Another recipe from Jamie Oliver's 'Ministry of Food' cookbook - a simple pork stew made with cider. I love the simplicity of this recipe - and it takes hardly any time to prepare. Preparing the stew takes less than 20 minutes, and then you can just forget it whilst it slow cooks in the oven for a couple of hours. The end result is beautifully tender meat and veggies - a hearty meal for the family!
Recipe - Jamie Oliver's Pork and Cider Stew
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 tbsp of plain flour
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
Salt and Pepper (to season)
3 sprigs fresh sage
500g diced stewing pork
500ml bottle of medium-dry cider
Method:
1. Preheat the
oven to 200°C.
2. Wash, peel
and roughly chop the vegetables.
3. Put a casserole dish on the hob, add a couple of glugs
of olive oil and tip in the vegetables and sage. Fry over a medium heat for
about 10 minutes.
4. Add the
diced pork and the flour, followed by the cider and chopped tomatoes. Give the
stew a stir and season with salt and pepper.
5. Bring to the
boil and give the mixture a good stir, then transfer the casserole dish to the
oven.
6. Cook in the
oven for 2½ hours. Keep the lid on until the final hour of cooking.
7. I served my stew with mashed potatoes, as they are a favourite in my household! In his cookbook Jamie suggests serving with dumplings - find his recipe for dumplings here.
Lisa x
My good friend popped over for dinner the other day and I decided to make a pie. I didn't have any puff pastry in the house and I'm pretty useless at making homemade pastry, so I decided to top my pie with mashed potato instead.
I found a recipe for a chicken and leek pie on allrecipes.co.uk (link: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/627/chicken-and-leek-pie.aspx) however as I started following it, a couple of the ingredients listed weren't actually included in the instructions. So I ended up doing a bit of improvisation, and despite being worried it may not work out it turned out to be tasty in the end - and my friend said he enjoyed it too (hopefully he just wasn't being polite!)
Recipe - Chicken and Leek Mashed Potato-Topped Pie
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Olive oil
2 skinless chicken breasts
4 leeks, chopped
Large knob of butter
1 tbsp plain flour
250ml chicken stock
250ml milk
Salt and pepper (seasoning)
3 large potatoes, peel and chopped
Dash of milk and knob of butter (for mash)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks.
- Put a glug of olive oil into a frying pan and cook chicken chunks until browned. Set these aside.
- Add a little more olive oil into the same pan and add 3 of the leeks. Saute on a medium heat until softened. Set these aside with the chicken.
- In a big pan melt a large knob of butter and add a tablespoon of flour and mix to form a smooth paste. Gradually add the milk to create a thickened sauce.
- Add the chicken, leeks and stock to the pan with the sauce and stir all together.
- Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. The sauce should reduce slightly.
- Season the mixture with some salt and pepper and pour into a pie dish. Leave to cool whilst you cook the potatoes.
- Add the chopped potatoes to a pan with plenty of water to cover them. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft.
- Add a little milk and butter and mash the potatoes. I softened one more leek by cooking it in butter and added this to the mash.
- Top the pie mixture with the mashed potato and spread evenly over the top.
- Place in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes - till the pie is piping hot throughout.
This is my idea of great comfort food!
Lisa x
