Salt Beef

 

Salt Beef Sandwiches at Ascot.

I had only once had Salt Beef, when Grandpa Jamus took GG and I to Royal Ascot, as guests of the queen no less. However the food was heinously expensive, and it was pouring with rain, and we couldn't exactly bring our own picnic to Queens tent, so we ended up all having these massive salt beef sandwiches while watching the racing. They were amazing, if a little tricky to eat in our best clothes. (We did get a free tea later, courtesy of H.M.) 

Anyways, I spotted this piece of brisket on offer for a couple of quid in the supermarket and brought it home to make salt beef. I admit to forgetting about it, parked up next to some incubating chicks in the shed, so it brined for ten days, rather than seven. 

Recipe

From The Daily Telegraph.

I love salt beef (oh, those sandwiches you get in New York delis!) but was rather scared of making it. Once I tried it, though, I found it simple (and exciting – my children were intrigued at the big chunk of meat brining in the house). It's also unbelievably good value, giving a massive bit of beef for a crowd (with leftovers for those delicious sarnies). Ask your butcher for a lovely fatty bit of brisket. Tell him what it's for. The more fat, the better the flavour. Saltpetre isn't mandatory, but it gives a lovely pink colour. It's available from sausagemaking.org.

For the brine 
275g (9¾oz) soft light-brown sugar
350g (12oz) coarse sea salt
2 tsp black peppercorns
½ tbsp juniper berries
4 cloves
4 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
55g (2oz) saltpetre (optional)

For the beef 
2.5kg (5lb 8oz) piece of beef brisket
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 celery stick, roughly chopped
1 leek, cut into large chunks
1 bouquet garni
½ head of garlic

Put all the ingredients for the brine into a very large saucepan, pour in 2.5 litres (4½ pints) of water and gradually bring to the boil, stirring to help the sugar and salt dissolve. Once it comes to the boil, let it bubble away for two minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool completely.

Pierce the meat all over with a skewer. Put it in a large, sterilised plastic box or bucket (something non-reactive) and cover the meat with the brine; it must be totally immersed. The best thing I've found for weighing it down is two massive bottles of vodka. Put them in on top of the meat and it will stay below the level of the brine. Leave in a very cool place (a cellar or a room that is always freezing cold – most houses have one). Leave it for seven days.

Take the beef out of the brine and rinse it. Roll and tie the meat and put it in a pan with the vegetables, bouquet garni and garlic, adding enough cold water to cover. Bring the water to simmering point, then leave to poach gently – I mean gently – for two and a half to three hours. Cook until the meat is completely tender (check with a skewer).

Serve in slices with pickles, horseradish cream, English mustard or piccalilli. You can serve it hot (reheat it in the broth in which it has cooked) or cold. It will keep for a week in the refrigerator; wrap it well so it stays moist.

 

The End Result

 

I brought it to the boil, and then put it in the slow oven overnight, amazing results! I've never been to N.Y. so can't vouch for their salt beef, but this was every bit as good as the ones we'd had racing.

A dragon please...

So Serena wanted a dragon for her 3rd birthday. A coloury one. Much trawling of the internet later, I found a basic template to follow, then decorated with multi coloured buttons.

 

Take one 8" victoria sponge

 

Cut into the cake in two, one half is the body, then cut the remaining half into the tail and head, so an unequeal tapering moon shape, which leaves you with a small semi circle. I pulled this apart and cut in half again, using one part for the head, and the other two bits for the legs.

 

 

 

Apply liberal amounts of butter cream icing.

 

And decorate how you see fit. I used loads of multicoloured melts.Then a white choc bar, snapping the squares in half, for his ears and spikes.

Bresaola

I LOVE bresaola, but you don't seem to be able to buy it here, or perhaps you can Waitrose for an exorbitant sum of cling wrapped tasteless meat.
I thought I'd have a crack at making it, having a small bit of topside in the freezer.

 
Recipe from www.britishlarder.co.uk

For the bresaola

• 24g sea salt
• 80g dark soft brown or muscovado sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon dried juniper berries
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mixed rosemary and thyme leaves
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• finely grated zest of 2 oranges

• 2.4g - 3.2g cure #2 (also know as Prague powder #2) – it’s important that you follow the measurements for this cure correctly; do not use more than the recipe specification (see Cook’s Notes)
• 1.2–1.6kg topside of beef

For the bresaola, pound all the ingredients together, except the beef, using a pestle and mortar until roughly crushed. Place the meat on a large tray and then divide the crushed cure mixture in half. Reserve one half in an airtight container (at room temperature is fine) and then massage the other half all over the beef. Wrap the beef tightly in cling film and place it on a clean tray or in a suitable container in the fridge for 5 days. Turn the beef once a day.

After 5 days, remove the cling film, pat the meat dry and then rub the remaining cure mixture all over the beef. Wrap it again in fresh cling film and return it to the fridge as before for a further 5 days, turning the beef daily.

After the second period of 5 days, remove the cling film and pat the meat dry. Wrap the beef in muslin cloth and secure with butcher’s string, then hang the meat in the fridge at around 5°C for 4 weeks. (If, however, you can hang the bresaola in a suitable cool, dark, well-ventilated shed or room at the ideal temperature of between 10–15°C, with relative humidity at 70–80% (see Cook’s Notes), then it should be ready in 3 weeks.) Make sure you label the meat with a tag with the production date; this will help you to follow the progress.

The bresaola is ready when the meat has lost about 30% of its original weight (so it’s also a good idea to weigh the wrapped meat before you hang it). Once the bresaola is ready, remove the muslin cloth, wrap the bresaola tightly in cling film or keep it in a dry, airtight container, and store it in the fridge. Use within 2 weeks.

I hung this in an old (clean!) nappy muslin in the shed for three weeks in April. It did have a couple of mouldy spots, but apparently this is quite normal, I wiped them off with a veg brush. I then rubbed flour into it to give it that powdery look, as it looked a bit unapealing freshly unwrapped. It was GOOD, esp with a squeeze of lemon, can't say it lasted long...

I think I should have blitzed the spice rub, rather than pound it, as it was a bit lumpy.

Cannelini bean minestrone

This is such a great, warming, thick soup for yet another wet winter day. I'd spent the morning trying to shore up the chickens pen, so they weren't sloshing about in stinking mud. Normally they free range but the fox has been visiting, and took my pair of Barnevelders on Monday so sadly the rest of the flock are confined to barracks for a bit. Anyway two hours squelching around in the wet, lugging sacks of damp chip bark about and I needed a quick, comforting soup.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

Large spoonful of frozen tiny veg mix ( if you haven't discovered this, it's AMAZING. Finely chopped onion, celery and carrot in the freezer section of most supermarkets.)
2 crushed garlic bulbs
I can cannelini beans
Pancetta cubes, or finely chopped bacon
Tiny pasta shapes (optional)


Fry off the frozen veg, and the garlic, them add the can of beans, liquid and all. Add a little more boiling water and a chicken stock cube. Simmer for about ten minutes. Meanwhile grill/fry the pancetta or chopped bacon. If you want pasta in the soup cook it separately until al dente, then add to the soup. I cooked it in the soup which was a mistake as it took ages, and everything kept sticking. Blitz the soup with a blender THEN stir in most of the pasta and bacon, and serve, garnished with a bit of bacon, pasta, some parsley and swirl of cream. As you can see I forgot to reserve any for the garnish!

Re-energising soup.

Jan is always a time of trying to undo the excess of Christmas and NY, and I eat lots of different version of this soup, you can make it almost as quickly as making a sandwich and it's a million times better. 

The basic recipe for any variety is sliced spring onions, a pack of miso paste, tea spoon of marigold veg bouillon, then I chuck in a couple of types of veg, some protein, and some noodles. This version was particularly good though.

1 sliced spring onion, in the diagonal if you want to be fancy.

1 packet of miso paste (optional) 

1 tsp of marigold veg bouillon or a stock cube.

Small finely sliced carrot

Pak choi, sliced.

Some cubed ham

20g rice noodles

Handful coriander

Fry up the onions for a minute or so, chuck everything else except the pak choi in, then bubble away until noodles are tender, add the pak choi for a minute then serve with coriander on top.

Microwave ratatouille.

I love ratatouille but somehow can never be bothered to wait around cooking it, frying off all that veg and baking it. So this was an experiment to do a speedy version using my new SISTEMA microwave steamer. I've got large drawer of microwave "ware" but having recently become a bit of a devotee to this brand.

First choose your aubergine, ideally they look like the one on the left, as the right hand one seems to have been brawling on a Friday night.

2 medium aubergines
3 sticks celery
1 carrot
1 shallot
1 fennel
3 bulbs of garlic, you'll prob want less but I'm paranoid about getting a cold at the moment.
(Plus any other dodgy looking veg lurking in the salad drawer.)


Chop up your veg, not too small. Smash the garlic and chop it. Put everything into your steamer (any covered microwave dish will do.) Microwave on high for about 10 ,minutes, until anything you test is soft in texture. Stir in a bit of ready made tomato sauce (I use sainsburys pasta tomato & herb sauce, it tastes fab and is pretty cheap.) Gently stir in the cherry tomatoes, some salt and pepper then put the whole lot under a grill, or ideally an oven/grill combo until browned. Stir again and lavishly apply chopped parsley/basil. I forgot my carrot, but the mix of veg isn't that important, use what ever you like. Classic ratatouille consists of aubergine, tomato and carrot, celery onion and garlic, but feel free to experiment. I meant to put in some new potatoes to appease my husband and bulk it out a a bit. I also forgot those, so we had them on the side, steamed with butter and chives.

Colour, vitamin and 'C' salad

Carrot, coriander, chickpea and cumin salad.


New Year, always a time of resolutions, some easier to keep than others. Mine is to eat more colours in my food, and lavish a little more love and time on our meals. Last years resolution was lose a shed load of weight, which I achieved, so this years seems easy by comparison.

This is a dead easy salad, and can be made up in a matter of minutes. Unless you burn the cumin and sodding nuts three times in a row of course.


2 peeled and grated carrots
1 can chickpeas, drained.
Handful chopped coriander
Tblsp toasted cumin
Small handful toasted chopped nuts. Ideally ones that begin with a c, (Cashews!) but I used pistachios.

Toast the cumin, and nuts in a small frying pan on the hob. I find this is the method least likely to end up in a blackened crumble smoking out the kitchen. Toss together all the ingredients with a couple of tablespoons of your favorite dressing. This can be served warm (30 secs in a microwave) or cold.