Winter warmers.

The nights are drawing in, the heating is on, bonfire night has happened and the leaves are rapidly falling.  The time has come for some serious comfort food. I NEVER seem to be able to make enough dumplings when I make a stew, even once when I made thirty six! And, having said that, I can never make a small stew, it always turns into a massive pot of meaty and vegetably (if that's a word?) goodness that cooks on the hob for a good three hours, by which time everyone is so hungry that they burn their mouths on the gravy... and we have enough leftovers for the next day and then some for the freezer. But no dumplings.

Then there is the joy of a lamb tagine,oven cooked for three and a half hours, with spices, prunes and apricots; served with couscous and green beans. I've also made a slow  cooked beef ragu that took a good four hours to develop all the flavours.

Today's first new recipe of two was another wintry delight -  Chinese Northern Lamb, from a new book called Whole Food Slow Cooked.  A 2kg shoulder of lamb on the bone was balanced on top of chunks of onion and green & orange peppers; and rubbed with a spice paste which smelled amazing!  To make it I toasted Chinese Sichuan peppercorns, cumin seeds and fennel seeds in a pan until fragrant, then crushed and mixed with tumeric, ground ginger, chilli flakes, garlic, vinegar, sugar and salt.  

After three hours in the oven at 160 C,covered with a lid; and another hour uncovered, it looked like this:

We had it with rice and stir fried pak choi, and it was very delicious, but I think I would use a spice mill for the spice paste next time instead of just a pestle and mortar as the peppercorns weren't crushed finely enough and were a bit unplesant if you bit on one. However, it got a good four out of five.

I also did a new recipe dessert.  The Christmas food magazines are out and there are so many fab recipes to try and so little time.  I've also planned the Christmas Day menu today. But back to the pudding: Raspberry and citrus syllabub mini trifles.

These were really easy and yummy, just trifle sponges, raspberries, and cream whipped with a mixture of orange and lemon zest and juice with some sugar dissolved in.  They need to be left for a good three hours for the cream to be absorbed into the trifle sponges, so they are sort of a slow "cooked" pudding!  Even the cat was enthusiastic and wanted to lick the glass out...

More soon, thank you for reading,
Caroline :-)