Beef of the Fall

 "After hardship comes ease" a quote that was very relatable to present events just as for me the quote "after the first recipe using apples from my wise guide's garden comes the sequel to that recipe" is equally relatable. This recipe is one for a distinctly Autumnal Beef Stew. Time to delve deeper into how to make this one happen.

Heavy cloud and no rain for what seemed like days served to lower the mood and leave many seeking brightness in faraway lands. That meant some solid comfort food was needed to protect ourselves against the cooling of the weather and less than light nights. 

On the player to inspire the cooking project was the last, and perhaps the greatest, album by Roxy Music in the shape of their 1982 effort "Avalon". Slick song-writing, cold but efficient synth work, mannered vocalising and one of the best opening tracks of all time with "More Than This" make this record a winner.

Ingredients

The ingredients to this stew come like this:

600 grams of diced Beef.

5 Carrots, washed, topped and tailed- but not peeled- and sliced thinly.

6 small Cooking Apples, similar to those from my friend's garden which I used, that are around the size of Pool Balls.

3 Shallots, topped tailed, peeled and then sliced thinly. 

Half a small Swede peeled.

Fresh Thyme, an amount to suit your personal taste.

Fresh Chives, an amount to suit your personal taste.

Black Pepper to season to your personal taste.

2 teaspoons of Malt Vineger.

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce. 

1 pint of Vegetable Stock.

Method

1. Melt 100 grams of Salted Butter in a Le Cresceut or other oven proof dish that has a removable lid.

2. Add the Beef, Carrots, Apples, Swede and Shallots and mix thoroughly while stewing on a medium heat for around ten to fifteen minutes to ensure the Beef is browned. 

3. Add the Chives, Thyme, Black Pepper, Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce and stew for another five minutes. 

4. Add the Vegetable Stock and ensure it covers all things in the dish.

5. Put the lid on the dish, take off the heat of the hob and insert into a pre-heated oven.

6. Cook on Gas Mark 3 for around two hours before serving.

The result of this dish was a sweetness from the apple that was enhanced by the Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce while the Beef and root vegetables gave plenty of savoury flavour. To give it even more of a fortifying taste of the Fall, try serving with dumplings and/or thick freshly baked bread.

Above: with enough for several meals, this dish can be blocked cooked and frozen to enjoy when you are in a rush but need a good feed.

Scone Alone

 Last Tuesday in town, on an evening after another day of energy and excitement at work, some scones of a new kind were born. It was recipe making its debut on the blog and in the kitchen. It contained one of the delicious apples my wise mentor had provided me and some home grown herbs. Let's find out how to make this recipe below.

Earlier in the summer, a trip had been taken to Devon to the home of sweet scones, Jam and clotted cream. Indeed, this recipe-called a cream tea- is one the classic foods many think of when asked to name English Cuisine. Another sweet scone I once sampled, in another life, was lavender scones. However, I decided to put a twist on the traditional sweet scone recipe by making something sweet and savoury. 

On the player was the Kinks' 1967 masterpiece "Something Else by the Kinks" that opens with the schoolboy drama of "David Watts" and closes with the timeless masterpiece "Waterloo Sunset". In between; the wistful music hall revival "The End of the Season" that could have been sung by Bud Flanagan in the summer of 1939 and the ode to cigarettes of "Harry Rag" are two of many highlights. 

The ingredients for the scones went like this:

Eight Ounces of Self-Raising Flour.

Two Ounces of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature. 

Tablespoon of Chives from my garden that are chopped finely.

Tablespoon of Tarragon leaves from my garden that are chopped finely. 

A pinch of Mustard Powder.

An apple from the bag given to me by mentor, de cored and then cubed but not peeled. 

Four Ounces of grated Cheddar Cheese.

Milk to bind the mixture together, around 100 millilitres should do it.

These scones are made like this:

1. Knead the Self-Raising Flour and Butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the Chives, Tarragon, Cheese, Mustard and Apples. 

3. Gradually add the Milk, stirring it in steadily until the mixture resembles a ball of dough that is pliable. 

4. Grease a baking tray and split the mixture into around nine equal balls. 

5. Bake on Gas Mark Six for around twenty minutes until they are golden brown. 

6. Turn onto a plate and leave to cool. 

The scones followed me to work later that week, there the flavoursome taste containing sweet Apple and a genuine savoury nature from the Cheese and Herbs proved a winner with colleagues. 

Dales' Cake

On the blog today, a recipe that was born out of inspiration from the cakes of the Yorkshire Dales and filled with an exotic Jam that was made in the Derbyshire Dales. Let me fill you in on this stirring recipe. 

Change is all round us. As inevitable as taxes and the way the longer days give way to shorter ones, different weather and the plants producing crops that reflect the change in the seasons each year. This recipe was inspired by that process as it contained ingredients that are more commonly found in the Fall Season and serve as comfort food during those days when colder weather and darker evenings become commonplace. 

As always, there was music on the player. Today we were going quite old school but in some ways looking to the future too with the latest release by seminal Manchester Band The Chameleons. Their music could properly be classed as the missing link between the bleak, beautiful post-punk gravity of Joy Division and the bright guitar pop with dark and sardonic lyrics of the Smiths.

The Chameleons' last album was released in 2001 and before that they produced records in 1983, 1985 and 1986 with the odd EP and live record thrown in. The new release, Arctic Moon, which was preceded by an EP earlier in the year, features the classic Chameleon traits of attention to sonic detail in the guitar department, considered lyrics and new musical experiments. In other words it is outwardly something fresh and new but beneath the surface it is in every way the band we all know and love. The same could be said for my life; apparent changes on the face of things don't take away from the fact that, for those who choose to understand, underneath that is same the person they have always known and is now hoping to be a better version of what came before.

So the ingredients for today's recipe, which is a cake. They are as follows:

For the sponge

3 beaten Eggs that are medium sized. 

3 tablespoons of treacle. 

4 ounces of Caster Sugar

2 ounces of Ground Ginger.

8 ounces of Self-Raising Flour.

8 ounces part melted, Salted Butter. A good trick is to put the butter near a warm window for a short time to soften it up to the consistency of margarine. 

For the filling

Quince Jam. 

Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar together until you get a fluffy mixture that looks like the Butter has grown hair. 

2. Add the Eggs and Treacle and stir them into the mixture. 

3. Add the Flour and the Ginger and mix until a thick paste is created. 

4. Grease two cake tins and put half the mixture in each. 

5. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes or until putting a skewer into the cake brings it out clean. 

6. Put the two pieces of cake out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

7. Spread a large amount of the Quince Jam onto one side of the cake and put the other on the top to create a sandwich.

The cake tasted of something different but with a familiar sweetness. The Quince Jelly gave it the sweet and savoury taste of traditional Fall recipes as did the addition of the Treacle and Ginger also. The cake proved a real hit with an old friend I was blessed to reunite with after some years and workmates who have a warmth that matters.