Sesame salt - store cupboard essential - Gomasio

Gomasio is ground and toasted sesame condiment that makes plain vegetables and plain rice a delicious meal. You can use it alongside soy sauce or instead of it. I can't recommend it enough. I make it by toasting the sesame seeds and adding a pinch of salt. Some people use more salt, but I find it overwhelming.

I use a suribachi but you can use
a pestle and mortar or a food processor

you can see the grooves that help grind the seeds

I made some cottage pies too..

Just call it aillade

This is a stew that is oh so simple to make and is absolutely delicious. A  wonderfully rich tomato sauce coats the slow-cooked meat. The colour is stunning, and the sauce, thickened with breadcrumbs, has a particular texture. It takes me straight back to the family table, waiting for my plateful of food to arrive.


It's taken from the classic cookbook ‘la veritable cuisine provencale’  by legendary chef Jean-Noel Escudier. He keeps the sauce short. I prefer a substantial sauce, mopping the plate with bread, despite it being thick enough to scoop up on its own. It’s also a next-day pleasure for me, as long as I get there first. Of course there may not be leftovers.

Since I’ve always let economy, convenience and time constraints override a recipe’s instructions, I admit I usually substitute pork for veal. What I do know is that pork and veal are a bit bland, and so both are suited to a flavoursome sauce, which this recipe produces (butchers can shoot me later). I use shoulder of pork. Please, in the time honoured tradition of cooks and writers of recipes, enjoy making your own substitution.

A little word about garlic. Isn’t it great? A younger me used to worry about smelling of garlic. I didn’t worry enough to stop eating it. Elizabeth David’s recipes sometimes tell you to rub a dish with garlic. What a strange idea. I suppose at the time garlic was looked on as a powerful and pungent flavour. Now garlic is used generously and often, without a thought. Despite my supposed anxiety about smelling of garlic I was reassured to read that eating cooked garlic avoids this problem. Another approach is to make sure that everyone you meet has also recently eaten garlic, and if they haven’t you can give them some to eat: problem solved. Remember, this recipe has lots of garlic in it.

Oh, and another excuse to make this dish is if you have a stale loaf of bread, because the breadcrumbs should be from stale bread.

Aillade (de veau)

Ingredients

500g meat, cut into large chunks

Two large handfuls of breadcrumbs from stale bread

400g Tin of tomatoes

2 heaped tbsp tomato paste

1 head of garlic – about twelve cloves

Large glass of white wine

Pepper and salt

Use a heavy based casserole with a lid.

§         Brown the meat in a couple of glugs of olive oil, over medium heat.

§         Add peeled garlic cloves, and stir for a moment.

§         Add tomatoes and white wine and stir.

§         Add breadcrumbs, pepper and salt and tomato paste.

§         Stir, put the lid on, turn heat down and cook at low simmer (barley bubbling) for 2 hours stirring occasionally. Alternatively put the pot in a low oven (Gas Mark 1/275F/140C) and leave for two hours.

Enjoy.

As I write this I’ve got a version made with beef cooking. The aroma is exceptional. It is a dish that sits at the high table of family reminiscence.

I want to know more about meat, closeness of grain, different cuts and so on, however I seem too busy cooking and eating to actually get around to increasing my understanding.

Slow cooked lamb shanks – cooked with red wine and a slug of balsamic

I like my onions sliced like this

This is a simple way to make the most of lamb shanks. If you don’t want a large meal, use smaller ones! Basically this is a stew, with meat on the bone and gravy with a lot of wallop and a very light tang. The carrots and onions become melt-in-the-mouth tender.

I know, there’s no picture of the finished dish. I’m going to have to cook it again soon, and will add the photos then. We were just too busy eating it to take photos!

Serve with a green salad and steamed potatoes.

a flour drenched lamb shank

Ingredients

4 large lamb shanks

plain flour

butter

olive oil

2 onions , thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves , crushed

4 large carrots

100ml balsamic vinegar

500ml red wine, full bodied

2 tbsp tomato purée

½ tsp dried mixed herbs

generous grindings of black pepper

three large pinches of salt

Heat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6

                                                     Method

I like my carrot slices assymetrical

• Mix flour, pepper and salt, and drench the lamb shanks with the mixture
• Heat a thick bottomed casserole over a medium heat and add a knob of butter and olive oil
• Add the onions and cook until soft, then scoop out
• Put in the lamb shanks and brown all over
• Put the onions back in the casserole with the garlic, balsamic, wine, tomato purée, herbs and season

ground pepper and salt in a shiny bowl

Cover, put in the oven and cook for 1 hour at Gas Mark 6, then reduce and cook for two hours at 300F/150C/Gas Mark 2, until the meat is almost falling off the bone

If the sauce seems too thin, remove the lamb from the casserole and keep warm and boil down the juices to thicken them

If you have fresh herbs use a sprig each of rosemary and thyme together with a bayleaf.