Perk Me Up!

It’s quite unusual for me to crave chilli; I don’t like too much of it and it’s not something that I cook with very often. But today I wanted something with a bit of a kick, to really excite my taste buds, and so a Thai-inspired beef salad was perfect. Everything about this dish woke me up; the vibrant colours, the crunch of the textures, the heat of the chilli and the zing of the lime. I went easy on the chilli here but you could use as much as you want to suit your own taste.

Chilli Beef Salad

2 sirloin steaks
1 red pepper, pulp and seeds removed and sliced length-ways.
A combination of watercress, spinach and rocket leaves
A couple of handfuls of bean sprouts
A little vegetable oil for frying

For the marinade
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tablespoons soy sauce

For the dressing
Juice of ½ a lime
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tsp of brown sugar

1. Marinade the beef in the soy sauce and garlic for at least half an hour.
2. Prepare the salad; lay the watercress, spinach and rocket leaves on plates, followed by the bean sprouts and then the red pepper.
3. Fry the steaks in vegetable oil, ideally cook them rare, leave them to rest and then slice them and lay them over the salad.
4. Mix up all the ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the salad. Serve with a wedge of lime.

Serves 2.

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of February!

It’s time to share this month’s ‘In the Bag’ selection with you. We have a colourful line-up for you this month which I’m sure you’re going to have lots of fun with. The 3 ingredients are:

Forced rhubarb
An orange
Sugar

All you need to do to enter is to create a dish using these ingredients, then post about it on your blog or website and drop me an email.

Entry Details
Send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Friday 29th February with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog or website
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• a picture of your dish

Rules
Here are the loose rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients 'in the bag' for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, with it acting as a central ingredient.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "In the Bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' and 'Real Epicurean'.

Nice Matters

I've had a funny sort of a week, very much a roller coaster ride with big ups and big downs. There have been surprises, disappointments, moments of doubt and glimmers of hope. My cart was travelling down another dip today when I discovered that the lovely Antonia from Food Glorious Food had chosen me for the Nice Matters award, due to my work on the UK Food Bloggers Association and 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' discussion forums. Sometimes a lovely gesture comes just at the right time, when you need it the most, and this is one of those times. Thank you so much Antonia, I’m truly touched.

I hope I can make someone else’s day now by nominating a few bloggers myself. I’m not sure how many I’m allowed to choose but I’d nominate you all if I could – isn’t the food blogging community fantastic? But as I can’t choose everyone I’d like to use this opportunity to thank some key members of the forums for their input, which makes the forums such a great place to hang out and helps them to attract new visitors and grow. So Pixie, A Forkful of Spaghetti, Nilmandra, Andy, Holler, Wendy and Kai I nominate you all. And thank you also to every other member of the forums and also the members of the UK Bloggers Association - it's you that makes them so very worthwhile.

Some Things get Better with Age

Like a good Bordeaux, a pair of worn-in shoes and women (of course!), lamb is even better when it matures, as I learned this evening when I cooked it for the first time. I’ve wanted to try it for some time and was urged to do so by the readers who commented on this thread but until today I’d not seen it available. It was in the John Lewis Food Hall yesterday that I saw a sole packet of organic mutton, which I snapped up.

Mutton comes from a sheep at least two years old and it needs good hanging and long, slow cooking. But the flavour is nothing short of spectacular –deep, rich and almost gamey. Mutton is increasing in popularity through the good press it’s receiving, from celebrity chefs and the like but, as I’ve found, it can be difficult to get hold of, so if you do see it I urge you to try it.

There’s nothing fancy about the dish I put together this evening, it’s just a simple, homely casserole and in it’s simplicity it’s perfect – after all why dress mutton as lamb rather than appreciate it for what it is, that is, a damn fine meat?



Mutton, Red Wine and Potato Stew

Ingredients
500g mutton, roughly chopped
1 ltr beef stock
1 large glass of red wine
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped stick of celery
2 crushed garlic cloves
3 or 4 carrots, roughly chopped
3 or 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon of plain flour
A sprinkling of dried thyme (about a teaspoon) or a couple of fresh thyme sprigs

1. In a casserole dish brown the mutton in olive oil over a high heat until well browned. Remove from the pan.

2. Saute the onion, celery and garlic in the same pan until starting to soften and colour a little.

3. Put the mutton back in the pan and sprinkle over the flour. Mix well, then add the red wine, beef stock, thyme, carrots and potatoes. Season well.

4. Bring to the boil then reduce to barely a simmer. Put on a lid and cook slowly for 2 hours.

5. Check the seasoning and if using fresh thyme remove the sprigs before serving.