World Cup Food Challenge: Honduras - Carne Asada

The Republic of Honduras, formerly Spanish Honduras to differentiate itself from British Honduras (now Belize), is situated on the umbilical cord of the Americas, between Guatamala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.  Like many other Central American countries, Football is the national sport of Honduras.  This doesn't mean however, that they're very good.  In the hundred years that they have had a national football association they have only qualified for the World Cup Finals twice.

With a French recipe in the bag as soon as the draw for the World Cup Food Challenge took place, I started to look around for culinary inspiration for the other countries in group E.  On two separate Honduran food sites I found reference to Carne Asada.  It literally means Grilled Meat but its origins have been lost in the mist of time.  Some say that it has Mexican roots but given the amount of Spanish influence in the region it isn't a surprise that there are cultural overlaps.  In the end I chose the version of the Honduran favourite from This is Honduras.

This is Honduras points out "Hondurans look for any excuse to get the barbaque going and make carne asada - it is a favourite for birthdays, family days out, picnics, etc."  Well, today is Father's Day.  That sounds like a decent excuse for a barbecue to me, so carne asada it is.

Z had managed to get beef skirt from B & J Callard's on Kirkgate market during the week and I set about marinating it first thing this morning, having reread the recipe to discover that you should marinate the meat overnight.  The strips of skirt were placed in a bowl with the juice of two oranges, a tablespoon of cumin, four crushed garlic cloves, salt and half a tablespoon of Worcester Sauce.  The final ingredient struck me as a little odd but who am I to argue?

Z made a batch of home made corn tortillas and some guacamole while I made some Chimol to accompany the beef.  I had planned to make a batch of Encurtido*, but I missed the bit of that recipe that says "Refrigerate for at least 3 days to allow for the flavour to develop".

The beef was great.  In fact, I can't envisage a barbecue in the future that wont have carne asada as part of the meat fest.  The simple onion, tomato, pepper, corriander, and lime juice chimol, was a good sharp foil against the sweet meat, so we might be seeing that on the menu again too.  I'm not sure if Honduras will get out of Group E, if they do I promise to get my act together and make a batch of Encurtido.  You never know, I might just make some anyway.

*think piccalilli and you're almost there.

Chinese Style Ox Cheek Stew

Cheek is a wonderful cut of meat from any animal.  Just think about the amount of exercise your cheeks get on a daily basis.  All of that chewing and talking means that our cheeks hardly have a break all day.  It's the same with animals*.  Cod cheeks are wonderful, pork cheeks are succulent but the daddy of them all are ox cheeks.

Even when cows aren't eating they're still chewing the cud.  The amount of work that those cheeks go through is mind boggling and all of that work means the meat is full of flavour, but also full of tough fibres and sinew that require slow cooking to break them down. The last time we had ox cheek we went for a traditional beef and ale stew but tonight I fancied something a bit different, so I raided the fridge for inspiration.

The usual suspects were there but tucked at the bottom of the salad crisper was a piece of ginger.  That was when I decided to try a Chinese inspired stew.  Onions, garlic, red chilli and the ginger softened in vegetable oil, formed the base of the stew.  The browned ox cheek was added along with light and dark soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sweetened vinegar sauce, five spice, szechuan peppercorns and some stock.  The stew was then left to simmer on a low heat for three hours.

The finished stew was superb.  The liquid had reduced down into a sticky sauce, thickened by the natural collagen from the cheeks.  The sweetness from the vinegar sauce balanced the saltiness of the soy, and the heat from the chili, szechuan peppercorns and ginger grew with every bite, without ever becoming overpowering.

The thing with cheeks is you only get two of them on any animal.  To my mind this should make them an expensive rarity, but as with most of the slow cook cuts they're relatively cheap.  We found our ox cheeks at Oakwood Farmers Market and we'll be looking for them again.

*Apart from the talking of course.

Beef and Chorizo Stew with Roast Potatoes

Tucked into a corner of our kitchen is the door into the cellar.  Down there lives a number of spiders of varying size, my fluctuating wine collection, our sofa*, R's future stocks of Lego and our over-flow freezer.  There are days when retrieving food from the freezer can be like a trip into the Temple of Doom, fighting past toppling towers of timber and vaulting discarded furniture while trying not to be skewered on some tools that have not been put away properly.  Today, I gingerly made the trip into the cellar to retrieve a portion of leftover Beef and Chorizo Stew, for our evening meal.

I knew that the stew was down there because on the door in the kitchen, we have a blackboard which lists the freezers contents.  We are in the process of adding yet another blackboard to the kitchen but I'll get back to that later.  It transpires that I had originally cooked the stew to form the base of a Spanish inspired cottage pie.  I had forgotten this nugget of information otherwise I may have tried the same trick with the leftovers.

In the end I made a huge pile of roasties to serve with the stew.  The drawing in of the nights and the chill in the air made my mind up for me on that front.  The stew was delicious with the sweet, smoky Spanish spice flavours that I adore.  The roasted anya potatoes were that magical thing, both crispy and fluffy.  However, having now eaten the stew twice my quest for a Spanish cottage pie remains unfulfilled.

This is where the second backboard is going to come in.  We are going to have a blackboard of dreams.  The dishes I want to create, the challenges ahead, the ingredients untried.  All of these things will feature and hopefully, they will not stay on the wall for too long.

*we are decorating the living room and the furniture needed to go somewhere!

Olympic Food Challenge: Kyrgyzstan - Beshbarmak

Where do you start with Kyrgyzstan?  Before doing the research for the Olympic Food Challenge I would like to think that I'd have been able to find it on a map, but beyond that I knew nothing of the country, their culture or their cuisine.

I'm still not altogether genned up on the country's history, but I do know that Beshbarmak is one of those meals that are reserved for high-days, holidays and celebrations.  We are celebrating the food of Kyrgyzstan and that is enough for me.

The Kyrgyz were a nomadic people until around 100 years ago and their food is still entrenched in those traditions.  Simple food with few ingredients is the way forward and Beshbarmak is no exception.  The recipe I found called for lamb or beef and as Z is not a lover of lamb we opted for beef.  We got a wonderful piece of shin from B & J Callards and began the slow cooking process.

There are definitely two stages to Beshbarmak.  Firstly you cook your meat with some onion for a couple of hours and then you make a basic dough that you simmer in the meat stock.  I'll admit to being a little underwhelmed at the thought of this dish.  In fact, if it wasn't for the Olympic Food Challenge, I wouldn't have bothered cooking it at all.

But then I would have missed out on a fantastically wonderful dish.  We added half a green pepper to the finished dish, but other than that we were true to the recipe.  The noodles were a cross between pasta and udon noodles.  The shin beef was perfectly cooked and the broth, oh the broth.  I won't go as far as suggesting that you drink it out of tea cups*, but it is delicious.  I suggest you try this for yourself.  If you are interested you can find the recipe I used here.

*which is the Kyrgyz way

Olympic Food Challenge: Azerbaijan - Musembe

When I sat down to meal plan for the Olympic Food Challenge I made sure that we wouldn't be eating the same thing two days in a row.  I separated out the beef dishes, the fish dishes and the chicken dishes.  It appears that I wasn't paying attention to what the meals consisted of.  Tonight's meal from Azerbaijan, is the third meal in four days to consist of meat and vegetables braised in a turmeric rich sauce.

Unlike the previous two meals Musembe requires a little construction rather than throwing everything into a pan.  The meat* is cooked in water until it is tender before turmeric and cinnamon are added.  Once the spices have been stirred into the beef, the vegetables (onion, aubergine, tomato, pepper and potato) are layered into the pan so that they steam over the meat for the rest of the cooking time.

I was a little concerned that the dish would dry out, but the liquid that the vegetables gave off produced enough liquid to finish cooking the beef** and make a great sauce.  Luckily for us we had a guest around for tea tonight, as I ended up cooking enough for a handball team.  H has been following Tonight's Menu for some time and was not in the slightest bit phased by an Azerbaijani dish that she knew nothing about.

The layering of the dish meant that its preparation took more time than I had anticipated, but it meant that the girls had plenty of time to "catch up" before we sat down to eat.  I only wish that I hadn't been so fastidious with the layering as my tetris like tessellation was destroyed as soon as the dish was served.  We plumped for wild rice to have with the musembe and there is still a portion left over.  As Azerbaijan is famed for its soup, it seems only fitting that the leftovers are headed in that direction.

For the record, Azerbaijan have already won a bronze medal in weightlifting.  Go Azerbaijan!

*I chose beef over mutton or lamb, mainly because Z doesn't like lamb and we have mutton coming up later.
**I used a combination of braising steak and shin beef.

Chilli Con Carne

Last night, whilst roasting the vegetables for our meal, Z kept herself busy by making a chilli con carne for tonight's meal.  There are two main reasons why she did this.  The first was the fact that she was in the kitchen anyway and once the vegetables were in the oven she had some time on her hands.  The second is that chilli always tastes better the following day.

Beef mince, onions, celery, peppers, mushrooms, kidney beans and a tin of tomatoes made up the bulk of the chilli.  The spice came from dried chilli, smoked hot paprika and Tobasco*.  Dried oregano was also added for its depth of flavour.  By the time Z came to reheat it for tonight's meal it had come together to form a delicious meal which had a chilli heat that grew with every mouthful.  The day's rest really helped the flavours come together and Z cooked so much, we now have left-overs for the freezer!

*other hot sauces are available

Beef and Chorizo Stew

Well, the long weekend is over and Wednesday has turned into Monday, complete with the back to work blues.   As I'm still working late shifts, I decided to crack on with some cooking this morning, so that Z wouldn't have too much on her hands at the end of the day.  I had grand plans but only so many hours.

Using the remains of the roast beef from the weekend and rummaging around in the fridge, I came up with the wherewithal to make a beef and chorizo stew.  This was going to be the filling for a Spanish inspired cottage pie, with a saffron mashed potato top but I ran out of time before going to work.

In the end Z boiled some potatoes and reheated the stew in time for me to get home from work.  It wasn't quite the meal that I imagined but it was tasty never the less.  With a little more time and working with fresh ingredients, I will come back to the Spanish Cottage Pie one day.

Beef and Vegetables in Black Bean Sauce

Having cooked two joints of beef over the weekend, we are now faced with a bit of a cold meat mountain to deal with.  This won't cause us too much of a problem as it's safe to say that we can deal with leftovers better than fresh ingredients.  Tonight's meal is one that has featured on this blog before.  That is because it's tasty and fast to prepare.

The ingredients, beef, green beans and white cabbage were all sliced while some rice was happily cooking away.  Five minutes before the rice was ready to eat, the meat and vegetables were stir-fried together with a good table spoon of my favourite chilli and black bean sauce.  I know cooking sauces are a cheat but this one is so good it would be on my desert island list.

Roast Beef

With guests, Mr S and family, visiting for the weekend, I needed to make sure that I had all the bases covered.  I stocked up the larder with enough food to withstand any siege and waited to see what the weekend brought us.  I failed to check the weather forecast so missed the inevitable all day down-pour that blessed us today.

With a little forethought, I had assumed that a full roast would go down well at some point during the weekend.  I had already defrosted a topside joint that we'd received in our Swillington Farm meat box, but I thought that it might have been a tad small for four adults and two children*.  I popped to Sainsbury's with Mr S to buy a matching joint leaving our other halves and children at home to make lunch.

In the short time it took us to buy beef, beer and broccoli, Z had turned the kitchen into a pizzeria with the kids covered in flour and the pizza dough for our lunches resting under a tea towel.  If you have little ones of your own, please can I recommend making pizza from scratch as a rainy day activity.  Mr S's daughter (aged 4 1/2) declared that her pizza was the best she had ever tasted because she had made it herself.

Pizza devoured I cracked on with the heroics of the roast beef.  Having two identical lumps of cow, I decided that it would be fun to have a blind taste off.  Only I knew which of the joints was the organic, rare breed, outdoor reared beef from Swillington and which was the Taste the Difference beef from Sainsbury's.  I cooked both with equal respect and served them side by side.  We all took a slice from each pile and ruminated on our mastications.

The result was unanimous, the first roast had a really good texture but the flavour of the second joint was superb and was the preferred meat.  It was at that point that I announced that the Taste the Difference meat from Sainsbury's was the first joint and we all preferred the meat from Swillington Farm.  I can't tell you the price difference as the price per £ wasn't printed on the Swillington label but as part of a meat box I have always found their meat to be good value and tasty.

In all of the excitement, I forgot to take any pictures of the meal.  Alongside the two beef joints I served carrots, broad beans with chorizo, broccoli, jersey royal potatoes and home made Yorkshire puddings.  I even managed to make proper gravy.  There was, of course, plenty of meat left over but there would not have been enough for us all without the second joint.  There was nothing wrong with the meat from Sainsbury's but if you get the chance do try the meat from Swillington** the flavour is second to none.


*R may be little but he can eat like a horse.
**or whoever your local rare breed farm is, they need your support and produce a fine product.

Szechuan Beef

I'm back working on the late shift but that is no excuse to stop posting our evening meals.  Z has wonderfully stepped up to the hot-plate and is taking the toddler-wrangling and husband cooking duties in her stride.  I'm not neglecting my duties.  Between us we've planned the evening meals for the week so that, where possible I will have prepared part of the meal before I set off for work.

Tonight that meant defrosting some steak from Swillington Farm and making sure the kitchen was clean for Z to work her magic unimpeded.  A stir fry is such a quick meal to cook that making sure that you have everything prepped in advance is vital.

By the time I got home Z had marinated the beef in crushed szechuan and black pepper corns, with a little oil and some rice wine vinegar.  She had also sliced an onion and some pak choi and was ready to fry.  Within minutes we sat down to eat and finally spend some time together.

Spaghetti Bolognese

It's Sunday and traditionally that would mean a nice Sunday Roast, or at least an opportunity for the three of us to sit down together for our evening meal.  If you had asked me on Friday what we were eating this evening I would have told you Roast Shoulder of Pork and all of the trimmings.  Had you asked me yesterday morning you would have had the same response.  However, by yesterday afternoon I had changed my mind.

Yesterday, to give Z some time in the house alone, I took R for a walk* around Wilton Park in Batley.  I had been once before, many years ago and I remembered the duck pond, the play park and the woods that led up to Bagshaw Museum.  It had been high summer on my last visit so I had absolutely no idea that the woods would be carpeted with ramsons (wild garlic).  I was stunned to see so much of it but with R in my arms I was in no position to pick any.  So today the three of us went back to Batley to fill our pockets.

What, if anything does this have to do with having Spaghetti Bolognese for our meal instead of a roast?  Well, the timings for the roast would have eaten into the day and we were determined to go out for a forage.  If we had held off cooking until we returned home after our long walk, R would have ended up eating on his own.  So last night I made a big vat of bolognese sauce so that on our return, our tea was only a pan of pasta away.

The wild garlic will make itself known over the next week or so as I have been challenged by Z to make her a Chicken Kiev using some of the leaves.  We'll see how that works out later in the week.

*I did all of the walking, R was content to be carried so that he was free to point at dogs, trees, cars and ducks.

Beef Rendang

While I like writing about food, I prefer to write about the inspirations behind what we cook.  Inspiration has been thin on the ground of late and Tonight's Menu has taken the full force of the blow.  The last two weeks' musings are littered with posts no longer than a demi baguette.  Over the next week I'm aiming to rediscover my muse, become inspired by food again and get back to cooking.

Inspiration comes from the strangest places.  You can't really force it.  You'll be sitting there, minding your own business and it will hit you.  That's what happened to me last night.  Every day, we get a sheet from R's nursery, telling us what he's been up to and what he's eaten.  Yesterday he'd had beef curry and naan bread.  I wanted beef curry and naan bread!  I didn't get beef curry and naan bread.  We were all out of naan bread and to add insult to injury, we had no beef.

So this morning I set about rectifying the situation.  I already had to go food shopping but I amended the shopping list and set off.  Having slept on my need for beef curry, I dropped the naan idea and changed country.  I skipped across the Bay of Bengal from India to Malaysia and started making a fragrant and punchy curry paste.  I've not cooked beef rendang before and I don't know why.  It's so easy, the flavours are superb and the meat is so succulent after a couple of hours cooking that it knocks spots off a lot of the curries we get in the UK.

The paste consisted of lemon grass, ginger, garlic and chillies.  This was fried off in a little oil until the fragrances started to fill the kitchen.  Then braising steak, red onions and turmeric were added.  Once the beef had taken a little colour a tin of coconut milk and a pint of beef stock are poured over the meat and allowed to simmer for one and a half to two hours.  I think it's fair to say that we have a new family favourite on our hands.  Thanks nursery!

Beef Burgers

It's Easter Monday and that's a bank holiday! Bank holidays mean only one thing, a barbecue.  However, the weather gods have not smiled kindly on the UK today, so plans of cremating meat products have been knocked into a cocked hat.

Perhaps a little prematurely, we purchased the where-with-all for making burgers at Cornucopia on Friday and therefore our path for this evening was set.  We bought a packet of mince from Manor Farm Beef with tonight in mind.  Even Chris the farmer said that they often turn their mince into burgers by simply seasoning them.  Who am I to argue?

Salt and pepper is all that we added to the beef before dry frying the burgers and letting them rest in the oven.  We topped them with emmental, a couple of rashers of bacon and served them with skinny fries and gherkins.  The only thing missing was the smoky taste you get from barbecue cooking, but that will have to come later in the year.

Steak and Guinness Pie Revisited

Just a quick post tonight as we're eating the remains of the pie that we cooked for St. Patrick's Day.  We're even having it with similar accompaniments only served slightly differently.  The pie was warmed in the oven, wrapped up in tinfoil to make sure that the pastry didn't burn.  Tonight's potato and cabbage were boiled and steamed respectively and the whole lot was served with onion gravy.

As leftovers go, the pie was great.  The filling had improved the way that stew or curry made a couple of days ago does and the pastry hadn't gone soggy!  The down side was I'd completely run out of Guinness.  Still, you can't have everything.

Steak and Guinness Pie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know I'm not Irish but when has that ever stopped anybody from enjoying a drop of the black stuff on 17th March?  It has also given us the chance to make a pie.  We are pastry mad in this house.  Any excuse for a pie, flan, tart, pasty or vol-au-vent is grabbed with gusto.  This normally turns into a lunch dish or a dessert so a full pie for an evening meal is great news.

Such is our passion for pies we have discussed at length what constitutes the perfect pie.  This conversation normally takes place in a pub after a less than perfect example has been served.  A stew with a pastry lid is not a pie.  A pastry base with no lid is not a pie.  You need a bottom, top and sides before you can claim to have made a pie*.  This is when we start getting serious.  My ideal pie has a short crust base and a puff pastry lid.  The base is blind baked so that it doesn't go soggy, the filling is piled in and lovely flaky lid is added.

Our filling of braising steak, onions, celery, mushrooms and Guinness, was pre-cooked.  I know a true pie should all be cooked together but it's my kitchen and therefore my rules.  Once cooked, we served our pie with colcannon for that added nod to St. Patrick.

*There are of course exceptions that prove the rule, these include a fish pie, shepherd's pie or cottage pie.  For some reason these mashed potato topped cuddles in a dish, pass the pie test by being furthest from the definition.

Beef Stew

As it's the weekend we decided that a long slow cook would give us the most family time and require the least time at the stove.  It also meant that I could spend a bit more time knocking our house about.  Having lived in it for over 10 years we are now trying to give our house its Victorian charm back.  The latest challenge is reinstating the fireplace in the living room and striping back the floorboards. But this is a food blog not a DIY blog so I'll move on.

To give us the required time to get on with things we decided on a beef stew.  As usual we didn't have a recipe to hand but we did have a pack of Swillington Farm braising steak, onions and celery.  The only decision to be made was, what liquid to cook the meat in.  I fancied Guinness but Z rightly pointed out that St Patrick's Day is around the corner so we skipped that one.

In the end a bottle of red wine ended up in the stew along with some carrots for extra bulk.  We dusted the beef in flour, seasoned with salt, pepper and mustard powder, before frying it off.  It helps to thicken and season the final stew and takes so little time that it's definitely worth doing.  After three and a half hours we served the stew with steamed broccoli and boiled potatoes.

I will not be doing a post tomorrow (Sunday 4th March 2012) as we are going to a friend's dedication party.  Normal service will be resumed on Monday.

Beef and Carrot Stew

As I pointed out yesterday, I often get home from a trip to Leeds Kirkgate market with more food than I had intended to buy.  Along with that cabbage I am also the proud owner of too many carrots!

Carrots, it turns out, are Britain's favourite vegetable*.  Why then are there so few carrot recipes?  People must do more than eat them as a side vegetable or make cake out of them.  We tend to make soup from our carrot gluts.  A wonderful roasted carrot and caraway dip also makes several appearances every summer.  But neither of these are worthy of an evening meal.

We still have the majority of Mr Cabbage in the fridge** so we needed something that would let us make headway into both vegetables.  Luckily we have some shin beef in the freezer and Z is currently working three days a week.  Today was a day at home so she could crack on with a good slow rib sticking beef and carrot stew.

Three and a half hours later the collagen from the shin beef has broken down to leave meltingly tender meat.  The carrots are still intact, because they were left large, and their sweetness has flavoured the gravy.  The bitter cabbage is the perfect foil for the stew, along with boiled potatoes.

*according to The British Association of Carrot Growers
**even after last night's heroic efforts.

Beef and Potato Curry

It was only a matter of time before the weather had an impact on Tonight's Menu, I live in Britain after all.  Mum was leaving today, back to Edinburgh, after a week long visit.  The rail link between the two cities is usually reliable but, like her arrival, the wind was going to have a say in her departure.  All trains between England and Scotland were cancelled and Mum was staying for another night.

Z and I had already decided what we were going to have for our first meal for two in over a week but that wouldn't stretch to three people so we had to rethink.  We also hadn't done a "big shop" so the cupboards were relatively bare.

We found mince in the freezer, a good start, but what to cook.  We'd had lasagne the other night so Spag boll was out the window.  The discovery of a packet of chapattis sealed the deal, curry it was.  Onions, garlic, mince, spices and a tin of tomatoes made the basic sauce.  Potatoes, peas and spring onions were added for bulk and freshness.  Rice #3 (basmati) was rolled out for this one.

Beef Wellington

It was 31st December 1999 that I realised that I didn't much care for being in groups on New Year's Eve.  We had gone to a circus themed party at a friend of a friend's house.  It was fancy dress.

Those of you who know me will know that I love fancy dress.  This time however, I had different ideas.  This was the millennium, the dawning of tomorrow.  The future, including hover-cars and food in pill form, started at 00:00 hours.  I wasn't going to spend that night dressed as a clown.  Not when I had already found a pukka silver shirt and blue hair dye.

The party went as house parties do.  I was found mostly in the kitchen, chatting to those I knew (about 30%) about stuff*.  This was fine, until 9:30pm when the assembled guests were ushered into the living room, I had a bad feeling about this.  I asked my "friend" what was going on.

"We're going to do our acts now." he uttered matter of factly.  "What acts?"  "You know, we all have to do a circus act as part of the fun." My heart sank faster than the Belgrano.  I had no idea about this part of the party.  Z and I quickly cobbled together a shonky high-wire mime.  Fortunately we'd drunk enough to be truly wobbly on the wire and we didn't need the safety net.

To add insult to injury we then had to brave the elements to watch the fireworks.  This was so badly timed that we missed the big count down to the year 2000 and nothing happened.  Aeroplanes were meant to drop out of the sky, ATMs should have been chucking money onto the streets and Walt Disney was scheduled to raise from the grave.  The Millennium bug didn't strike, a bulb on the Christmas tree went out and that was it.

We have since had the majority of New Year's Eves at home, just Z and I with superb food, wine, company and Jools on the telly Hootannanying through the wee small hours.  This year we're going for beef wellington as the good food.

Not everybody likes their beef cooked the same way**, so individual wellies are the way forward.   Tis the season, and all that, so we are having sprouts.  It's the only time of the year that I get to eat them.  Served with boulangere potatoes, a grand way to see out 2011.

For the record I have enjoyed NYEs in the presence of others since 2000, mostly with my old school friends from Milton Keynes and Z's from Windsor. Whoever you are with, whatever you are doing, happy new year. 

*Stuff is great, I could waffle on about stuff for ages.
**I like mine to remember mooing and pastures green.