Monthly Archives: January 2011

30 minute beef hash with baked potatoes, green goddess salad and butter beans

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jamie oliver's super-fast beef hash with butter beans

I got in from work the other day and Mrs. RP beseeched me with a desperate look in her eyes: “make this. MAKE THIS NOW!”

She was gesturing at the TV; Jamie Oliver had just made ‘super-fast beef hash, jacket potatoes, goddess salad, lovely butter beans & bacon’ on 30 Minute Meals. I admit it looked the business. 1 PVR and a flick through the book later, and I was ready. Not quite so manic as previous 30 minute recipes, this one also isn’t too harsh on the washing up. How long did it take? 31 minutes. I’ll take that – I had to stop briefly and try and calm my daughter down, distraught at the distinct lack of Mr. Tumble on the TV. I’m certain I could get it under 25 minutes next time having been through the motions once.

It’s real comfort food; nice big carbs and large flavours. The Worcestershire sauce is particularly satisfying, packing lots of gutsy savouriness. I also felt really nourished eating it – I think it was the amount of carrots and celery in the mince mix.

Jamie’s original recipe can be seen on his site here. I made a couple of minor substitutions based on what I had to hand.

Jamie’s 30 minute beef hash (plenty enough for 4):

4 baking potatoes

500g beef mince

4 rashers of smoky bacon, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

Few sprigs of rosemary

6 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 red onion

3 sticks of celery

2 carrots

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tin butter beans, drained

1 tin tomatoes

1 handful lamb’s lettuce

¼ iceberg lettuce, shredded

1 avocado

300ml sour cream

Juice of 1 lemon

Bunch of parsley, chopped

  1. Get the grill on screaming hot and stick a baking tray under it to get nuclear. Stab the potatoes all over, pop in a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Microwave for 14 minutes.
  2. Get a pan on to quite a high heat, chuck in the mince along with a dash of olive oil and seasoning. Fry and stir, browning all over. Meanwhile get some bacon frying gently in another pan.
  3. When the mince has browned, coat with the Worcestershire sauce and add the garlic, thyme and half the rosemary. Whack the onion, celery and carrot into a food processor and get them sliced up, then add those to the beef too.
  4. When the bacon is golden add the beans and tomatoes to that pan and simmer away.
  5. The potatoes are probably done now; prod with a knife to check they’re soft in the middle. If they are, slather with olive oil, the rest of the rosemary and some salt and pepper. Toss to coat then pop under the grill to crisp up.
  6. Turn to the salad now: whizz up half the avocado with half the sour cream, lemon juice and a little seasoning to make a lurid green dressing. Chop up the other half of the avocado and mix with the lettuces.
  7. The beef should be done by now, all crispy and craggy. Add most of the parsley and check for seasoning. Check the beans for seasoning – dash of vinegar perhaps? Rescue the potatoes, cut them open and dollop over the rest of the sour cream and parsley. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve the lot to hungry, lucky people.
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turkey bolognese

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I’m a sucker for any bolognese recipes. It’s lifted from my favourite cookbook of 2010, Leon 2. The appeal of this one is in the turkey mince, both healthy and cheap. It’s never going to replace ‘proper’ bolognese but it’s dead easy, very tasty and freezes like a dream. Give it a try.

Turkey bolognese:

1 onion, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

500g turkey mince

250g mushrooms, sliced

2 tins of tomatoes

Big glass of white wine

500ml chicken stock

Parmesan

Spaghetti

  1. In a large casserole pan, fry some onion in a little oil. When tender add the garlic and turkey and fry until browned.
  2. Add the mushrooms, fry for a minute then add the tomatoes, wine and stock. Pop the lid on and simmer gently for an hour and a half.
  3. When it’s ready, cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions. Toss with the mince mix and grate over some fresh parmesan to serve.

leek rosti with tomato & chickpea stew

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leek rosti with tomato & chickpea stew

I saw this great recipe on Waitrose’s website (you need some magic Flash gadget to make it work): “leek rosti, BRILLIANT”. I duly bookmarked it to cook later in the week.

I settle in front of the oven and fire up the recipe and something struck me on this cold Sunday evening: it was served with a carrot salad. A freakin’ carrot salad in January. What was I thinking? I quickly swapped in a hearty and comforting tomato and chickpea stew and I’m so glad I did. The rostis themselves are great too.

Based on a recipe from WaitroseLIVE

Leek rosti with tomato and chickpea stew:

2 large potatoes, peeled

2 leeks, shredded

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin

Handful of coriander, chopped

1 tin of chickpeas, drained

1 tin tomatoes

½ teaspoon paprika

  1. Boil the potatoes in boiling water for 6 minutes until just tender. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Grate the potatoes and combine with the leeks, corianders and cumin. Season and form into squat patties.
  3. Heat two pans with some oil in each: fry the patties in one until browned and flip over.
  4. In the other pan chuck in the chickpeas, tomatoes and paprika and bring to a high heat. Keep it bubbling hard to remove the excess liquid.
  5. When the rostis are done drain on kitchen paper. Check the stew for seasoning and add any spare coriander you have.

coley korma

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coley korma

I’ve been watching the recent fish campaign fronted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay with great interest. Hugh’s documentaries were particularly memorable: following a fishing boat and watching aghast as tons of dead cod is tossed back into the ocean. Why? Because they have already exceeded their cod quota. Senseless, wasteful and frustrating. I watched most of it with tears in my eyes. I recommend you have a look at the Fish Fight website to find out more – why not sign up while you’re there?

The campaign has got the nation out and voting with their wallets. M&S reported their biggest week of fish sales in all their years of trading. Let’s hope the campaign continues to be a success and the ridiculous quota system is overhauled.

You may have noticed this blog contains little in the way of fish recipes. Sadly whilst I am a massive fan of fish, no others in the Roast Potato household are. Therefore fish is a real treat for me reserved for nights in alone. Tonight was one of those nights.

One of Jamie’s recipes in the series caught my eye: coley korma. Coley is a sweet and delicious fish, very reminiscent of cod but dirt cheap. Give it a whirl.

Jamie’s original recipe is here.

Coley korma:

4 coley steaks

1/3 jar of Patak’s korma paste

200ml coconut milk

1 mugful of rice

A couple of cloves

A couple of cardamom pods, cracked

Handful of coriander leaves, shredded

Half a cinnamon stick

  1. Get the rice on – chuck the rice in a saucepan with the spices, a splash of oil and some salt. Add twice the amount of boiling water to rice (so, two mugfuls) and simmer over a medium heat for ten minutes. After this time turn off the heat and pop the lid on for a further ten minutes to steam.
  2. Spread half the paste over the back of one of the steaks. Place in a hot pan and sizzle on one side for a couple of minutes. Flip over, add the rest of the paste and the coconut milk. Allow to simmer for a further 7 – 10 minutes until the fish flakes apart. Scatter over coriander and serve with the rice.

my favourite cookbooks of 2010

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If you’re anything like me, over time you accumulate cookbooks and through a process of natural selection some float to the top and get read often. Some gather dust at the back, never fulfilling their promise. A select few make it to the hallowed ground of the recipe book stand, where they deliver gold each and every time.

I feel like 2010 was a great year for cookbooks; almost all the big hitters pumped out a new book, some of them two! Self-publishing was all the rage that brought home cooks to the fore, and restaurants also gave us a peek on how to recreate their favourites.

With so much to choose from, selecting my favourites was pretty tricky. But here’s my top 3 cookbooks of 2010:

3. Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver

jamie's 30 minute mealsIt seems churlish to give any more publicity to this book; after becoming the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time and the quickest to reach a million Jamie’s trumpet requires no further blowing. But this is a revolutionary cookbook. As usual, Jamie is flying by the seat of his pants and doing things his way. Forget all the negative press you’ve read bleating on about “but it actually takes an HOUR, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? IT’S IMPOSSIBLE”. Even if they aren’t all possible for you to complete in an hour, appreciate that these are interesting menus that can be made in 30 minutes. Forget the precise time on the clock and just aim a little higher, that’s what this book is trying to say. Do a meal, and a salad, maybe a drink, and a dessert, all with multitasking. I don’t always do every part of every meal; I cherry pick. I’ll have this dish with this salad and feel really satisfied with what I’ve made.

On top of that, it’s amazing value for money. For the above reason, each recipe gives you 3 or 4 different dishes. That’s loads of different components you can bring together.

Jamie has done it again, and I can’t recommend this brilliant book highly enough.

Standout recipe: jools’s pregnant pasta with frangipane tart

2. Plenty – Yotam Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi's PlentyI’d heard a little about Ottolenghi’s first book from fellow bloggers but didn’t know what the fuss was about. Thanks a their Twitter feed I managed to get a copy of this book. I was bowled over by the style; I’ve never read such exciting ways with vegetarian food. Yes you read that right, this is a vegetarian cookbook. But it’s so inventive, spicy, cheeky and full of affection for it’s ingredients I can’t help but want to make the recipes over and over again. The middle Eastern influence is felt throughout, with rich, spicy and smoky flavours permeating every dish so everyday greens are served up in a very unexpected (to this Essex boy anyway) ways.

Not even mentioning the food, I have to mention the design of this book. The pristine white is gorgeous, peppered with neon line-traced veg. A padded cover and gold embossing just sets this one out on your shelf.

It’s a real gem, even for a hardened carnivore like me. Much like Jamie’s book, it’s encouraged me to think in different ways.

Standout recipe: leek  fritters

1. Leon 2, Naturally Fast Food – Henry Dimbleby & John Vincent

Leon 2, Naturally Fast FoodI’d never heard of Leon, the mega-popular but London-centric ‘chain’ pumping out fast food with heart and soul. Boy, was I in for a treat.

This book dropped on to my desk in the Autumn and pulled me away from my work for quite some time. I was bowled over at first by the design. No heading-recipe-full-page-photo for this tome. It was more a scrapbook, a collage of random holiday snaps, upside-down bits, fold-out bits, crazy layout… it was a typesetter’s nightmare and a fortune to publish I’m sure but the result is completely distinctive. As far from bland as you can possibly get, it bellows character from every page. It’s utterly charming and clearly a deeply personal book.

And I haven’t even mentioned the recipes. They’re so closely aligned with the way I like to cook it makes me punch the air with joy. Every time I open it humour and joy drip from the pages, bringing familiar flavours with original tweaks. There really is a little of everything in here, from great snacks, to delicious desserts and cracking party food. There’s lovely twists on bland veg dishes, pot-roasts galore and just plain-feel good food with every turn. Just last week I made a Winter vegetable pot-roast which was little more than root veg casseroled in white wine. Hardly revolutionary stuff, but just the kind of spark that makes you come back again and again.

It’s split into two parts: the first deals with genuine fast food, solving midweek dinner woes. The second is fast food, but with long cooking times. In other words, a small amount of prep then leave to bake / casserole / stew / whatever. So it’s all covered.

You can feel the love and effort that has gone into the book, and with the hugely enjoyable recipes to match I can’t get enough of this brilliant thing.

Standout recipe: crispy roast cauliflower (honestly, I’ve made it about 15 times in 4 months)

(EDIT: I cleared up some confusion from the comments by editing a bit of the text above)

So there’s mine; what were your favourite cookbooks of 2010? I’d love to know about any gems I haven’t caught up with yet.