Red Wine Braised Veal & Honey Glazed Carrots

Twice cooked osso bucco, honey glazed baby carrots, parsley jelly and Pinot Noir jus, served with sweet carrot and ginger tea

1. Sear osso bucco (marrow removed) and caramelise diced carrot, celery and leek. Braise with beef stock, Pinot Noir (perfect for braising because of its deep and rich flavour), thyme and bay leaves for 3 hours on a medium simmer. The liquid should reduce by half. 

2. Pull veal off the bone, flake with a fork and combine with the raw marrow. Roll into a log with cling wrap and set in the fridge for a few hours (I was impatient so the log didn't hold too well, but it was still delicious). Fry the log in a pan with butter and olive oil until brown. Rest, slice and serve. Reduce braising liquid by half and add butter to make the jus.

3. Blanch a bunch of parsley leaves in salted water. Puree with a blender or whiz stick the parsley with about a quarter cup of the water. Push through a fine sieve and dissolve gelatine in the green liquid. Set in a shallow dish (I used a mini flan dish) lined with cling wrap. Cut into cubes.

4. Blanch baby carrots in water, sugar, star anise and cloves. Add ginger to the water and serve as a tea. Glaze carrots with a mixture of water, butter, honey and sugar. 

Saw a similar recipe on the food channel and loved that it used cheap and humble ingredients, treated with lots of love. I'm so glad it's getting cool enough to enjoy hearty, slow-braised meals. Not only does it warm up the house, it gives me an outlet for my OCD for hours at a time (is there anything more enjoyable than arranging small objects to make them pretty?). We enjoyed this with a great friend, a few glasses of wine (and when we ran out of red, we moved onto white) and a night of trashy movies.

Osso Bucco Ragu

There’s much to love about osso bucco. For starters, it’s really fun to say. Secondly, it’s a cut of meat that’s high in collagen, which, when broken down by slow-cooking, becomes rich and gelatinous between the meat fibres so that the meat melts in your mouth. You can buy two pieces of osso bucco from a good quality butcher for less than $10 and this recipe makes 6 servings (that leaves you more money to spend at, say, Country Road). What you end up with is a rich tomato sauce that’s been infused with delicate and meaty veal and bone marrow.

For this recipe, I used a pre-made pasta sauce by Latina, which cuts down the prep time to about 10 minutes. The sauce isn’t the greatest on its own, but when it’s cooked down with meat and veges, it’s brilliant.

You’ll need:
2 portions of osso bucco
3 tablespoons canola oil (or any oil with a high burning point)
2 Spanish onions
6 carrots
¼ green cabbage
5 cloves garlic
500ml beef stock
1L pre-made pasta sauce
Thyme leaves from 2 sprigs
Basil to garnish
Pasta

Roughly chop onions, carrots, cabbage and garlic.

Wash meat and pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat a large pot on high heat. Add oil.

When hot, brown the meat (approx. 1 minute each side). Remove from heat and set aside.

Cook the veges in the same pot for about 10 minutes to release all the lovely juices.

Deglaze the pot with beef stock.

Add pasta sauce and thyme and bring to the boil.

Place the meat back in and turn the heat down to low. (I have a fidgety electric stove so I used a thermometer to keep track of the temperature. According to Heston, shin cuts are best cooked at at least 70°C in liquid, so I kept it at 75°C).

Leave for 4 hours.

Cook pasta according to packet instructions. Drain but keep some pasta water.

Remove meat and shred with a fork while hot.

Scoop out veges from the sauce. To thicken the sauce, stir in pasta water or flour.

Add the shredded meat back and basil leaves to the sauce.

Serve with hot pasta.

Enjoy!

Perfect Pan-Fried Steak & Potato Mash

The other night, I was in a Nigella mood: I wanted my food fast without the tediousness of cooking things the “proper way”. Only, I took short cuts that would offend chefs and quite frankly, I appalled myself.

You see, instead of thawing frozen meat, I just put it in a bowl and poured boiling water over it. To make it worse, it was steak. By the time it had defrosted through, the outside had started to cook. I was really irked out but I continued cooking it like normal. I wanted to cry, thinking that I’d ruined a perfectly good piece of meat.

That is, until I tasted it.

It was the juiciest, most tender and meatiest-tasting steak I’d ever cooked on the pan! I can’t explain it – all my culinary knowledge about meat points against boiling steak – but it was almost perfect. I do know that kosher meat is boiled to draw out blood and impurities and supposedly this leaves a more refined meat taste. Also, I guess gently cooking the outside of the steak means that it won’t seize up on contact with a hot pan. Either way, this is a fool-proof method for making an excellent steak at home (without a grill or woodfire oven).

So juicy...

Inspired by Heston Blumenthal’s way of cooking, I fiddled around a bit to find the best way to parboil steak before pan-frying. Took a while to fine-tune but I’m very happy with this recipe.

1 steak (make sure it’s a cut that’s suitable for grilling or pan-frying)
2 cloves garlic
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
Olive oil

Put steak in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Slowly bring to 55°C and simmer at the same temperature for 15 minutes. (This is the temperature commonly used for a sous-vide and the idea is to make it hot enough to draw out the blood but not hot enough for the meat to tense up.)

Remove and rest until cool.

Dry well with paper towels, pressing on the steak to soak up excess blood.

Rub olive oil, 1 clove crushed garlic, salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat pan to a very high heat and cook steak for 3 minutes on each side.

Remove and place on a plate or chopping board and immediately dress with olive oil, crushed garlic and chopped rosemary and thyme.

Rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Of course, you must have steak with mash. I never really felt the urge to blog about mash until I saw Heston Blumenthal make the ultimate potato mash on “In Search of Perfection”. The recipe was so ingenious and well thought out that I must share.

1 kg potatoes
300g unsalted butter, cubed
Salt
Cream

Wash, peel and slice potatoes into even pieces (about 1 inch). Cover with cold water in a pot. Slowly bring to 70°C and simmer at the same temperature for 30 minutes. (This locks in the glutens so that the mash isn’t gluey.)

Drain and place potato slices in iced water.

Wash the pot, refill with water, add salt and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and add potatoes (and 3 cloves of garlic if you like garlic in your mash). Simmer until potatoes are tender.

Drain and place potatoes and garlic back in the pot. Shake the pot gently over a low heat to completely dry.

Push potatoes and garlic through a potato ricer into a bowl with butter.

Push through a drum sieve for a finer consistency (optional).

Put back into pot, adding salt and cream to taste. Whisk well over a low heat until light and fluffy.

Enjoy!

Thyme Pancakes

I believe that after this life, there is a pancake cloud where people eat Canadian style pancakes every morning and then sleep on pillowy pancake pockets every night. In this life, starting the day off with pancakes and bacon is a blessing. I've also been blessed with a few lazy days lately, which is when food ideas come to me.

I like my pancakes light and fluffy. I like a thick batter (lumps don't bother me, Gary and George!) and lots of butter. Fresh garlic and thyme, crispy bacon, garlic mayo and a bit of maple syrup makes this the ultimate savoury pancake breakfast.

1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
¾-1 cup milk (depending on how much the flour absorbs)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Fresh sprigs of thyme
Garlic cloves, halved
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
Maple syrup

Place dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Add egg and whisk flour in from the sides.

Gradually add milk, then butter, while whisking.

Heat pan over medium heat. You want the butter to sizzle (so the pancake doesn't just soak up the butter) but not burn, so lower the heat after the first pancake.

Melt a tiny knob of butter in the centre and lay down a sprig or two of thyme.

Spoon pancake batter over the butter and thyme and spread out with the back of the spoon. Turn over when bubbles form on top or when the edges are brown.

Remove from heat and gently rub the cut side of a garlic clove on the pancake.

Repeat! (This recipe will make 5 pancakes.)

If you love your garlic like I do, crush half a clove of garlic and mix with the mayo. If you don't like the strong hit of garlic, fry it gently in the butter before mixing with the mayo.

Serve with crispy bacon and maple syrup.

The mayo is really rich so the maple syrup provides the perfect balance to each bite (I really, really enjoy sweet and savoury in the same dish). I'm also obsessed with fresh thyme right now - so aromatic and so pretty in the pancakes. This is the kind of meal that warms up my winter days.

Roasted Lamb Rack

This roasted lamb rack is cooked with Jamie Oliver's homemade barbecue sauce (from his Jamie At Home series) slowly in the oven and served with potato chips and guacamole.

I bought this beautiful rack of lamb from the butcher this morning (smaller racks, around 4 cutlets, are usually readily available at butchers). I love this cut for its tenderness and its outer layer of fat that seals in all the juices during cooking. Best served rare to medium rare, lamb cutlets are deliciously pink and juicy on the inside. With the barbecue sauce, the lamb is smoky and fragrant with a hint of sweet and hot. Homemade potato chips and a tangy guacamole dip make this a fantastic meal to share between 4 (or an epic meal between 2!).

Jamie Oliver's Homemade Barbecue Sauce

1 heaped teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
5 cloves
Salt and pepper
1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 bunch rosemary, leaves picked
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 bulb garlic, peeled
4 heaped teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup organic tomato ketchup
8 tablespoons olive oil
10 bay leaves

Grind cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle.

Chop thyme and rosemary leaves, orange zest and garlic together finely.

Combine with herbs in a large bowl and add all other ingredients.

Roasting the lamb rack

Using a large zip-lock bag, place in the lamb rack and half of the barbecue sauce. Rub the sauce into the meat.

Add jalapeño peppers for some heat.

Seal and marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.

Roast for 40 - 60 minutes, depending on how rare you want your lamb. Baste the rack with the remaining barbecue sauce halfway through.

Rest for at least 15 minutes so that the meat relaxes and retains maximum juiciness.

Carve and serve!

Homemade potato chips

1 potato
1 sweet potato (optional)
Oil for deep-frying
Salt to season

Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat.

Cut the potatoes into thin slices (about 2-3mm).

To find the perfect temperature for deep-frying, place a thick piece of potato in the oil. When it turns golden brown, the temperature of the oil is just right.

Drop potato slices carefully down the side of the wok. Cook the potato in batches to keep the oil at the right temperature.

When golden brown, remove from oil and dry on paper towels.

Salt lightly.

Guacamole

1 avocado
½ brown onion
6 - 8 yellow grape tomatoes
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon chopped chives to serve

Blitz the avocado, onion, tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a food processor to your desired consistency.

If you can't find yellow grape tomatoes, finely dice 1 red tomato and mix in by hand.

Garnish with chives.

Enjoy!