Saturday 22 June - Stracotto on Polenta

Decided to try something new again, so ended up with Stracotto -  a joint of beef braised in Chianti and passata and served on Polenta.

The beef was studded with garlic, and then sealed in a pan. Then finely chopped onions, carrots and celery were sweated for 30 minutes (I also added garlic here which wasn't in the recipe.

 

Then a good glug of Chianti, a bottle of passata and some beef stock were added, and the beef was cooked in this along with a bouquet garni of home grown herbs - and into a very low oven for 6 hours.

Another change that I made was to make a gremolata of lemon rind, parley and garlic to serve over the final dish.

Once the beef was tender, the sauce was pushed the a mouli - one thing I really, really dislike to eat is cooked celery because of the texture, but it's ok hidden in a sauce!

The meat was thickly sliced and served over polenta with the sauce and gremolata - as it's still in season we added some asparagus and some spinach wilted briefly with garlic and chilli.

The left over meat was shredded and added to some sauce, and I will serve it with pasta later this week.

For afters some chocolate mousse served with salted caramel - not good for the diet, but delicous.

Saturday 15 June - Pink Pralines

I've had a pack of Pink Pralines lurking at the back of my cupboard since we came back from France last year, so I decided the time has come to use them up.

I tasted one out of the packet, and it was not unlike trying to eat a pebble - rock hard .

In order to be able to melt them a lot of bashing with a hammer took place, then they were placed in a pan of cream and slowly melted.

Once melted they were boiled until the mixture reached 100 degrees, and then this was cooled before filling some tart cases that we had blind baked.

First course was some bargain smoked salmon we'd picked up made into a pate with some cream cheese, dill and lemon juice - and this was served with some soda bread.

Main course was a sort of Osso Bucco but made with cubes of veal rather than the traditional slices cooked in white wine and tomatoes.

This was topped with a gremolate mix of parsley, garlic and lemon rind and served with a saffron risotto.

We rounded off the meal with a cheese board purchased from Chichester market