This is from simply recipes though to be honest it’s a standard braising recipe that I’ve used time and time again. The 2 new things are: short ribs, which I’ve never done before and reducing the sauce till it’s very thick.

1. brown ribs (no oil needed, it’s already fat enough), remove from pan
2. remove excess oil, sweat mirepoix until soft
3. add 1 bottle wine, reduce to 1/3 original volume and almost syrupy
4. return ribs to pan, add chicken stock until ribs are almost covered — recipe says veal or beef stock, neither of which I have
5. braise at 180°C for 3hrs until meat is falling off bones
6. leave overnight — normally it’d be in the fridge, I did one better and left it on my balcony with its 4” of snow
7. remove fat layer (there’s a lot of it), reheat making sure ribs are well glazed

The idea is always the same: brown the protein, add vegetables, add liquid and cook slowly for 2-3hrs until the meat is tender. Serve over some sort of carb that can mop up the sauce.

I saw oxtail and I was so excited. It’s been a long time. I braised it with a bottle of guinness and several ice cubes of chicken stock. The vegetables were standard mirepoix plus canned tomato. I let the finished product sit in the fridge overnight so the extra fat can solidify to be scraped off.

This was served over potato and turnip mash.

Anyone who doesn’t: a) like b) know how to make this dish should have to eat nothing but oatmeal for a month.

Made everything from scratch, no jars of sauce. Oh, okay, the tomatoes are canned chopped tomatoes. Minced beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic. I like mushrooms in my spag bol, I suppose I should dice them finely so they are similar sized to the mince, but I like my mushroom visible and chunky.

I was watching Nigella Feasts this weekend and she was making Comforting Beef Casserole which is basically beef and guinness stew. I thought I’d try it myself.

We don’t get chuck or skirt steak here, at least not in the small supermarkets. There was rump steak which was too expensive. There was something better though, packets of the most lovely marbled diced beef. I didn’t have allspice so I marinated it with salt, pepper and mixed spice.

So I browned the beef with garlic and shallots in my heavy pot. Look at the nice marbling again. I removed the beef and threw in diced carrots and celery, leaving them cooking for a few minutes. Then I returned the beef to the pot.

The cooking liquid was water and about 250ml Guinness. Seasoned more, added a few bay leaves and I left the casserole simmering on low heat with the lid on for 2.5hrs. About 10 mins before the end, I threw in some haricot beans just because they were on sale today.

Like Nigella, I served the casserole on top of a double potato mash which was regular potatoes and orange sweet potatoes mashed together. She’s right, it’s less sweet than just sweet potato, and definitely a much comforting food for a cold(ish) wintery day.