Meaty Main Courses

Meaty Main Courses

Chilli con carne

This makes a delicious meaty supper dish and is very warming on a chilly winter evening. It is an ideal recipe to double up on quantities and freeze.

Ingredients for 4

• 450g lean minced beef
• 2 large tins red kidney beans, drained
• 450g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• Salt to season and a few crushed cumin seeds (optional for an extra spicy dish.)

Fry the onions in the oil over moderate heat until they soften. Stir in the meat and fry until browned, stirring occasionally. Add the kidney beans, the tomatoes in their juice, chilli powder, salt and cumin seeds (if used.)

Cover the pan with a lid and cook over moderate heat for about 1 hour. Add a little hot water and tomato puree if needed during cooking.

This simple meat and bean stew is best served straight from the pan with crusty bread and a green salad.

Pork in Cider

Ingredients. Preheat the oven to 180c.

• 450g pork fillet or chops
• 225g cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 225g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 25g butter
• 25g Demerara sugar
• 150mls dry cider
• 4 whole cloves
• Salt and pepper to season

Empty the tin of tomatoes into the bottom of an ovenproof dish and dot with half the quantity of butter. Cube the pork (or leave chops whole-1 per person) and place on top of the tomatoes with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Place the prepared apple slices on next. Sprinkle the apples with sugar, dot with the rest of the butter and pour in the cider.

Cook the pork dish in the oven for about 2 hours. Serve from the dish with a selection of your favourite vegetables.

Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb

Ingredients

• 900g boned shoulder of lamb
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots, 1 turnip and 1 parsnip, peeled and diced
• 2 celery sticks, washed and diced
• 300mls brown stock
• bouquet garni

Ingredients for the stuffing

• 175g pork sausagemeat
• 50g fresh or ready to eat packet apricots
• 50g white breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or mint

Mix all the stuffing ingredients together then put this stuffing into the bone cavity. Tie the rolled up stuffed lamb neatly with butcher’s string into a log shape. Heat a frying pan and brown the rolled meat all over.

Remove from the frying pan and place the lamb in a saucepan that is just bigger than the rolled meat.

Add the onions, celery and other prepared vegetables to the lamb pot, so that they are all around the meat. Season with salt and pepper, the bouquet garni and add the stock. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer the food for about 90 minutes.

Check that the meat is tender before serving with the braised vegetables and potatoes.

Pheasant with Chestnuts

Chicken (or a different game bird) can be used instead of pheasant.

Ingredients. Preheat the oven to 180c.

• 2 oven-ready, jointed, pheasants
• 225g peeled chestnuts
• 2 onions, peeled and sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 25g butter
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 500mls brown stock
• 1 glass red wine or Madeira
• 1 orange- juiced, and rind grated
• 1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly
• Bouquet garni, salt and pepper, chopped parsley

Fry the pheasant joints in the olive oil and butter combined until they are browned on the outside then place them in a casserole dish. Fry the onions and chestnuts in the same oil/butter pan then add these to the casserole dish.

Stir the flour into the frying pan to soak up the remaining butter and oil, along with the juices from the pheasant and vegetables. Cook the roux for about 2 minutes then remove from the heat and, slowly, add the stock and wine. Stir thoroughly then put back on the heat and bring the liquid to the boil. Keep stirring as the sauce thickens.

Add salt and pepper to the sauce then pour it over the pheasant. Now add the juice and rind of the orange, redcurrant jelly and bouquet garni.

Cover the dish with a lid and cook for about 1 hour.

Before serving, check that the meat is tender, remove the bouquet garni and sprinkle the dish with chopped parsley.

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