Oxtail Jardinière

 

A Spring Saturday Morning In Early March

Mary (a friend from the Wildfood board) had been making oxtail soup and this triggered a longing in me, I hadn’t made Oxtail for many a long day and one of my favourites was Jardinière, that hearty peasant stew with loads of vegetables, even though it was spring (according to some), it was still cold in the mornings, in fact we had been having a bit of frost of late.

I had popped into our local slaughter house (Tönnies) as they always have that type of stuff readily at hand (heart, tongue, beef kidney and pigs heads) and bought some fresh vacuum packed, it weighed in at 2.2 kg.

Saturday was a smashing morning, the sun was out and it had raised the temperature a bit so I thought I will make the jardinière and then go out and do a bit of bird spotting at the gravel pit.

You will require (for the Jardinière not the bird spotting, for that you need bino's and a camera)

2 kg (approx) of oxtail

500g of onions

3 large cloves of garlic

2 tbsp of oil

1 handful of freeze dried soup vegetables

4 brown mushrooms

1 Ltr. of beef stock

2 large carrots

1 large piece of celeriac

White of a leek

Bunch of parsley

Grinding of lemon pepper from the mill

The Aromatics

10 pepper corns

3cm piece of cinnamon (broken into small pieces to fit into the tea egg)

A piece of mace

4 juniper berries

2 cardamom pods

1 bouquet garni (consisting of. Sprig of rosemary, thyme, a few sage leaves and a large bay leaf)

100 ml (or there about) of port

 

So I unpacked, washed and chopped the oxtail into smaller portions,

gave it a good grinding with lemon pepper, I then peeled all of the available onions that I had (some white, some red and also a large shallot that was lying around doing nothing) and 3 large cloves of garlic.

Sliced the onions and crushed and chopped the garlic

Heated the oil in a large frying pan and slowly browned the onions and garlic, removed with a slotted spoon and put in the bottom of the SC.

Next I raised the heat and browned the pieces of oxtail all over, I needed to do this in two lots, during this time I had heated the stock and added the freeze dried veg, allowing to soften a little.

Transferred the oxtail to the SC and deglazed the pan with the stock and the Port, this went into the SC on top of the oxtail etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put the aromatics into a tea egg (you know the type of thing; it is what was used to keep the tea leaves out of the cup before tea bags).

This was pushed down into the liquid, and then came the bouquet garni, also pushed down into the liquid. Lid on switched onto high and went out for a couple of hours doing a bit of bird watching at the gravel pit.

THE SAND BIRDS OF THE GRAVEL PIT

I hadn’t been to the gravel pit since the end of last years breeding season and was surprised and somewhat taken aback, the owners had been in with a bulldozer and chain saw, the bank bushes and saplings had disappeared, these gave cover for first the ducks, geese and other water birds, but also provided nesting areas for all the small song birds that abound in the wet lands.

But I was happy to see that the opposite bank had not been touched (I hope it stays that way) and was full of geese, ducks and cormorants.

 

The water was alive with moorhens and coots and a pair of great crested grebes had once again settled there (I hope that they breed as they did last year).

 

I counted 30 coots and these only the ones on the water also a flock of barking Canada Geese had also taken up residence on the far side of the pit, alongside them was a pair of European Cormorants and a single Barnacle Goose.

 

 

There is this year as there was last year a pair of pure white ducks (I thought at first I had a pair of snow geese in my sights but alas they turned out to be the same pair of white American Peking ducks as last year. These unlike the Chinese and European Peking ducks do not walk upright

 

 

I walked to the other side of the pit, forcing the birds into the water so that I could get a few good photographs of them swimming

 

 

and the cormorants in flight and on the water

 

 

I then retraced by footsteps back to the car and headed into Gütersloh market to get some root vegetables and lunch of fish and chips (not too bad but the batter was very greasy so I didn’t eat it). I also popped into a Supermarket to get a pack of frozen broad beans (for me a must in Jardinière).

I popped back home, chopped the vegetables, diced the mushrooms, add these along with the beans to the SC and turned down low, then went out to watch the Bundesliga  around at the pub (only drinking water, but I still lost at dice).

I returned to the wonderful smell of oxtail stew, the vegetables by now just cooked, I had a baked potato that I hadn’t eaten from Wednesday, and I removed the skin, diced and adding this to the jardinière. I allowed it to warm through and then poured myself a large plate full, perfect just what the doctor ordered.

Slow Cooker Jerked Chicken

Linda’s train was supposed to be getting in at about 20:15 so I decided I would make a meal that it wouldn’t matter if the train was late (as it happened it was early and I was sitting drinking a beer in a pub). I decided on the slow cooker and chicken, I had been reading about Jerked seasoning in a recipe book from St Lucia (I was there in 1994) and though this could be adapted for the Slow cooker. So here is an easy recipe.

Jerked Chicken, mushroom and paprika  done in the slow cooker

Ingredients

3 chicken legs (whole legs with a bit of the backbone on it, this gives the dish more taste)

Handful of freeze dried soup vegetable

1L of vegetable stock

1 large Spanish onion diced

1 large clove of garlic chopped

White of 1 leek sliced into fine rings

1 bunch of spring onions (greens cut into rolls)

500g of mushrooms quartered

1 bouquet garni /sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leafs, marjoram and oregano

Jerked dried herbs and spices made into a rub (cayenne chilli powder, dried oregano, dried rosemary, pimento powder, cinnamon powder, dried wild garlic, coriander, celery salt, smoked paprika powder, sugar, pepper, sea salt)

1 piece of mace

6-7 sundried tomatoes in oil (diced)

1 jar of grilled sweet paprika in oil (you can get them already sliced, you can also make them yourself)

Method

Cut each leg into 2 portions rub with the jerked spice mixture.

Fry the onions, leeks and garlic until translucent.

Put the dried soup veg in the bottom of a slow cooker and add the onion, leek, garlic mixture, in the same pan, fry the chicken portions (as I was using a small pan I done them 2 at a time).  Adding these to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes, spring onion tops, mushrooms and bouquets garni

Deglaze the pan with some of the stock;

pour this into the slow cooker along with the remainder of the stock. Turn on to high set the timer for 5 hours and forget about it (go to the pub for a couple of pints, I did as I needed to see that there had been no suicides after Germany's defeat at the hands of Italy.

1 hour before it is finished add the roasted paprika cut into strips.

Serve with rice or bulgar wheat.

I made bulgar, I sautéed spring onions, garlic and shallots stired this into the bulgar, added stock (1 cup of bulgar to 2 cups of vegetable stock), then stir in dried wild garlic and plenty of mint. Cover and allow to stand to absorb the stock

There is plenty of sauce in this dish, you can also wind up the heat and make it a bit hotter by adding a chopped chilli (habaneros or the like) into the onion, leek mixture, but I wanted the sweetness of the grilled paprika to come through, so let the jerked seasoning do its job.

 Note:  Jerked chicken would be normally grilled in a smoker made out of an oil drum cut in half and blackened on this home made BBQ, but done my way in the slow cooker, the meat is wonderful and tender, the sauce is fantastic (I think that I will cut down on the amount of liquid next time)and plenty left after 2 meals to make a soup. It was fiery but not blow your head off and sweet from the roasted paprika, in most recipes molasses is used, but as I am diabetic I dispensed with it. It also does not have that smoky flavour of a true Jamaican street jerked chicken, but hell I live in a flat.

This done 2 main meals for us and I took the liquid into work on Monday and it was eaten as a hearty stew for lunch, with some whole grain rye and sunflower bread.

Mixed game puds and pies

Well it is Euro footy time and I have so far not missed a match, though with them having two together now it makes for a bit of juggling with the remote, but with a netbook, I am able to keep tabs on the secondary match.

But that has nothing to do with cooking game puds and pies. I was clearing out my game freezer and had quite a bit that needed using up, what better way than making individual puds for the freezer. So you will require:

Mixed game:
2 hare legs
3 rabbit legs
Breasts of 2 pigeons
500 g diced leg of wild boar
500 g diced red deer haunch

Remove meat and dice adding:

1 desert spoon of my ground game spices
slug each of gin, port and cassis, teaspoon of herb spices.

Mix all together, cover and allow to marinate overnight

This made more than enough filling for the six individual pud and a small pie. The rest is frozen so I have a quick pie or pud filling all ready for the off.

I also had about 1.5 ltr of beef stock that I had frozen about a month ago, perfect to make the game stock.

After stripping the meat from the bones and carcasses (also a good time to look for any shot), I added a roughly diced onion , leek, carrot and a chunk of celeriac, a teaspoon of  pepper corns, a piece of ginger, 2 crushed garlic cloves, a bouquette garni, add to the pressure cooker, some oil and sautéed with the bones and carcasses, pour in the beef stock (this was jellified), top up with water so all is covered, lid on up to heat and cook for 1 hour. Strain through funnel sieve,  Boy do you have a game stock!

For the filling:

Remove the meats with a slotted spoon from the marinade and allow to drain.
Small dice of leek, onion, carrot, cerleriac, a large garlic clove pressed (pulped). I added some frozen cepes and chanterelles that I had in the freezer (Lidel or Aldi can't remember which, but cheap)
Heat a little olive oil in the base of the Pressure Cooker add all of the vegetables and soften, add the meats and colour (I don't bother about browning as it has enough of it's own flavour), now add a litre of the stock and marinade mixed, lid on and cook for an hour. Remove the filling and take a good 1/2 ltre of stock, reduce and taste (oh boy does that taste fantastic)

Now make the herb suet pastry:

200g suet (1 pkt atora)
450 g SR flour
good pinch of salt
2 tsp of mixed dried herbs
enough  cold water to bring it all together to a firm dough

I cut it all together with a metal spoon (some say with a round knife, but "Wor Mam" always used a spoon so there you go) and then when it starts to come together give it a knead with your hands, form into a ball, cover and allow to rest.

Measure the dariol moulds to gauge the diameter of pastry needed, this turned out to be the exact size of one of my saucers (alas no more, it is now broken, never mind I broke a cup a while back so now have a 5 matching set again).

I just gauge the size of the ball of pastry, that I shall need and roll it out to about 2-3mm thick,put the saucer on top and cut round it. Cut out 1/4 of the circle this will be your lid.

The dariol moulds should have been buttered and then put into the fridge. Remove one at a time and ease the pastry into each in turn, sealing the cuts with thumb and fingers, it will have a good bit of overhang, make sure there is no air trapped between mould and pastry. Spoon in the filling (allow it to be proud of the top, spoon in 2 desert spoons of sauce.
Now place the disc on top to form a lid and folding the over hang together with your forefinger and thumb form a rope crimp. (it looks very pretty).

Place a piece of foil with a pleat in the middle and secure with string or if you can get it, that elasticated string that butchers use to tie their joints into shape. Tie this into rings and it will hold it into place and you don't have to fiddle with knots (I just don't have enough fingers)

Place them into a Slow Cooker (if you don't have a one don't get upset and feel left out, just use a pan with steamer insert, it just means you will have to keep an eye on the water I won't) and pour boiling water half way up the moulds, top on and switch on high for 5 hours. You can now watch the footy in peace!

Oh! yes almost forgot! The pie, well I made that in between, that was just some filling in a pie dish with a short crust pastry top. I shall be eating that at half time with some asparagus and rosemary potatoes.