Sunday 12 October - Beef Meatball and Guinness Stew and Caramel Apple Pie

A recipe for meatballs cooked in Guinness that I spotted in the Waitrose Magazine, that looks a bit different from our usual Sunday food, and seemed to be just right for the weather.

The recipe used ready made meatballs, but I made these using minced beef and some fresh breadcrumbs - the first stage was to brown them.

Then a sauce of onion, garlic, a bit of tomato puree and some Guinness and beef stock. Added to this the meatballs and some chunks of carrot and it was all left to simmer away.

To serve with this we also followed the suggestions in the magazine - cavolo nero cooked with garlic and chilli, and some puree of cauliflower and grainy mustard.

For me, the cauliflower was the nicest part, as I found the stew a little bitter from the Guinness.

For pudding, I decided to use up some of the beautiful apples I picked  the previous week - for a change I used Cox apples rather than the usual Bramleys.

I peeled the apples and sliced them very thinly.

A caramel sauce was made with butter and brown sugar melted together, and then cream and calvados were added and it was reduced until thick and smooth.

I made the pie up in the usual way, with a sweet pastry, but made layers of the slice apples and caramel before topping with the pastry lid - the sweetness all came from the apples and caramel so no further sugar was added.

We served this warm with some extra cream.