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food marsala potatoes stock veal

veal escalopes in marsala sauce

veal escalopes in marsala sauce with new potatoes and broccoli

I really like veal, but it’s always been so hard for me to get. You might find a tiny Dutch scrap in a supermarket, and my experiences with local butchers have been frankly embarrassing. Farmer’s Choice recently sent me some veal to try out and I wasn’t disappointed. It was tender and savoury, with a wonderful loose texture.

I’ve paired it here with a classic ingredient: Marsala wine. I keep a bottle in my cupboard permanently, and it lasts me about a year. It’s perfect in sweet and savoury dishes where you need a smooth, sweet flavour. It enhances the sweetness of the meat and makes a great combination.

Farmer’s Choice rosé veal is available from their site.

Veal escalopes in marsala sauce with garlic new potatoes and broccoli (serves 2):

250g baby new potatoes, sliced in half

20g butter

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked and finely chopped

1 small head of brocoli

250g veal escalope

Flour

4 tablespoons Marsala

300ml chicken stock

  1. Preheat the oven to 100°C. Get a large pan of water on to boil, add the potatoes, and cook until a knife passes into it easily. Drain them off while you get a frying pan over a high heat.
  2. Add a good splash of oil to the frying pan and add the drained potatoes cut side down. Cook for about 10 mins or until they brown on the underside. Drain off the excess oil, then turn off the heat and toss the potatoes in half the butter, the garlic and rosemary with a pinch of salt. When they are well coated transfer to an oven dish and keep warm in the oven to allow the garlic to cook very gently while everything else happens.
  3. Get the broccoli into some more boiling water and cook until cooked to your liking.
  4. Dust the veal in a little flour and season with salt and pepper. In the same pan you cooked the potatoes in, fry the veal on a high heat for 1 minute on each side, then put aside to rest. Deglaze the pan with the Marsala, then add the stock and boil as rapidly as you can until the sauce is reduced and syrupy. Whisk in the remaining butter, check for seasoning and add the veal for 1 more minute’s cooking time to warm through and finish cooking. Serve with the potatoes and broccoli.
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chestnuts food gnocchi marsala mushroom parmesan stock

chestnut gnocchi

I absolutely love Two Greedy Italians. Not only are Gennaro Contaldo and Antonio Carluccio the most avuncular and affable guys on TV, joshing and fondly trading insults, they also serve up some jaw-droppingly good Italian food. In the series where they tour Italy, revisiting places of their youth and being tourists everywhere else the former colleagues eat their way through just about every culinary region of the Old Boot.

In this episode traversing the Alps, they went to a region where they historically couldn’t grow wheat so used chestnuts for all their flour. Gennaro then used this to make a delicious chestnut gnocchi with mushrooms. I had to give it a go myself, but all my previous attempts to make gnocchi have been messy, hideous and not worth the effort. The recipe also isn’t listed on the site. So I bought shop-made gnocchi and improvised a sauce. This was fab, I’m definitely doing it again and I hope I’ve paid enough tribute to Gennaro’s original recipe. Watch the sweetness, you will probably need a good dose of salt to balance it out.

The recipe is probably in Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy, but I don’t have it so no guarantees!

Chestnut gnocchi (serves 2):

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

100ml Marsala

300ml beef stock

200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon chestnut puree

1 pack of potato gnocchi

Handful of parsley, roughly chopped

Parmesan shavings to serve

  1. In a small saucepan heat some oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic, Worcestershire sauce, a pinch each of salt and sugar and cover the pan. Cook for 3-4 mins, stirring regularly until the garlic is starting to brown. Add the Marsala and allow to reduce by half. Then add the beef stock and reduce this by half. Add the chestnut puree and check for seasoning. Keep warm while you do everything else.
  2. Into a frying pan add a knob of butter and the mushrooms. Fry for 8-10 mins until the mushrooms are browning, then add a good whack of black pepper. While the mushrooms sizzle, cook the gnocchi for 2-3mins in salted boiling water until floating at the top. Drain until needed.
  3. When the mushrooms are ready, add the sauce and gnocchi to the pan and toss vigorously to combine. Give it a final check for seasoning and top with parsley and parmesan for serving.
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beef burger food potatoes red onion stock wine

burger with red onion and red wine sauce

There’s always room on the cookbook shelf for someone offering midweek family meals done in an interesting way. And that’s the motto of Alex Mackay’s new book Everybody, Everyday. The premise is presented simply: take one mother component or recipe and then spin it off half-a-dozen ways. It means it encourages you to use a familiar thing, such as pesto, and find new culinary homes for it. The book also has other dimensions, encouraging family food and how to prepare the same meal for toddlers. As someone always trying to think of new things to cook a littl’un the ideas are very welcome. Handily (uniquely?) the recipes are all for 2 people, the usual amount I cook for, and makes it super-easy to multiply up. Nothing is super fancy or cheffy but there are a few subtle restaurant-style tricks to lift your cooking, such as draining off fat but basting in butter for a finishing glaze. There’s plenty of inspiration to be had.

There are a few downsides to the recipes I’ve tried so far though: some of the recipes take a while. I can be nippy in the kitchen when I want to be, but I’m taking nearly an hour on each one so far. And they use pans by the bucket, plenty of hob-juggling required which requires good planning or washing up inbetween. Don’t let that detract from the great inspiration on offer though, each recipe I’ve cooked so far has been packed with flavour and extremely tasty. Like this one – a minced beef patty, topped with a glossy and rich meaty gravy and served with crisp saute potatoes. Delicious!

Burger with red onion and red wine sauce (serves 2):

60g butter

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

250ml red wine

200ml beef stock

300g new potatoes, halved

Chopped parsley

350g beef mince

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

  1. Preheat the oven to it’s lowest setting and get the kettle on. Let’s start the sauce.
  2. Fry 10g of butter with the onion, vinegar, soy and with 3 tablespoons water over a medium heat, covered for about 8 minutes. Take the lid off and crank up the heat, then add the wine until reduced by three quarters. Then add the stock and reduce by about two thirds. Turn off the heat.
  3. While this is going on, simmer the potatoes for 12 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and leave to steam for a few minutes.
  4. Get a frying pan on really hot and add a splash of oil. Lower the heat, add the potatoes cut side down and fry for 5 or so minutes until golden. Turn off the heat, drain off the fat, then toss the potatoes in 10g of butter, a sprinkle of sea salt and some chopped parsley. Pop in the oven to keep warm.
  5. Mix the mince with the mustard and a pinch of salt and form into 2 burgers. Fry in a little oil over a medium heat for a couple minutes on each side. Again drain the fat and toss with 10g butter and leave to rest for a couple of minutes while you reheat the sauce. Bring the sauce back to the boil and stir in the rest of the butter, seasoning if necessary. Serve and devour!
Categories
food mushroom pie stock turkey

turkey and mushroom pie

What’s that you say? You have leftovers from Christmas Day? Unheard of.

Previously I’ve made Jamie’s sweet leek pie with leftover poultry and it’s brill. Using that as an inspiration I made a mushroom version and it’s just as good.

Turkey and mushroom pie (serves 4 – 6):

1 onion, diced

1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked and chopped

300g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

Christmas dinner leftovers, about 800g (I had turkey and stuffing)

500ml stock (ideally turkey stock made from the carcass, but chicken would be fine)

300ml creme fraiche

A sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

  1. Heat a little oil in a large casserole dish, then add the onions, rosemary and mushrooms. Stir fry a little and cover with a lid to sweat for about ten minutes. Add the turkey leftovers, stock and creme fraiche and simmer for ten further minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Pop a sieve over a saucepan and tip the turkey mix into the sieve. When the creamy gravy has all strained off transfer the mushroomy meat to a baking dish and cover with the pastry. Brush with the beaten egg and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Serve with the creamy gravy that has been warmed through over the hob.
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