Recipe LXXVII - Stuffed Beef Olives with Roasted Vegetables

This is an easy recipe, and a tasty one too. It requires about 45 minutes' preparation, but the results are really worth it. There's something about roasted veggies that give them extra special powers of tastiness.

Ingredients:
2 long pieces of thinly-sliced beef (any cut should be fine)
4 carrots
1 leek
1 courgette
But I'm sure you'll choose your own vegetables!

For the stuffing:
About two hands full of yesterday's bread, broken into very small pieces
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
Some fresh herbs (basil, thyme or oregano should be good)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A binding agent like lemon juice or white wine



Instructions:
Turn the oven on to about 160°C. Put the stuffing ingredients (except the bread) into a mixer and give it a thorough blitzing.
Then add the bread and turn it into a pâté-like consistency.



Spread it out over the beef, making sure not to get too close to the outeide. Once rolled up, it will spread out itself.



Cut up some vegetables. I used carrots and leeks, and later on I added some courgettes. Pour some oil in a baking tray, put your vegetables in it and the beef on top, making sure most is covered in the oil.



Put it in the oven for about 45 minutes, and add the courgettes for the final 15 minutes. Sorry for the quality of the photo below, but the kitchen light plays havoc with the brightness and contrast...



In any case, enjoy!

Recipe LXIV - Sage & Onion Stuffing

One of the most special thing about roast dinners is the way the meat is seasoned. When it comes to birds, you can not go wrong with some stuffing. Now, whilst most people get it from the supermarket, actually making it at home yourself is easier (and cheaper [and tastier]) than what comes out of a packet. This is one of two recipes this week, to make up for lost time.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread, preferably no longer fresh
1 egg
A cup of milk
1 onion, chopped
Some fresh sage
3 cloves of garlic
Ground black pepper
Salt



Instructions:
Cut up the onion into fine pieces.
TIP: to avoid your eyes being affected too much, many people have their own methods: in some parts of the Mediterranean, they cut onions on their heads. I favour sticking my tongue out - then my tongue bears the brunt of the odorous onion, leaving my eyes less affected.
Take the leaves of the sage, and fold them into a ball. With a knife or a pair of scissors, slice them up into small pieces.
Put the bread, egg and milk into a bowl and with a potato masher or fork, bind it into a smooth consistency. Then add the onion, sage, ground pepper and salt.



Mash well, until it is all nicely mixed in together.
Open the bird and fork the mixture inside. I favour leaving the bird open, as this allows the stuffing to slowly slide outwards, leaving a delicious crust.



Salt the skin of your bird, and baste it in oil. Put some butter on the leg area - this gives some crispiness to the skin on the legs. I sometimes put half-cloves of garlic under the skin, but with the stuffing inside, this is not necessary. Roast the bird for about 20 minutes per 500g, plus twenty minutes on top.



The photos of the result did not come out very well (dark!) but this was the best I could do:



The potatoes enjoyed bathing in the oil too...

Recipe XXXIV - Stuffing Your Bird

In the run-up to Yuletide, I would like to suggest some ways to make your own traditional Christmas dinner. This week, we're looking at stuffing birds. There are many ways of doing this, without having to rely on ready-made material.



Ingredients:
A small loaf or a thick slice of white bread
2-3 eggs
A splash of milk
Some dried herbs (sage, oregano, rosemary, etc., or whatever you choose)
Some dried fruits (dried apricots, raisins, etc., or something similar)
Some crushed almonds or walnuts
An onion, cut into small squares
4 cloves of garlic
Ground black pepper
Salt to taste, and of course...
...a bird to put it in! I chose a pheasant, because it needed cooking.

Notes on game birds:
Don't forget to get your game bird off a good huntsman. Hang it up in a cool, dry place for several weeks if you can. The longer you hang it up for, and the worse it stinks, the better it will taste on your plate. I couldn't, because the finicky Germans have banned game birds due to avian flu, so I had to import mine from the UK frozen.

Instructions:
Take the bread and break it up into a bowl. Crack the eggs on top (two should do, but with a big bird, you will need more bread and more eggs) and pour on some milk. With a potato masher, work the ingredients into each other. Leave it whilst you cut up the onion and garlic, and crush your pepper.



Add all the other ingredients into the mixture and mix wekk using a fork or the potato masher.



Take the bird, spread it out and open up the space where the innards normally are. Stuff the mixture inside. Follow the recommended cooking instructions for your bird, with the stuffing.



Once you remove the bird from the oven, your stuffing should have a thick crust (see the photo below).



Finally, cut up your bird into (un)equal portions, making sure everyone gets some, but the cook gets the most!



Above is how the stuffing looks across the middle.

Point of interest:
You don't have to have a bird to make stuffing. You can put it into roulades of beef or pork, or you can roast or steam the stuffing as a dish on its own. It is so heavy, it makes an ideal vegetarian meal.

Recipe IV - Roast Chicken, Home-Made Stuffing, Roast Potatoes & Vegetables

This is an enjoyable roast dinner you can eat outside in the spring sunshine.

Ingredients for the roasting tray:
One medium-sized chicken
Half a kilo of potatoes (red, only red!!!!)
Six cloves of garlic
Fresh rosemary, fresh thyme
Salt & pepper

Ingredients for the stuffing:
One- or two-day-old white bread, not quite stale
Two to three eggs
Maximum 300ml milk
One onion, cut into small pieces
Garlic (optional), pulped
Fresh herbs (sage, oregano or rosemary make good tasters)

Instructions for the stuffing:
Take a large bowl, break the bread into small pieces.
Take the eggs and break them into the bowl with the bread and gradually pour on the milk, using a potato masher to fold in the ingredients until the bread mixture takes on a moist but sturdy consistency. Add the herbs, garlic and pieces of onion. Continue to fold in, until all the ingredients are nicely consistent. This should not take very long at all.

Instructions for the chicken:
Put a large baking tray in the oven with sunflower oil and butter, or goose fat and put on the oven at 180°C. Cover the chicken skin in salt and pepper. Peel and halve the garlic cloves, force them under the skin of the chicken, an equal amount on each side. Feel free to put a sprig of fresh rosemary in there too.
Take the stuffing and put it inside the chicken. Put the chicken in the baking tray, baste the fat onto the chicken and roast for an hour. Then turn the heat down to +/- 150°C and leave it there for as long as you like to allow the juices to mix and the meat to tenderise.
I
nstructions for the roast potatoes (red - I prefer King Edwards):
Peel the potatoes, cut into pieces of approximately 3-5cm x 3-5cm. Parboil them for ten minutes.
Drain the excess water into a separate bowl (not down the sink!), wait for a couple of minutes while the potatoes steam-dry, then put them in the oven dish with the chicken. Baste the potatoes too, and re-baste the chicken.
If you time it just right, the potatoes and the chicken will come out of the oven together. If you make sure the larger sides of the potatoes are facing downwards, your potatoes should be crispy on the outside and fluffily soft in the middle.

Accompaniments:

• Chicken goes very well with many vegetables, but I favour steamed cabbage or cauliflower, both slightly undercooked, and peas to counter the heaviness of the potatoes.
• Take the excess fat from the baking tray, the leftover water from the vegetables and mix together to make a sauce. Put in a little white wine to pep it up a bit.
• As for wine, a Pinot Noir or Chardonnay would go excellently well. Chapel Down in Kent produces some excellent wines fitting such a meal.