Recipes - Tomato Jam, Mushroom and Celery Stuffing, Beef Stew, HarissaLamb

Since I've been stuck in Groundhog Day rotating Victoria Park village / places near where I work in Shoreditch / nothing cultural / dinner on Sunday. Even the things that I've cooked have been stuck on a semi-loop. There have been roasts of pork belly with celery and mushroom stuffing, roasts of chicken with a less punchy take on candied yams, stews and dumplings. It's all been heavy and autumnal. There's also been a significant amount of cheese! The question is, is any of it blog worthy? A lot of it doesn't get blog-documented as I don't need to make notes to myself so much anymore. I can cook! I can officially cook! But it's bad news for the blog. Anyway, I'm trying my best and I suppose there's value in documenting recipes even if I think they're so commonplace that I forget to take pictures.

Beef stew with dumplings

For the stew

800g stewing beef, chopped into cubes

Half tbsp olive oil

1 leek, sliced and washed

1 large onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 glass wine

2 bay leaves

A few sprigs of thyme

25g butter

25g flour

1 stock cube, made up to 300ml stock

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Heat a casserole until very hot.

Brown the beef in two batches, making sure to get a good colour on it.

Set aside.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the oil.

Add the leeks, onion, carrots and garlic and fry until very soft and brown, about 15 mins.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan, melt the butter.

Add the flour to make a roux.

Add the stock, slowly, whisking constantly, to make a thick sauce.

Now, add the herbs and wine to the casserole, turning the heat up. Allow alcohol to boil off for 2 mins.

Add the sauce from the frying pan.

Bring to a simmer and place in the oven, partially covered.

Let stew for 2 hours before adding the dumplings.

For the dumplings

100g self raising flour

100g butter

The end of a good bit of boule, turned to crumbs 

1 tbsp thyme leaves

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tbsp whole milk

1 egg

In my mini food processor, I blitzed the butter and flour to make crumbs. I placed this in a bowl with the crumbs and rubbed together to combine. I added the thyme and rosemary to the mix along with some salt and pepper. I added the eggs and milk and brought the sticky mixture together. I shaped the mix into six dumplings. I added these to the top of the stew after 2 hours - then left the stew uncovered and cooked for a further 30 mins.

A Camembert with a Monday night tomato 'jam' on the side
Not-so-candied yams 

1 Camembert

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 sprigs rosemary, chopped up

Remove the plastic from the Camembert. 

Make small slits with a knife and stuff with the garlic and rosemary.

2 red onions, chopped

6 tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 tbsp brown sugar 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp Worcester sauce

Couple of drops of Tabasco 

In butter, fry the onions until sticky and caramelised.

Add the tomatoes and the condiments and about 100ml water and simmer for around 20 mins until sticky and thick.

Mushroom and celery stuffing
1 onion

2 stalks celery

250g myshrooms 

2 apples, peeled

4 cloves garlic, peeled

Bunch of sage

Bunch of parsley 

Few sprigs thyme, leaves picked 

2 slices toast

Food process the vegetables, apple, garlic until finely chopped.

In 1 tbsp butter, fry the food processed mixture over a medium heat until the onion is translucent and any water has evaporated - about 15 mins.

Food process the sage and parsley with the toast until it turns to breadcrumbs. 

Add thyme, sage parsley breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to the mixture. 

Tightly pack the stuffing mixture into an ovenproof dish.

Bake for twenty to thirty minutes until crispy on top.

2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges lengthways 

Salt

Pepper

4 cloves garlic 

Few sprigs thyme, leaves picked 

Handful of sultanas, soaked in 1 tbsp sweet white wine 

In a bowl, toss the sweet potato in a tablespoon of olive oil with the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. 

Bake in an oven at 200°C for 45 mins until crispy.

Scatter over the sultanas.

Harissa lamb chops with mint sauce with burnt Harissa aubergine

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Few sprigs thyme, leaves picked 

Thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped

Salt and pepper 

8 lamb chops

Marinade the lamb in the above ingredients for at least an hour to tenderise.

2 tsp harissa powder 

2 tsp veg oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed 

Half lemon, squeezed 

Mix the powder with oil and garlic and whisk into a paste.

2 aubergines, each sliced lengthways into 4

In a dry cast iron frying pan, scatter salt.

Over a high heat, burn two slices of aubergine at a time, about three mins on each side. 

Add salt for each new batch.

Place on a baking tray and then in the oven for 15 mins at 200°C until cooked through.

Brush each slice with the harissa paste then return to oven for 5 mins.

Brush the remainder of the harissa onto the lamb chops.

Place the chops in the oven at 200°C for around 7 mins.

Remove from oven then brown in a hot frying pan, couple of minutes each side without any oil.

Pour any remaining meat juice into the frying pan.

Add 2 tbsp finely chopped mint to make the sauce.
I served this with squash and brussel sprout pilaf.