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.

Herb crusted Salmon

A delightful idea making for an impressively flavoured meal. Simple to prepare with everyday ingredients, can be made a little in advance then placed in the oven whilst you entertain your guests, just slice into generous portions at the table.

A side of Salmon, deboned and skinned
A bunch of herbs-fresh from the garden
100g butter
Fresh breadcrumbs made from several slices of bread
1 lemon
dried fresh chilli-to taste!
sea salt
black pepper

Butter a greaseproof sheet and place on a baking sheet.
Place the salmon on this and cover generously with sea salt and black pepper, place in fridge.
Meanwhile remove the zest from the lemon with a fine grater and squeeze the juice.
Slice and chop the chilli.
Finely chop your fresh herbs, we used parsley, sage, thyme and chive.
Put the soft fresh breadcrumbs in a bowl, add the herbs, chilli and lemon zest, season with salt and pepper and mix together with your hands. (to make breadcrumbs, simply wizz some bread in a liquidizer or food processor).
Pour over the lemon juice and turn the mixture over a couple of times, leave to soak in for a few minutes.
Remove Salmon from the fridge and sprinkle the herb and breadcrumb mix generously over the top, take care to cover the edges too.
Dot the crusted Salmon with the remaining butter.
Bake in the oven on about 170 centigrade for 20 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown and the Salmon is just cooked, ideally it will still have an almost jelly type texture, rather like smoked salmon.

Enjoy.