This is really simple to make and warming on a cold winters day, it has a thin but incredibly flavoursome sauce, and goes well with celeriac mash or an egg pasta.
Serves
Four People
Ingredients
Method
Part boil the potatoes until just tender but not completely.
Pre-fire the oven to around ‘very hot’.
First brown the bacon lardons in a frying pan over the hot plate, when golden transfer to a casserole dish retaining the fat in the frying pan for the rabbit. Toss the rabbit joints in the seasoned flour shake off the excess and then brown in the same pan.
Add the sliced onions, veg and boquet garni to the casserole pot and sweat over the hot plate, when the rabbit is nicely browned all over add it to the casserole pot with the spices. While the frying pan is still hot add a slug of cider vinegar and deglaze the nice gooey residues stuck to the bottom then add to the pot. Finally add the stock and white wine adding just enough to cover the meat.
Now gently bring the casserole up to a nice slow simmer its really important that you don’t let it boil otherwise you will shock the lean meat making it dry and tough. Put the lid on and put into the top oven for about an hour till the meats really juicy and tender.
Brisket’s open-grained texture, generous fattiness and deep flavour make it perfect for slow roasting, as well as boiling. Ask your butcher for the thick end of the brisket, boned and rolled, and make sure he doesn’t trim off the fat.
Serves
Serves six to eight people
Ingredients
Optional Extras
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
Put the brisket in a large roasting dish. Tuck the garlic and thyme inside and under it. Pour over two to three tablespoons of olive oil and massage into the meat, then season well.
Put the meat in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then remove it. Turn down the oven to 130C/250F/gas mark 1/2 , cover the meat with foil and return to the oven for four hours.
After this time, the beef should be very tender. Baste it with its juices, add the potatoes and onions, and toss them in the fat, then turn up the heat to 170C/325F/gas mark 3 and cook, uncovered, for a further hour.
Serve the beef in thick slices, with the potatoes, onions and a little of the rich cooking juices.
Here is something a little more festive than the traditional nut roast for those who are vegetarian or those who choose to forgo meat over the holiday celebrations. Serve warm with seasonal vegetables or cold with a crisp mixed salad.
Serves
4 people
Ingredients
Method
Get Ahead!
The strudel can be prepared up to 24 hours ahead of cooking. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until required. Uncover and bake from chilled for 25-30 minutes until crisp and golden.
A sweet, sticky glaze of quince paste and sherry perfectly complements the flavours of this traditional Christmas gammon. It’s delicious both hot and cold.
Serves
8 people
Ingredients
Method
Tip
Any remaining glaze can be brushed over chicken breasts or pork chops before grilling or baking.
Everyone has their favourite turkey and stuffing recipe… sometimes handed down the family over generations. This is a new take on an old favourite, instead of the usual sausage meat and chestnut stuffing it has a modern and lighter couscous one.
Serves
6 people (with leftovers)
Ingredients
Method
Get Ahead!
The stuffing can be used to stuff the neck cavity of the turkey if preferred but must be cold before doing so. Check the turkey is cooked sufficiently by piercing the thickest part of the thigh with a skewer – the juices that run out should be clear with no traces of pink.
Christmas and holiday eating doesn’t just have to be about turkey and ham. This might be the time to splash out on a special British beef top rump roast. In this recipe the beef is marinated before cooking with garlic and thyme then roasted with slices of butternut squash.
Serves
4-6 people
Ingredients
Method
Roasting Guideline
Allow 20 minutes per 500g for rare beef; 25 minutes per 500g for medium beef; and 30 minutes per 500g for well done beef.
Philippa Vine cooked a Kelly Bronze turkey: “it is very simple – I put it into the top oven of ESSE at 190C/ESSE dial reading low end of HOT until cooked – as it depends on the size of the bird!”
Ingredients
Method
Here is Philippa’s recipe for her roast potatoes, always a hit in the ESSE!
“King Edward potatoes are my favourite as they are really floury and soak up the olive oil or dripping well! Second choice would be Maris Piper.”
Method
Recipes by by Philippa Vine, Bluebell Farmhouse Kitchen.
Hogget/Lamb with flatbread, avocado butter, chill & lemon dressing.
For the flatbread
Ingredients
Method
Mix all the above… roll out and cook in a hot dry pan.
For the avocado butter
Ingredients
For the lamb
Ingredients
Method
Mix all the ingredients together and marinade for 30 minutes. Sauté the marinated lamb in a pan and keep pink. Remove and rest.
For the chilli lemon dressing
Ingredients
Method
Mix all, taste and season.
To serve spoon the avocado butter onto a plate, add the lamb, spoon over the lemon sauce and scatter with the pine nuts. Flatbread on the side.
Recipe presented by Matt Tebbutt using the 990 EL at Humble by Nature
Butternut Squash & Chickpea Curry cooked the ESSE way.
Serves
4 people
Ingredients
Method
In a roasting tray tip in the butternut squash and onions, then mix in the olive oil, garlic, ginger, spices, salt and pepper. Cook in the top oven of the ESSE with the vent open at 200C / ESSE dial reading middle of HOT. Roast for 25 minutes.
Then stir in the passata, stock and chickpeas. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. Taste and add more seasoning then scatter over the fresh coriander. Serve with flat bread and rice.
Suggested serving with flatbreads cooked on the ESSE hotplate.
Recipe created by Philippa Vine of Bluebell Farmhouse Kitchen.
Presented by Dan Blewitt on an ESSE Bakeheart at Humble by Nature.
Seared monkfish loin fillet with peas, broad beans, lemongrass butter sauce and watercress
For the fish
Ingredients
Method
Remove any remaining sinew from the fillets and pat dry. Set your hotplate dial at 200°C / 12 o clock then, with the hob cover open, sear the fillets quickly on all sides on the hotplate to seal. After searing, bring the hob cover down and leave the fillets to ‘steam and sizzle’ on the hob for a further 4 – 5 minutes, turning once halfway through the cooking.
Remove from griddle and wrap in foil to keep warm until ready to plate up.
For the sauce and vegetables
Ingredients
Method
Recipe presented by Matt Tebbutt cooked on the 990 EL at Humble by Nature
The combination of fennel and fish is nothing new. It’s a marriage that works and I don’t hesitate to throw another version in the pot. My version is an all in one supper dish. It works with bass, pollock, most of the smaller whole flat fish, mackerel – but bream is way up there on my ‘most wanted’ list!
Two people
Ingredients
Method
Gut and scale the fish if you caught them yourself, otherwise your fishmonger will have done this for you.
Cut back the greener sticks from the top of the fennel bulbs and remove the coarser, outer layers. Then, using a sharp knife, finely slice the fennel from top to bottom and remove and discard the dense core from the centre of the bulb.
Scrub and slice the potatoes – they should be a similar thickness to the fennel (aim for 2-3 mm)
Peel and finely slice the garlic into slivers, combine the fennel, potato and garlic in a bowl with a slug of olive oil, the salt and the pepper. Then take two sheets of tin foil (large enough to envelope the fish and the vegetables) and divide the seasoned potato and fennel – making a pile in the centre of each piece of foil.
Place the fish on top and split the butter, wine and lemon juice between each parcel before seasoning with salt and pepper.
Bring the four corners of each foil sheet together and twist to seal the parcels. Then bake on a tray in the top oven reading just shy of very hot for 30-35 mins.
Bring the parcels straight to the table and open. The fish should be moist, the fennel soft and the sauce rich.
Crab and asparagus is, in my mind, a fantastic combo. I make a puff pastry tart with crab, asparagus, double cream and egg yolks – it’s too good. But as simplicity is the order of the day, here’s the crab/asparagus combination in its most basic form.
Serves
Four people
Ingredients
Method
Wash the crab and place in a large pan of fresh water. Bring to the boil and boil for approximately 20 – 25 mins. Allow the cooked crab to cool slightly before picking the white meat from the claws and the brown meat from the shell.
Toss the asparagus in a little olive oil and place on a sizzling griddle pan set over a high heat. Cook for 3 or 4 mins turning once or twice. Allow the spears to take on a bit of colour.
Spoon a pile of the crab-meat onto a warm plate and add the char-grilled spears.
Season the whole lot with lemon juice, Maldon sea salt and black pepper.
Hay was originally used in cooking as an insulator. In grand Victorian kitchens, roasts were taken from the oven and packed in boxes lined with hay, to keep them hot when transported to shooting lunches and elaborate picnics. It was noted that the hay imparted a distinctive and delightful flavour – worth exploring for its own sake. Mutton or lamb baked in hay like this is not just tasty but unusually moist and tender.
Serves
N/A
Ingredients
Method
Choose a deep roasting tin, preferably with a lid (if you don’t have one with a lid, you can use foil). Line it generously with loose hay, about 5–6cm deep.
Put the soft butter in a bowl, add the chopped herbs, garlic, plenty of black pepper and a little salt and mix well. Smear in a thick and even layer all over the mutton or lamb. Place the meat on its nest of hay and then cover with the rest of the hay. Cover with the lid, or a double layer of foil wrapped well around the edge of the dish. Make sure there are no loose bits of hay poking out (they may catch fire).
Bake in the centre of the top oven reading lower part of very hot for 2–2/12 hours, depending on the size of the leg. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for at least 20 minutes. Then take off the lid, scrape away the blackened hay and carve as normal. Any juices from the pan can be poured off and used for gravy, although I tend to forego the gravy, preferring to serve this dish with boiled flageolet beans heated through in the juices and fat from the meat.
This Recipe has been taken from the ‘River Cottage Cook Book’, Page 245. To buy a copy of this book click here.
River cottage recipe for ESSE slow roasted shoulder of lamb.
Lamb studded with rosemary, garlic and anchovies – learn with Gill Meller.
