Karohemd's World

Quite a while ago (a year?) I was pointed at a tweet by Jane Travers who was looking for recipes that would fit into a single tweet for a charity book project. I somehow managed to squeeze my recipe for Dippadoom™ (my (in)famous garlic and herb dip) into 140 characters and submitted it as well as two or three others.
Today the release date of the book was officially announced and Jane just confirmed that the Dippadoom recipe made it. :o)

You can find a bit more background on the project here.

I seared the shank on all sides and then braised it on a bare simmer in red wine and stock with onions, carrots, garlic and rosemary for about three hours.
I then removed the shank and wrapped it in foil to keep warm and rest. Then I turned up the heat and reduced the cooking liquor to a thick sauce while cooking the potatoes and cabbage for the colcannon. Before serving I blitzed the sauce to make it smooth and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
I set the shank on a bed of colcannon (almost didn't manage to do it in one piece as the meat fell off the bone) and poured a liberal amount of the sauce over.
It was just a bit big for me so I have leftovers. :D

I used:
- a thick slice of braising steak in 1.5cm cubes
- a slice of lamb's liver, same size slices
- flour seasoned with salt, freshly ground pepper and hot smoked paprika
- handful of shallots, quartered
- three (or to taste) garlic cloves, smashed but whole
- two carrots, cut into chunks
- handful of mushrooms, quartered
- bunch of chard, greens only, cut into strips
- quarter bottle of red wine
- beef stock as needed (I used one of those Knorr pots)

Method:
Dust the liver and beef separately in the seasoned flour. In a thick bottomed pot with a good lid, heat some olive oil on high and first sear the liver slices until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Then fry the beef cubes. When those are brown, add the shallots and carrots and fry them for a minute or so. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and some beef stock (the meat should just about be covered) and add the garlic cloves. Turn the heat down to a bare simmer, put on a lid and leave alone for at least two hours. After an hour or so check if there is still enough liquid (it shouldn't be dry), add some stock if you need to. Repeat after every half hour.
The longer you leave this simmering, the better it will be but you should give it at least two hours. About 20 minutes before serving, add the mushrooms and five minutes before the chard, just to wilt. Finally, add the liver slices to warm through and adjust the seasoning. The liquid will have turned into a thick, deep sauce that sticks to the meat and the beef will fall apart in your mouth.

Serve with mash (I had some leftover parsnips and cheese sauce from the day before so turned that into mash), pasta or rice and if at hand, sprinkle some fresh parsley over the top. Eat with a spoon and lick the plate (I dare you not wanting to do this afterwards).



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Inspired by a recent post by Kayotic Kitchen, I bought a nice, thick, free-range chicken breast from my glorious butcher, the Art of Meat (and the quality of his offerings is indeed fantastic at reasonable prices). I don't eat much meat so I usually pig out on Saturday and pay very happily at little extra over supermarket prices for meat that's three times as good.
Anyway, I also bought some streaky bacon to wrap it in but it turned out to be not enough (more of that later).

To start off, I made a marinade from olive oil, dijon mustard, lots of garlic, black pepper and thyme and smeared it all over the breast as well as inside a pocket I cut into the thickest part. I then let it sit in the fridge for three hours.

When it came to cooking, I laid out the streaky bacon on a big piece of clingfilm and noticed there wasn't enough. The strips wouldn't completely cover the rather thick breast but I tried anyway. In hinsight, I should have just shoved it in the oven as it was but I went through with the original plan of frying it off in the pan first to get the bacon a bit crispy all over. It obviously fell off so when I transferred it to the baking tray, I just draped the bacon strips over it and put it in a medium oven for about 20 minutes.

Despite the messy appearance, the taste was glorious. It was nice and moist (although it could have done with a little less cooking but with chicken I tend to err on the side of caution) and the marinade had penetrated well.
Note: I didn't add any salt as the bacon tends to be quite salty and it didn't need it. However, that's me who doesn't need much salt. Your mileage might vary so I suggest you put a little bowl of sea salt on the table.

With it I had a nice blob of creamy mash and some sauteed courgettes.

Omnomnom, definitely one of the tastiest plates of food I've ever made. Shame there's no photgraphic evidence because it looked just too hideous.

I still had loads of veg left over so decided to make a soup, something I don't often do.
I had a big bulb of fennel (reserve the tops), two large leeks, two tiny heads of cabbage, a baking potato and three tomatoes.
Method:
Chop everything into smallish chunks and sautee everything off in a generous knob of butter and an equally generous glug of olive oil, fill up with veg stock (I used a cube but the good organic stuff) and let it simmer until the potatoes are soft.
Blitz it all up (I used a stick blender) until it's smooth, check the seasoning (I added pepper, salt, freshly grated nutmeg and sweet smoked paprika), serve in bowls and garnish with a blob of cream and chopped fennel tops.
Devour.
It was gorgeous, I could have eaten that at a fine restaurant and not noticed the difference.

This is an old family favourite, it might even go back to my gran (mum's mum). It's very simple.
You will need:
Brussels sprouts (mine came in my organic vegbox this week, still on the stalk)
Cooked ham, diced
half an onion, finely chopped
glove of garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
tomato paste
veg stock
salt, pepper, freshly grated nutmeg
(new) potatoes

Method
Wash the sprouts and take off the out leaves if necessary, cut the bigger ones in half.
In a deepish pan on medium heat fry the onion, garlic and ham until the onion is soft, stir in a good dollop of tomato paste and add enough veg stock to cover the pan about 1cm deep. Add the sprouts, season to taste, bring to a simmer and reduce the heat. Put on a lid and simmer until the sprouts are tender but still firm, about 10 mins.
Served with boiled (new) potatoes.



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The hardcore Warren Ellis fans among you will have seen this already but I don't subscribe to his blog so only found a link to this today. This is not just for the foodies among you but also the geeks and nerds (which should cover pretty much all of you ;oP)



I wish all recipes were written like this, humorous, irreverent style, yet containing all you need to know. It is truly inspired. If he were to write a cookbook, I would so buy it!

Damn yummy it was, too.



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Right, need to get ready.

I wanted to make something more interesting and omnivorous with the purple sprouting broccoli from my organic box so I made a blue cheese sauce with ham to go with it:


Ingredients:
1 bunch of PSB
salt, fresh nutmeg
for the sauce:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
ca. .25l milk
ca. 80g blue cheese, crumbled
150g cooked ham, cubed

potatoes

Method:
Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks and boil them in slightly salted water.
Make a roux with the butter and flour, take off the heat and incorporate the milk bit by bit. Put back on a medium-low heat and bring to a brief boil while stirring continuously. Reduce the heat to below simmer and add the crumbled blue cheese and ham, season with white pepper and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (the blue cheese already has enough salt). Warm through until the cheese has melted. Add more liquid (water or milk) if needed.
Meanwhile, steam the PSB. It should be tender but still have a bite.
Arrange the potatoes and PSB on a plate and serve with the sauce. The flavours of the sauce were subtle enough not to drown out the wonderfulness of the PSB so it worked. Rar.
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Now the beetroot for the salad are boiling.
Tomorrow's dinner will involve something with the nice and small pointed green cabbage or it'll go bad.

I can't remember who asked for it but you can find it here.