Game Ragù

 

Introduction 

For Christmas, we got a selection of game including a 300g pack of diced mixed game. Looking for something to use this I came across an interesting ragù recipe in one of my Jamie Oliver books. We love Spaghetti Bolognese and I have already done a rich pasta sauce here. With some slight modifications, this is what I made:

Ingredients 

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

1 stick celery

1 large carrot

1 large parsnip 

All the above should be chopped as finely as you can. 

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano 

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tin chopped tomatoes 

1 glass of wine

Jamie's recipe suggests white wine makes a lighter sauce, I used red since we had no white

About half a pint of Chicken stock

300g mixed game

I also reckon that lamb or beef would also work

2 tsp balsamic vinegar 

Fresh chopped parsley 

Orange zest

Salt, pepper, Parmesan to taste

Pasta of your choosing 

Method

• Heat some oil in an oven proof pan
• Add the onion, garlic, celery, carrot & parsnip. Fry gently for 8-10 mins
• Stir in the dried herbs and tomato purée and cook for a further 5-8 mins. 
• Add the wine, tinned tomatoes, stock, salt, pepper & vinegar and bring to a gentle boil. 
• Now add the game meat and simmer for at least 2 hrs with the lid off. The meat should be falling apart. If the sauce gets too dry, add a touch more water but keep the sauce thick
• Cook your fave pasta as per instructions. 
• Just before serving, mix in a handful each of fresh chopped parsley and Parmesan. Grate zest from about half an orange in. This adds a fantastic, unexpected flavour. 
• Garnish with more parsley, Parmesan & black pepper. 

Enjoy 😉

Lamb Tagine

Introduction

Looking at the veg we got in the last delivery, there were a few interesting things we thought we'd like to do. I've always wanted a proper tagine, but there was no reason why we still couldn't make one. A recent addition to the cookerybookshelf was the Hairy Dieters which contained an interesting and easy looking Moroccan tagine. Adapting it slightly based on our ingredients gives us the following, delicious recipe.

Ingredients

500g or so of lamb

1 medium onion

1 stick celery

1 chilli

3 cloves garlic

1 aubergine

1 carrot

5 mini peppers (1 normal pepper would also work)

500g tin of tomatoes

about 10 sundried tomatoes – the recipe calls for dried apricots but the kids are not a fan so I've substituted toms instead

1 tin chickpeas

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coriander

Method

• Mix the the cumin, coriander and cinnamon together and rub into the chopped lamb pieces. Put aside
  
  
  
• In an ovenproof pan, heat some olive oil and stir in the chopped onion, celery, garlic and chilli. Cook on a medium heat until it all softens slightly
• Now stir in the meat an cook until browned
  
  
  
• Stir in the chopped aubergine and carrot and fry for a minute or two
• Mix in the tin of tomatoes and fill the tin with water twice and add to the mix.
• Stir in the chickpeas and bring to a simmer
• Put in a preheated oven. I used about 160 degrees and cooked for about two hours – you know me, long and slow ;-)
  
• About 10 mins before serving, add the chopped sundried toms and the chopped peppers
• Garnish with fresh coriander

Enjoy :-)

Cheesebake (Updated)

Introduction

When I first set up this blog, for the purpose of simply recording recipes when I could access them, one of the first I wrote was a Cheesebake. It was very simple, no pictures. More of a reminder to be honest.

Recently, we had a massive pile of spuds and a lot of cheese. This usually means a cheesebake. I also saw it as a good opportunity to put a full recipe with pictures on.

Just as a bit of background, I'm sure I've been told somewhere along the line that this is an old family recipe. I bet there are loads of similar variations but what is true is that I have had this for tea for as long as I can remember. It definitely feels like an old family recipe, one I hope my cheese and potato hating daughter will learn to love...

Ingredients

Potatoes – Enough to fill the tin you are using. I always use too many but as a good rule I would use 3 to 4 spuds per person. This gave us two meals for two adults and a greedy little boy

Grated Cheese – whatever type you like. I was lazy and used a whole 250g bag of ready grated mature chedder

Bacon – about 2 pieces per person

1 Onion

2 tins chopped tomatoes

Method

1. Peel and wash the taters. Slice into about 1cm thick slices. Cover with salty water and bring to the boil.
   
2. Meanwhile, slice and dice the onion and bacon. Fry gently in a little olive oil and a spoonful of butter until the onion is clear and the bacon is cooked.

5. The potatoes should be cooked until they are soft; about mashing consistency but not quite ready to disintegrate. Drain and allow to cool slightly so you can handle the pieces
6. Mix the tomatoes in the bacon/onion mix. There is no need to keep the heat on
7. Preheat your oven to about 200°C and oil up an oven dish.
8. Now, layer the bottom with potatoes. Use the different sizes to fill as many gaps as possible. You should use about half of the spuds.
   
   
   
9. Put about half of the bacony-tomato mix as the next layer. Try to spread it evenly
10. The third layer should be grated cheese
11. Repeat with another layer of spuds, tomato and cheese
    
12. Bake in the oven for about 20 mins or until the top cheese layer goes crispy
13. Serve with lashings of Brown Sauce

Enjoy :-)