Category: onion

Categories
food lamb onion potatoes

nigel haworth’s lancashire hotpot

I have a “go to” Lancashire hot pot recipe that I like very much, cribbed from Rick Stein some years ago. It’s very tasty, but like many others I was bowled over with Nigel Haworth on the Great British Menu this year, who blew the competition away with his hot pot. (One word or two? I just don’t know. His recipe is here.

I’ve simplified it slightly for home cookery – cut down on the varieties of lamb and reduced it down to just the neck fillet. I also used a jar of pickled cabbage – I can’t better those results. No herbs either, which is a big surprise. I also worried about the lack of liquid in the meal so bunged together an easy gravy of roast vegetables deglazed with lamb stock.

It was very tasty, and I can see why it was such a winner. Rich, gamey lamb, sweet onions with a crunchy potato topping – what’s not to like? My only slight concern was that the recipe isn’t clear about when to use a new pan for frying off the different parts. I browned the lamb in the same pan as it eventually baked in, and it caught round the edges, making it black and sticky. These bits were nice but a touch over. Doing it again I’d use two pans for frying lamb and onions, then put the part cooked elements back into a separate casserole dish for baking. Starting off from cold it will have less chance to blacken. That said, it’s delightful. Pair it with pickled cabbage for a tart contrast.

Nigel Haworth’s Lancashire Hotpot:

500g lamb neck fillet

1 tablespoon flour, seasoned

1 large onion, sliced

25g butter

1 large potato, sliced into 2mm rounds

Preheat the oven to 160C.

  1. Toss the lamb in seasoned flour and fry in a pan to brown all over.
  2. Fry the onions in butter and a large pinch of salt until softened.
  3. Toss the potato slices in a little olive oil with salt and pepper until well coated.
  4. Lay the lamb in a casserole dish, put the onions on that and top with the potato slices. Bake in the oven for 2 hours.
  5. After 2 hours, brush the potato top with melted butter and bake in the oven uncovered for a further 30 mins or until the potato is golden brown. Serve with pickled cabbage.
Categories
food onion soup

onion soup

You can’t go wrong with a rich brown bowl of onion soup, with deep beefy flavours and soft sweet onions. And for me it isn’t complete without a crisp crouton bobbing on top, with a layer of melted cheese. Gruyere is best, but I’ll settle for cheddar. Just the thing when the nights draw in.

The milk powder isn’t essential but is packed with proteins and sugars; when heated they brown up really well adding colour and the sugar and butter give a beautiful shine to the finished soup.

The stock is crucial to this. It’s the body of the flavour and has nowhere to hide so get the very best you can.

Onion soup:

50g butter

1 bay leaf

Pinch each of dried thyme, sage and rosemary

6 onions, peeled and finely sliced

1 heaped tablespoon milk powder

300ml white wine

2 pints of your best beef stock

Toasted bread and cheese, to serve

  • Melt the butter in a large pan. When it starts to foam, add the herbs and tip in the onions with a pinch of salt.
  • Allow the onions to caramelize on a low heat. You need to allow them to catch on the bottom of the pan, as this gives the finished soup it’s colour. After ten minutes of this add the milk powder and cook away for another 3-4 minutes.
  • Add the wine and turn the heat up, allowing this to bubble away and reduce to almost nothing.
  • Add the stock and simmer for 20 mins. Adjust the seasoning, then top with toast and melted cheese.
Categories
beef food onion

braised beef brisket

Just last week I bought a slow cooker – my first. They’ve been out of fashion for quite a while now, I can remember a brown ceramic pot bubbling away on my nan’s counter, issuing clouds of savoury broth. Not sure I ever ate anything cooked in it though… I saw one in Tesco for £12 and impulse bought. But then… what to do with it? Luckily this month’s delicious magazine have a feature on that very subject, so they will be coming up shortly. But I was surprised by the lack of dedicated slow cooker recipes on the net. Many talk about slow cooking as a principle, but few about actually using a slow cooker. Being a cheap-ass implement it didn’t come with any cooking tips at all, so it’s invention all the way!

Thanks to the excellent Essex Food Fair at the weekend, a beautiful piece of brisket came my way. I chatted to lovely young gent who was passionate about his cattle, and how they only ate food grown on the farm. I tasted a little piece of silverside he’d roasted, and I commented how I’d got a tasty bit of fat on mine that was all creamy and peppery. We instantly shared a grin about being “those people that love fat on meat” I pointed out his brisket. After that, I was sold.

I ended up throwing very basic things into the pot – it was my first slow cook after all – and I was very pleased with the results. It was tender and “strandy”, with a sweet and luscious liquor that made an excellent gravy. Served alongside roast potatoes (made with yesterday’s leftover confit fat!) and steamed cauliflower, it was a real rib-sticker.

Braised beef brisket:

800g brisket

2 onions, sliced

3 garlic cloves, peeled

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 pint beef stock

Glass of red wine

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter

  1. Drizzle a little olive oil into a hot pan and sear the brisket on all sides.
  2. Put the beef, onions, garlic, bay, thyme, stock and wine in the slow cooker. Top up with boiling water if necessary to bring the liquids up to 2/3 up the joint.
  3. Leave to slow cook for 7 hours. When a fork can slide easily into the middle, it’s ready.
  4. Remove the beef to one side to rest while you make the gravy.
  5. The liquid will still be quite runny so it requires thickening. I used a beurre manié by mixing the flour and butter together and whisking into the winey stock.
  6. Hack off big chunks of beef and drizzle over your gravy.
Categories
bacon cheese egg food onion potatoes

navajo breakfast

This is the first recipe I’ve tried from Jamie’s America, Jamie Oliver’s latest cookbook exploring the US coast-to-coast in search for true Americana, away from burgers and fries. I’ve started with the Navajo Breakfast, something dead easy and reminiscent of many a western breakfast; potatoes, bacon, onion, eggs… fairly ordinary stuff. It’s a pretty hefty breakfast though, only worth contemplating on a busy Saturday!

I start by frying a sliced onion with some bacon, then adding red potatoes that have been sliced on the ‘wide’ bit of a box grater. I continued frying these until soft and then seasoned. Then I chucked in some beaten eggs mixed with a little cayenne pepper, and once the eggs had set oozed the lot on to some toast. Not quite content with my cardiac state I added a little grated cheese on top. Totally satisfying and very tasty, this will come round again another breakfast time!

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