Category: Stew

Bean and pork stew

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I’d type up this recipe.

But it seriously grows on you and the next day, Nat and I simultaneously messaged each other in disbelief at how good the stew was for lunch.

There is no question that as far as recipes I’d cook for a work lunch, this is one I would do again and again. And if you have followed this blog for a while, you’ll know that I try to put a bit of effort into workday lunches and often cook dishes especially for the weekday lunch run.

It is super healthy, it’s full of those beans we don’t get enough of and it would easily double and freeze.

It started life like a calf finding its feet for the first time, though once we had our head around this stew, it was all on!

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
125gm mild salami, chopped
2 x 350gm pork fillets, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces
1 carrot, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 thyme sprigs, leaves chopped
2 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 ½ cups (375ml) chicken stock
250gm baby roma tomatoes, halved
2 x 400g cans butter beans
400g can red kidney beans
100g baby spinach leaves
Ciabatta to serve

Method

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a casserole dish over a high heat. Cook salami, stirring for 2 – 3 minutes until crisp, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Do not drain oil from pan.
  2. Season pork. In two batches, cook, turning for 2 – 3 minutes until golden.
  3. Reduce heat to medium and add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. Add the carrot, onion and celery and cook for 3 – 4 minutes until softened. Add garlic, thyme and sage and cook for 2 – 3 minutes until fragrant. Add the stock, tomatoes and beans, bring to the simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until flavours have infused. Return the pork to the pan and cook for a few more minutes, until the pork is cooked and the stew thickened. Stir through the spinach and remove from the heat.
  4. Scatter with the crisp salami and serve with toasted ciabatta.

Pot-roast beef with salsa verde

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6

This is a freight train of a dish and in a good way.

Bottle of red wine; a kilo of steak, salsa verde; plenty of cooking time.

The result is so inevitably luxurious and warm, though like a freight train, not particularly unapologetic. You get out what you put in and what you get out is a rich, silken, winter stew that would belt the shit out of anything that came close to it.

Next day at work, the concentration of flavour doubled and before I had it in the microwave, a friend commented; afterwards, it was almost awkward. People don’t eat rich stews and potatoes for lunch on a Monday and the fact they are is beyond words.

11/10.

And here is the best part.

I didn’t cook it.

Nat did. On a Monday. Before I got home from work.

As if salsa verde wasn’t enough sprinkled on top (cutting through the richness), I didn’t have to lift a finger until it was served.

Try this one cold night this winter and revel in it.

Excuse my language, though it is a finger to winter and a bloody effective one at that.

Brilliant! And thank you Nat.

Sunday on a Monday!

Ingredients

Stew

750ml bottle good quality red wine (Seriously!)
1 kg skirt steak, cut into 3cm pieces
2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf (or 2 dry)
750ml beef stock (starting to see my point?)

Salsa verde

2 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves
3 cups mint leaves
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
150ml extra virgin olive oil

Mashed, boiled (with butter and parsley), whatever potatoes to serve; just don’t go overboard or this could be the end
Steamed green beans

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 160c.
  2. Place wine in a large saucepan/casserole (with a lid) over a medium heat and simmer until reduced by half. Set aside.
  3. Toss the steak in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the steak in batches until well browned. Set aside.
  4. Add onion to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until golden; add the garlic and the herbs.
  5. Return the meat to the pan with the reduced wine and stock. Stir and season. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 ½ hours. (You have my point now, right?)
  6. To make the salsa verde, place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Season.
  7. Remove meat from pan/casserole and set aside. Place the pan/casserole back on the stock and cook until the sauce is thickened.
  8. Return the meat and serve with the salsa verde and potato.
  9. Loosen tie, remove shoes, be thankful for winter.

Neil Perry’s Beef Braised with Guinness

.Reading time 3 minutes.
FullSizeRender (7).jpg
Such a great cook book. Everything is a success.

Serves: 4 – 6 with a good dollop of champ or parmesan polenta

My favourite cookbook is Neil Perry’s The Food I Love. I’ve had it for years and have cooked so much from it.

The first recipe from it – years and years back – to christen a new Le Creuset pot was this beautiful braise. Since then, it is one of the first recipes I cook when the colder part of the year starts; that afternoon where you notice the chill and put on a good jumper.

It really does put a smile on your face as you snuggle up with a glass of red, a good serving of champ and some beans. Put on a movie, dim the lights and look forward to the coming months filled with meals like this.

Ingredients

1 kg beef shin, cut into 2cm cubes
Sea salt
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil, plus extra
2 fresh bay leaves
1 medium brown onion, chopped into 2cm cubes
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 2cm lengths
1 medium leek, white part only, cut into 2cm lengths
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 thyme sprigs
1c (250ml) Guinness (yes there is some left over and yes you should drink it – it’s cold!)
Freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method

  1. Remove the beef from the fridge an hour before cooking and season with sea salt.
  2. Put olive oil and bay leave sin a heavy-based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid over a high-heat. When hot, add half the beef and brown all over. Remove and repeat with the remaining beef.
  3. If need be, add a little more oil to the pan and add the onion to the pan and cook for 10 minutes over a gentle heat.
  4. Return the beef to the pan and add the carrot, leek, garlic, thyme Guinness and 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 1 ½ hours. Remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beef is tender and you’ve reached the right consistency.
  5. Remove the bay leaves and thyme and season with pepper. Serve sprinkled with the parsley.

Cha Ca (Ling Fillets marinated with dill and tumeric)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves 6

According to Google translate, ‘kinh ngạc’ is amazing in Vietnamese and I do hope it is because this dish is a-mazing.

It’s got it all.

Healthy, hot, filling, so tasty.

Seriously, copy paste these ingredients and clear your schedule for tonight because this is going to make tonight – and every night you cook it – very special.

Mark Jensen of Red Lantern is a genius!

Ingredients

1kg ling fillets
8 spring onions (scallions)
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ground turmeric
2 tsp hot curry power
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
1/2 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 bunch dill
125g rice vermicelli
1 cup fish stock
1 lemon
300g bean sprouts

Method

  1. Cut the fish into 4cm pieces, place in a bowl and set aside.
  2. Put the white heads of the spring onions (reserving the stalks) and garlic in a mortar and pound to a paste.
  3. Add the paste, turmeric, curry powder, yoghurt, fish sauce, sugar, 2 tablespoons of the oil and a third of the dill, roughly chopped) to the fish and mix well. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
  4. Cook the vermicelli in boiling water for 5 minutes, turn off the heat and let sit for a further 5 minutes. Strain, refresh under cold water a set aside. (This may contradict instructions on pack, though don’t worry!).
  5. Thinly, diagonally slice 4 or 5 of the green spring onion stalks.
  6. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, add the remaining oil and fry the fillets for 30 seconds on one side.
  7. Turn the fillets over, add the fish stock and simmer for 3-5 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
  8. Remove the fish and squeeze over the juice from the lemon.
  9. Mix the bean sprouts, sliced spring onion, remaining dill and vermicelli together, place into bowls and spoon over the fish fillets and sauce.

Zuppa Di Pesce (Italian Seafood Stew)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Mama mia! Every time I have cooked this, it gets better and better. The flavours, the experience, the fun of eating anything that you get to mop up with crusty bread.

The recipe is from Armando Percuoco of Buon Ricordo Restaurant in Paddington, famous for his truffle egg pasta and long lunches.

I swear that if you cook this once, you will cook it again the next weekend, inviting friends around for it.

It looks the part, it tastes so goddam good and it’s fun to share with some salads, maybe some potatoes, some chargrilled asparagus with chilli and garlic and plenty of bread.

No excuses, cook it!

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
½ cup of olive oil
1 rock cod (250gm) (substitute with leatherjacket)
Blue eye (150gm piece)
Kingfish (150gm piece)
6 mussels (I used 10)
2 baby octopus
8 rings of calamari (obviously, more can be used and I would)
½ Blue Swimmer Crab
8 clams
1 cup of white wine (I used 1 ½ cups)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes (halved)
4 tablespoons chopped Roma tomatoes
1 bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
Sea salt and pepper
Grilled crusty bread to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180.
  2. In a heavy saucepan or casserole, sauté the garlic in the olive oil until it is just about to go golden.
  3. Add the calamari (and octopus) and toss.
  4. Add the balance of the seafood, and the white wine.
  5. Cook until the white wine has effectively evaporated.
  6. Remove all the seafood except for the calamari (octopus) and add the tomatoes.
  7. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring once.
  8. Add the rest of the seafood, and place in the oven for a further 10 minutes, again stirring once.
  9. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Chicken Stew with Mushrooms, Turnips and Kale

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

It might seem odd to cook a stew in the middle of summer, though months since my last stew, I didn’t really care how hot it was outside. After a long day, served with a cold beer, a warm stew is a really nice, stout, filling meal among a summer of prawn salads, watermelon and frozen yoghurt.

I have adapted this recipe by doubling the mushrooms and removing the cornstarch.

You can never have too many mushrooms and the cornstarch adds a nebulous thickness to the stew as well as merely adding calories and processed food to what is otherwise, a healthy, 260 calorie dinner.

As with all stews, the cooking times really are approximate only. I let the mushrooms and onions cook down for 25 minutes and as long as you don’t overdo it and end up with mush, the longer and slower you cook a stew, the better the stew.

Season well, chopped parsley to serve, awesome.

Ingredients

750gm chicken breasts but into 2cm pieces
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large turnips, peels and cut into 2cm pieces
500gm sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup dry white wine
4 cups chopped kale (Coles sell chopped, fresh Kale in the vegetable aisle)
750ml chicken stock
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
Salt and cracked pepper

Method

  1. In a heavy saucepan, heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil over a medium heat; add the chicken, stirring until lightly browned. Around 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
  2. Add the remaining olive oil to the saucepan; add the turnips, onions, mushrooms and garlic. Stir and cook until the onion is limp: 10 – 20 minutes or more. Add the wine and stir in for a minute before adding the stock, rosemary and kale. Bring to the boil and return the chicken (and any juices) to the saucepan. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes or until you have the consistency you are after.
  3. Done!