Le Creuset

Krombacher Beer – Slow Cooked Beef Shin Recipe

23rd April 2017 by Rosie

23rd April 2017 celebrates St.George’s day in the UK but it also sees the celebration of the 501st Anniversary of the Reinheitsgrebot (also known as the German Brewing Laws or German Purity Laws) which is the oldest piece of food and drink law in the world; dating right back to 1516. It states that only 4 ingredients may be used in the production of the beer; hops, malted barley, yeast and water. Therefore there are no additives or preservatives allowed to be added to the brew, ensuring the beer’s purity, taste and quality. This also means that the beers are suitable for vegetarians/vegans as there are no animal products used to ‘clear’ the brew.

Krombacher is the largest brewer in Germany, and is the biggest family owned and operated brewery within Europe. Their beers have been made exclusively in Krombach since 1803, and are produced in accordance with the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. Water is obtained from 48 wells, all within a 3km radius of the brewery, which is soft and low in mineral content making it perfect for brewing. Along with summer barley, Siegel hops and its own speciality cultivated yeast, it makes Krombacher beers be seen as the taste of its’ homeland.

It was first imported into the UK in 1987 and is growing in popularity here, where the range currently includes the Pilsner, Hell, Dark, Wizen, Radler, Low Alcoholic Pils and Low Alcohol Wizen. You can find Krombacher in pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels throughout the UK, as well as from Majestic Wines, Beers of Europe and Noble Green Wines. The low alcohol variations are also available from Dry Drinker.

Having been sent some of Krombacher’s beers and challenged to pair food or prepare a recipe to go with it, I created a deliciously rich, slow and succulent, beef shin cooked in their Dark beer recipe. A quick call to my local butcher on Friday to place an order for some beef shin to collect yesterday morning and I was set for the challenge to create this tasty dinner for my family. If you take the generic food groups, I almost managed to get this made with only 4 ingredients: vegetables, meat, grain and beer, along with a little bit of oil and some seasoning.

15ml rapeseed oil
2 sticks of celery, diced
2 medium onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 bay leaves
500g beef shin, cubed (ask you butcher to do this for you)
15ml / 1tbs plain flour
500ml Krombacher Dark beer
400g can chopped tomatoes
Salt & pepper to season

Heat the oven to 180℃.
In a large, hob/oven proof pan/casserole dish, add the oil and heat on the hob over a medium heat.
Add the celery, carrots, onion and bay leaves.
Stir and cook for 8-10 minutes until they’re just starting to soften but not colour.
Add the beef and evenly sprinkle over the flour.
Mix thoroughly to coat the meat and vegetables in the flour and to absorb any oil.

Add the bottle of beer and the chopped tomatoes, along with salt and pepper to season.

Stir to mix thoroughly then bring to the boil.
Cover with a lid and place the pan/casserole dish into the oven to cook for 3-3½ hours, removing the lid for the final 30 minutes if you need to reduce and thicken the sauce further.

The meat should be flaky and the sauce unctuous and thick.
Serve with buttered mashed potatoes, green vegetables (kale or savoy cabbage) and some steamed carrots.

Enjoy with a glass of cold Krombacher Dark beer!

This is a collaborative post.

Jersey Royal Potato and Vegetable Curry

20th June 2016 by Rosie

One of the recipes I’m sharing with you using the deliciously nutty and seasonal Jersey Royal Potatoes in collaboration with Asda is for a vegetable curry. Inspired from a recipe my husband found online, he’s adapted and cooked this one for me (as I’m currently recovering from having knee surgery a couple of days ago, and therefore not able to stand for periods of time). Thanks Will x

The ingredients aren’t set in stone for this one; add or remove ingredients that you do or don’t like. (I personally don’t like mushrooms, but he does, so they went in and I picked them out of my dinner). The Mange Tout came from our garden, the French beans were reduced in price in our local supermarket as they had to be sold on the day, as was the courgette. All other ingredients we had at home as staples in our cupboards/fridge. It looks like a lot of ingredients, I know!

30ml Sunflower oil
2.5ml Black Mustard seeds
2.5ml Cumin seeds
2.5ml Fennel seeds
2.5ml Fenugreek seeds
3 Cardamon pods
1 medium Red onion, chopped
1 large White onion, chopped
3 sticks Celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2.5cm fresh Ginger, grated
5 cloves Garlic, crushed
5ml Salt
Medium sweet potato, cubed
10-12 Jersey Royals, cubed
5ml Chilli powder
5ml Turmeric
5ml Cumin
5ml ground Coriander
1 whole Chilli, finely chopped
handful of French Beans, sliced in half horizontally
8-10 Mange Tout, sliced in half horizontally
1 cup frozen Peas
1 medium Courgette, diced
50g button Mushrooms, halved
Can coconut milk
Fresh coriander, chopped.

Prepare all your vegetables as above. You can keep the following together in bowls as they’ll be added to the curry together in batches:

Red and white onions.
Celery and carrots.
Sweet potato and Jersey Royals.
French beans and mange tout.
Peas and courgettes.
Mushrooms.

(This is how my husband preps his ingredients to cook – I have to leave the kitchen; it’s all too much organisation for me!)

2. In a large saucepan/frying pan with a lid, heat the oil and add your mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds and cardamon pods. Cook for 2-3 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse the oil. The seeds may start to pop as they cook, don’t worry, this is normal.

3. Add the celery and the carrots, stir to coat evenly in the spiced oil and cook on a medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add the ginger, garlic and salt and coat evenly. Cook gently for 4-5 minutes.

5. Add the sweet potato and the Jersey Royals, stir thoroughly and cook for 2-3 minutes. If the vegetables start to stick to the pan, add a splash of water to loosen the mixture.

6. Add the chilli powder, turmeric, cumin powder and coriander powder, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.

7. Add the fresh chilli and stir thoroughly. Cook for 1-2 minutes.

8. Add the French beans, mange tout and stir. Place the lid on the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

9. Add the frozen peas and diced courgettes. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

10. Stir in the mushrooms. Place the lid on the pan and cook for 5 minutes.

11. Add the coconut milk, bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, put the lid on and simmer for 10-12 minutes until the vegetables are all cooked.

12. Finally stir through the chopped coriander and serve with boiled rice.

He cooked this on his little camping stove in the garden to tease the neighbours I think with the delicious smells, but we didn’t invite them to share the meal with us! HAHA!

This recipe is cooked in collaboration with Asda and Jersey Royals to highlight the versatility and great flavour of Jersey Royal potatoes.

Jersey Royals with Minted Lamb Leg Steaks

20th June 2016 by Rosie

My other recipe using Jersey Royal potatoes is more of a traditional one. For this one, they’re gently boiled and then roasted to perfection, served with Chantenay carrots and deliciously lean New Zealand lamb leg steaks, slowly cooked in a rich Barolo red wine and mint sauce.

1 lemon, zest & juice
1 lamb leg steak per person
10ml Rapeseed oil
2 Red onions, chopped finely
10ml Plain flour
15ml Mint sauce concentrate
250ml Barolo red wine
100ml Vegetable stock
Bay leaf
Salt & pepper to taste
Rapeseed oil sufficient to roast the potatoes
Jersey Royal potatoes
Chantenay carrots
Broccoli

Zest the lemon and squeeze the lemon juice over the lamb steaks. Toss to coat, cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours to start to tenderise the meat.
Heat the oven to 180℃/160℃ fan.
In a large ovenproof pan (with a lid), heat the oil and fry the onions gently until transparent.
Turn up the heat and fry the lamb leg steaks until browned on both sides. Remove the lamb to a plate to keep warm.
Evenly sprinkle the flour over the onions and oil and mix thoroughly to a paste (no floury lumps).
Slowly add the red wine and vegetable stock, stirring constantly, to prevent lumps forming.
Add the mint sauce concentrate and stir through, then add the bay leaf.
Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes until slightly reduced. Season to taste.
Return the lamb steaks to the pan, stir to coat and then cover with the lid. Place in the oven to cook.
Add the Jersey Royals to a large pan of salted water, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Increase the oven temperature to 200℃, and place a roasting dish with oil in to heat up.
Drain the potatoes and gently add these to the hot oil, toss to coat evenly and return to the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Scrub the carrots, then slice them vertically from top to bottom.
Steam the carrots over a pan of boiling water, adding the prepared broccoli florets for the last 10 minutes until both vegetables are cooked to taste.
Serve the roasted Jersey Royals with the vegetables and a lamb leg steak each.

This recipe is cooked in collaboration with Asda and Jersey Royals to highlight the versatility and great flavour of Jersey Royal potatoes.

Roasted tomato, pepper & garlic soup

1st January 2016 by Rosie

It’s New Years Day 2016; the start of a new calander year for us all. Despite a very late night watching a film with my family into the ‘wee small hours’, the body clock kicked in and wouldn’t let me have a lay in, sadly, so it was time to get up, have breakfast and create my first dish of the new year then!

Having bought 3 nets of reduced tomatoes in Tesco a couple of days ago (29p/pack), as well as a pack of Romaro peppers (reduced to 39p), along with a couple of yellow peppers and garlic from my fridge, basil growing in a pot on my kitchen windowsill and some fabulous basil infused extra virgin olive oil from Pomora that I picked up at the BBC Good Food Winter show in November, I set about prepping and making a delicious soup for today’s lunch. Measurements aren’t an exact science here; it’s more about the flavour and your own personal taste guiding you through to the finished product, but to give you an idea what I threw together to make my soup, here’s what I used:

25 salad tomatoes

2 Romaro red peppers

2 Yellow peppers

4 cloves of garlic

6 Stems of fresh basil (stalks and leaves)

15ml Pomora basil extra virgin olive oil

Pinch sea salt

15ml Tomato puree

15ml Sugar

5ml Turmeric powder

Black pepper

15ml Balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat your often to 180℃.

2. Halve the tomatoes. Remove the stalks, seeds and pith from the peppers. Peel the garlic and put all of these into a large, heavy based roasting dish (my Le Creuset roasting pan is ideal for this).

3. Throw in the basil, then sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with oil. Toss or stir together until all the vegetables are coated in the oil.

4. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and pulpy and the peppers and garlic are cooked.

5. Remove the tomato skins into a sieve and squeeze the juices from them back into your roasting dish (no point in wasting that delicious, roasted flavour, eh?!)

6. Transfer the roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic etc. from your roasting pan to a blender (I use a Kenwood blender jug attachment on my trusty Kenwood Major Titanium stand mixer). Add the tomato purée, sugar, turmeric and a good grinding of black pepper, then blitz until smooth.

7. Pour the soup into a saucepan, add the balsamic vinegar and heat through, tasting and adjusting your seasoning if required.

8. Serve with a splash of double cream and some lovely, crunchy croutons.

The Pomora Extra Virgin Olive Oil was a free sample I picked up at the BBC Good Food Show. It was not provided in order for me to develop or publish a recipe on behalf of Pomora.

Have a happy, tasty new year!

Krombacher Beer – Slow Cooked Beef Shin Recipe

This is a collaborative post.

Jersey Royal Potato and Vegetable Curry

This recipe is cooked in collaboration with Asda and Jersey Royals to highlight the versatility and great flavour of Jersey Royal potatoes.

Jersey Royals with Minted Lamb Leg Steaks

This recipe is cooked in collaboration with Asda and Jersey Royals to highlight the versatility and great flavour of Jersey Royal potatoes.

Roasted tomato, pepper & garlic soup

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