Red Wine and Cinnamon Slow Cooked Beef Brisket and Vegetable Rolls

I have a confession to make... I have a pretty bad addiction to Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. I've always loved diners and the whole culture surrounding them so I guess it's no surprise really. I also love fried food, much to my dismay, but that's another trouble altogether...

One recipe that tends to come up a lot on the show is brisket, usually sliced super thin and piled high with cheese and some kind of pickled veg and crammed into a sandwich. As delicious as this looks, my carving skills are just not up to slicing that thin and as much as I like to think I own almost every kitchen appliance going my collection doesn't stretch to a deli meat slicer. No problem though I thought, I'll just Brit it up a bit, slow cooking it in red wine with some veggies and cutting it into 1/2 cm slices.

Although it takes about 5 hours to cook the prep work on this is very minimal, I just threw everything in the slow cooker (you can do this in a casserole dish in the oven) and left it to do its own thing while I did household chores, watched more Triple D, slid my way around town for my Sunday TK Maxx kitchenwares scramble and bought the icing sugar and other items I had forgotten to get at the supermarket the previous night. This is a regular occurence, maybe I subconsciously do it so I have to go shopping again...

Coming out of the freezing cold and into a hot kitchen filled with the gorgeous scent of winey beef is a real treat. Do Yankee Candle make stew scented wax tarts yet?

Sammich Construction

Red Wine and Cinnamon Slow Cooked Beef Brisket and Vegetable Rolls
Makes 6 rolls with extra veggies for an evening snack

Ingredients
700g beef brisket
3-4 carrots
2-3 parsnips, peeled
3-4 stalks of celery
1-2 onion, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dried rosemary
400ml red wine (I used merlot)
500ml beef stock
6 good bread rolls - I used multi grain as that's my favourite
english mustard - optional and to taste

Method
If cooking in the oven, preheat it to 150 C / 300 F.

Cut all the vegetables into large chunks and set aside. Sprinkle your piece of brisket with 1/2 tsp of the black pepper and place into your slow cooker or oven proof dish. Surround it with the veggie chunks and sprinkle over the salt, remaining pepper, cinnamon and rosemary. Mix the red wine and beef stock together in a jug and pour over - it should be just covering all the ingredients. If your pan is large and this is not enough to cover everything just add more beef stock until it does.

Turn your slow cooker on to high, or put the lid on your casserole dish and place in the oven and cook for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally if you like, until the meat and veggies are tender.

Remove the meat from the pan and cut into slices, as thick or thin as you like. Split your rolls leaving a hinge at one side and spread over a little English mustard (if using) then put down a layer of the vegetables from the pan. Top with a layer of the brisket and then drizzle a little of the liquid from the pot onto the inner topside of the roll to add some extra moistness. Close up and enjoy with a little glass of the leftover red wine.

Garlic and Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Calzone

I'm fussy when it comes to pizza. I need a thin crust and good quality toppings, thick doughy bases and too much pizza sauce with a smattering of bad quality mozzarella are not to my liking. We need a good pizza place here ASAP, Loughborough is home to far too many lame take-out dives serving foam based doner kebab topped abominations. But we shall leave such disgusting thoughts behind us and move on to the good stuff...

I find vegetarian toppings much more to my liking on pizzas, lots of light elements rather than strong spicy meats so you can taste each ingredient as well as a light well thrown base. Don't worry, I'm not asking you to throw your pizza bases for this recipe, I'm pretty sure if I had tried we would have ended up with a cat running around the flat in a ghost-like costume made of dough. Never a good thing.

What is a good thing however, is the whole premise of a pasty style pizza. A crisp outer shell with a softer inner edge that gives way to a generous pile of cheesy tomatoey goodness. In this recipe I have used chicken and broccoli, purple stemmed broccoli to be exact - lots of subtle flavours that you make sing with a wonderful herb combination of lemon thyme and oregano. Roasting the chicken and broccoli is also a great flavour intensifier and removes the extra moisture which would produce the awful result of a soggy calzone.

You will get either two very large or four medium calzones from this recipe. Pete and I shared one large calzone and I would suggest serving it with a sharply lemon and oil dressed salad and a smile.

Garlic and Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Calzone
Serves 4

Pizza Dough Ingredients
325ml water, luke warm
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp caster sugar, preferably golden
1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt, finely ground

Creamy Ricotta Pizza Sauce Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium red onions, diced small
2 tsp dried oregano
6 medium-large vine ripened tomatoes, diced small
200g ricotta cheese (one standard size pot)

Filling Ingredients
170g pancetta, diced very small
2 tbsp olive oil
200g purple sprouting broccoli, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
500g chicken breast, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tbsp lemon thyme leaves, freshly pulled from the sprigs
3 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
300g mozzarella, grated

Pizza Dough Method
In a jug or bowl mix the water, olive oil, sugar and yeast well and set to one side for a few minutes to 'come alive' while you place the sifted flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the yeasty mixture into the well and stir together with a fork gradually incorporating the flour. When it starts to come together place the dough onto a clean and floured surface and knead it until you have a springy, smooth dough - this should only take a minute or so. Place this into a floured bowl, sprinkle the top of the dough ball with more flour and cover with a damp clean tea towel. Set this aside in a warmish place to rise for about an hour, it will pretty much double in size.

Pizza Sauce Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.

Heat the olive oil in a deep non stick pan and add the diced onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then sprinkle over the dried oregano. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, add the diced tomatoes and stir well. Cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes have melted down into mush and you have a fairly thick sauce. Turn off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes before mixing in the ricotta cheese. Leave this off the heat to cool while you roast your fillings.

Filling Method
Place all the ingredients into a roasting tray and mix around so everything is coated with the oil, then cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through the cooking time.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for ten minutes. Pour onto a chopping board and dice everything down into roughly 1cm chunks, cover and leave to cool completely.

Building The Calzone
Remove your risen dough from it's bowl and knead again on a clean floured surface. Give it some welly and punch it about a bit this time to get the elasticity going, then cut into either two or four chunks depending on how many calzone you are making.

Roll the chunks of dough out into rough circles that are about half a cm thick. Place one onto a baking sheet and slather it with a good layer of the creamy tomato sauce. Sprinkle over some of the parmesan and then pile up some of your filling covering only one half of the base. Cover that with a good layer of grated mozzarella and then fold the non-topped side over the top of the fillings and press down around the edges to seal it closed.

Repeat until you have all your calzones made and then bake in the still preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until they are crispy and just starting to go golden. If you have any of the sauce left, heat it up gently in a pan and serve alongside the calzones to dip your crispy crust edges into.

Notes
Please do use purple sprouting broccoli if you can get it, it has a more pronounced flavour and less water content than the bog standard green stuff.

The creamy tomato and ricotta sauce in this recipe is a good staple to have in your repertoire - use it as a sauce for pasta, pour it over chicken breasts and top with cheese and breadcrumbs before baking or even use it cold in a sandwich as an extra spreading of delicious moisture.

I know it seems like a lot of effort, but homemade pizzas are always so much better than any take away or premade thing you could buy. Even if you only make them once a year as a treat you should give these babies a go.

Sunday Dinner Cornbread

Cornbread makes me think of long summer days sitting in the garden drinking cider and snuffling because my hayfever has acted up and my nose is blocked with pollen. It may sound unpleasant, but I love those days - we don't get that many of them in the UK so you really have to make the most of our short lived and confusingly spontaneous 'heatwaves'.

I think it must be this lack of warm weather that makes me yearn for a life in the South (of America people, as attractive as it seems I don't wish to become a tractor driving, moonshine swilling farmers wife in Devon). I'm thinking of the South where I could have a lovely big wooden house with a wrap around porch and spend my days drinking iced tea and grilling shrimp by the Bayou while listening to Clutch.

In my opinion, second to gumbo, cornbread is the dish that sums up the Deep South for me. It is a very humble dish using few ingredients, all of which are simple and wholesome and turned into something special with delicious spices key to Southern cuisine. Although I cannot say that this recipe is traditional, it is my reworking of a recipe which I believe is fairly authentic, taken from 'The New Orleans Cookbook' by Rima and Richard Collin. I would highly recommend it having tried several recipes, all of them being delicious, especially the Creole Jambalaya, Stuffed Artichokes and Crabmeat Ravigotte. There are also some wonderful dessert and drink recipes which would be perfect for a barbecue.

I have also made this dish for vegetarian friends replacing the bacon with fried diced onions and peppers and cooking the bread in melted vegetable shortening rather than the fat from the meat. It is just as delicious!

Sunday Dinner Cornbread
Serves 6 or more as a side dish
Adapted from 'The New Orleans Cookbook' by Rima and Richard Collin

Ingredients
120g / 1 cup yellow corn meal
120g / 1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 large egg
250ml / 1 cup milk
60g / 1/4 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature (Such as Trex)
175g / 1 1/4 cups sweetcorn kernels (I used tinned)

250g / about 2 cups smoked bacon, fried in 1 tbsp oil and cut into small pieces
250g / about 2 cups grated cheddar or other firm white cheese
3-4 tbsp of the fat leftover from frying the bacon

Method
Place any size deep baking tray half filled with water on the very bottom of your oven and preheat it to 220 C/ 425 F.

Fry the bacon in 1 tablespoon of oil until crisp, remove from the pan and leave to cool, pouring 3-4 tablespoons of the fat left from the frying into an 8" baking pan. Chop the bacon into small pieces and set aside.

Combine the cornmeal, plain flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, allspice, white pepper and cayenne pepper in a large mixing bowl. Next add the egg and milk, beating with a wooden spoon until smooth, then adding the vegetable shortening and mixing again.

When the mixture is thoroughly combined add the bacon, sweetcorn and all but one handful of the grated cheese, mix and then pour into the baking tray smoothing over the top. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and you should have something that looks like this...

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife slid into the centre comes out clean with no raw batter on it. If the top looks ready before the centre is cooked just cover it in tin foil and continue cooking for a few more minutes until done.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for ten minutes before cutting into generous pieces. Cornbread is best served warm but is also delicious cooled to room temperature.

Notes
The tray half filled with water in the bottom of the oven is an old fashioned trick that helps to crisp the top of baked goods like breads and it really does work!

You could make all manner of additions to this recipe with different vegetables or shredded meats. I think prawns would be lovely fried off with some red and green peppers and onions.

Cornmeal can now be found in most large supermarkets, mostly in the ethnic foods aisle or in Chinese supermarkets. It is basically a medium ground polenta you are looking for.

If you removed the bacon and sweetcorn leaving the recipe a little more plain, it would be lovely used as a topping or crust over a stew or chili - place the cooked stew in an oven proof dish, then spread the cornbread mixture over the top and bake until crisp and golden. Yum!!!