The post Sussex Stewed Steak on a wet winters day appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
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Eight in the morning, a wet winters day in the Sussex countryside. The sun is rising over the marshes and fields but the pink glow is quickly washed away by grey clouds of rain …
I walk trough a typical crooked path where the tops of the ancient trees lean towards each other creating an archway over the road, nature’s chapel.
Blissfully relaxed I listen to the bustling sound of busy birds in the hedges. Holding my breath, counting robins, coal tits and wrens. They don’t even seem to notice or care that I’m standing there.
Then it quiets down, the moment has passed and I walk on.
When I am at home but I have lots and lots to do during the day and not enough time to prepare a lovely meal, a Sussex Stewed steak is my dish of choice.
It really is the easiest dish you can imagine and it comes out of the oven as a warming meal with elegant flavors to enjoy with guests or just for your own family with plenty of leftovers for the next day. The Stout, port and mushroom sauce used, create a mahogany sauce with a deep flavour sometimes – depending on which Stout you use- you find some chocolate notes, and however a humble dish it turns out to be a feast for the palate every time.
For this dish you should use the chuck of beef, an economical cut of meat that has a deep flavour after slowly cooking it for a few hours. It is one of my favourite cuts of meat, it doesn’t cost the earth so I go for the best quality meat I can find. I buy grass fed Black Angus but I would love to try it with Sussex Longhorn beef one day. I suspect the Sussex Longhorn or the Sussex Red, will have been the kind of breed used for this dish decades ago.
I couldn’t find when the recipe first came to be but it is has been cooked in Sussex and beyond by generations of women. The most famous of women connected to this dish must be Elizabeth David who featured her recipe for the Sussex Stewed steak in her book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen.
All the recipes I found were all very similar, did they all originate from David’s recipe or is this a far older recipe. Why is it called Sussex Stewed Steak? Is it because David gave the dish its name while she was living is Sussex? Or is it named after the breed used to cook this dish, the Sussex Longhorn or Red … Jane Grigson features her version of the dish in her book ‘English food‘, although similar it explains more how to prepare this recipe.
I cooked four different -although all very similar- recipes over the months, and this is the one I feel is the best, adapted from David’s and Grigson’s recipe.
David as well as Grigson suggests to serve the Sussex stewed steak with mashed potatoes and large field mushrooms. After trying a few other vegetable sides and potatoes, I agree the ladies are of course right.
The Sussex Stewed steak indeed pairs wonderfully with creamy mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms.
Sussex stewed steak
What do you need
- 1 kg of chuck steak in one piece
- Flour to dust the meat with
- 1 large onion, sliced in rings
- half a cup of stout
- half a cup of port
- 2 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup*
- freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Mashed potatoes, nice and creamy
sauteed mushrooms, a large variety.
* You can buy Mushroom Ketchup from Budgens, if you can’t find it you can substitute it with red wine vinegar.
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160° celsius
- Dust the meat with the flour and place in a baking dish that is just a little larger than the meat. If your meat has some fat, place in the dish with the fatty side down.
- Place the onion rings around the meat and a few on top.
- Pour in the Stout, port and mushroom ketchup, you might think it is not enough liquid but don’t add any more than instructed. Trust me.
- Season with freshly ground pepper
- Cover the dish with tin foil
- Put in the lower part of the oven for 3 hours then take off the tin foil leaving just a bit behind to only cover the top part of the meat. If your meat had a fatty side, turn it around now with the fat facing up this keeps the meat from drying out.
- Let simmer in the oven for another hour, this gives the sauce a chance of thickening slightly as you will see it is very runny, it will also color the onions.
Enjoy with a good pint of Stout, Porter or Ale!
You might also like:
Jo’s Lamb Hotpot >
The post Sussex Stewed Steak on a wet winters day appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
]]>The post A dish inspired by my mother’s Moussaka appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
]]>Every time we go for dinner at my parents house, we hope for my mum’s Moussaka.
It’s a dish that she makes best of all, her signature dish so to speak.
It brings me back to a summer evening when I was just about 3 or 4 years old, my parents and I walked to the park that day so I could play in the playground. It was a very long walk and a hot day and I must have been very tired that evening. We had Moussaka for dinner and I can still remember looking forward to it as the lovely smells came out of the oven.
I was sick that evening and I’m sure it wasn’t the Moussaka but the tiredness and the heat that day.
Normally I wouldn’t consider a memory like this pleasant, but it’s the first memory that I have of my mum’s Moussaka so I kinda treasure it anyway.
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| Mum and me |
Sometimes my mum changes something in her Moussaka recipe which is followed by utter disappointment as the whole family was expecting “the” Moussaka.
“The secret lies in using the best olive oil” my mum always said but even with my best olive oil, I can’t reproduce this dish. When I make my mums Moussaka it tastes completely different…
So I decided not to try anymore and enjoy her Moussaka when she makes it, and boy do we enjoy it when she does.
Mum, don’t change the recipe again and keep on making it exactly as you have been for the past 30 years. Watching you bring this dish to the table with the whole family sitting there, eager to tuck in gives you a lovely glow. We all love it and love you for it.
Happy birthday Mama!
We are all hoping you are cooking your Moussaka tonight!
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| My mum and I, me 9 months old, my mum 31 |
So here it is…
A dish inspired by my mums
This dish is best prepared the day before so all the flavours can develop.
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
350 g of minced beef* (you can also use pork or a 50/50)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme (you can use dried, my mum does)
1 big onion chopped finely
1 clove of garlic chopped finely
1 big aubergine (or 3 small ones like in the picture)
3-4 tomatoes
Olive oil (the good bottle)
Ricotta 1/2 tub
1 small tin of tomato concentrate
white wine
milk
Parmesan
Mozzarella (or another melting cheese)
*For a vegetarian version:
You can substitute the meat with Quorn and not use the wine.
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C
Chop the onion and the garlic, put a pan on a medium heat fire. (I always use a cast iron pan)
Put some regular olive oil into the pan and add the onion and the garlic, let it color for a bit then add the meat and thyme.
Cook the meat until it starts to stick to the pan and pour over just under half a glass of white wine.
Let the wine evaporate and add the tomato concentrate. Heat it and turn down the heat and leave while you prepare your Aubergine.
Cut the tomatoes in 0,8 cm discs.
Put a heavy based pan on the heat, I always use a cast iron griddle pan so I can put it into the oven afterwards. Finely slice (0,5 cm) the aubergine in discs and take of the skin. Arrange neatly next to each other into the griddle pan and drizzle over some good olive oil so every slice of aubergine has some oil, flip the discs. Put into the oven for about 10 minutes while you prepare the ricotta sauce.
Just mix half a tub of Ricotta with some milk to make a soft sauce, slowly heat it in a small pan and season with salt and pepper, add some parmesan cheese to your taste.
Evenly spread the meat on the bottom of the pan you used to prepare it in.
Arrange you Aubergine over the meat in one layer and then a layer of tomatoes.
Season with a turn of the pepper mill and some thyme.
Pour you Ricotta sauce over and finish with Mozzarella so the whole dish is covered. Do not layer it to thick.
Finish of with some leftover slices of tomato and thyme.
Put in the oven for 40 minutes, the olive oil must come to the surface and the cheese must have melted.
Serve with bread and/or a green salad.
I’m not saying this is the real Greek Moussaka, in fact this has become more an Italian dish. So if you are reading this and you are Greek, I would love to hear your comments!
Drink some dry white wine with this dish, we had a Soave Classico.
Enjoy!
The post A dish inspired by my mother’s Moussaka appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
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