There was a brisket joint at the butchers last week – it was cheap, looked good and with a Bank Holiday looming, I figured it was bound to be slow-cooking weather. So in the inevitable pissing rain, I  went searching for a recipe this morning.

I’ve never cooked it before and my only real reference point was episodes of the Big Bang Theory. I did wonder about a more traditional British approach, but I can’t resist American BBQ food so went for Southwestern Pulled Brisket. It’s a really easy recipe and the result is meltingly tender beef in a tangy, smokey sauce.

I’ve had to convert a bit from the US recipe but here’s the ingredients:

1 1/2lb beef brisket

sea salt and pepper to season

2 cloves garlic, smashed up

1/2 onion, finely sliced

2 tsp chilli powder/flakes

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or smokey chilli sauce would do)

2 tablespoons balsamic/cider vinegar

3/4 pint water

1 tin of tomatoes

1 bayleaf

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

First season and brown the beef in a heavy casserole. Move it out of the pan and fry the onion, garlic, chilli, coriander, cumin and paprika for about a minute. Then add the vinegar and scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan, until most of the vinegar has gone. Add the water and the tin of tomatoes, chopping them up as they go in.

Put the meat back into the pan, bring back to the boil and cover tightly with a lid – I added a layer of foil to make the seal tighter. The real recipe advises using a slow cooker for eight hours.

I’m using an oven at 130 decC for six hours, turning the brisket once halfway through. Time to go and do something more interesting for a bit – I went to the pictures.

To serve, pull the meat apart while still in the pot and stir through it gets a good coating of sauce. If the sauce is too thin, reduce it on the stove top a bit first. Mine needed about 30 mins.

We ate it with coleslaw, crusty bread and potato rostis – would be good with rice and salad too. It makes epic sandwiches.

I’d never seen oxtails until the butcher had some a few weeks ago. I had to give them a go and the only thing I knew about them was they needed very slow cooking. I have to say though, I think this might be one of my favourite things I’ve cooked for a long time.

I adapted a slow-cooked Chinese beef recipe I remembered from somewhere. I guess red wine, shallots and mushrooms would have been a good alternative approach.

It is a bit of a faff so probably one for the weekend but it’s worth it. Using something like shin of beef or pork shoulder would have made it a lot easer and wouldn’t have altered the end result too much.

Start by rolling the oxtails in flour and browning them in a casserole. Take them out and set them aside for a bit. They don’t look particularly appetising at this point.

Fry a diced onion and carrot in the pot until soft then add a good shake of five-spice powder (probably about three teaspoons). Pour in a tablespoon of soy sauce, the same of oyster sauce and about teaspoon of sesame oil. Cook this out for a few minutes then add a star anise – the magic ingredient in this as it gives is such a rich depth of flavour.

Put the oxtails back into the pan and cover with beef stock. This then goes in the oven at 170 degC for three hours, turning the oxtails over a couple of times during the cooking. The meat should be ready to fall off the bone by then.

This is the fiddly bit now as you need to take the oxtails out of the sauce and pull the meat off them. I went at them with a pair of forks, just pulling the meat away in chunks. Seemed to work.

Strain the sauce through a sieve, pushing down on the veg to get all the flavour out. Return it to the casserole on the stove top and skim off any fat from the surface. Add the meat back into the sauce and simmer on a low gas for about half an hour to reduce and thicken.

In the last five minutes I added some chopped pak choi to add a bit of crunch to the finished dish. Serve up with beansprouts and noodles dressed with a little sesame oil and soy sauce.

I shouldn’t say it myself really, but it’s pretty awesome!

This is 20 minute tea that came about from a Friday-night need for something quick to cook with fish. It’s mostly ‘store cupboard’ ingredients too which helps in a busy week.

I used a smoked haddock fillet (a favourite at the moment) but I’d make this with cod or coley too I think. Maybe even a tuna or salmon steak.

Start by frying chopped chorizo until it starts to colour. Remove that from the pan and fry a diced onion in the oil from the chorizo. Add some chopped garlic and some mushrooms, peppers or courgettes.

Let this cook until softened then add about half a jar of passata and simmer for about five minutes. Season to taste with plenty of black pepper and at the last minute add a handful of fresh basil or a good shake of thyme.

Pour this sauce into and oven dish and sit fish fillets on top. This cooked in a hot oven (200 degC) for about 10 minutes. While it was in the oven I fried some sauté potatoes.

Some olives or maybe a little chilli would have been good additions to the sauce – it’s definitely one that will be added to our regular fish recipe list.

I didn’t hang onto the recipe, but this was inspired by an Olive article on things to do with passata.

It’s inspired by a brilliant book – Just Like Mother Used to Make by Tom Norrington-Davies. It bears little resemblance to the original now after a few years of playing about with it, but it’s a quick, easy way to knock up really tasty gravy from scratch.

Start off by finely slicing and onion. Sweat this in butter and a little oil with a lid on the pan for about 10 minutes until the onions have softened, then without the lid for a further ten. The onions should be sweet and just starting to catch – Tom recommends red onions.

Stir through a heaped tablespoon of flour which will thicken the gravy. Add a slug of wine and stir in well. A teaspoon of mustard, a squirt of tomato puree and a good shake of Worcester sauce (about a tablespoon).

Top this up with about 400ml of stock (chicken, beef or veg) and let it simmer for another ten minutes until thick and glossy.

Dip your bread in…

Faggots and peas for tea has been a recent discovery. They were a favourite of my dad’s for a Saturday lunch but I always thought they were pretty grim.

On a whim about a year ago I tried some from the butchers at the local market – they’re amazing! This weekend they didn’t have any with them, so he offered me his recipe instead. Pretty good deal, I thought.

So here they are – a delicious cross between meatballs and pate.

And appropriately enough for a Valentine’s day post, an easy tea with real heart…

The meat mix is pork and some lovely Welsh lambs’ hearts and lambs’ liver. It’s simply mixed with fresh onion and the butcher’s secret ingredient – Paxo sage and onion which binds the mix and adds flavour. The mix makes about 18 lime-sized faggots – they freeze very well.

In a food processor start by blitzing a medium onion. Next add the liver (c300g) and four hearts (c 400g). Give this a good mix before adding 500g of pork – a cheap cut is fine. I added the pork last as I didn’t want this to be over processed. Half a packet of Paxo binds the mixture together – the consistency is like thick porridge. Season well with salt and particularly pepper. Pull out a small bit and fry it quickly so you can taste and check the seasoning.

At this point, it looks minging.

Form this into balls with well-floured hands. I then rolled them in a plate of flour just to stop them sticking together too much as they froze – it also helps to seal them when frying.

I froze them in batches of six, based on a serving of three per person.

To cook, fry in a hot pan with a little oil – this will firm them up. Once browned, transfer to an oven dish for about 20 minutes at 180 degC. Check with a skewer to makes sure they’re done through.

Great with peas, mash and onion gravy (recipe coming soon).

It’s a bit of effort, but I made the whole batch in less than an hour on the weekend and they’re ready in half an hour then for a mid week tea. There’s no fat in them and offal is really good for you – I’d never have thought to make my own, but they were fantastic.

I’ll be saying a big thank you to the fine chaps at Cig Lodor meat on Saturday.

So I’ve been making a lot of pesto (very simply parmesan, pine nuts, garlic, basil, olive oil whizzed together) and looking for different ways to use it. This one’s a lovely, light casserole.

The meatballs are optional, but I had some Toulouse sausages I wanted to use and they give excellent flavour to the sauce. I use the sausage ‘meatball’ technique a lot for pasta sausages – slit the skins lengthwise and remove then cut the sausage into four and round them off a bit.

Once they’re done, brown off some chicken thighs. Remove them and in the same pan, sweat an onion, carrot, celery, garlic and mushrooms.

Pour in a slug of white wine or vermouth to loosen any chickeny bits from the bottom of the pan and add a pile of chopped fresh tomatoes and a good couple of dollops of pesto.

Cover this with stock and stir well. This needs at least an hour in a medium/hot oven – about 170 degC. The sauce will thicken a little but stays quite light and fresh thanks to the tomatoes and pesto.

It was lovely with new potatoes and some garden beans.

This is a rediscovered family favourite.

Not sure why I’d forgotten about it, or why it came up in conversation with my mum recently, but  once remembered it’s reestablished itself on our midweek menu very quickly indeed. Probably because it’s so simple to make and tastes amazing – I’m sure there’s a degree of nostalgia involved too.

Firstly get some spuds on for mash. While they’re cooking, slowly sweat a diced onion in a little butter and oil – it doesn’t matter if they pick up a little bit of colour.

Mash the potatoes with a splash of milk and a knob of butter then add a handful of grated strong cheese. I used Lancashire most recently as I’d just come back from there and always bring some home, but I’d normally use a good extra mature Welsh cheddar.

Stir the cheese into the mash and add the fried onions. Put this mix into an ovenproof dish and use a fork to ridge the surface. Sprinkle another handful of grated cheese over the top.

Put this under the grill until the top is golden and crispy.

Perfect with sausages, baked ham or gammon. Thanks mum x.

In a short series of pie posts (two, to be honest), I thought I’d share my very easy approach to Shepherds/Cottage pie. And a real quick cheat’s version.

Again, start with a pan of spuds.

Gently fry a finely diced onion and carrot for about five minutes, then add mince (lamb or beef depending on your pie of choice) and fry until golden. This is all about building up layers of flavour at this stage. Drain off a little of the fat and stir through a dessertspoon of plain flour to thicken the gravy.

Add hot stock – beef, lamb or Swiss bouillon powder, plenty of black pepper and a small pinch of mixed herbs. A teaspoon of mustard is great with beef or the same of tomato puree with lamb. A squirt of Worcester sauce (or if you’re lucky enough to live far enough north to get Henderson’s Relish) is always a winner.

Simmer this for about 20 mins while the potatoes cook. With a slotted spoon, remove the meat and veg to an ovenproof dish, reserving the gravy for later. Top with mash and smoosh up the surface a bit so it crisps up. Crispy bits rule.

Cook in a hot oven, as above, for about 20 – 30 mins until golden and erupting like a little meaty volcano. Serve with the warmed gravy, peas and beans.

The picture’s of a recent experiment with a sliced potato topping – uses fewer spuds so is probably a bit healthier. I just topped with a couple of layers of finely sliced potatoes instead of mash and sprinkled a little cheese over the top. I’m not that good at doing healthy, really.

And here’s the cheat’s version – I’m going to call it Rustler’s Pie as we’re using someone else’s beef…

I’m with Delia on rating M&S tins quite highly – I was brought up eating stewed steak, mash and veg and still love it. The M&S chunky steak is lovely and warmed in a pan with half cup of stock, a handful of peas and a finely diced carrot makes a great instant base for a cottage pie. Top with mash, as above and whack it in a hot oven.

Purists may not like it – but what the hell’s wrong with knocking up a cottage pie  in half an hour when you’re hungry and in need of comfort food.

I can’t eat any of these without lots of bread and butter to mop up the gravy. And some ale.

I know a lot of people think it’s minging, but I’m a big fan of corned beef. In a sandwich with brown sauce on crusty white bread – heavenly.

So I also love a bit of corned beef hash. Which made me think about what else could be hashed.

There’s usually a pack of smoked mackerel in our freezer on standby for fishcake duties (and Hugh says we’re allowed) so I thought I’d try hashing it up.

Works a treat – I highly recommend this for simple, tasty and guaranteed-you’ve-never-had-it-before tea. And it’s cheap as chips. Cheaper, probably.

First up, parboil a pan of cubed spuds. Take them out and dry them off a bit.

In a big frying pan, fry up a sliced onion until translucent. Toss in the potatoes and fry for about 10 minutes until they start to crisp up and colour. Break up a couple of mackerel fillets into generous chunks, removing skin and bones and pop them into the pan – from now on, the less you move it all about the better as you won’t want things to break up too much.

Finally add some shredded spring cabbage – it’ll wilt in the heat of the pan and crisp up a bit round the edges too. Taste and season with salt and pepper. I wished I’d cooked a fried egg to go with it as that, I suspect, would top it all off perfectly.

All done – call it brunch and you could make a mint down your local gastropub.

I’ve been enjoying BBC’s The Good Cook over the last couple of weeks.

I first came across Simon Hopkinson a couple of years ago when I’d noticed his book ‘Roast Chicken and other Stories’ kept appearing at the top of  lists of  chefs’ favourite books or best cookbooks.

At the time I’d never heard of it, but there’s now a well-thumbed copy of it on my shelf too – I like his focus on ingredients and simplicity – something that comes through strongly on TV. Despite the director’s attempts to cram in every camera trick and lens effect available, which is a bit of a distraction.

The point of which is that his very simple risotto alla parmigiana was a reminder that risotto’s a dish that doesn’t need to be over complicated. Inspired, I made this light fresh vegetable version.

I just followed the usual method- there’s no better way as far as I’m concerned to banish the stresses and strains of the day than with the methodical, constant stirring of a risotto pan.

So I made a plain risotto – onion, rice, stock – and about five minutes before it was done added peas, chopped french beans and fresh broad beans from the garden. I had some prawns in the fridge so they went in too, but it was lovely with just the veg.

Finish with parmesan and butter.

I’ve been experimenting with different rices of late – currently using Carluccio’s carnaroli rice which is lovely and creamy.