Beef Goulash

Our vegetable box is delivered on Friday, so my current Saturday morning routine consists of getting up in time for Saturday Kitchen, sitting amidst my various cookbooks and looking for new recipes to try with my muddy bounty. One eye on James Martin, one on the books.

My routine was somewhat upset this week as I awoke not only nursing a hangover, but to the chaos left behind by several of us drinking too much fizzy wine and eating lots of good food (fajitas with bean chilli, cheese and lashings of gaucamole and soured cream; followed by key lime pie).

The upshot of this is that I was somewhat randomnly inspired by a sad looking bowl of leftover soured cream. I decided to try goulash, remembering a delicious looking version Jamie Oliver cooked on Jamie at Home (part of our Sunday night aspirational viewing on More 4 along with River Cottage). A rich stew of slow cooked pork and peppers served with creme fraiche.

In the end, my version was completely different, I looked around for inspiration and came up with a really simple version that doesn't use chopped tomatoes but is flavoured with paprika and smoky roasted peppers. This is best with cheaper cuts of braising beef and left to cook long and slow, the peppers almost melt into the sauce to give a rich stew . Given the opportunity, I would cook this day before and let the flavours develop. Even so, cooked on the night this absolutely delivious, full of flavour and meltingly tender. We eat ours with thick ribbons of pasta, a dollop of sour cream and lots of parsley, but mash would be divine too.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1kg braising beef, cut into chunks
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp sunflower oil
25g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 jar roasted red peppers (approx 300g), or 4 peppers roasted and skinned
200ml beef or vegetable stock
1 small (140ml) tub soured cream
Chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

• Season the meat and sprinkle over the flour to coat well.
• Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan. When hot, fry the beef in batches until sealed and beginning to brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the butter to the pan. Once melted, add the onion and fry for a few mins until softened.
• Add the beef back to the pan and sprinkle over the paprika, stir well so that the beef is well coated.
• Slice the roasted peppers into long thin strips and add to the pan as well.
• Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for at least an hour until the beef is tender and the sauce has thickened.
• Before serving, stir in half the soured cream, reserving the rest to dollop on top with a liberal sprinkling of parsley.
  

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Beef, Mushroom and Guinness Stew

Another gem utilising my slow cooker. Inspired by this article by Nigel Slater we used cheap chunks of braising steak slow cooked with mushrooms, plenty of sweet onions and carrots and Guinness, to counteract the slight bitterness of the Guinness, I added a couple of tablespoons of prune jam that I had in the fridge, any other fruit jelly or sauce would work well, such as apple sauce, to give a rich and round flavoured stew.

Of course something this warming, with copious amounts of gravy cries out for a mash of some kind. As it is so rich, I'm thinking some kind of root mash would work well or colcannon. We had swede chips with ours, sweet and crispy they worked perfectly with the stew.

Ingredients

Serves 4

750kg stewing beef, cut into chunks
5tbsp flour
2 onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlics, finely sliced
250g mushrooms, sliced in half
1 sprig thyme
1 can Guinness
150ml water
2tbsp redcurrant jelly or apple sauce
1 small bunch chopped parsley to serve

• Heat a large casserole on the hob.
• Meanwhile sprinkle the flour over the beef with plenty of seasoning, turn the beef and make sure its well covered.
• Add a little oil to the pan and fry the beef in batches until brown all over. Remove and set aside.
• Add a little more oil and fry the onions and carrots over a low heat for about 10mins. Add a splash of water to the pan and scrape the bottom to lift of any sediment.
• Add the thyme, bay leaves, mushrooms and beef to the casserole with the Guinness and water.
• Cover and cook in the oven at 170C for 2 hours until the beef in meltingly soft.
• Stir in the apple sauce and season to taste.
• Serve sprinkled with parsley.

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Steak with Colcannon Mash and Creamy mushroom Sauce

Yes, this was as outrageous as it sounds, not exactly in keeping with January healthy eating. but sometimes when its cold outside, you need something fortifying and creamy. All is not lost, there must be a good 2 portions of veg in the colcannon and mushroom sauce!

I've already written about steak, so has Jamie Oliver, it goes without saying that you need to start with good quality meat (preferably organic). Really, with something this simple and good, its all about starting with the right ingredients, proper butter, decent potatoes... I really think you can taste the difference with organic potatoes. I've given lots of variations on mash here, and the colcannon recipe is here, if you don't fancy a creamy mushroom sauce, you could try this port and mushroom sauce instead.


Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Serves 4

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
squeeze lemon juice
1tsp grain mustard
1 small tub creme fraiche

• Heat a frying pan and tip in the mushrooms. I always dry fry mushrooms for a while first as they tend to eat up oil. Fry until beginning to brown.
• Add a knob of butter along with garlic and continue to fry until the mushrooms are cooked through.
• Add the mustard, lemon juice and creme fraiche. Warm through and season generously with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

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Quick and Easy Steak

Obviously I don't eat meat. I just bought this as a present for someone... (I knew they would prefer it to flowers) That said, I'm not entirely against meat eating, however, I am all for reducing our dependency on bad quality meat and starting to eat less but better quality meat. (This article in Observer Food Monthly makes for interesting reading) Hence the Bristish, organic steak.

When you've good quality meat, there's little you need to do to it other than season it well and cook it properly, more on this later, however, there are some flavours that always go well with steak. Garlic, olive oil and tenderising lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, chilli, paprika, cumin. A splash of balsamic vinegar as the steak is cooking gives a deliciously sweet glaze. Marinade for as long as you have, 30mins-1 hour ought to do it.

When cooking steaks, you need a decent non-stick frying pan or griddle pan. Make sure you heat the pan until it is really smoking hot, I always oil the steak rather than the pan. Place the steak in carefully and leave it for the desired time until it is caramelised on one side, then turn it and cook until done (the timing depends on the thickness of the steak and how you like it cooked, see The Hand Test Technique) . Don't be tempted to keep turning the steak as this is how it sticks to the pan and you will lose juices. Once cooked, remove and cover with foil, allow to rest for 10mins. Resting meat allows the heat and juices to distribute evenly and is a real must. Read more...