Rosies winter food, Pot au Feu

Pot au feu described by Chef Raymond Blanc as "the quintessence of French family cuisine, it is the most celebrated dish in France. It honours the tables of the rich and poor alike".

So cheap and easy to make, In the oven, on the stove on the fire or in the slow cooker. 

The meat is belly of Beef, I buy it when ever I see it on promotion throughout the year, and freeze it until the winter.

€2.30 a kilo bought back in October

.This isn't diet food, the beef is fatty, I cut the strings off and cut out the bigger chunks of fat, but don't trim it to much.

Use any vegetables you have, potatoes, carrots, leeks, cabbage, turnips, any veg to help bulk it out, cut the beef into large chunk, put the lot in the saucepan, cover with beef stock, add any herbs, sage, bay leaf etc, and simmer for up to 12 hours in the slow cooker, its cooked when the meat is tender.

This one is in my slow cooker, possibly the favourite of my kitchen gadgets.

But I have cooked it on the wood burner before, I started it simmering on the stove top then moved.

As soon as its cooked I will post another photograph, but this stew on here will last two of us at least 3 days. I may blend it down on day 3 to make a soup.

Talking of soup, as I was cutting the vegetables up for the stew I did a few extra carrots and leeks, I put them in a saucepan, with a couple of cloves of garlic and simmered the veg in chicken stock.

When the veg is cooked, blend it all together.

I'm going to add coriander but this is up to you.

Rosies Courgette cake

150 g flour Self raising or use levure chimique
200 g bacon bits
100 g chopped Chorizo
400 g grated skinned courgette (Peeling them is up to you, but I did)
1 Carrot
1 sliced onion
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of oil
2 or 3 tablespoons of milk
100 g grated cheese (Cheddar, Gruyère or Emmental)

Grate all the vegetables

Fry the onions and meat, empty on to kitchen paper to soak up the fats.

Squeeze a lot of the water out of the veg, wrap in a tea towel and twist.

Put the flour in a large bowl with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.

Make a well in the middle and put the oil and the eggs in. Mix slowly until you obtain a smooth mixture. Add the milk and mix again. Add the grated courgette and carrot  gradually while you keep on mixing. Finally add the meat and  the onion followed by the cheese.

Put in a greased loaf tin

Bake at 180c, for about an hour

Ideally serve warm not hot, but just as tasty cold.

Rosies Nettle Soup

Collect a good pile of nettles, take the younger top leaves.

Wash them well

Fry an onion in oil then add nettles, a few stalks aren't going to do any harm

Add chopped up potatoes ,and garlic cook till the leaves wilt, about 5 minutes.

Add about 600ml of milk and 300ml of stock*

Blend, adjust seasoning.

Serve

Rosies Stuffed Marrow

Cut into thick slices. Press out the seeds then use a knife to tidy the slice up

Stuff as you like, I used mashed potatoes and black pudding.

Preheat oven to 200c

drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil, bake for 45 mins

Remove from oven, here I have added Gruyère cheese and smoked Ham,Leave foil open and bake for a further 15 mins

Serve

Stuffed Tomatoes and soup

Some large firm tomatoes.

Turn upside down and slice of the bottom.

Scoop out the insides, but leave the flesh intact.

I boiled up some rice in water with curry powder, then used sausage meat and chorizo, I fried the meat with a little curry powder, when cooked added the cooked rice and mixed it together will a little of the chopped tomato pulp, just enough to make it moist.

I then filled the tomatoes with the rice sausage mix, and put the "lids" back on.

I also stuffed a few tomatoes with mozzarella, basil and a little of the tomato pulp.

I put Olive oil and the tomatoes in a roasting dish and gave the tops of the tomatoes a spray of basil flavoured extra virgin olive oil. These went into the oven at 180c.

The rest of the pulp, some courgettes and a parsnip were used in a soup,then I followed my soup recipe HERE

Steamy picture.
After making the soup , blending it.

After blending you can add any rice left from the stuffed tomato recipe.

Checking my recipe

Check your tomatoes after 15 minutes and every five minutes, you want them cooked without collapsing, it will depend on how soft your tomatoes were before you started.

Serve with fresh bread and a rosé

Veroniques Galettes.

750 ml water
3 egg
3 grams sea salt
250 grams buckwheat flour (farine noir)
50 grams all purpose flour
50 grams melted butter or olive oil

Whisk 250 ml of the water with egg and salt to combine.
In a separate bowl, mix both flours together. Make a well in the centre. Gradually whisk in water mixture. When you have a smooth paste, whisk in remaining water to make a thin batter. (The consistency similar to 35% cream.) You may not use all 500 ml . Set aside at room temperature for 2 hours.
Stir melted butter or oil into batter when ready to cook galettes.

Filling.
Make a bechamel sauce and add the ingredients you want, bacon, boiled potatoes, sausage, or vegetables. Try a full English breakfast on/in a galette, or a Toulouse sausage with ketchup wrapped as Breton hot-dog.