Category: Local meat

Fesenjan: walnut and pomegranate stew – with goose breast – version 1 with beetroot

This is an adaptation from a classic Persian recipe. Traditionally, it is made with duck legs, and simmered slowly until the duck meat is tender. It can be made with goose legs as well, simmering for five hours or more. However, I had goose breast meat which goes strangely dry and stringy if overcooked, so it is best flash-fried in thin strips and then added to the stew at the end. 

Everyone says their version is the best, and there are variations. Next time I make this, I will be trying out using butternut squash. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp duck fat
  • 2 goose breasts, sliced into thin strips
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 100ml pomegranate molasses
  • 100g walnuts, toasted, cooled and ground finely in a food processer
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 beetroot about the size of a tennis ball, peeled and diced
  • a pinch of saffron
  • a small cinnamon stick
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • chopped parsley to garnish

METHOD:

  • In a large pan, melt the fat and saute the onions over a low medium heat until it softens. 
  • Add the stock, walnuts, pomegranate molases, and spices and bring to a simmer.
  • Add the diced beetroot and simmer very gently until the beetroot is cooked. 
  • In a hot pan, melt duck fat, and fry the strips of goose meat until they are browned and still tender and moist. 
  • Add the meat to the sauce, heat through and serve with rice, and garnished with chopped parsley. 

Venison goulash

This is inspired by the excellent shops online, selling Hungarian food. I tried out ‘best of Hungary’ which did me proud, but there are many others. I would love to visit Hungary, I am googling the methods on ‘the man in seat 61’.  I bought a tube of goulash seasoning to appease my longing. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp beef dripping or lard
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 200g celery, diced
  • 1 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, ground for preference
  • 2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 bayleaves
  • 2 1/2 tbsp hot smoked paprika (or use mild smoked paprika if you prefer) 
  • 900g stewing venison, in small cubes
  • 1 can tinned tomatoes
  • 2 red peppers, skinned and sliced into rings (or use 2 tbsp red pepper puree)
  • 1 tbsp goulash paste
  • 1 litre beef stock
  • 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 2 parsnips, peeled and sliced
  • 400g waxy potatoes, diced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • A bunch of parsley stems
  • a litre of hot water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 100g csipetke – Hungarian pinched pasta – or use Italian soup pasta or orzo pasta. 

That seems like a lot of ingredients, but the recipe is easy. 

METHOD:

  • Heat the lard in a very large saucepan or casserole dish. Add the onions and celery and cook over a low-medium heat for around 8 minutes, stirring so they don’t burn.
  • Add the caraway seeds, black pepper and bayleaves and cook for a further two minutes.  
  • Turn off the heat, and add the paprika, and stir in well. Add a little stock or hot water to help it mix. It is a lot of paprika. 
  • Add the venison and garlic, stir it all together and cook over a medium heat until the meat starts to brown. 
  • Add the tomaotes, peppers, goulash paste and the stock. The meat should be covered well buy the stock. 
  • Cover and simmer for an hour and a half. 
  • Add the carrots, parsnips and potatoes, along with the parsley, and add enough hot water to cover the ingredients by a couple of centimeters. Season with salt, bring to the boil, and then simmer, uncovered, for around 15 minutes.
  • Add the csipetke pasta and boil uncovered for another 15 minutes. Check the seasoning before serving.  

This is excellent with red wine, and cabbage as a side-dish. 

Persian wild goose meatball soup

This is an excellent way to cook with wild goose; the meatballs were tender and the flavour of goose was enhanced by the broth and the chickpeas. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 goose breasts
  • 1/2 onion
  • 3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp chopped mint
  • 70g brown flour
  • 1500ml chicken stock
  • 1 tin of chickpeas in water
  • 1 dried lime
  • a pinch of saffron
  • Chopped chives

METHOD:

  • Mince the goose meat and the onion
  • In a large bowl, mix the minced goose, minced onion, garlic, mint, beaten egg, salt, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and flour, and kneed together.
  • In a large pot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer, and add the dried lime and a small pinch of saffron
  • Form the meatball mixture into around 18 balls about the size of a golf-ball. Add the meatballs to the simmering stock and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes. 
  • Add the chickpeas inclidng their liquid, and simmer for another 20 minutes, until the chickpeas are tender. Adjust the seasoning at the end of cooking. 
  • Serve in deep bowls, allow three meatballs per person, and garnish with chopped chives. 

Goose and paprika

The flavour of green sweet peppers and goose just go so well together. This is a rich stew with a Hungarian twist, rich with paprika, peppers and tomatoes. After I made this, I found lots of recipes from Hungary using goose, but this is not a classic. I think there is a similar dish using chicken but it has a lot of sour cream in it, unlike this rich stew. 

I think it should probably be served with Hungarian nokedli, a sort of pasta. I had mine with linguine. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tbsp lard (or olive oil)
  • 3 wild goose breasts,
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 4 heaped tsp sweet paprika
  • 2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • Chicken stock
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes
  • salt and pepper
  • chopped parsley to serve

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil or lard in a casserole dish, and fry the chopped peppers and onions. Once they begin to soften, add the garlic and spices, and continue to cook over a medium heat. 
  • Add the tomato paste, paprika and tinned tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook until the sauce is nice and thick. Season to taste. If the sauce looks a bit thick, add chicken stock and then cook it down. 
  • Version a: I fried off the goose meat, cubed, added to the stew and cooked it in a slow oven, around 120C for 4 hours. The goose was very tasty, but it took a while to get tender. 
  • Version b: I cut the goose meat into goujons, fried them quicky and put them onto the pasta and sauce on the plate. Version b was quicker and the goose was tender, but the flavour was not as good. 

Served with noodles and garnished with chopped parsley. 

 

 

Meatballs and beans in a lemon sauce.

This is a delicious recipe from Ottolenghi’s ‘Jerusalem’ which is one of my favourite recipe books. It has a sense of Persia about it, and for a while I was trying to find it in another book. I used up a couple of reduced lamb steaks and some beef mince, as well as some broad beans from the freezer to make this. It is easiest to make if you have a mincer; mine is electric and very efficient. 

INGREDIENTS: 

For the meatballs:

  • 300g beef mince
  • 200g lamb mince (or mince some lamb)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 120g breadcrumbs (I put three large slices of stale wholemeal bread in a blender)
  • 2tbsp each of chopped mint, coriander and parsley
  • 1 tsp dried dill (or 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped if it is available)
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp baharat spice mix (I got mine from Seasoned Pioneers) 
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp capers, chopped
  • 1 large egg, beaten

For the Sauce:

  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 300 to 400g broad beans, fresh or frozen
  • 1 tsp dried thyme, or the leaves from 4 fresh sprigs
  • 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • a bunch of spring onions, in 2cm segments, or a chopped shallot
  • juice of half a lemon (around 2 tbsp, or to taste)
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • In a large bowl, mix the meatball ingredients together. If you have a mincer, feed the mixture through the mincer after mixing, to ensure the ingredients are chopped and mixed together. 
  • Divide the mixture into 24 meatballs, about the size of a pingpong ball. Put them on an oiled baking tray, and leave them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. 
  • Heat the oven up to high, and then put the chilled meatballs in for 5 minutes, until they are browned. 
  • Meanwhile, if you are feeling keen, poach the broad beans and remove the skins. Personally I like the skins and generally leave them on. The original recipe suggests half and half. 
  • In a large casserole pan, heat the olive oil. When it is hot, fry the spring onion, thyme and garlic over a medium heat for 3 minutes or so. 
  • Add the unpeeled broad beans, 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 80ml stock, 1/4 tsp salt and lots of black pepper. Poach the beans in the stock for 10 minutes.
  • Add the meatballs with the remaining stock, bring to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes over a low heat. At this juncture, you could turn the heat off and do something else, and come back to reheat. 
  • Just before serving, check to see if there is enough sauce. Stir in mixed chopped fresh herbs (mint, coriander, parsley, dill) and the peeled beans.

I served this with plain rice, my daugher got a wee take-away from me, and served hers with orzo pasta and pinenuts. Both delicious. 

Minced lamb with potatoes

This is really delicious, warm and delicately flavoured. It is in Madhur Jaffrey’s book ‘Curry easy‘. The book suggests serving this with rice, dal, yoghurt and pickles. I skipped the rice, but I wish I hadn’t. I actually altered the quantities a little, as I had more minced lamb than the recipe asks for, and I didn’t want to refreeze any. 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 3 Tbsp rapeseed oil or sunflower oil
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 1/2  teaspoon finely chopped root ginger
  • 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1300 g minced lamb (I minced some lamb that was in the freezer – I have a fab electric mincer)
  • 5 tbsp natural yoghurt
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, pureed
  • 1 heaped tsp cumin seed
  • 3 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 450g peeled potatoes, chopped into 2cm chunks

METHOD:

  • In a large pan, hjeat the oil over a medium to high heat. When it is hot, add the cinnamon sticks, roll them in the hot oil for a few seconds and then add the onion, and fry for a few munites, until starting to brown. Then add the garlic and ginger and stir to mix for a minute
  • Add the lamb, stir and fry, breaking up the meat. Keep cooking until the meat loses its redness. 
  • Add yoghurt, tomatoes, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper and turmeric and stir together, and bring back to a slow simmer. 
  • Add the salt, potatoes and around 700ml water, stir together and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes. 

 

 

 

Rabbit paella

I’ve been itching to make rabbit paella since the spring, when we went on holiday to Madrid, and I realised that rabbit paella is a thing. Paella can combine many ingredients, it is essentially a one pot mixture based on what is available. I’ve had a couple of rabbits in the freezer, and once I had access to some fresh garden vegetables, I defrosted one, and this is what I did:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 small rabbit, jointed
  • 2 chicken thighs, boned and chopped
  • 2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 100g artichoke hearts (in oil, or fresh, optional)
  • 100g broad beans or green beans
  • 100g runner beans, sliced
  • 1 can of chopped tomatoes, pureed
  • a couple of generous pinches of saffron
  • 1 litre or so of chicken or rabbit stock
  • 400g paella rice
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • A squeeze of lemon juice

METHOD:

  • Add the oil to a large pan, such as a wok, shallow casserole dish or paella pan, at least 25cm across, and deep enough for all of the ingredients to cook together. Heat it up and fry the rabbit for around 3 minutes, then add the chicken and fry for another 5 minutes, seasoning the meat with salt. Cook until the meat is browned. 
  • Add the paprika and one pinch of saffron and keep cooking for another 5minutes, before adding the garlic, broad beans, runner beans, artichoke hearts, dried rosemary and pureed tomatoes. Continue to stir and cook together for a further 5 minutes. 
  • Meanwhile, heat the stock in another pan and add the rest of the saffron, leaving it to steep. 
  • Add 2 cups of the stock to the fried rabbit and chicken and let it simmer for around 20 minutes. 
  • Add the rice – traditionally in an x shape to ensure it cooks evenly through the cooked ingredients. Add any remaining stock. 
  • Cover the paella with a lid and leave to cook on low for another 20 minutes. Check at around 10 and 15 minutes to ensure that it is not cooking too dry, you may need to add a little more water or stock
  • At the end of cooking, let the paella rest for around 5 minutes before serving with a squeeze of lemon.

Kale, pork and potatoes

An excellent, very simple meal, with bonus stock at the end for adding to soups and stews. I have a lot of kale this year, so look out for a series of kale recipes. This recipe serves 6 to 8 people. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • Around 800g bacon joint or pre-soaked salted ham
  • 1 bayleaf
  • 1 tsp peppercorns
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1 tbsp date syrup or brown sugar
  • 1 level tsp salt (if not using salted ham)
  • around 500g shredded kale
  • 1kg peeled new potatoes cut into chunks.

METHOD:

  • Put the ham or bacon joint into a large saucepan, and just about cover with water. Add the bayleaf, peppercorns, cloves, all-spice, date syrup, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook over a low heat for 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Add the potatoes and cabbage, and simmer until the potatoes are just cooked
  • Strain off and reserve the stock
  • Slice the bacon and serve on a bed of potatoes and kale. You can pour melted butter over the latter. 

Home-made shish kebab

We had planned a barbecue, but rain stopped play, and we ended grilling these. Better on the barbecue though. Don’t forget to marinade the ingredients the day before.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 750g good quality local beef
  • 3 green peppers
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 8 Spring onions
  • 8 close cup mushrooms
  • 8 bayleaves
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 1 cup fresh oregano or marjoram, or 1 heaped tsp dried
  • 1 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • skewers

METHOD:

  • Cut the beef into large cubes, about 2 inches, 5cm across. Cut the tomatoes in half, and cut the peppers into large squares.
  • Make a marinade as follows: slice the onion, and combine with the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Put the kebab ingredients into the marinade in a large sealed container, and leave in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours. If you are using wooden skewers, dampen them and put them in the freezer overnight.
  • The next day, set the barbecue volunteer to lighting the charcoal at least 30 minutes before you are due to cook. Let the charcoal burn until they form a hot bed of glowing coals. Meanwhile, thread the ingredients onto the skewers, alternating beef cubes with other ingredients, and dividing them equally.
  • Cook the kebabs on the barbecue for about 5 minutes on each side, total cooking time around 10 minutes. You are not aiming to get the meat any more than ‘medium’. Baste the kebabs as they are cooking with the remaining marinade.

Serve with nan bread or pitta bread, side salad, and greek-style plain yoghurt.

Venison stew

This is a delicious stew with a lot of sauce, excellent with cous cous. I used a lot of celery, which went well with the rich taste of venison. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 700g diced venison e.g. from haunch or leg
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 sticks of celery, diced
  • 2 small onions, or one large onion, diced
  • 4 carrots, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp herbe de Provence (I used a mixture of dried basil, dried oregano, dried savoury, dried thyme, dried rosemary, bay leaves)
  • 1 scant tsp salt
  • black pepper
  • 1 400g tin of tomatoes
  • 3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 litre of stock

METHOD:

  • Dice the venison, and fry in a casserole pan in hot oil until browned, and then set aside.
  • In the same pan, fry the onion, celery and carrots over a medium heat for around 10 minutes.
  • Add the garlic, herbs and salt and pepper, and fry for a minute or two, before adding the tomatoes, stock and Worcestershire sauce, and bringing to a simmer. 
  • Add the venison, stir together and then cook in the oven at 140C for 3 hours, or until the venison is tender.

You could add dumplings or potatoes. The potatoes are best added to the stew about 40 minutes before serving. Dumplings take about 30 minutes to cook in a stew.