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.

Goat Mince Ragu

All through October chefs and restaurants all over the country were taking part in something called 'Goatober'. I've got to say, it's not the catchiest of titles, but you get the jist, goats and October being the important bits.

Goatober is the brainchild of Heritage Radio Network Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks, and renowned New York cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby. An annual campaign every year in October in the US. In 2010, Heritage Foods USA partnered with a dozen goat dairies around upstate New York and Vermont to purchase their unwanted males, who, as unable to produce milk for dairy products, are killed at birth. Over 50 New York City chefs agreed to feature goat on their menu for the full month of October including Gramercy Tavern, Babbo, Spotted Pig and Bar Boulud and the campaign’s success has continued to grow to year on year.

This year James Whetlor of Cabrito, a relatively new company bringing British goat into the mainstream food market, has been championing the event over here in the UK. I decided to get involved as I really do like goat and was keen to support James, and also my local goat suppliers The Goat Company based up in Morpeth.

This Goat Mince Ragu recipe has been on the menu at Cook House all month, I'm serving in on toast smothered in delicious Doddington cheese. It is also great served with pasta, in a lasagne or with some buttery polenta.

To start finely dice 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 stick of celery, then add to a big pan with a pinch of salt, a bay leaf, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 15g butter and cook slowly until soft and turning golden, for about 15 minutes. 

While this is going on add 4 large tomatoes cut into quarters, or the equivalent amount of cherry tomatoes to a small baking tray with a couple of cloves of garlic, add a splash of olive oil, and a pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar. Then roast at 200˚C for about 20 minutes, until soft and starting to brown. Then remove from the oven.

Grate into the onion mix, one clove of garlic and a few sprigs of finely chopped thyme and stir through. Add 1kg of goat mince, this will serve 4 generously. Gently stir the goat mince on the heat until it is browned and breaks up evenly. Then add 2 heaped desert spoons of plain flour and stir through, allow this to cook for 5 minutes. Then add 2 heaped desert spoons of tomato puree and stir through and allow to cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the roast tomatoes to a blender and blitz until totally smooth and then stir this into the goat mince, post flour and tomato puree. Add a big pinch of salt, lots of ground black pepper and a teaspoon of sugar and stir to combine. It will begin to smell and taste delicious at this stage. You're looking to layer as much flavour into the pan as possible, the golden veg at the beginning and then these delicious roast tomatoes all help that along.

Then add about 600ml of beef stock and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce; preferably homemade stock made with roast beef bones simmered for a few hours with stock veg, which will yield the most delicious results. Then let the mince simmer for an hour, covered, very gently, so it's just moving. If it seems too thick add a little more stock. After an hour remove the lid and if it seems like there is a bit too much liquid, take the lid of and turn the heat up and let it reduce for about 15 minutes, stirring now and again so it doesn't stick to the bottom. Turn it off when it is the desired consistency, check the seasoning and let it sit for 15 minutes, just to let let it settle and for all the flavour to come out. It is even better the next day, so if you can make it ahead that is ideal...

To serve, pop it on toast with lots of grated cheese, or stir through some pasta, again top with cheese, or layer it up into a homemade lasagne, making sure to top with cheese!

Roast Tomato, Red Lentil and Harissa Daal

Happy New Year! Like many others I'm feeling the full effects of a two week daily cheese, wine, meat, pie and chocolate drip feed. So before I go to London tomorrow and intensively eat my way round every place I've had my eye on for the past year I've been trying to eat healthy vegetable based dishes. This has been my favourite go to for a while and is based on a recipe from Diana Henry's 'A Healthy Appetite', which I haven't really explored enough but everything I have made has been delicious.

So far my London itinerary includes Paradise Garage, from the people behind The Dairy, in a railway arch in East London, seasonal, british, tasting menu, all very current! The menu looks right up my street though, lamb heart, cod brandade with seafood crisp, smoked eel, venison tartar with cured egg... Then there's Pidgin, opened by James Ramsden who used to run supperclubs from his flat, but now has a little restaurant with a set weekly menu, the chef Elizabeth Allan is producing delicious sounding menus and has staged in some of the best restaurants including L'Enclume. Then Oldroyd, a little neighbourhood place in Angel with an Italian slant opened by Tom Oldroyd who headed up the kitchen at Polpo for years. I'm also hoping to squeeze in trips to Bao, Som Saa, Brawn, Barrafina, Black Axe Mangal and The Quality Chop House, which won't happen but I'll try hard; as well as some good exhibitions that are on too, and see some friends. I think I should just book tickets to go down again asap as I'm being massively overly ambitious...

Back to eating vaguely healthily... It's quite simple, this will serve two people generously. Half about 8 tomatoes and toss them in a baking tray with a big glug of olive oil, salt, pepper and a couple of tea spoons of harissa, then roast then at 180˚C cut side up, for about 45 minutes until shrunken and sweet.

In a small pan toast 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds and 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds for a few minutes until you can smell them, then grind them up in a pestle and mortar. In a frying pan heat a splash of olive oil and gently fry a chopped onion until soft and golden. Then add 4 cloves of grated garlic, the cumin and coriander, half a teaspoon of tumeric, a pinch of saffron, 2cm of grated fresh ginger, the finely diced stalks of a small bunch of coriander (keep the leaves) and one chopped red chilli. Then continue to cook gently for another five minutes.

Add 250g red lentils and stir to coat then in the spices and oil, add in most of the roast tomatoes with all the oil and harissa scrapings from the baking tray, save a few tomatoes back for the top of each dish, and about 700ml of water, add salt and pepper to taste, then leave to simmer for 15 minutes. Top up with water if needs be, but you want it to be quite a thick, daal/stew consistency. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, chopped coriander and the reserved tomatoes.

I'll be back on the lentils and vegetables as soon as I've finished aggressively eating my way around the capital... 

Homemade Pizza

I still remember a pizza in Rome a few years ago, the first night we arrived, in a touristy square where I presumed it was going to be nothing special, but was SO good, a white pizza with wild mushrooms and sausage, wafer thin with melted cheese delicious mushrooms and crumbled sticky sausage meat... I shouldn't be writing this hungry...

Then there is that pizza slice place in the Grainger market, my god, it's so thin, it's so cheesy, it's just so good. The courgette and sausage pizza at Zonzo's, really good. The white pie at Cal's Own, so garlicky and cheesy and delicious... and my very own first pizza made at home, a simple Margherita, it was just really so very surprisingly good... I could do with a slice of pizza now... I'll battle on...

Key things I have learnt making my own pizza, give the dough time the time it needs, if you rush it it's no where near as good. Take time with the tomato sauce too, cooking it slowly for long enough, and finally go easy on the toppings, you think you want loads then you just end up with a soggy mess, and no body wants a soggy bottomed pizza.

These amounts will make 2 large or 3 medium pizzas. Start with the dough, mix 325g of strong white flour, a teaspoon of dried yeast and a teaspoon of salt together in a large mixing bowl and stir in 15ml of olive oil and 25ml of milk. Followed by 170ml of warm water, then mix it well to form a soft dough. Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and knead for about five minutes, until smooth and elastic. I really enjoy kneading dough, it's very relaxing...

 

Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. When the dough has risen, knock it back, then knead again until smooth, roll into a ball and set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour until risen again. Preheat your oven to its highest setting, about 240°C

While your dough is rising you can make the tomato sauce, slowly cook half a chopped onion in olive oil with a pinch of salt, cook until it is soft and golden, then add a chopped clove of garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes. Cook for another few minutes then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook slowly for 10-15 minutes, check for seasoning, you might need more sugar, salt or pepper, it should thicken and be sweet rich and delicious...

Divide your dough into two or three balls and roll each out onto a lightly floured work surface until 20cm in diameter. Then top! Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dough, I love a margherita, with just tomato and fresh mozzarella, tasty every time, but I have also been experimenting with my toppings recently.

 

When you have assembled your topping just pop it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes depending on its size. The white pizza was pretty special; I used mozzarella, parmesan, ricotta, thin slices of garlic and added parsley after it was cooked. I tried a new idea recently with fried cubes of aubergine; a base of tomato sauce, mozzarella, I then added the aubergine, some pine nuts and a scattering of sumac... Delicious, a Middle Eastern inspired version. Chorizo and shallot was very good, spicy and sweet... So have a go at making your own, it's a bit of a waiting game with the dough, but not at all difficult and the results are so good!

 

Shakshuka

I've been from one extreme to the other recently, a week of chickpeas, lentils and hunger followed by a few days in Lyon where I ate and drank far too much... Which ended in being terribly ill on the way home, I think I picked up some bug from somewhere, or it was my body just telling me to calm down with the 3 course meals and the wine... I fainted in the end! But have recovered to tell the tale... Lyon was beautiful, a lovely picturesque city. We ate in some amazing Bouchons and drank in some lovely cocktail bars. It is a city of offal and wine, my kind of city... We enjoyed black pudding, chicken liver cakes, cheese and praline tarts all day long. It was sunny and generally delightful. I hear summer happened here while we were away, but it's back to a grey cold day out there today.

This is one of my new weekend favourite breakfast brunches, especially on a cold damp morning like this. A bit of heat and spice with your morning eggs, courtesy of Ottolenghi, who's book Jerusalem is still one of my current favourites. It is a Tunisian dish of baked eggs nestled in tomatoes, soft peppers, and garlicky harissa spice. Comfort and spice...

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, I just have one large one which I scooped the eggs out of to serve, if you have smaller ones it's nice to be able to serve individual portions in the pan.

 

Add 2 tablespoons of harissa, I used an amazing rose harissa I discovered recently, 2 teaspoons of tomato purée, 2 diced red peppers, 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then cook for about 10 minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes then simmer for another 10 minutes until the peppers are soft and you have a thick sauce.

 

Then make little dips in the sauce to add your eggs, I used 4 eggs, you can add up to 8 depending on how many you are feeding and how many eggs you like. Swirl the whites of the eggs into the sauce a little bit and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

Serve with a big dollop of yoghurt and some fresh bread. The runny egg yolks in the spicy tomato sauce are delicious, with fresh tangy yoghurt and soft sweet red peppers. A perfect start to a cold Spring day.

Live Below the Line - Day 3

I'm finding it a bit more difficult today, I'm a bit more hungry and more frustrated. I've eaten nice things so far, but the lack of choice and variety is the frustrating bit. I am now looking at people's take away coffee with huge envy. I didn't think that would be what I missed most, when there are things like meat, cheese and wine in the equation, I just keep thinking about hot frothy milky coffees... I don't even have them that often in every day life!

Yesterday I had Butternut Squash soup and flat breads for lunch again, with a tiny bit of leftover Dal. Then for supper I made a Chickpea, Tomato and Paprika Stew, a take on this stew but without spinach or pancetta, which was lovely; eventually... I soaked the chickpeas all day, but hadn't read the label properly about how long they needed to cook, so when I thought they were just about ready to serve they still had an hour to cook... At that point I was a bit tired and emotional, but actually it turned out lovely. Dried chickpeas are definitely tastier than tinned, and the stew was pretty good, rich tomato and spicy with paprika. It worked out at 47p per portion, there was enough leftover for lunch today too... Tonight is Pasta with Tomato, Chilli and Anchovy sauce...

 

I have also raised loads of money which is brilliant! £525! Amazing, thank you so much to everyone who has donated. I am on the leader board at 110th out of thousands so feel very proud! Have a look and feel free to sponsor me if you haven't already! https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/annahedworth

Tomato, Feta and Tarragon Salad with Sumac Dressing

The sun is shining and I am starting to feel a touch of Spring in the air. I have just been to the allotment and have begun to get excited about what to plant this year... I think I had forgotten I had an allotment in truth, I haven’t been for months. I definitely need to be a bit more committed to it this year. I constantly feel like I should be there more often... Little and often is my gardening motto this year... A gardening motto? What I have become?!... 

It was lovely and peaceful and sunny today, with people pottering around tidying their plots. I really enjoy being there, even just for half an hour, it's a little spot of calm and beauty. Ours is looking ok, probably bottom half of the table if there was a league, but certainly not relegation zone. A bit of work on the paths, some digging and a bit of work on the 'wild flower area' (total wilderness of brambles) at the back, should see it right in no time...

 

I'd forgotten how lovely a crisp sunny winters day is, as it's been grey for as long as I can remember. There's nothing like a spot of sunshine and a slightly lighter night to start you thinking about salads and summer. I served this salad as part of my first ever Supperclub, last summer at Carruthers and Kent wine shop in Gosforth. Upstairs in their tasting room we held a Middle Eastern meal for twenty with matching wines, this dish formed part of the salad course, alongside a Broad Bean, Pomegranate, Radish and Mint salad. 

Last weekend saw a return to the same theme with a Middle Eastern meat free themed Supperclub at Ouse Street Arts Club. I announced tickets a few weeks ago and they sold out in minutes, so I enthusiastically decided to add another night and run it two nights in a row... It was a huge amount of work, but an incredibly enjoyable weekend. Full of filo pastries, harissa dips, lentil koftas, spiced stews, honey vegetables, rosewater stuffed dates and almond milk puddings. There were some great people at both evenings and I had a lovely time meeting them and putting the menu together. I'm planning the next one already...

To start this salad you need some nice tomatoes, choose some that smell strongly of tomatoes, if they smell of nothing, they will taste of nothing, so start sniffing... I chose some cherry tomatoes on the vine that were pretty tasty... Pull them apart with your hands to get a nice rough texture to the salad, each one into 2 or 3 pieces, and lay them onto a plate. Crumble over half a block of creamy feta cheese, about 100g, and very thinly slice a shallot and scatter that over too.

To make the dressing add a teaspoon of sumac to a bowl and pour over 50ml of hot water, leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Then add 100ml of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of caster sugar, a splash of pomegranate molasses, a pinch of salt, some black pepper, the leaves from a sprig of thyme and half a clove of crush garlic. Whisk everything together and leave to get to know each other for 20 minutes. This is far more dressing than you will need, but is good on any salad and keeps for a month or more in a sealed jar in the fridge.

Finally chop some fresh tarragon over top of the salad, about 2 tablespoons full, and then pour over about 50ml of the dressing. The tasty tomatoes and creamy feta are delicious with the sharp, sweet, herby, lemony dressing and rich aniseed tarragon. I'm really looking forward to the start of Spring, more salads and a bit of outdoor dining. I'm perhaps getting carried away as the sun has only just shown its face, but it's a start...

 

Breakfast Burritos with Avocado, Tomato and Chorizo

TLI and I ate burritos at the weekend to fortify ourselves before tackling the allotment on Saturday, and again on Sunday to fortify ourselves before tackling Sunderland at home... They are his concoction really, not mine, a take on an American Breakfast Burrito, or a Mexican Burrito. The combinations of filling can be swapped, changed, left in, left out, whatever you fancy really. Filling being the operative word however, they will keep you going all day long and more... I like the combination of avocado, tomatoes and herbs with chorizo in this version, it seems a little bit more fresh than the more traditional Mexican Burrito filled with beef, refried beans, cheese and sour cream...
 

A little left over rice is preferable, but as I didn’t have any I cooked a handful of white long grain rice in some salted water. Chop some cherry tomatoes, a handful of coriander and dice up some chorizo. Just make as much as you fancy, hunger levels and numbers of people depending. One packed burrito is enough for me, TLI can polish off two...

Mash an avocado with a pinch of salt, a little splash of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Heat your tortilla wraps in the oven, wrapped in tin foil to stop them drying out. They only take about 10 minutes in a medium oven. Fry off the diced chorizo and lightly scramble 2 large free range eggs while the wraps heat up.

Then simply assemble, a little rice, some eggs, topped with chorizo, tomatoes, avocado and coriander, down the middle of the tortilla. Fold the end up a little, then fold each of the sides inwards to form a wrap... I really like the colours in each of the bowls, it's a pretty meal, a little kit of parts laid out on the table that you have to assemble yourself. The freshness of the tomatoes, coriander and avocado is delicious with creamy eggs and spicy chorizo. Make sure you are pretty hungry before embarking on these little fellas...

Cassoulet

This is the first cassoulet I have ever made, and apart from the fact that it was totally delicious, it also produced meals for about three days. I love a few left overs for lunch the next day, or a meal that turns into something else, or gives you stock or fat to flavour your next meal, it feels good to reuse everything... It saves money, reduces waste and I like the idea of using every scrap possible of a duck or a piece of meat, to really put the little fellas to good purpose...

A cassoulet is a stew of sorts, a rich slow cooked French casserole, with roast or confit duck, sausages, bacon, lovely stock full of herbs and tomatoes and lots of white beans, all topped with crispy, golden baked breadcrumbs. So there was the first cassoulet evening, in all it's splendour, with rich duck and crispy breadcrumbs and a bottle of young French red wine. Then the remains travelled all the way to the Lake District to be heated through with new sausages, fresh bread for dipping and crispy green salad. Finally some came home with us again and made a lovely beany soupy lunch. A well travelled cassoulet indeed...

In the French peasant origins of the dish they used to deglaze the pot from the previous cassoulet as a base for the next one, and so on and so on, which led to stories of one original cassoulet being extended for years and years, mine just lasted a weekend... It is a dish to be made in quantity really, this will feed four or more people, just add more duck if you have more people...

I started with a pot of duck stock made from the bones of the Roast Duck with Chestnut, Chorizo and Cabbage... and with Elizabeth David... I've been carrying her book around with me lately. Sometimes to work so I can look up recipes at lunchtime, over to the Lakes to read in depth the bits I haven’t gone through before, looking for new and interesting methods and recipes. I am aware that this is not normal behaviour, constantly travelling around with recipe books... and I have had a few funny looks as people get into my car to find little book collections in the foot-well, but hey...

Start with a pan for the stock, you will need a larger pan for the whole cassoulet which will go in the oven, but start with the stock pan on the hob and heat a large splash of olive oil in it. Add two thinly sliced large onions and cook until they are soft, about ten minutes, then add some chopped smoked streaky bacon, about 6 slices cut into smaller pieces, and continue to cook until it is all golden and sticky.

Pour in the stock, I used about 500ml of duck stock, you can use chicken stock, add two tomatoes chopped into pieces, four crushed cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, some sprigs of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf and bring to a slow simmer. Leave it to simmer away for about 20 minutes. I think this is the tastiest stock I have ever made by the way... I kept on having sneaky spoonfuls all the way through...

Most cassoulet's use confit duck legs, but Elizabeth does say that to use fresh duck or goose if confit isn’t an option, which it wasn't, but it will need to be half roasted. So while the stock was simmering I put a whole duck in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 220°C. Then took it out to rest and cool enough to cut up.

You will need a big oven proof type pot for the cassoulet. Rub the inside of it all over with raw garlic to begin with. Then add about 6 good quality raw pork sausages cut in half, I also added about 4 teaspoons of duck fat from a previous roasting... You could substitute with lard or dripping... Then the duck, cut into pieces. My knives are really not very effective so we got as far as cutting it in half, it would be much better into quarters or sixths as it was really pretty difficult to eat a bowl of stew with half a duck sitting in it!

Pour two tins of drained haricot beans over the top of all of the meat and then pour the stock and all its contents over the top of everything. Bring this all to the boil on the hob and then sprinkle a few handfuls of white bread crumbs over the top. I used a stale sour dough wizzed up in the food processor until it was a fine crumb.

Then place the whole cassoulet in a low oven, about 160°C, for an hour. The stock will soak into the meat and the beans and a lovely golden crust will form over the top. Delicious... Just serve it as it is, it doesn’t need any help at all. It is rich and meaty with beautifully flavoured stock and beans, it is one of my favourite things I have cooked, really lovely... I am going to get to grips with some confit soon and make it again with confit duck legs...

I found a little tip in Elizabeth David's soup section that advised heating up the left over beans and stock and pounding them through a sieve, reheating this purée with a little milk and adding pieces of cooked sausage. It is just as good reheated in its stew form with new cooked sausages, or as a simple beans stew with crusty bread. It's just good all round really...