Mmorocco

Beef stew with dumplings in season

For the coldest wintry evenings, tuck into a rich beef stew with fluffy dumplings to warm you right down to your toes.
Ingredients
For the beef stew
2 tbsp olive oil
25g/1oz butter
750g/1lb 10oz beef stewing steak, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp plain flour
2 garlic cloves, crushed
175g/6oz baby onions, peeled
150g/5oz celery, cut into large chunks
150g/5oz carrots, cut into large chunks
2 leeks, roughly chopped
200g/7oz swede, cut into large chunks
150ml/5fl oz red wine
500ml/18fl oz beef stock
2 fresh bay leaves
3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, or to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dumplings
125g/4½oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
60g/2½oz suet
water, to make a dough
To serve
mashed potato

1 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
For the beef stew, heat the oil and butter in an ovenproof casserole and fry the beef until browned on all sides.
Sprinkle over the flour and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
Add the garlic and all the vegetables and fry for 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the wine, stock and herbs, then add the Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, to taste. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Cover with a lid, transfer to the oven and cook for about two hours, or until the meat is tender.
For the dumplings, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Add the suet and enough water to form a thick dough.
With floured hands, roll spoonfuls of the dough into small balls.
After two hours, remove the lid from the stew and place the balls on top of the stew. Cover, return to the oven and cook for a further 20 minutes, or until the dumplings have swollen and are tender. (If you prefer your dumplings with a golden top, leave the lid off when returning to the oven.)
To serve, place a spoonful of mashed potato onto each of four serving plates and top with the stew and dumplings. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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Tartiflette in season

Try serving this French-style cheesy potato bake with pickled onions, gherkins and charcuterie.
Ingredients
1kg/2lb 4oz Charlotte potatoes, peeled
250g/8oz bacon lardons
2 shallots
1 garlic clove
100ml/3½fl oz white wine
200ml/7fl oz double cream
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 whole Reblochon cheese (about 450g/1lb), sliced
Preparation method
For the tartiflette, preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 7.
Cook the potatoes in a saucepan of salted boiling water for 5-10 minutes, or until tender.
Drain and set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, heat a frying pan until hot and fry the bacon, shallots and garlic for 4-5 minutes, or until golden-brown. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Technique: De-glazing pan gravy

Watch technique
1:18 mins
Slice the potatoes thinly and layer into an ovenproof gratin dish with the bacon mixture. Pour over the double cream. Season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Layer the Reblochon slices on top.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is golden-brown and bubbling.

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Pork loin with Parma ham and oregano in season

You may have noticed that I said the pork loin should be de-rinded. I didn’t say you wouldn’t want the rind as well. The ciccioli – as Italian pork scratchings (give or take) are known – make for very fine aperativo-accompanying morsel.
Ingredients
1.5kg/3lb 5oz boneless and rindless loin of pork

2 fat cloves garlic, minced
few sprigs fresh oregano, plus more to serve
100g/3½oz Parma ham, sliced
⅓ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 onion or 2 shallots, unpeeled
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp dry white vermouth
4 tbsp boiling water
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Open up the loin of pork, read for stuffing, by laying it out in front of you vertically so that the thick part is on the left (I’m right-handed). Now starting at the top, cut through this thick part of the loin all the way down so that you can open it out to the left like a book. This will give you a larger surface area to lay the filling on.
Spread the pungent garlic all over the meat. Then take the leaves from a few sprigs of oregano and dot them about too. Keep the stalks.
Lay the pieces of ham horizontally over the pork loin, this way it will roll up more easily as the roll will follow the long length of the ham slices.
Sprinkle the chilli flakes over the ham and then roll up the loin, starting from the open-ended side, keeping as tight a roll as you can. Secure the meat with string at 3-4cm/1-1½in intervals, knotting the lengths of string firmly. If you’re using stationer’s string rather than cook’s twine, dampen it first. I wish I could instruct you as to how to tie proper knots, but I do very bad knots myself. Were you to have the offer of a friendly hand - or rather finger - to hold the knot down as you tie it, take it gratefully.
Cut the onion or shallots into thick slices without peeling them, and sit them in the bottom of a roasting tin to make the flavour-platform for the pork. Add the reserved stalks from the oregano, sit the loin on top and drizzle with the oil.
Cook for 1¼ hours, when it’s cooked, the juices must run clear when you put a skewer into the centre and a meat thermometer should read 71C/160F.
Transfer the tin to a heatproof kitchen surface, immediately pour the vermouth and boiling water into the tin and scrape all around the bottom of the tin so any oniony, meaty stuck-on bits dissolve into this instant gravy. You can let the meat rest in this sauce for 15 minutes or so.
When you are ready to slice the pork, remove it to a board and warm the gravy (removing the onion bits) if it’s cooled. Cut the meat into approximately 2cm/1in slices, or in other words, thick enough for the slices to keep their shape and hold the filling. This size joint should give you 10 good slices plus the misshapen end-pieces.
Arrange these sturdy slices on a bed of rocket with the gravy served separately in a little jug, or just sit them on a warm plate and pour over them a little gravy or any extra juices the meat has made. Take some more oregano leaves and slice them into fine strips, strewing them over the pork slices before serving.

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