Food and drink

Recipes: Favourite Winter Warmers

By Paul Clerehugh
February 11, 2010

Lamb Casserole, Celeriac Mash and Parsnip Crisps

Here’s a popular winter lamb casserole – use hogget or mutton if you can find it. Shoulder is the perfect cut here – there is plenty of lean meat marbled with a little fat, which makes the casserole succulent.

900g boned lamb shoulder
2tbsp vegetable oil
1tbsp plain flour
1 litre lamb stock – from a cube will do
1tbsp tomato puree
Handful of flat leaf parsley
1 large onion, medium chopped
1 turnip, cut into 2cm cubes
3 carrots, medium chopped
4 sticks celery, medium chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Freshly ground white pepper and Malden salt

Cut lamb shoulder into 2cm cubes, season with Malden salt and white pepper.

Heat a little oil in a large heavy saucepan and brown the meat on all sides. Pour off the oil, sprinkle the meat with the flour, cook for a further minute, add stock, garlic, tomato paste and parsley – simmer for 1 hour.

Heat a little oil in another large heavy saucepan and brown the onions before adding carrot, turnip and celery. Add the browned vegetables to the meat pan; continue to cook over a moderate heat for a further 40 minutes under a tightly fitting lid. Taste for seasoning. Allow the stew to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

In the photograph, I’ve accompanied the lamb with parsnip crisps and celeriac mash. The parsnip crisps were shredded with a vegetable peeler and deep fried in vegetable oil for 1½ minutes until golden. The mash was made from 800g peeled celeriac, cut into 3cm chunks and put into a large heavy saucepan with 600ml milk, which does not completely cover the celeriac. Cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer/steam for 25 minutes, drain through a colander, hand mash, add a knob of butter and season.

Braised Hare

Rich and delicious, hare is a special treat in my household. There is no shooting season for hare and therefore it is available throughout the year. However, it is illegal to sell hare between March 1 and July 31, although they are available frozen from game keepers. Try Vicars, West Street, Reading (0118) 957 2904, or Carl Woods, Sonning Common, on (0118) 972 2228.

Serves 4

1 hare, with liver and blood
For the marinade:
3 large onions, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
500ml red wine
1tbsp brandy
50ml oil
A bay leaf
A sprig of thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
200ml olive oil
200g smoked bacon, cut into cubes
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
20 button mushrooms
2tbsp redcurrant jelly
Malden salt and freshly ground black pepper

Get your butcher to cut up the hare, or do it yourself into thighs, forelegs and the saddle in four pieces, reserving the liver and blood.

Put the meat into a dish with the marinade ingredients. Cover and leave to marinade in the fridge for 24 hours.

The following day, remove and dry the pieces of hare, reserving the vegetables and the marinade.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan and brown the pieces of hare on each side, transferring the cooked pieces to an ovenproof casserole dish.

Put the sliced onions and carrot from the marinade and the bacon and garlic into the pan and allow them to brown before adding them to the casserole.

Pour in enough of the marinade liquid to cover hare, together with the bay leaf and sprig of thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 2 hours.

Meanwhile sauté the mushrooms in the pan. When the hare is cooked, remove the pieces to a platter, adding the mushrooms.

Chop up the liver and mix with the reserved blood, adding it to the cooking juices, together with the redcurrant jelly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer then strain over the hare.

Steak and Kidney Pie

A man in a restaurant says to the waiter: “I’ll have the steak and kiddley pie please.” “Sorry Sir,” says the waiter, “do you mean steak and kidney pie?” The man says: “That’s what I said, diddle I?”

Don’t be tempted to ruin the beefy flavour with loads of overpowering ingredients such as tomato puree, or Worcestershire sauce. The trick is to buy good quality braising steak and slowly cook it as simply as possible to emphasise it’s inherent flavour.

The first recorded steak and kidney pie recipe appeared in Mrs Beeton’s Household Management of 1859, the first written time kidney was added to a basic beef stew. Eliza Acton, in Modern Cookery of 1845, calls a steak pudding John Bull’s Pudding, which suggests a certain fame which had spread to other countries.

Young Mrs Beeton started by writing the cookery section of her husband’s magazine for women, The Englishwomen’s Domestic Magazine. Then with the aid of contributions from her readers, she compiled Household Management, which appeared in monthly parts with the magazine, beginning in 1859.

Chef’s tip: To check the size of your pie dish is suitable, pile in the raw meat. It should mound a good inch or so above the top of the dish. Always be slightly over-generous.

Filling

1kg braising steak
500g veal or ox kidney
2tbsp seasoned flour
1 large onion, chopped
90g butter
600ml beef stock, or half of each stock/red wine
250g mushrooms sliced
Bouquet garni
(Mrs Beeton also suggests an optional 24 oysters)

Pastry

600g puff, flaky or shortcrust pastry

Cut steak into 2cm cubes, slice kidney, discard fat and skin from both meats. Sprinkle with seasoned flour. Cook onion until lightly browned in two-thirds of the butter, add meat, colour rapidly. When browned, transfer meat to oven proof casserole.

Pour the stock into the frying pan and simmer for a minute, scrape all the tasty brown bits and pieces. Pour this over the meat. Fry the mushrooms in the remaining butter and add them with the bouquet garni to casserole. Cover with lid and simmer in pre-heated 160°C oven for 1½ hours – until just cooked, but still with a slightly tough bite. Allow to cool. If your casserole has yielded too much liquid, drain off and reduce.

Roll out the pastry. Cut strips wide enough to cover the rim of the pie dish and hang down a little inside it. Before securing the strips in place, brush the rim with water. Next put the cold filling into the dish. Brush water lightly over the pastry rim and cover the pie over with the remaining pastry.

Mrs Beeton suggests a pie funnel, not strictly necessary but a good idea. Set it in the pie centre, it will let steam escape and keep your crust up. Press the edges of the pastry firmly together, nicking at regular intervals. Make a hole in the centre to let your steam escape. Brush with beaten egg. Bake in preheated 200°C oven for 45 minutes.

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