Pork Tagine, with Apricots, Mushrooms and Moroccan Spices

Normally a dish like this would be based on chicken or lamb, but it works pretty well with roast pork also.

I shredded the pork, and fried it in sunflower oil along with julienned onion, and diced mushrooms. Cooked for about half an hour at a medium heat (stir occasionally). Then I added water, tomato puree (just a dash), and the Ras El Hanout spices (two teaspoonfuls). Plus the diced apricots (I used semidried apricots from Sainsbury's).

Simmered under glass for two and a half hours. After which I added some coriander leaf.

Served on a bed of rice, or couscous. Fabulously tender, and delicious!

Peppered Chicken and Brocolli Spears

Line a casserole dish with julienned red onion. Add 100g of water, and some chicken stock. Place the chicken thighs on top. Dress in a drizzle of olive oil, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cook on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 190 deg C for fifty-five minutes. For the last ten minutes remove the dish cover, which allows the chicken to brown.

The brocolli spears were cut in half and fried in a buttered  omelette pan for ten minutes under glass.

Add a little extra butter to the spears on serving. Excellent dish!

Venison Sausage Casserole

Some bargain venison sausages from Sainsbury's, used as the basis of a winter casserole.

I added diced green beans, onion, celery, batoned carrot, and spring onion to a casserole dish. The sausages were delinked, and pierced four times each. They were added on top of the layer of vegetables.

I made a gravy with onion granules and some ham stock. It was allowed to cool to room temperature, and then it was added to the casserole dish, just covering the vegetables. I drizzled some sunflower oil over the sausages, and then placed it in a preheated oven at 190 deg C. Allowed to cook for at least fifty minutes.

Served with lightly roasted maris piper potatoes. 

Chicken and Bacon Casserole

Meat from two roasted chicken thighs, with the skin on them, diced, along with two strips of smoked bacon, also diced. Placed on top of a bed of coarsely chopped carrot, onion and potato. Plus one shredded salad tomato.

I added some chicken stock, the chicken jelly from the original roast, a teaspoonful of capers, and two pinches of oregano.

Finally I added 250 mls of cold water, and a drizzle of sunflower oil over the top. Stirred just a little, to submerge some of the ingredients.

Placed in the centre of an oven preheated to 190 deg C, and cooked for one hour to seventy minutes.

Cumberland Sausage & Leek Casserole

As with most casserole dishes, there is often a lot of preparation time up front, but once the oven is hot and the timer is set, there is plenty of time to do something else. The main labour with this one was the dicing of two carrots into small chunks, and likewise a medium sized leek. Cut lengthwise about four times, and then cut crosswise. Plus a cored and sliced apple, and some chopped leftover cherry tomatoes from an earlier dish.

Once the vegetables were in the casserole dish, I added about a third of a pint of water. Then I laid about 50g of butter, thinly sliced across the bed of vegetables. Then, a heaped teaspoonful of French coarse grain mustard in the centre of the bed. In addition, I sprinkled two large pinches of dried sage across the top, and added a little vegetable stock, and some black pepper.

Once the sausages were defrosted, they were separated and pricked, and laid across the top of the bed of vegetables.

Cook at about 190 deg C. for about 45 to 50 minutes (lidded), checking occasionally to judge progress. Turn the sausages if they are overbrowning on top.

Silverside Beef with Root Vegetables

A small joint (680g) of Silverside beef, oven cooked in a casserole dish. The joint was placed on top of a bed of carrots and diced onion, and the top of the joint was seasoned with sea salt. Also drizzled with some sunflower oil. Plus one wineglass full of cold water poured over the vegetables. 

Cooked for seventy five minutes at around 190 deg C.

The casserole dish was taken out of the oven, and the chunks of potato were added, along with about half a pint of boiling water.

The dish was put back into the oven, and the temperature was turned down to around  100-110 degrees, and allowed to cook for another hour and a half. By which time the beef is wonderfully tender. Allow the joint to stand and cool for about twenty minutes, then (after cutting off the string holding the joint together) cut into slices with an electric carving knife. No further seasoning is required. Fabulous!

Spinach and Chicken Casserole

The casserole can be prepared and cooked in an oven dish, or on the hob in a saute pan. This one was cooked on the hob.

The ingredients for this casserole are: onion, spring onion, celery, carrot, spinach, chicken stock, vegetable stock,  roast chicken breast,  and red potatoes. Finely chop two large handfuls of fresh spinach leaves, and stir-fry in some sunflower oil. Add finely chopped celery, carrot, white onion, and more coarsely chopped spring onion. Cook until the bulk of the spinach is reduced in volume, and the onion becomes golden brown.

Add boiling water, and mash the vegetables. Add the chicken and vegetable stock. Cook for another twenty to thirty minutes at a low heat under glass, then add the chopped chicken breast to the sauce. Cook for another thirty to forty-five minutes at a low heat under glass. Add some coriander, oregano and sage.

Serve with boiled semi-skinned red potatoes, or whatever other potato variety you have available.

Spinach and Chicken Casserole

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Half a kilo of casserole beef, with onion, spring onion, carrot, a shredded vine tomato, yellow pepper, mushrooms, paprika, cornflour, thyme, oregano, 3 bay leaves, black pepper, a dash of Lea & Perrins sauce, some beef stock, and served with boiled Charlotte potatoes. 

The day before serving, the beef was casseroled for three hours in a saute pan (after browning for twenty minutes in olive oil), along with the vegetables. Stirred occasionally. The bay leaves, the cornflour, the Lea & Perrins, and the paprika and the herbs were added about twenty five minutes before serving. Brought to the boil and then the heat was turned down to a low simmer. Stirring often to ensure the thickened gravy did not stick to the bottom of the pot. 

This dish is often made with the addition of some beer during the cooking, or some white wine. These impart different flavour to the recipe, but the dish is fine without either of those. 

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Beef Casserole, with Onion and White Wine Gravy

 I used stock from Brisket beef, with spinach leaves, tomato, onion, mustard powder, oregano, basil and rosemary. garlic and white wine for the gravy, plus beef stock. Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and sliced runner beans.

People have lost all sense of the importance of fat in cooking meat. Just because fat is involved in cooking doesn't mean that you have to eat it. But now much of the fat is gone before you get the cut, since a low fat content is perceived as the healthier choice. I find it much trickier to cook lean mince than mince with a significant fat content, and nowadays often avoid the leaner option. The Brisket was from Tesco's, and had some fat around the outside, so it was straightforward to roast.

Beef Casserole, with White Wine Gravy

Chicken, Parsnip and Mixed Pepper Casserole

Chicken breast, parsnips and mixed peppers casseroled with Spanish onions, and some sage. Served with boiled or steamed potatoes and black pepper to taste. 

Chicken, Parsnip and Mixed Pepper Casserole

Beef in black pepper sauce

Beef in black pepper sauce, with fried mushrooms and Spanish onion.

Beef in black pepper sauce (May 2013)

Pork and Red Pepper Casserole

Pork and red pepper casserole, with leeks, parsnip, celery, pork stock, and 1 green chili for heat. Served with boiled potatoes and steamed green beans. Pork was seared first, and the casserole time was two hours.

Pork and Red Pepper Casserole