Recipe: Belly of Pork and Chorizo with butterbeans and peppers

Another winter warmer and it look as if we might need something to keep out the cold, with snow forecast for the middle of the week. The slow cooking of the pork makes it tender, the chorizo adds a little spicy warmth and garlic to keep the germs away.

Recipe: Beef short rib, mushroom and Guinness Stew

A real winter warmer using short rib of beef, a cheaper cut of beef that is succulent and soft when cooked slowly with wine or in this case stout/Guinness. Serves 4 Ingredients 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 kg of Beef short ribs 1 onion – diced 3 cloves of garlic – finely sliced 3 carrots…

Recipe: Pork Belly, Pancetta, Chorizo and Butterbeans

With a mixture of pork from Spain and Italy and a glug of Port from Portugal – is a bit of a southern European mash up, but it works well. Excellent food for this time of year… Serves 4 Ingredients 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 Spanish Onion – sliced 3 cloves of garlic – finely…

Recipe: Rabbit with Pappardelle

It is the 1st of March – so white rabbit to you or in this case wild rabbit! This is perfect for a cold winter’s night, rustic and simple. This as an adaptation of Gill Mellor’s (of River Cottage fame) recipe from gather, I’ve added carrots and mushrooms and swapped the smoked bacon with Chorizo….

Recipe: Pork steaks with cider, apple, fennel and leeks

Classic combinations as leeks, fennel, apples and cider all work well with pork and altogether cooked really simply and in a fool-proof way! Serves 4 Ingredients 2 tbsps. Olive oil 8 pork steaks or 4 pork chops 1/2 large fennel bulb or 1 larger one – cut into slices include the stalks and the fronds (it…

Recipe: Pot-roast shoulder of pork with cider, fennel and leeks + a left-over supplement.

A simple pot-roast with a classic combination of pork, cider, fennel and leeks – the apple and aniseed flavour complement the pork and the slow cooking in cider makes the joint tender and moist! Also as there will be some liquid/broth at the end, a suggestion for left-over soup. Serves 4 Ingredients I tbsp. of…

Recipe: Lamb and Mushroom Ragu

This used up the last bits of meat hanging from a leg I bought earlier in the week – three meals from one leg! This turned out to have a very deep flavour with very little effort – I just threw the ingredients in a casserole and used the oven – no browning the meat…

Recipe: Beef and beetroot stew

Another recipe that you can plonk in the oven and watch a film, whilst it cooks! You can use Beef skirt or another “cheap” cut such as shin or braising steak, that improves with longer cooking, Serves 4 Ingredients 750g Beef Skirt – cut into big chunks Flour – for dusting S&P Mixed Herbs 2…

Recipe: Lamb Shanks with aubergine and mushrooms

I was going to do a Moroccan style dish, but as found some Chestnut mushrooms on their last legs and the Troll Hag, not wanting rice, but mash I went for a northern European take, still using cinnamon, but went with rosemary rather than harrisa. Serves 2 Ingredients 2 tbsp. plain flour S&P 2 lamb…

Recipe: Beef, butternut squash and mushroom stew

A real winter warmer. I used beef skirt in this but you could use braising steak, shin etc that  requires cooking for a long slow time. Ingredients: 1 red Onion – chopped 2 tbsps oil 500g of butternut squash – peeled, core and cut into chunks 1kg of beef skirt – cubed 200g chestnut mushrooms – sliced…