Braised Oxtail is my idea of heaven on a cold winter’s day. So, with the frost on the ground and minus five on the thermometer I decided the time was right to get cooking.
For me Braised Oxtail is the pinnacle of meat eating. Its not difficult to cook, but it does take a little time. If the idea of having the oven on for such a long cook, use a slow cooker to do most of the cooking.
Learn how to make our own ultimate chestnut stuffing in time for Christmas. Make it now and freeze it ready for the big day.
The festive period looms and it’s time to begin thinking about my Christmas Mince Pies and organising things to make the period as enjoyable and stress free as possible. And it’s particularly time for me to think about this year’s cranberry and whisky luxury mince pies. A bit of Christmas luxury perfect for entertaining with friends or as an indulgent treat. I need to get moving as our village craft fair takes place in a couple of weeks and a few of us chip in to provide treats and man the cake stall.
This is a rich cooked mincemeat for Christmas. It was first developed for a project in manufacturing mince pies for a butcher friend of mine some time ago. We made just over 250 and as I remember, and they all sold. At that time, we were also developing a range or real sausages and charcutier. I’ll cover some of this next year along with some smoked and BBQ items.
Originally the mincemeat of old actually contained real meat. The spices and flavourings were used to conceal the slightly ‘off’ nature of the leftover cooked meat before any form of cold storage existed. Today the only remaining nod to this is suet in the mincemeat mix.
While most of this is now vegetable based rather than beef it can still leave a greasy finish in the mouth if its overdone. This recipe uses butter in place of the suet to give a richer, smoother mouth feel to the filling. Heating the dried fruits in orange juice gives the fruit a chance to rehydrate, become tender and take on the flavour of the spices.
Makes 30 -40 small pies
120g unsalted butter
Finely grated zest of a large orange
250ml orange juice
255g soft light brown sugar
2 ½ tsp mixed spice
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
140g grated bramley apples
70g chopped walnuts or pecans
130g sultanas
130g raisins
100g dried cranberries
60g mixed peel
50ml blended whisky
Take a large enough pan to take all the ingredients and be able to give the pan good mix together without losing any over the sides. Add all the dried fruit to the pan together with the spices, and salt.
Using a very fine grater remove the zest of the orange then remove the juice and make it up to 250ml using more fruit if needed. Add the juice and zest to the pan and bring to the simmer.
While the fruit is cooking, wash and coarsely grate the apple there’s no need to peel the fruit. Once the pan has been simmering for about five minutes add the apple, chopped nuts, and sugar to the pan.
Give everything a really good mix and simmer for another 10 to 12 minutes. The aromas of Christmas should now be filling the kitchen. We need to evaporate most of the orange juice into the dried fruits. To check if everything is ready pull the flat base of a silicone spatula across the base of the pan. If the gap fills with liquid immediately let the pan cook a little longer. When ready, lift the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool down until just warm.
Pop the butter into a small saucepan and place on the heat. Bring the butter to the boil and let it simmer for a minute or two. Skim off any scum that appears on the surface of the butter. Remove the pan from the heat and let the butter stand to sperate out the fat from the milky whey.
Once the butter has cooled but is not solidifying, remove any remaining scum and begin to decant the clear butterfat into the pan mixing it in as you do so. Use a small sieve if you have one, to catch any remaining scum. Make sure you fold the butter in well getting right down to bottom of the pan and lifting the mixture up so all the ingredients are coated in the butter.
Let the pan cool completely stirring from time to time. We need to insure the butter in mixed evenly through the mincemeat. If the mix is too warm or not folded in completely the butter fat will simply float to the surface on the mincemeat.
Stir in the whisky remembering to inhale as you do so, then transfer the mincemeat to a clean sterilised preserving jars or suitable container. 2 x ½ lt Kilner jars should be plenty. Cover the surface of the mincemeat with a disc of greaseproof paper, seal the lid. Place the jars into the fridge for at least a week to mature before making the pies.
If you wish the pastry can be made at the same time and frozen until needed.
80g caster sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Take a small container with a tight-fitting lid. Add the sugar and cinnamon, pop on the lid and shake well. Store in a cool dry place until needed.
500g plain flour
125g butter
125g lard
Pinch salt
50g caster sugar
¾ tsp baking powder
125ml icy cold water
Cinnamon sugar to dust over
Makes roughly 15-20 small pies
Oven temperature 180˚c – 185˚c
Cooking time 14 to 17 minutes
This is almost a savoury pastry which might seem a little strange to some of you. The filling is packed with sugar, spices and fruit and wrapping this in a sweet pastry would just be overkill. We are also using a mixture of lard and butter for the fat content and baking powder in the dough wish will produce a very flaky light pastry. Go to the Food Files and have a look at Getting to Grips with Pastry to get an insight into pastry making.
Dice the lard and butter then return to the fridge to firm up
Place all the dry ingredients into a cold bowl the add the butter and lard. Cut the fats into the flour using a pastry knife and blend until a fine breadcrumb stage appears. Have a scraper on hand to clear the knife from time to time and make the process as easy as possible. When your mixture is ready add the water in two or three batches mixing each one in before adding the next.
Tip the contents of the bowl out onto the work surface and bring together to a pliable smooth dough. Keep everything cool and take care not to over work the dough. Only use the water you need to get the right consistency.
You can of course use a tabletop mixer you can make this pastry by hand. It does take some time to get the flour and fat to a breadcrumb stage and I think making it by hand with a pastry knife gives the best results as its less likely to be overworked.
Whatever way you make the pastry it must rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours. So simple cover in cling film and refrigerate.
When you are ready to make the mince pies remove the mincemeat from the fridge and stir in a bit more whisky if you wish.
When the pastry is thoroughly rested divide the dough into 4 pieces. Lightly flour your work surface and roll the pastry out to around 3-4mm thick. Using a fluted pastry cutter, a bit larger than the moulds you are using, (small Yorkshire pudding tins are perfect) cut out and line the moulds rings, fill with your mincemeat, and cut another disc as a lid and lay it on top of the mincemeat tucking in the edges. Using the point of a knife make a small cross in the centre of each lid to allow stream to escape.
Sprinkle the lids with a pinch of cinnamon sugar and bake in a 185˚c (fan oven) 210˚c (conventional oven) for roughly 14-17 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let stand for five minutes then lift from the baking tray and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar, let them cool a little more before serving as the filling will be too hot to eat.
If making the pies in advance warm gently before serving to get the best flavour and texture. You can be traditional and serve with brandy butter if you wish, but I prefer a dollop of creme’ fraiche on top.
Enjoy Life!
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023
A quick kale, egg, and bacon supper for the chilli Autumn – Winter nights. And learn to master the skill of poaching an egg.
Time to get planting next years garlic crop ready for the Spring. Also learn how to make a Chefs Secret – chive oil.
Courgette and tomato Chutney. It’s that chutney time of year and one of the things I look forward to in the Summer / Autumn crossover is making my preserves to see me through to the next crop of fruit and vegetables. There is something comforting and rewarding in bringing in food from the garden or gathering wild berries and turning them into something to be savoured through the winter. I feel a bit like a squirrel stashing away my treats for later.
I had intended to start these blogs earlier in the year to reflect our progress in the garden. But like all well made plans it didn’t quite work out. As you will hear, I’m not really a gardener, I like to cook it, love to eat it, but the growing side of things is still a bit of a mystery to me.
Over the past two years we have put in raised beds and erected a polytunnel with some success, and a few disasters. I hope you can learn from more from my disasters and experiences, but more of that later, let’s get into the kitchen.
People have been preserving food for centuries. At first out of necessity, now it’s for the pleasure of the tastes and textures these techniques give us. Smoking, salting, pickling, bottling, fermentation, drying, chilling, they all still have a place in the kitchen and quite often with more than one technique been used together. Over the series of these blogs, I hope to cover all these techniques and use them in some unexpected ways.
My first offering uses salting to remove some of the bitterness from courgettes as long as you don’t leave the vegetable exposed to the salt for too long it shouldn’t make them taste overly salty. Try it prior to roasting courgette or aubergine on the BBQ, or oven.
Courgette and Tomato Chutney
500g courgettes plus 1tsp salt
500g ripe tomatoes, imperfect ones are fine
250ml cider vinegar
275g light brown soft sugar
120g red onions (roughly 2)
2 granny smiths’ apples
100g sultanas
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp chili flakes
1tsp yellow mustard seeds
¼ tsp garam masala
Wash, top, tail, and dice the courgettes roughly 1cm thick. Place the dice into a colander set over a bowl and sprinkle the 1tsp of salt over the dice and mix in. Leave the colander to sit for about 20 minutes for the salt to suck some of the bitterness out from the vegetable.
Peel and cut the onions into 1cm dice and set aside. Repeat this with the apples, discarding the core.
Peel and chop the garlic, then crush to a paste using the salt to break down the garlic and release the oils.
Pour the oil into a wide shallow pan and pop over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook slowly for about 10 minutes or until soft. Chop the tomatoes and add to the pan with the vinegar and sugar then turn up the heat a little. Stir the pan until it simmers, and the sugar has dissolved.
Wash the courgette under running water and drain well. Add them to the pan with the balance of the ingredients. Turn up the heat stirring to the boil.
Cook on a rolling boil stirring from time to time until the mixture has thickened and when a spatula is scraped across the bottom of the pan liquid does not flow back into the gap.
Using a jam funnel fill warm sterilised jars with the hot chutney to the lower rim, cover the mix with a disc of waxed paper then seal with the lid. Let the jars cool completely then store in a cool dark place for at least a month before use.
Now go to The Golden Rules of Home Preserving page to get tips on safe preserving and how to sterilise your jars prior to filling.
Enjoy life !
John.
Hi, my name is John Webber, award winning chef and tutor, now retired to the west coast of Scotland. Welcome to our blog focusing on food, cooking, and countryside. My aim is to pass on my years of skills and knowledge together with an appreciation of the countryside.
Join us to experience the beauty of the west coast, cook some great food and be at ease in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed your visit with us, please subscribe up to our newsletter to receive regular updates of what’s new and upcoming at The Westcoaster. Subscribe Here
©John Webber. 2023