Ingredients:
- 2 lb (900 g) potatoes
- 2 lb (900 g) scrag or neck lamb
- 2 lamb kidneys
- 1 large onion
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 pint boiling water or lamb stock
- Melted dripping or margarine
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4.
- Wipe and trim the meat of surplus fat and cut into serving pieces.
- Wash skin and core the kidneys.
- Peel and thickly slice the onion and potatoes.
- Grease a casserole dish and arrange a layer of potatoes in the bottom.
- Put the lamb, kidneys and onions on the top and season to taste.
- Add the boiling water or stock.
- Cover with thick slices of potatoes and brush with melted dripping or margarine.
- Put a lid on the casserole and transfer to the oven.
- Cook for about 2 1/2 hours, removing the lid of the casserole for the last 30 minutes or so to brown the potatoes.
Makes 4 large portions.
Filed under Lamb Recipes, Offal Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by 
Ingredients:
- 2 lb (900 g) shoulder pork
- 1 lb (450 g) onion (about 2 medium onions)
- A large green pepper
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- Tin of chopped tomatoes or 1 lb (450 g) fresh, skinned and chopped
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 chilli pepper
- 3 tablespoons tomato puree
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 or 2 bay leaves
- Teaspoon of dried mint or 2 teaspoons of fresh, chopped
- Olive oil
- 1/2 pint (285 ml) veg stock or water
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- Cut up the pork into largish cubes.
- Peel and chop the onions.
- Cut the pepper in half, de-pith and then cut into largish chunks.
- Finely chop the chilli pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large pan and add the pork cubes, brown on all sides.
- Remove from the pan and keep warm.
- Add the chopped onions and peppers and saute lightly. Put the curry powder, garlic and chilli pepper in and continue cooking on a low heat for one or two minutes.
- Increase the heat and add the tomatoes and tomato puree and stir in the veg stock or water and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the mint.
- Transfer to a casserole dish with the pork. Put the bay leaves on top.
- Cover and put into a low oven (Gas Mark 2) and cook for about 2 hours until the pork is really tender.
- Remove the bay leaves, skim the top for any excess fat and serve.
Enough for 4 people.
Filed under Pork Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by
Submitted by Tadpole
My family calls it “long stew”, as when I was very young, the
stew-pot would sit on the stove for several days, with just the occasional
addition of more vegetables, or stock.
- 2lb beef cheek chopped into rough chunks, (about a mouthful size)
- 2lb beef brisket, chopped into rough chunks, (about a mouthful size)
- ½ lb bacon trimmings (or cheap lardons roughly diced)
- Two onions (or six to eight shallots)
- Hefty spoonful minced garlic
- 1lb Hard or root vegetables of the season/choice (I use carrots or at a pinch Swedes)
- ¾ lb chickpeas soaked over night (for ease you can use tinned, but make sure you rinse them very well or the stew will be salty
- ¾ lb red kidney beans soaked over night (for ease you can use tinned, but make sure you rinse them very well or the stew will be salty. Using tinned beans increases the overall cost of the dish. (See below)
- 2lb hard waxy potatoes (skins on) roughly chopped into quarters or smaller (dependent on size)
- 2 pints beef stock and at least 4 pints of water
- 1 heaped spoonful of gravy thickening agent (Bisto or similar)
Additional needs:
9 x 2 pint (one litre) plastic containers with good lids
Serves 30 (40 meals if you add suet dumplings)
NB – when using dried red kidney beans, after soaking place in a separate pan and bring to the boil for 10 minutes. Discard the cooking water and rinse with a kettle full of boiling water before adding to the dish. This reduces the amount of a chemical that can be present in them that causes tummy upsets.
Filed under Beef Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by
Submitted by Tadpole
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 lbs boneless shin of beef
- 1 medium onion
- 1 large carrot
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
- 2 ounces butter
- Parsley
- ½ bottle of red wine
- 1 pint beef stock
- 1 to 1½ pints vegetable stock
- Vegetable oil for frying
Method:
- Trim the shin of beef of all silver sinew and cut it into 2- inch chunks/stripes.
- Place it in a bowl, cover with red wine and leave over night in the fridge.
- Drain the meat, keeping the wine for use later on.
- Roughly chop the vegetables.
- Season the meat well with salt.
- On the top of the stove, brown all over in the bottom of your heavy casserole dish or Dutch oven, when browned all over remove and set aside for a short rest.
- Deglaze the dish with a little water and add this to the resting meat.
- Add the red wine to the casserole dish and reduce until it becomes a glaze. (Mostly I do this in a separate pan, though in one pot cooking I just pour the glaze over the set a-side meat).
- Melt the butter (add a drop of vegetable oil to stop the butter from burning) in the casserole dish and cook the vegetables in the butter until golden brown. Return the meat to the casserole.
- Add the garlic, beef stock and chicken stock to the casserole and bring itto the boil then place a bakers parchment paper lid on top, (I also use the heavy lid of my Dutch oven for the first hour or so, I find the meat is more tender as a result) and cook in an oven, pre-heated to gas mark 4 or 5 for 2 to 2 ½ hours.
- Add the parsley after about an hour of cooking.
Once cooked, most of the liquid will have gone, the beef will be very tender and the gravy a rich dark colour.
Serve with potatoes boiled in their skins,
Serves 8 to 10 people
Cost per person is roughly 60p depending on the availability of shin from your butcher.
To stretch it a bit more without adding too much to the cost, a pig’s foot or hock can be roasted/cooked and the meat added an hour into the cooking.
Filed under Beef Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by
Submitted by Tadpole
Ingredients:
- ¾ lb belly pork, cut in to three strips and then cut each strip into three (cut roughly from the rib bones but remember to include the bones inthe cooking)
- 6 large sausages, cut in half or thirds depending on size (I favour strongly flavoured sausages like boar as they provide most of the flavourfor the dish)
- 4 large chicken thighs cut in half
- 1 large onion
- 1 large potato
- 1 large carrot
- 2 bay leaves
- Small handful of fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic or a teaspoon of minced garlic
- Either a pound of dried haricot bean that have been soaked over night in fresh water or two tins of (beans of your choice) I use chickpeas and red kidney beans.
- 2 pints of good stock (chicken or vegetable)
Method:
- In a heavy cast iron Casserole, or Dutch oven on the top of the stove, fry the belly pork until the fat is crispy, remove and drain, next fry the sausages until coloured, drain most of the fat, add the chicken (with orwithout the skin, I normally take off the skin) and cook until coloured.
- Remove meat and add the garlic and the finely chopped onion fry until theonion is translucent but not brown, add the belly pork and the sausage,and the stock.
- Bring back to a rolling simmer, and then add the chicken, the beans and the roughly chopped vegetables along with the two bay leaves.
- Place in the middle a medium oven gas (mark 5) with a heavy lid cook for two hours, remove, taste, season, and add the parsley.
- Cover with a round of bakers’ parchment and cook for ¾ of an hour or until the stock has reduced to made a fine gravy.
- Serve with thick wholemeal bread or rice.
Serves 8 – 10 on its own or 12 -16 with rice
The last time I made this, the cost worked out to be roughly 35p per meal.
Filed under Bean, Pulses and Rice Recipes, Pork Recipes, Poultry and Game Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by
Ingredients:
- 6 pieces of neck of lamb
- 1 medium onion (peeled and sliced)
- 2 or 3 carrots (depending on size)
- 1 parsnip
- Either a turnip or a small swede
- 2 or 3 leeks (depending on size)
- 1 pint vegetable or lamb stock
- 2 or 3 plum tomatoes – skinned and chopped
- 2 or 3 bay leaves
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- Dried mixed herbs to taste
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 3 (325 degrees F/170 degrees C).
- Put the lamb pieces and the onion into a casserole (you can sauté them first if you want).
- Pour over the stock, add the tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, dried herbs and salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover and put in the oven for about ¾ of an hour.
- Meanwhile prepare the other vegetables. Scrub and dice the carrots into cubes. Peel (if necessary) the turnip or swede and the parsnip and cut into cubes. Wash and chop the leeks.
- Add the veg to the casserole and continue to cook for another hour (giving it a stir after about 30 minutes).
- Remove the neck of lamb out of the casserole and take the meat off the bone and then return it (minus the bone!) to the pot. Take out the bay leaves at this point.
- Return to the oven for about another 15 minutes and then check that it is “thick” enough and, if not, stir in a little cornflour mixed with water.
Serve with either potatoes or crispy bread.
Serves 4
Filed under Lamb Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by
Ingredients:
- 8 oz (225 g) braising steak – diced
- ½ medium onion – peeled and diced small
- ¾ pint (400 ml) beef stock
- Small cup red wine (optional)
- Squirt of tomato puree
- 1 or 2 garlic cloves – crushed
- 2 or 3 bay leaves
- Black pepper to taste
- Good pinch of mixed dried herbs (the supermarket value range are a good buy if you haven’t got your own)
- 9 shallots – peeled
- 9 mushrooms – washed (use smaller ones and leave whole as they retain their shape this way)
- 2 or 3 teaspoons cornflour mixed with a little water to thicken
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 3 (325 degree F/170 degree C)
- Lightly sautee the diced beef and onions together in a little oil to seal in the meat juices.
- Transfer to a casserole and add the beef stock, a squirt of tomato puree, black pepper, bay leaves, dried herbs and red wine if using.
- Cover and put in the oven for about 2 hours.
- Pull out, stir, and add the shallots and mushrooms.
- Carry on cooking for about 40 minutes and then remove the bay leaves.
- Thicken with the cornflour if necessary and put back in the oven for another 15 mins.
Serves 3. Goes well with mashed potatoes or crispy bread.
Filed under Beef Recipes, Recipe, Slow Cooking by