Spiced Beef

With all this cold weather about, its time for a warming comforting dish, basically thrown together from ingredients that we found left over from other dishes or just in the cupboard anyway. The beef dish we've made here has good depth of flavour, is smooth and light yet really packs a punch with the warm spices used. Absolutely suited to winter weather!!

500G Diced beef
2 Spring Onions
2cm piece ginger
3 Garlic cloves
Half a dried scotch bonnet chilli
Half a dried chilli
5 Potatoes
1 Butternut squash
1 Tin coconut milk
1 Tin Butter beans-drained
500ml Chicken Stock
Sprig Thyme
Salt and pepper


This one is very straightforward to prepare.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the beef, season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile chop the ginger and chilli, slice the garlic and add to the pan with the thyme.
When the meat is sealed, cover with 500ml stock and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the squash and potatoes and dice these evenly. Add to the pot and simmer for a further 20 minutes. Now add the coconut milk and butter beans, simmer until the beef and potatoes are cooked to perfection. Sprinkle in the chopped spring onion and serve.

Great served with sour dough bread to mop up the juice. Should any be left over then next day it makes a great soup like light lunch, ideal following a walk on a frosty morning.

Cabinet pudding

A real blast from the past, but one that really should never have fallen from its place at the dinner table. Delicious hot, warm or cold, with ice cream, sauce anglaise, creme fraiche or simply cream, full of fruit and vanilla flavours the Cabinet pudding really ticks many boxes. Cabinet pudding really should acquire the status that its cousin the bread and butter pudding has achieved in recent years. If made with dried fruits its a Cabinet pudding, if made with Glace fruits its called a Diplomat!! Ideal at any time of year, and basically uses only stock cupboard essentials.

Ingredients

Old sponge, diced (fresh sponge works too)
500ml milk
3 egg yolks
60g Caster sugar
half of a vanilla pod
30g currants and sultanas
25g Butter
Nutmeg to taste

1. Line a casserole type dish with some of the butter and a little of the caster sugar.
2. Dice the sponge and then add some of it to the dish, then some of the dried fruits and so on until full.
3. Scrape the vanilla pod to remove the small seeds.
4. Pour the milk into a pan with the remaining caster sugar, add the vanilla seeds. Heat to warm through, but do not boil.
5. Beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the warmed milk and vanilla. Stir then strain into a pouring jug/bowl.
6. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the the sponge and allow to soak well.
7. Dot the top with the remaining butter and grate over fresh nutmeg to taste.
7. Place the dish in a roasting tin with about 2cm water in the bottom, place into oven at 175 centigrade and bake until the egg has fully set.
8. Allow to cool, unmold and enjoy.