Beef Casserole and Gordon's Apple Pudding

These were two great recipes and perfect as a winter warmer. I have cooked similar dishes before but by adding a few ingredients it really turned them in to something special.

The beef casserole used carrots, celeriac, pearl onions (I used baby onions, are they the same thing?) and chestnut mushrooms. I really liked the addition of bacon lardons which I would not normally have put in but it added a great smokey flavour and helped to make a rich sauce.

I did need to thicken the sauce a bit by removing the lid and letting it cook in the oven for some of the cooking time.

To serve I followed the recipes in the book for buttered savoy cabbage and mustard mash (mixed the next day for bubble & squeak).

For pud it was apple pudding. This is a variation of Eve's Pudding. It was gooood. Instead of stewed apple it calls for you to caramelise three Pink Lady apples in butter and brown sugar before adding sultanas soaked in Calvados. I replaced the Calvados with Brandy as I had some left over from Christmas. A simple sponge mixture is put on top with a little lemon zest and topped with flaked almonds.

To serve was some creme fraiche blended with some vanilla seeds. I'm not a big fan of creme fraiche but stuck with it. All in all very good.

Well I have started on the way. One thing I have noticed already is that these recipes require some putting together. If I am to avoid being in the kitchen for all of Sunday afternoon I need to plan a bit better, I may even have time to take a photo or two.

Bad Start

Well, got off to a bit of a bad start having lurched from take-away to fast food at the weekend. I must try harder. Although, my wife Anna has been putting me to shame having cooked four dishes from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food.

The plan for this weekend is a nice winter warmer of Beef Casserole, Buttered Savoy Cabbage and Mustard Mash. I will follow this with Gordon’s Apple Pudding.

There could be one draw back from following Gordon Ramsey recipes and that is on his preference of taking a well know dish and adding a few extras to enhance the overall flavour. These extras though are generally either a little expensive, or are used once in a small quantity leaving a lot left over to possibly spoil.

Looking through all the recipes I need items such as sherry vinegar, groundnut oil, gooseberry conserve, kirsch, rosewater, hazelnut oil, walnut oil, stem ginger syrup, sesame oil, Grand Marnier, etc.

I think my plan will have to be substituting (or leaving out) a particular ingredient where possible without too much compromise and/or to make sure that I plan to use up any remainder ingredients timely in other recipes.

I may also have to look to borrow a chefs blow torch and pasta maker at some point.

Recipe Book Challenge and this Blog

A few weeks ago I overheard some talk in the office that interested me. A colleague of mine (hi Maggie) was talking about a recipe challege she was going to undertake, and how some of her friends were interested in the concept.

Basically you choose any cookery book you like and aim to cook every recipe in it over the course of the year. I think the originator of this idea is Helen Hare who blogs under The Sacred Art of Eating

I liked the idea of this. I am of the Jamie Oliver generation and back in the day I loved making a 'pukka' meal for my girlfriend and wished I had a VW camper to head off to the beach in have a impromtu barbie with my mates. Now we have both grown up a bit, have young families and take a big interest in mealtimes and the food we eat. Having said that you would probably think I would choose something like Jamie at Home, or Cook with Jamie but I think I am going to go with Ramsay's Sunday Lunch (forgive me if you are reading this Jamie!)

I basicall took some of Maggie's advice:

• No massive cookery bibles, as it simply isn't practical to cook from the book every day! So something with about 200 recipes would be ideal
• No single cuisine - much as I love Italian or Japanese, I don't want to eat it three or four times every week
• No 'dinner party' cook books with nothing but rich food. I'm fat enough as it is!
• I love to cook with the seasons, so something that reflects this approach would be great
• Not all the food should be complicated - a good blend of simple everyday with more challenging stuff would do

Sunday Lunch fits the bill. It has 25 menus which each feature a starter, main and dessert. There is a good mix of family favourites and traditional roasts but will also introduce me to some new dishes and ingredients such as morel mushrooms, pigeon and oysters. I also like the whole books approach to try and encourage families to eat together, using fresh ingredients and to take the intimidation out of cooking.

The purpose of this blog is to chart my progress along the way, I dare say it will stray off subject every now and then!