cream-baked pheasant with Hasselback potatoes and a nice cake with sponge, lemoncurd and elderflower cream.

Of course I had to try and top that this year, and I actually managed to do it. I don’t know why, but I appear to be in good cooking form around his birthday. This year he had the whole weekend off, and with a lunch and party planned for his birthday (Sunday), I cooked us a nice dinner on Saturday instead. As a starter we had yesterday’s post on mushroom toast, and as a maincourse we had a looovely venison steak with thyme and bacon (I found the recipe in a Swedish newspaper), perfect roast potatoes with cepes goose fat (you make cepes confit and use the goose fat that is left over – yum!) and a port sauce. Very good, if I may say so myself! We were both quiet during the meal apart from a few sighs of happiness. Chris said that the roast potatoes were the best he ever had. I curtsey. 🙂

We used the leftovers in lunch sandwiches the next day. Best sandwiches ever!

Venison steak with perfect roast potatoes and port sauce, serves 4

800 g – 1 kg venison steak

whole peppercorns

fresh thyme

2 bayleaves

10 slices streaky bacon

some olive oil

Maris Piper potatoes

goose fat

salt

white pepper

a knob of butter

sauce flour

200 ml cream

200 ml milk

2 tbsp port

1-2 tsp rowanberry jelly (or other jelly)

coloring agent

a splash concentrated game stock

the meat juices

salt

white pepper

Smash the peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and mix with fresh thyme leaves. Pat this into the meat and add salt. Cover the top of the steak with bacon slices, tuck the ends un underneath the meat. Place two bayleaves underneath the bacon. Pour some olive oil into a roasting dish and place the meat on it. Put a steak thermometer into the thickest part of the steak. Put the tray in 150C for 1,5 hours. The inside temperature of the meat should be 70C when you remove the steak from the oven. Cover the meat with tin foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes before you slice it.

Meanwhile peel the potatoes and cut them in half if they’re large, boil them for a few minutes in salty water. Drain. Put quite a lot of goose fat onto another roasting treay, put it in the oven to melt. Add the potatoes and make sure they are coated with the fat. Sprinkle over some salt and pepper. Put the tray in the oven, below the venison. When the venison is cooked, move the potatoes up in the oven and raise the temperature to 200C and let them brown while the meat is resting.

Pour the meat juices through a sieve. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan on low heat, add flour, whisk around and add, cream and milk. Add some of the meat juice. Bring to a boil while whisking and add port, jelly, stock, salt, white pepper and colouring agent. Taste and maybe add some more meat juice.

Serve with vegetables, i.e. broccoli.

Pork fillet with dijon and cognac sauce

Published on October 14, 2010 by Hanna2 Comments

Last week before I went to Budapest we had Ian and Anna over for dinner. It is always lovely to see them, so I don’t want to spend all evening in the kitchen but actually spend time with them, and that worked well with the following menu:

Jerusalem artichoke soup with girolles, parsley, garlic and shallots

Pork fillet with dijon and cognac sauce, steamed broccoli and crispy parmesan potatoes

Nigella’ glitzy chocolate puddings

I love the Jerusalem artichoke soup, this time I fried the artichokes quickly in some oil in the saucepan before boiling them, to induce their flavour. Fry the girolles in butter and add garlic and chopped parsley. Pour the soup into bowls and put the girolles and chopped shallots in the middle. Sprinkle over some olive oil in a circle.

For the maincourse I made pork fillet with a lovely sauce and crispy parmesan potatoes. I forgot to take a picture of the lovely potatoes, but promise to make them again soon and post it here. 🙂

Pork fillet with dijon and cognac sauce, serves 4

2 pork fillets (about 400 g each)

a knob of butter and olive oil for frying

700 ml single cream

3 tbsp soy sauce

2-3 tbsp tomato paste

3-4 tsp dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, pressed

3 tbsp chilli sauce

a splash (or two) of cognac

concentrated beef stock

salt

white pepper

a bunch of chives, chopped

Trim the tendons and fat off the fillets and fry them whole in butter and oil on high heat until they are nice and brown all around. Place them in an oven dish and cook for about 20 minutes in 200 C. Make sure they are cooked all the way through and take them out of the oven to rest for a few minutes. Slice the fillets into 1cm thick slices and place them in a clean ovenproof dish. Next mix all the ingredients for the sauce apart from the chives, bring to a boil and let it thicken for a few minutes. Season after taste and add the chives. Pour the sauce over the fillets and put the dish in the oven to heat up for a few minutes. Serve with the amazing potatoes (recipe to come) and steamed broccoli. Nice and simple!

Nigella’s puddings I will post tomorrow, as they deserve their own place in the spot light! Stay tuned.

Chorizo and butter bean stew

Published on October 5, 2010 by Hanna2 Comments

Christopher is of the opinion that I cook too much with butter and/or cream and sometimes I listen to what he has to say. 😉 Without any dairy products I tested (and altered) this recipe by Jamie Oliver. I’m very proud.

Our nearest supermarket is a real messy one. The other day I was looking for glue for 15 minutes before I gave up, and before that I was searching for lightbulbs for 10 minutes because it wasn’t signposted or logical at all in there. On top of that, the fish counter is terrible, they only have salmon, and all over the shop they sell out or don’t stock it properly. It’s not for me. And since it’s not a Waitrose either (I heart Waitrose) I’m incredibly happy with my Ocado deliveries. It is great to avoid the stress of shopping while hungry on your way home from work, and lovely not to have to carry the heavy bags at all.

Only downside is that when they are out of stock, they choose what to replace it with. In this case I had ordered proper chorizo sausages, but ended up with the thinly sliced version. No harm done, it tasted lovely, but the texture of the other sausage would have made it so much better. Oh well. Next time.

Chorizo and butterbean stew, serves 3-4

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

250-200 g chorizo, sliced

olive oil

400 g tinned chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

a dash concentrated stock

salt and black pepper

2 tsp smoked paprika

400 g tinned butterbeans

a large handful spinach

optional: vegeble stock to thin the stew

Heat up some olive oil in a pan and fry the inion, garlic and chorizo for a couple of minutes, without browning very much. Add the tomatoes, stock, vinegar and spices and season to taste. Let it simmer for a few minutes, and add some stock if you think it is too thick. Add the beans and the spinach and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Serve with rice and garlic bread. Autumnal and warming!

Burgers with potato wedges, parsnips and feta creme

Published on October 4, 2010 by HannaLeave a comment

Beef mince is great weekday food. It is cheap, healthy and very versatile. I often make these burgers served with feta creme and potato wedges instead of in a bun.

Burgers with potato wedges, parsnips and feta creme, serves 2 + a lunch box

Burgers:

500 g beef mince

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

ca 100 ml breadcrumbs

1,5 tsp sambal oelek

a splash of lemon juice

1 tsp onion granules or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

salt and white pepper

Potatoes and root vegetables:

5 potatoes

3 parsnips

a few carrots

olive oil

rosmary

salt, white pepper

Feta creme:

1/2 packet proper feta

200 ml creme fraiche

a splash of lemon juice

salt, white pepper

Peel the parnsips and perhaps the carrots (I used chantenays so it wasn’t necessary), cut into wedges. Wash the potatoes and cut into wedges as well, put it all in a roasting dish, drizzle over some olive oil and season. Toss and roast in 200C for about 45 minutes.

Mix all the ingredients for the burgers apart from the mince. Leave it for a few minutes so the breadcrumbs can swell, then mix in the meat. Incorporate thoroughly and shape into burgers. Put them on a plate until needed. When the potatoes have 20 minutes left to cook, fry the burgers in a frying pan in a knob of butter and some oilve oil.

Crumble the feta in a bowl and mush it up with a fork, mix in the creme fraiche, squeeze in some lemon and season with salt and pepper.

I also served some broadbeans with this, sautéed for a few minutes in olive oil with some finely chopped onions, lemon juice and a few chilli flakes.