Spiced Goat Mince Meatballs in a Roast Tomato & Pepper Sauce

These meatballs were just a bit off the cuff on a Friday night faffing about in the kitchen; I had a packet of goat mince that needed cooking and made it up as I went along. They turned out to be an absolute triumph, and one that I can't wait to make again. I flavoured the meatballs with fennel and coriander seeds, roast them and tossed them in a roast tomato and red pepper sauce, it was so delicious! If you haven't had much goat in the past I would highly recommend it, not as strong as lamb or beef, just a really delicate beautiful flavour, try it out...

Start with the tomatoes, I used a packet of regular sized vine tomatoes. Cut them into quarters and pop them into a baking tray, add a generous splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of sugar and some black pepper, give it a good mix and then pop it in the oven at 200˚C for 30 minutes, keep an eye on them as all tomatoes differ. You want it to start to colour and most of the water to cook away, until they start to look a bit sticky and caramelised. When they are ready tip them into a little blender and wizz them up until smooth, they almost become creamy. It's my new favourite way of making a tomato sauce, especially while tomatoes are in season I much prefer this roast fresh tomato method rather than using tins.

While you are waiting for the tomatoes you can start the meatballs. I used one slice of stale brown sourdough bread, crusts removed, wizzed up into a fine crumb. Put the bread crumbs into a bowl and added a splash of milk and leave them to soak.

Toast a teaspoon of coriander seeds and half a teaspoon of fennel seeds in a small pan until you can smell them, then pop them into a pestle and mortar and grind until you get a rough powder.

I used 400g of goat meat for 2 people, this was quite generous, and would feed 3 easily! I get my goat meat from The Goat Company who trade at Jesmond Food market, on the third Saturday of the month. Get a few packs and keep it in the freezer, it really is such delicious meat.

Crumble the mince into a big bowl and add the spices. Then add half a finely chopped onion, a grated clove of garlic, a big pinch of maldon sea salt, some black pepper and the bread crumbs; and mix it all together. Then form into balls and roll together in your hands, about the size of a golf ball.

Put them into a baking tray with some olive oil and a thinly sliced red pepper, coating everything in oil before putting them in the oven. Bake them for 25 minutes, but give them a shake after 10 minutes. They should take on a bit of colour but you don't want them to cook for too long and dry out.

While they were in the oven I cooked a sliced onion in a bit of oil and butter until golden, then added the blitzed tomato sauce into the pan to warm through. A lot of fat came out of my meatballs, which was great as they ended up so juicy, so instead of adding the sauce into the baking tray I scooped them out of the fat with the peppers and tossed them into the sauce in the pan.

Serve with some buttery polenta and some chopped fresh sage. They were SO good, really juicy delicious meatballs and the sauce was lovely and rich, perfect with buttery polenta and little bursts of sage.

Slow Oxtail and Shin Stew with Polenta and Braised Red Cabbage

I have every intention of having a more healthy January, cutting out canapés until next year, climbing more mountains (one of my resolutions!) and eating more salads and vegetables. I couldn't face the thought of any more meat last week, and I'm fully engaged in experimenting with Chinese cookery with the help of Fushcia Dunlop, which, handily, is very vegetable focused. But sometimes you're just cold and tired and feeling a little bit frail, you need help, you need the comfort of a slow cooked rich warm stew. There is just no escaping it. This is my current favourite to help me along in times of need...

A lovely slow cooked stew using oxtail and beef shin, cheap cuts of meat that become sticky and melty after hours of cooking, shredded and pulled apart in a rich red wine sauce with buttery polenta and sweet sharp red cabbage. I think people are often nervous of unusual cuts in the butchers, knowing what exactly to ask for, prices per weight instead of per piece, worrying you're going to be handed far too much or far too little. I have started to be more adventurous, with both success and failure. I won't be cooking devilled kidneys again in a hurry, but oxtail and I are friends now and really enjoy hanging out together! 

 

These amounts will serve 2 generously. Chop 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and an onion, add to a pot, with some thyme, parsley and a bay leaf. I used a mix of oxtail and shin, you can use both or just one or the other; the ox tail adds a real stickyness to the stew but you don't get a huge amount of meat from it, what you do get is delicious, but I'd go for both. Use about 5 pieces of ox tail, approximately half a whole tail, then about 500g of beef shin. I got mine from the Grainger market and it was lovely looking meat, dark red and rich... Cut it into big chunks.

Add the meat to the pot with the vegetables and herbs along with a big piece of orange rind, then cover the whole lot with cold water and bring it to the boil. Don’t add any seasoning at this point as you reduce the sauce quite a lot later. For the first 5 minutes skim off any foam or brown scum from the surface, then leave to simmer for 3-4 hours, until the meat is melty and soft.

While that is simmering make the braised red cabbage. Shred quarter of a red cabbage finely, then add it to a pan with a diced cooking apple, and half a diced onion, about 250ml of cider, 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 100g of brown sugar. Some orange zest and a teaspoon of allspice, 15g of butter and some salt and pepper. Then leave to simmer very gently with the lid on for an hour, taste to see if you want it sweeter, or with more vinegar after about 10 minutes when everybody in the pan has got to know each other.

 

When it is ready remove the meat from the pan and leave to cool. Leave a few bits in with the vegetable and you can have this for lunch the next day, it makes a lovely beef broth, with a bit of seasoning and a little bit of meat shredded into the stock. When the meat has cooled enough to touch pull the oxtail off the bone and put apart the large chunks of shin. 

Ladle about 4 ladles of stock into another pan, and add ¼ bottle of red wine, then boil to reduce until you have a thicker sauce, then add the meat back into the sauce. You can add some wild mushrooms at this point also, I've soaked dried ones and stirred them into the sauce on one occasion, delicious. Serve with buttery polenta and braised red cabbage.

The meat is rich and soft in its red wine sauce, with the buttery warm soft polenta and sharp sweet red cabbage it is a match made in heaven.. It'll warm you up a treat over winter and into miserable January...

Pulled Pork, Polenta Chips, Baked Beans and Coleslaw

Thank goodness the sun has reappeared, thank goodness the rain has stopped... It has been quite depressing, rain every single day, for weeks on end. Rain, rain and more rain. I have a broken umbrella that makes me a bit cross every time I have to use it, I've ruined some of my shoes and been drenched on more than one occasion. It puts you off going anywhere or doing anything. I've been craving a holiday in the sun, lying on a beach, swimming in the sea... But suddenly it's all ok. The sun is out! It is warm! Today I wore ballet pumps for the first time in weeks, we sat in the garden all day and lit the BBQ! The weather forecast has little pictures of suns, far into the future, it actually feels like spring, summer even, and it is such a welcome arrival...

Whilst hiding from the rain last week I have been writing about sharing food for my column in Appetite magazine. Big or small plates in the middle of the table whether at home or in a restaurant bring about a lovely happy convivial sharing atmosphere. I love inviting people to my house for food, putting plates full of tasty fare on the table and everyone diving in...

So in the name of research I rang some friends and decided to cook a 9 hour shoulder of pulled pork that I found in the amazing 'Joe Beef' book. This book is definitely one of my favourite new finds, it includes a fois gras breakfast sandwich, potted eggs with truffle and a smorgasbord… What's not to love. The menu took a bit of time to decide, it is a bit of a new direction, but in the end I decided on pulled pork, baked beans, coleslaw, polenta chips and BBQ sauce... Trashy, yet delicious...

The baked beans are an odd mix of ingredients, but totally delicious. They were a recipe for some lentils in the Joe Beef book, but I wanted baked beans, so adapted it to suit. Chop and fry some pancetta and an onion and fry until golden and soft, then add a minced clove of garlic. Next add half a cup of water, ¼ cup of ketchup, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of English mustard, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 bay leaf, some salt and 2 tins of haricot beans. Then bake in the oven at 180°C or simmer on the top for 45 minutes, with a lid on. Check on it and stir now and again, adding a bit more water if needs be. This is all a bit out of my comfort zone, but totally delicious.

The creamy coleslaw was a mix of shredded white cabbage, red cabbage, grated carrot, thinly sliced onion and some grated kohlrabi which the kind man from North East Organic Growers gave me at Spring Graze. I left it all to sit for an hour in a colander with a sprinkling of salt, to get rid of the excess water. Then mixed it together with half mayonnaise, half yoghurt, chopped parsley, a squeeze of lemon and some whole grain mustard.

The main event was a 2kg shoulder joint of pork heavily smeared in English mustard, sugar, paprika, salt and pepper, a cup of water in the bottom of the tin and cooked at 130°C for 9 whole hours. I like recipes that you can say in one sentence. Put some foil over it after 5 hours and make sure it always has some liquid in the bottom of the tray... The house smelt amazing...

The joint of meat was so soft when I took it out you could press your finger into it and it oozed sticky lush juices. I was excited all day to get it out of the oven! The skin was blackened and crispy but still delicious and the meat couldn’t have been softer. A pile of soft, sweet delicious pork falling apart with some crispy polenta chips, creamy crunchy coleslaw and sweet smoky baked beans was just totally delicious, a bit of tangy BBQ sauce on the side. Everyone had a lovely time digging into big bowls of soft delicious pork, and I've started looking into flights to Montreal, because the sooner I visit the Joe Beef restaurant the better...