A comforting lamb and leek stew

If you feel moved to celebrate St David's Day* I've just posted a recipe from The Frugal Cook on my student site Beyond Baked Beans. On the basis that a) you're more likely to have the book than they are, b) they're more in need of a recipe than you are and c) if you haven't got it you can always click on the link!

It's a nice one, actually. I made it this time last year with some scrag end of lamb but the meat came from an organically-reared lamb so the flavour was great.

* Odd how we celebrate St David and St Patrick but don't get too excited about St George and St Andrew. Any idea why?

A pie that isn't a pie

No let-up in the weather in the West Country today. I'm not sure my brain isn't iced up. Finding it incredibly hard to concentrate - and write in real sentences. Or maybe it's my new Twitter* habit.

Tomorrow I'm actually going to venture out of the house provided we don't find another six centimetres of snow on our doorstep and go and buy some proper food. Since we got back from France on Wednesday (thank goodness. Ryanair cancelled our flight AGAIN today) we've been living off various permutations of bacon and eggs. Or that's what it feels like.

I'm planning to make a a really good dish that the chef at my son Will's former pub The Marquess Tavern used to put on the menu and which we put in our beer and food book An Appetite for Ale. The top pie-like layer is made from slices of day (or two day) old bread which is dipped in the gravy created by the stew and baked until it's crisp. I could have waited until I'd made it before posting the recipe so that you had a pic to inspire you but thought you might want to try it this weekend.

Shearers’ stew
Serves 6

4-5 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
3 white onions, peeled and roughly chopped
A few sprigs of thyme
1.5kg lamb fillet or shoulder
3 tbsp seasoned plain flour
500g carrots, peeled or scrubbed and thickly sliced
350ml lamb or beef stock
350ml strong ale
Salt and white or black pepper
6 thick slices sourdough or similar country bread

Heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan over a moderate heat, add the onions and thyme and cook for about 10 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Remove the onions from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a casserole.

Trim any excess (but not all) fat off the lamb and cut into cubes and toss in the seasoned flour. Add a little more oil to the frying pan and fry the lamb in batches until brown, adding it to the onions as you finish. Deglaze the pan with 300ml of the stock and pour over the lamb and onions then add the ale. Bring to the boil, stir then simmer over a low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Add the carrots and more stock if needed then simmer for a further 30 minutes until the carrots are cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 225°C/425°F/Gas 7. Dip the bread slices in the gravy. Divide the remaining stew between individual pie dishes and top with a slice of the gravy-soaked bread. Bake the dishes in the oven until the bread is nicely browned and crunchy. (You could, of course, make this is a single dish, arranging the bread slices over the top).

Any other good suggestions to keep out the cold? What have you all been cooking this week?

*If you're on Twitter you can follow me as frugalcook

What to do with an oxtail

Have you ever cooked an oxtail? I hadn't until a couple of years ago. It just looked too alien and scary, too fatty, too much as if it would never cook through. But I had eaten it and enjoyed it so gave it a try and it was fab.

Basically you treat it exactly as you would a beef stew except for three things. You need to soak it for a couple of hours in salted water (to be honest I don't know why, presumably to remove any impurities). You need to cook it for longer (stands to reason, it's dense) and you need to skim off the fat (easiest if you leave it overnight)

What you then get is a stew of incredible richness and intensity, possibly the best beef stew you've ever eaten. Here's how I made it the other day:

Braised oxtail with red wine
Serves 4-6

1 large oxtail, as lean as possible
2 tbsp plain flour
4-5 rashers streaky bacon or bacon bits (or you could use chorizo and leave out the pimenton)
2-4 tbsp olive oil or other cooking oil
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
Stick of celery, trimmed and sliced (optional)
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp sweet pimenton/paprika
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 bottle red wine or a bottle of porter
A small glass of port (optional but good if you're using wine)
350ml beef or vegetable stock
A few sprigs of thyme, parsley stalks and a bayleaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cover the oxtail in water, season well with salt and leave to soak for 2-4 hours. Drain off the water, pat the meat dry, and dust each piece in seasoned flour. Cut up the bacon into small pieces, heat 2 tbsp of the oil and fry the bacon until beginning to brown then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Brown the meat well on all sides and remove that too then add more oil if necessary and cook the onions until beginning to soften, adding the sliced carrots and celery after 3-4 minutes. Stir in the finely chopped garlic, paprika, allspice and tomato paste then add the wine, port, if using and stock or water (or stock and beer, if using porter). Add the herbs tied together with a piece of string or cotton and the meat and bacon, ensuring the liquid covers the meat (if not, add a bit more wine or stock) and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down as low as you can and simmer on the hob or in a very low oven for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. If serving straight away skim off as much fat as possible and add a little more red wine (don't top it up if you've used beer - it'll taste bitter) and reheat. Or leave overnight and the fat will be easier to spoon off. You can take the meat off the bone if you like. Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste then serve with creamy mash (or baked potatoes) and carrots.

Any leftovers make a fabulous base for a cottage pie, topped with mash or mashed root veg such as swede and carrot or you could even make the whole thing into a pie. (If you do this you may find you have some liquid left over. Strain it and freeze it to add to a gravy or another stew.)