Osso Buco

Until last week, I had never tried the classic Milanese dish, osso buco, let alone made it myself. It's something I have been intent on cooking for some time, but the main ingredient, thick slices of veal shin, have eluded me. I have never been interested in making a variation on with a substitute for the veal, such as pork- I wanted to try the real thing. My butcher had osso buco in stock the other week- this is not a regular occurrence, so I took the opportunity to buy what I could.

I mentioned wanting to try the real thing- osso buco is one of those dishes that has a lot of dispute on how to cook it the correct way- namely, whether or not tomatoes should be added to the dish. I am not an experienced enough cook to join in on this debate, so I went with the advice of Anna Del Conte, who is both Milanese and author of some of my favourite cookery books. She is very clear on her opinion that tomatoes should not be added to osso buco. I wouldn't rule out trying it, as I would like to be able to form my own opinion on the great tomato debate, but veal is a bit too expensive for me to buy often enough to experiment.

I served the osso buco with the it's classic pairing, risotto alla Milanese. The recipe I used suggested using some beef marrow into the risotto, which I sadly do not have a ready supply of- I used the listed substitution of pancetta. The big slices of veal I had, did hold a lot of wonderful, creamy marrow, which was a real treat, especially with a sprinkling of sea salt on it- so I didn't feel I was missing out by not using marrow in the risotto too.

The recipe I used is here. I only had 4 slices of osso buco, but I kept the other ingredients in the same quantities. It meant I had a lot of leftover cooking liquid, but it was so delicately delicious that the remaining juices got eaten the next day with just some bread to soak it up.

Slow Cooked Beef Short Ribs with Chorizo and Borlotti Beans

I came up with this recipe last week, when I was craving something warming, but wanted to avoid the stodginess that winter food can often have. I used some flavourings that I associate more with late summer, such as orange, chilli and fennel, which lifted the dish from potential blandness.

The butcher near me had beef short ribs on offer, but any cut suitable for slow cooking would work. I enjoyed cooking with them though, using a bone-in cut meant the dish had a real body to it.

 For the beans, I had been given some home-grown borlotti beans, so I used them, but they don't have to be borlotti beans, and they certainly don't have to be fresh- dried or tinned would work fine too. If you are using dried, soak and cook them separately first. For tinned beans, I would add them to the dish about 1 hour before it is ready, so they don't disintegrate into the cooking liquid.

We just ate this with lots of bread and butter.

750g-1kg beef short ribs
200g chorizo- I used a pack of Brindisa mini chorizos
200ml red wine
1-2 tbsp plain flour
Beef stock, to cover- approx 500ml
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 stick celery, diced
2 red onions, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
approx 6 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
small bunch thyme leaves
sprig rosemary
Juice of 1 small orange, plus a strip of zest (ideally use an unwaxed orange)
1-2 dried chillis
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 handful fresh/ dried, soaked and cooked borlotti beans (or one tin)

Roughly chop the chorizo into chunks, or, if you happen to be using the same type as I did, just cut them into individual sausages. Brown the chorizo in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Remove with a slotted spoon to a casserole dish, leaving behind the paprika-y oil. Put the flour on a plate, and season, then lightly coat the beef ribs with the seasoned flour. Brown in the same pan used to cook the chorizo, over a high heat, so the surface gets nicely caramelized. Whilst this is cooking, add all the other ingredients to the casserole dish except for the beef stock, and stir to combine. Add the beef once full browned, and add enough beef stock to cover. Bring to a simmer on the hob, then turn the heat down, cover, and cook for approximately 3 hours, or until the beef is very tender. I chose to remove the rib bones from the beef, cut it into chunks, and stir it back into the stew before serving.

Germknödel and Custard

I am always on the lookout for new recipes, and have a ever-growing list of dishes to try at some undetermined point in the future. As soon as I saw this recipe for sweet, steamed jam filled dumplings, I had to make them- normally I  shop around for a recipe, to find the something perfect. But I was cold, hungry, and utterly seduced by the idea of dumplings, custard and a sweet poppy seed butter in one dish. And they have become one of my favourite puddings-something for a cold day, when you are enjoying a cold day indoors with the sort of friends who are willing to give you a hand with mixing dough or heating up custard, or even just chat while you shape and fill the buns.

My knowledge of Austrian cuisine really only goes so far as germknödel. But as far as introductions go, they make a spectacular one. The name germknödel, and their English description of jam dumpling evokes a heavy stodgy dish- in fact they are surprisingly light- in terms of taste, at least.

Germknodel for three.

The recipe came from a Guardian article 'The 10 Best Dumpling Recipes', which is as good as it sounds. If you want to make your own custard, I recommend Delia's recipe- it is very good. However, the dumpling recipe is quite involved, so I think good shop bought custard would be a perfectly acceptable accompaniment.

The dough after proving- it is very soft and silky, and really nice to work with!

Red Cooked Pork

Served with steamed rice and pak choi, to cut through the richness of the fatty pork belly

Red cooking is what you would expect- the cooking process (a slow braise) imparts a red colour to your chosen meat. The flavour is rich, slightly sweet and deep. This is a variant of another recipe from Sunflower's blog- I have used other recipes, but this is my favourite. This time I made it, I did not use potatoes, which are used as a thickening agent as well as an extra comforting carb. I rather like drowning my rice in the thinner liquid, but you may feel differently- if so you can refer to Sunflowers instruction. I also cooked it for a lot longer than suggested, about 2 hours longer. For this reason, I use a casserole, and not a wok. The meat holds together, but barely, and the skin and fat from the pork belly is a soft, gelatinous treat.

You may need a trip to your local Chinatown for the fermented red beancurd and anything else, but nothing on the list of ingredients should be hard to find.

*Update 14/10/15*
This is still a fairly regular meal I make. I haven't changed anything I do cooking-wise, but I would like to recommend having some good chilli oil to hand when eating this.
I cooked this last night- here are some new photos:

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
About 400g belly pork, cut into small chunks
1 rounded tbsp of red fermented beancurd, mashed
2 tbsp of the red pickling juice from the fermented beancurd
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 - 3 slices ginger
1 tsp five spice powder
3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 star anise
1 tbsp light soy
1 tbsp dark soy or mushroom soy
3 tsp sugar
some ground pepper

Method
Heat the oil to a high heat in a casserole, and stir fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add the beancurd with some liquid from the jar, five spice and star anise, cook for a few seconds, then add the pork. Continue to stir fry for a few minutes, then add the wine, soy sauces and sugar, plus enough water to cover the pork. Bring the pan to the boil, and then reduce to a low heat.
Cook for about 2 hours on a very low simmer, until the meat is extremely soft.
Serve with rice.

Szechuan Beef Claypot

I recently tried Szechuan Beef claypot at Festive Kitchen, one of the many Chinese Restaurants on William Street in Perth. It almost reached my heat tolerance, but not quite, and was addictively delicious- hence my attempt at recreating it at home.

Festive Kitchen has mostly good reviews on Urban Spoon- I like it a lot. I noticed a few negative comments regarding the service, however from both my visits, I found the staff to be very friendly and efficient. As well as this beef dish, I can recommend the soft shell crab, which comes crispy and with an incredibly liberal sprinkling of garlic, chilli and spring onion, and the deep-fried pork leg, which has a gloriously gelatinous half meat half fat quality.
The restaurant itself is a little more expensive than the noodle bars that Festive Kitchen neighbours, but for a treat it's worth a visit.

I found a recipe that looked similar to the dish we had eaten on the blog Yi Reservation. Despite a plethora of Chinese supermarkets nearby, I couldn't find anything labelled Sichuan Chilli Bean Paste, but I did find Sichuan Chilli Bean Sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand), so I bought this and hoped for the best. I also added a little extra than suggested on Yi Reservation, as sauce suggests more dilution than paste. I also left out the radish/potatoes, as the version I had at Festive Kitchen was starchless.

I don't own a wok, and because I am leaving the country in 6 weeks, do not want to buy any kitchen equipment. So instead of frying the flavourings and meat in a wok and then transferring to a casserole, I did all the cooking in the casserole. I have written the recipe out using this method, but for the original way, see the link to Yi Reservation above.

I was very pleased with the result- when I make it next time (and there will be a next time), I will probably add a few extra dried chillies. I stirred in a little extra chilli bean sauce mid cooking to heat it up, but it is also quite salty so I think extra chilli from the start would have been a better solution.

Dried spices

Ingredients
1-1.5kg beef- something suitable for casseroling
2 tbsp groundnut, vegetable or sunflower oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled and whole
2 inch ginger
2 tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste/cauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 small rock sugar, or brown sugar
4 tbsp Chinese cooking wine.
1 lite water or beef stock
4 star anise
6 dried chillies
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn
1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 cloves
1 piece dried orange peel
4 bay leaves
2 black cardamom pods

Chopped spring onion, to serve

Method
Cut the beef into 2-3cm chunks. Blanch in boiling water, and then refresh in cold water. Drain and set aside.
Heat the oil in a casserole, and gently fry the garlic, ginger and chilli bean sauce for about 3 minutes over a low heat. Add the beef to to casserole, and stir to coat in the sauce. Add the soy sauce, sugar and wine, and cook for another two minutes. Add the spices and stock. Bring the pan to a simmer, and then turn the heat down to low, and cook until the beef is tender (1-2 hours).
Sprinkle over the chopped spring onion before serving with rice.

If you have leftovers, you can also turn it into spicy beef noodle soup, simply by adding some freshly cooked noodles to the broth.

Chilli con Carne

Despite popular belief, chilli con carne with kidney beans is a British concoction, not American . In the States they do make chilli, and take the whole business very seriously, but the beans are served alongside. Rice as a side dish is also a British thing, saltine crackers seem to be the typical accompaniment in the US.

Bad chilli con carne seems to be almost expected- it's student food, or greasy pub food, but there's no reason for this to be the case. Well made, it's delicious, warming and comforting. I use Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe with little variation. It's never failed me. In his recipe, he suggests making a rich tomato sauce by reducing some tinned tomatoes with garlic until pulpy. I used to do that, but now I just add the tinned tomatoes straight from the can, and cook the chilli for longer, on the lowest possible heat. Both methods work, I just prefer to avoid the extra washing up.

Chilli with sour cream and cornbread

Ingredients
Olive oil, for frying
 1kg minced beef
750g pork shoulder or similar cut, cut into 2cm cubes
500g chorizo, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 400g tins of kidney beans, drained, or 200g dried kidney beans, soaked overnight
2 onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
800g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp cumin
chilli powder, to taste. Start with about a tbsp, and increase accordingly
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 tsp good quality cocoa
pinch brown sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
750 ml pork or beef stock, or kidney bean cooking water

Method
If you are using dried beans, drain them from the soaking liquid, and put in a saucepan. Cover with fresh water- about twice the volume of the beans. Bring to the boil, and boil hard for at least 10 minutes. Boiling kills the toxins in the beans, so don't miss this stage out. Turn the heat down to low and cook until the beans are soft, and not at all chalky. Retain the cooking water if you don't have any stock.

Heat a tablespooon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Brown the meats in batches, over a high heat. You will probably need to add more oil to the frying pan. Once a frying panful is done, transfer the contents to a casserole or heavy bottomed saucepan, something that is large enough to hold everything. Cook the onions and garlic in the same frying pan as the meat, over a lower heat, until softened. Add these to the casserole.

Add the remaining ingredients to the casserole, giving it a good stir. Put the pot on over a low heat, partially covered. Cook for at least two hours. Season-salt, pepper, and possibly Tabasco.

Beef Massaman Curry

Although this is a Thai recipe, it lacks some of the characteristic flavours that many of us associate with Thai cooking. For a start, it is quite a mild dish, unlike most other Thai curries. The curry paste also contains a few of dried spices, which are not often used in Thai cuisine, and the resulting flavour seems almost Indian.
Even though it lacks the fire of a green curry, I think it may be my favourite variety of Thai curry, its flavour is rich and complex and is comforting whilst being anything but boring. So far I have only made it with beef, but you can also make it with chicken. Personally I think beef might be the better choice, it stands up well to the flavours, but I have eaten with with chicken in restaurants and enjoyed it too. Using beef has the added advantage of needing a long, slow cooking, which in turn does wonders for the flavours of the curry. It's even better eaten a day or too after cooking, the spices seem to mellow and deepen in the fridge.

Ingredients
2 400g tins coconut milk
1/2 quantity massaman curry paste
600g boneless beef, cut into small pieces- the sort of cut you would use for a casserole
1 onion, peeled and finely slice
abot 500g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2cm cubes
2 tbsp tamarind paste
palm sugar, to taste
fish sauce, to taste
Handful of cashews or peanuts-optional

Method
Scoop off the thick layer of the coconut milk in each tin and put in a heavy based saucepan. There should be about half left in each tin. Add the curry paste to the pan, and cook over a high heat for a few minutes. Stir in the beef and the rest of the coconut milk, and top up with water so the beef is submerged. Turn down the heat to the lowest setting and leave to simmer until almost completely tender.
About 20 minutes before you want to eat, add the potatoes and the sliced onion to the pan and cook until the potatoes are cooked through. Season with the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce, and stir in the nuts just before eating.

 

Chicken and Chorizo Gumbo

This is the second gumbo recipe on this blog, the other on can be found here. I usually make a chicken and chorizo one, on good days I'll add some prawns too. Andouille, a coarse grained Cajun sausage is what I should be using, but I've yet to see it on sale. Instead I use chorizo, which isn't authentic, but its smoky-spiciness goes well in gumbo.
Gumbo can be thickened in three ways, with okra, with filé powder or with a roux. Okra is one of the few foods I really dislike and filé powder- dried and crushed sassafras leaves- is another ingredient that eludes me. So I have only made it with a roux, which according to Wikipedia is now the most popular method. This time I used pork fat for the roux, and was really pleased with the result.
According to the Gumbo Pages (and where else would you go for a gumbo recipe?) the three golden rules for making a good gumbo are:

• use homemade stock 
• use homemade stock
• use homemade stock

Which explains the subject of my previous post. It does make a difference, both in texture and flavour, however I have made it with bought stock before and it is still a dish worth eating. It slightly lacks the body that homemade stock gives.
Technically gumbo is soup, but not the light-lunch variety. It is thick and bolstering, served over plain rice- definitely a meal in itself.

Edit: Some notes on making the roux.
I don't claim to be a gumbo expert; I still have a lot to learn. I was looking at some other websites devoted to cooking gumbo, which unlike The Gumbo Pages, have photos. I was struck by how much darker the roux and finished dish were than my gumbos had been. So I experimented with cooking my roux to a milk chocolate hue, previously I had not gone further than a biscuit brown. The taste at the end is richer and nuttier.
It takes a long time to get the roux to this colour, at least 30 minutes. You can't rush it, it has to be done over a low heat, and be stirred constantly, or it will burn and you have to start again. And please stir gently, splashing yourself with this roux, or Cajun napalm, gives terrible burns.
The darker the roux the thinner the soup, but even so, it is still relatively thick. The general consensus seems to be pale rouxs for gumbos with seafood, and darker rouxs for richer, meatier soups.

Paler Roux

Dark Roux

Gumbo made with dark roux

Ingredients
Creole Seasoning:
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

800g skinless, boneless chicken thighs , cut into 2cm cubes (I bought 1kg bone-in thighs, and used the bones in my stock along with the chicken carcass)
200g cooking chorizo, diced into cubes
1 green pepper
1 onion
3 sticks celery
4 cloves garlic
1 cup (250ml) pork fat or oil
1 cup (250ml) plain flour
1.5  litres chicken stock
Cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
Tabasco or other hot sauce
Bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
5 spring onions, chopped

Boiled rice, to serve

Method
Place the chicken in a bowl. Mix together the ingredients for the seasoning, and sprinkle over the chicken, making sure it is all coated. Set aside while you deal with the vegetables. Peel and dice the onion, deseed and dice the pepper, dice the celery, and peel and finely chop the garlic. Set these aside too.
Now to brown the meats: Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a high flame, and quickly brown the chicken. Remove, and do the same with the chorizo. Remove the chorizo from the pan with a slotted spoon so as much fat as possible is left behind.
Start the roux; in a large heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the fat. When it is hot, add the flour. Stir constantly until the mixture turns a biscuity colour and smells toasted. This takes a while, but it's an  important stage for flavour. Stir in the prepared vegetables into the roux so the mixture coats them like batter. Cook for about 5 minutes until softened, stirring regularly. Mix in the meats and then pour in the stock. Stir. Season with the cayenne, dried thyme, hot sauce and pepper. How much cayenne and hot sauce you use is up to you. Leave to cook on a low heat for at least an hour, until the soup has thickened. Taste and make any adjustments you feel it needs- I always add salt now, and usually more hot sauce. Stir in the parsley and spring onion before serving.

Chicken Stock

There is no definitive recipe for chicken stock, what I put in it on one occasion will probably vary the next. I'll always include some onion, carrot and celery, but if I have trimmings from other vegetables, such as the coarse part of leeks, then they will go in too. I always try to include some bay leaves at the very least, but thyme, rosemary and parsley stalks are additions that feature regularly too.

 You can use a leftover chicken carcass from a roast, or a fresh one.  Using a carcass from a roast makes a brown stock, which is rich and full bodied. Uncooked chicken makes a white stock, which is ideal for lighter dishes. Chicken wings make very good stock too, their high proportion of bone is what you want for a stock. Add giblets if you have them, except for the liver, which will make the stock bitter.

Always start with cold water, and only add enough to cover the stock ingredients. Hugh F-W likens it to making tea, if you use one teabag in a large teapot you'll end up with a weak brew. It's tempting to use more water than you should- after all, you'll get more stock- but it won't have much flavour or be able to offer much by way of gelatinous texture, which is the point of making your own stock. Don't let the stock boil when you're making it. Boiling causes the fat to emulsify with the stock which you don't want. Some people will have you clarifying the stock with egg whites and crushed eggshells, I'm content to just skim as much unwanted stock grease as I can off the top.

Ingredients
Chicken bones- e.g. Leftover carcass from a roast chicken, or a fresh chicken carcass or chicken wings

Vegetables- onion, carrot and celery plus any extras, such as leeks, mushroom peelings.

Aromatics- On this occasion, I used a one teaspoon black peppercorns, 2 cloves of garlic, and some rosemary, thyme and parsley.


Method
If you are staring with fresh chicken and want to make a brown stock, start by roasting the bones on a high heat in the oven until they are golden brown.

Put everything in a heavy bottomed saucepan, or a stockpot if you possess one. Cover with cold water, poking any rogue bones or flavourings that stick out back under the water- if they aren't covered, they won't be giving anything to the stock, and you want to extract all the flavour you can.

Slowly bring the water to a simmer, and then turn the heat down to the lowest setting so that the stock just emits a few gentle bubbles. Leave for 2 hours, at the very least, about 5would be perfect. Don't allow it to boil at any point.

Strain the stock twice, once with a colander to remove the large pieces, and then with a sieve, preferably lined with a (clean) piece of muslin to catch everything else. Allow to cool, and place in the fridge. The fat will solidify and settle on the top, and then you can remove it easily with some kitchen roll.

You can keep this in the fridge for about two days or freeze for a later date.

Braised Red Cabbage with Pomegranate Molasses and Cranberries

Red cabbage always comes out at Christmas time, it goes perfectly with my favourite festive meats, goose and gammon. It also has the bonus of benefiting of being prepared a day of so in advance, something that's definitely helpful around Christmas if you're responsible for most of the cooking. At other times of year, it's a fantastic foil for the fattiness of duck and salmon.

Pomegranate molasses had it's heyday as a fashionable ingredient a few years ago, when Nigella brought it to the masses, and might be dismissed by the trend conscious now. But like other foodstuffs that suffered overuse-balsamic vinegar, sundried tomatoes, that doesn't mean they're not good. Pomegranate molasses is dark, sticky and sour, adding an extra depth to the cabbage.

Ingredient
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 red cabbage, cored and finely sliced
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
25g dried cranberries
250ml cranberry juice
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

Method
In a casserole, heat the olive oil over a medium heat, and fry the onion in it until softened. Add the garlic, and cook for a few minutes more. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the vinegar, season, and just bring the liquid to a simmer. Put on a lid, turn the heat down and leave to cook, stirring when you remember. You can't really overcook red cabbage, but 2 hours should do it. Reheat when you are ready to eat.

Epaule d'Agneau Boulangère

This is Sunday lunch made easy, something for the days when the military precision of a traditional roast is too much to deal with. There's a little preparation, then you can forget about it while you get on with other things. A few hours later you are rewarded with fork-tender meat and melting potatoes, imbued with the fat and juices from the lamb. All you need alongside is something green, maybe some beans with a little butter, although recently I upped my game with purple sprouting broccoli, dressed in anchovy, garlic, parsley and olive oil.

 Ingredients
1 shoulder of lamb
olive oil
glass white wine
1-1.5 kg waxy potatoes
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
Leaves from a few sprigs of rosemary

Method
Preheat the oven to its highest setting. Sit the lamb in roasting tin that will be large enough to accommodate the lamb and the potatoes, sliced, later. Rub your joint with a little olive oil, and season with salt and black pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven. Now peel and slice the potatoes and onion, and peel and roughly chop the garlic. Chop the rosemary Turn the heat down to 160 degrees. Remove the pan from the oven, and put the lamb on a chopping board while you get in with arranging the vegetables. Deglaze the pan with some white wine, scraping at any browned bits in the pan. Now add the potatoes, onions, garlic and rosemary. Many recipes tell you to layer the onion and potato, but I find it easier and just as good to toss them all in together, along with some salt and pepper. Place the lamb back on top, and put the whole thing back in the oven. Leave for 3-4 hours, till the meat is tender.

Beef and Guinness Casserole with Sage Dumplings

Ingredients:
25 grams butter
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced,
1 stick celery, diced
Handful thyme leaves, chopped
Few tbps flour
Olive oil
1 kg beef shin or other stewing beef, cut into 3cm pieces
200 grams bacon or pancetta, diced
500 ml Guinness or other stout
500 ml beef stock
Worcestershire Sauce, to taste
250 grams chestnut mushrooms, sliced

For the dumplings:
175 grams self raising flour
80 grams suet
Pinch salt
5 sage leaves, finely chopped
Water

Method:
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. In a casserole, slowly cook the onion, carrot and celery over a medium-low heat in the butter on the hob. While the vegetables are doing their thing, heat a tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan and spread the flour out on a plate with some seasoning. Toss the beef shin in the flour and when the pan is good and hot, brown the pieces in batches, transferring to a bowl or similar as you go. You may need to add some extra oil. Cook the bacon in the same pan until the fat starts to run, and put with the beef. Return your attention to the vegetables by stirring in the thyme leaves. Cook for about half a minute. Put the meats into the casserole along with the Guinness and the stock. Season with salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce. Bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven. Now leave it to cook for at least 2 hours until the meat is very tender.

At this stage you can let it cool and continue when you want to eat it later. Otherwise, about half an hour before you want to eat, cook the mushrooms in a little butter until the juices start to run. Add them to the casserole. Sift together the salt and flour in a mixing bowl, then stir in the suet and chopped sage. Mix with enough water to make a firmish dough, and shape into 6 balls. Place them on top of the stew, and cook for another 25 minutes with the lid off until the dumplings are golden on top. Serve with bread and butter, or creamy mashed potato.

Gumbo z'Herbes

oI don't know too much about Louisianian cookery, although it's on my ever-growing list of cuisines to explore. The Gumbo Pages is a wonderful source, it's saved me from buying yet more recipe books and my bookshelves from completely collapsing under the weight of said books. Remarkable Feasts by Leslie Forbes is the only book I own with Cajun/Creole recipes, and the recipe below is basically the same as hers, with a few small differences. I think this lovely book is sadly out of print, so if you see it, buy it.

There are many, many types of gumbo, probably each having their own personal recipe, so the search for the 'proper' way to make one is fruitless. What unites this type of gumbo is the roux, the oil and flour thickener that each gumbo starts with. Unlike the French roux that you would use to make a bechemal sauce, oil or bacon fat can be used instead of butter, and you cook the flour in the hot fat until it is browned. Watch out for burns, not for nothing is it known as Cajun Napalm.

Looking at various recipes online, it seems the inclusion of a ham hock is common in a gumbo z'herbes. Leslie Forbes uses pickled pork instead, which you make yourself by macerating spare ribs in cider vinegar and spices for 24 hours. If you don't have the time or the inclination to start your cooking a day in advance, I'd advise adding a ham hock to the soup at the time that you would have added the pork.

Ingredients
For the pickled pork:
500 grams spare ribs
2-3 tbsps black peppercorns, crushed
2 tbsps sea salt
1 dried bay leaf, crumbled
2 dried chillies, crumbled
Cider vinegar, to cover

Put the ribs and spices in a non-reactive container (i.e. glass or plastic), and cover with the vinegar. Cover, and leave for at least 24 and up to 48 hours in the fridge.

For the soup:
3 tbsp clarified butter, oil or bacon fat
3 tbsp flour
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
250 grams spinach, trimmed
250 grams spring greens/ kale, trimmed
1 pint chicken stock
500 grams pickled pork, rinsed and patted dry
1 clove
1 tsp allspice berries
2 tsp cayenne
Freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, to finish

In a large pot heat the butter, oil or fat. Add the flour and cook until lightly browned, stirring all the time. Add the onion, garlic and pepper and cook until they are softened and coated in the floury mixture. Add the spinach and greens, and cook for 10 minutes with the lid on until they have wilted down. Puree the mixture- easier with a free-standing blender or food processor, but less washing with a hand held blender. Return the gloriously green mixture to pan (if using blender or food processor) and add the pickled pork, clove, cayenne and allspice. Simmer for at least an hour until the meat can be removed from the bone with minimal persuasion. Serve over rice, or with buttered biscuits.

Braised Lamb with White Wine, Fennel and Olives

From time to time, I find myself utterly at a loss at deciding what to cook. For a good 5 minutes I was standing at the butchers counter waiting for inspiration to strike. There were a lot of prime cuts on show, probably because it's the weekend, and I was looking for something at the other end of the spectrum, such as pork belly or beef shin. Eventually I settled on a solitary lamb shank- not as cheap as they were, since every restaurant has one on its menu now- but not bank-breaking either. The most common way lamb shank turns up in said restaurants is slow cooked with a rich red wine reduction. Although perfect for the depths of winter, too heavy for the current humidity. Something fresher is required.

This time, I turned to Greek flavours for my inspiration: oregano, lemon and bay, as well as thyme and some chilli for heat. Still going with the slow cooking though, this cut demands it.

I tasted during the cooking, and found I needed to add something to sweeten it, hence the sugar in the ingredients list. I should have realised, really, that the bitterness of the fennel and olives would need something to counteract it. Thankfully this sort of cooking can be very forgiving, and I managed to rescue the balance.

Honesty-time: I haven't eaten it yet. I've tried it, both meat and juices, but it had gotten too late by the time the lamb had cooked to the requisite melting softness for me to be hungry. I had enough to know I like it. But I will be having it tomorrow, slowly reheated. I'm leaning towards cooking some soup pasta, orzo or similar, in the winey juices and shredding the lamb to make a comforting, upmarket broth, but we'll see.

Ingredients
1 lamb shank
Olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
1 small bulb fennel, sliced
1 small carrot, halved lengthways
Thymes leaves, chopped
Oregano leaves, chopped
2 bay leaves
pinch chilli flakes
strip of unwaxed lemon zest
200ml white wine
small handful black olives
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

In a lidded casserole or similar, heat the olive oil to a high heat on the hob. Season the lamb shank with salt and pepper, and brown the meat all over in the oil. Turn the heat to low, remove the lamb, and turn the onion, fennel, carrot, herbs, lemon zest and chilli flakes in the fat for a few minutes. Return the lamb to the pan, add the olives, and pour over the wine. Add the sugar, bring liquid to a simmer, turn the heat down to low, put a lid on, and leave to cook for at least two hours, until the meat is truly tender, i.e, you can shred it with a fork. Adjust seasoning, eat.
Serves 1