Wednesday 24 February 2010

I've lost my cooking mojo...

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..., but I'm hoping to rediscover it soon. Thanks for being patient!

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Unearthed goodies

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I was sent some continental deli goodies from Unearthed a couple of weeks ago and am only just getting around to blogging about it. Where does the time go?

The people at Unearthed source quality food from all over Europe and were kind enough to send me some Barrel Aged Greek Feta, some Hot Chili Olives and some Spanish Chorizo to try. What can I say? It was great food, full of flavour and perfect to have with a glass of wine and friends. The olives were really hot, but went perfect with the soft, salty feta and the chorizo tasted just like chorizo should. I'll definitely be looking out for their foods next time I'm in Waitrose.

The pictures I took really don't do the food justice, as I couldn't wait for daylight, but devoured everything on the night it arrived, so I've borrowed a picture from their website.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Sunday Roast

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A couple of weeks ago a parcel from the wonderful people at Tiny Farmer arrived on my doorstep. I opened it and found some great hand-reared, welfare friendly beef, a huge rump steak, some shin of beef, some minced beef and a lovely silverside to be precise.

So what was a girl to do? Invite Lucy, Jean-Marc and E for a roast dinner of course!
I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed it greatly, even though the roast was a little less pink than I wanted it to be. I forgot to set my timer.

















Roast Beef


olive oil
1 silverside of beef
2 carrots
1 onion, halved
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

for the gravy (serves 4):
4 cloves of garlic
4 plum tomatoes, halved
1 glass of red wine
600ml beef stock

Preheat your oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Heat the oil a heavy based roasting pan on top of your stove.

Season your beef and brown for about 3-4 minutes on all sides.

When browned briefly remove the roast from the pan and put 2 carrots and the onion halves in the pan and than place the beef on top.

Transfer to the oven and roast for 15 minutes per 450g for rare or 20 minutes per 450g for medium.

When the roast is done, put it on a warmed plate, loosely wrap it in tin foil and set aside to rest while you make the gravy.

Place the roasting pan on the hob. Remove any excess fat and add the garlic and tomatoes. Cook for 4-5 minutes before adding the wine and the beef stock.

Bring to a simmer and bubble for about 10 minutes. The liquid should reduce by about half.

Pass the gravy through a fine sieve. Make sure you really press all the juices out of the vegetables to get all the flavour.

Return the gravy to the pan and bring back to a boil until you reach gravy consistency. If you like you can thicken it with a little cornflour.

Enjoy!