Friday 29 March 2013

Store Cupboard Corned Beef Hash

Corned beef hash is an easy, tasty store cupboard dinner. Mum used to mix the corned beef up with mashed potato and cabbage but nowadays I tend to make it saucy with veggies. In this recipe I've used lots of tins as it was a store cupboard eat up day but any veg can be used, be it fresh, frozen or tinned.



Ingredients:

1x Tin of corned beef
1x Tin of tomatoes
1x Tin of peas
1x Tin of sweetcorn
1x Tin of baked beans
1x Onion, diced
2x Carrots, diced
1x Garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1x beef stock cube
Chilli powder
Corriander powder
Cumin
Dried mixed herbs
Balsamic vinegar



Method:

1. Sweat off the onion in a large pan or wok.
2. Add carrots to the wok.
3. Add the dry spices and garlic, cook for a minute.
3. Add the tomatoes.
4. Chop the corned beef and add to pan.
5. Add the peas, sweetcorn and baked beans.
6. Add a teaspoon each of chilli powder, corriander, cumin and herbs.
7. Taste and season with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. You might want to add the crumbled stock cube if it needs it.
8. Serve with anything. Mashed potato, chips, wedges, rice, pasta, noodles, shredded cabbage, the list is endless.

Saturday 9 March 2013

Duck Breast, Red Wine Sauce, Fennel Roast Carrot, Sautéed Cabbage, Thin Roast Spuds

We love a bit of duck and a juicy duck breast with a red wine and redcurrant sauce is hard to beat.

First cooked at Lincoln Farm Park in March 2013 then revisited in August 2014 at Top Lodge Stamford.

 
Ingredients:

2x Duck breast
2x Carrots
Half a cabbage
5x Bacon rashers
1x Leek (can use onion if you prefer)
2x Spuds, we used red skinned Roosters
Fennel seeds
Five spice powder
Red wine
Redcurrant jelly


Method:

1. Get a baking tray in the oven on gas 6 for the spuds.
2. No need to peel the spuds, just slice thinly about 2mm thick. Coat in oil, season then place in a single layer on the hot baking tray and pop back in the oven on the top shelf. They take about 30 minutes to cook.
3. Peel the carrots, coat in oil and fennel seeds and season. Put on the bottom shelf of the oven in a baking tray large enough to eventually hold the duck breasts too. They take about 20 minutes to cook.
4. In a small pan get a couple of glasses of wine boiling to reduce by half.
5. Chop the cabbage, leek and bacon rashers.
6. Heat a wok or large frying pan on the stove.
7. Season the duck breast with salt, pepper and five spice powder and score the skin in 1cm intervals across the width. Place skin down in the wok. Let the skin get nice and crispy for 2-3 minutes then flip over and do the underside for 1 minute.
8. Remove the duck from the pan and place in the roasting dish with the carrots. Place on the oven top shelf for no more than 10 minutes.
9. Turn all the spud slices and put on the bottom oven shelf.
10. In the frying pan/wok there will be loads of lovely duck fat. Gently fry the leek in it for a few minutes then add the cabbage and bacon. Keep turning it over for about 5 minutes.
11. Remove duck from the oven and allow to rest. Pour any juices into the red wine reduction.
12. Mix a dessertspoon of redcurrant jelly into the wine reduction and season if necessary. You can thicken with cornflour if you like.
13. Slice the duck breast across the slits you made in the skin. Pour any juice into the sauce.
14. Plate up.