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While I can still remember what went into the casseroles -- I had a lot of fun at the Savin Hill stall in the Manchester food festival earlier this month, which meant I was busy experimenting with some stewing cuts. Since stewing means having the oven on for a while, I did two casseroles at once to keep us fed through the week. One used blade steak, the other used a mix of mutton loin chops and mutton chump chops. The mix on the mutton was because the stall rapidly got cleaned out of mutton most mornings, and I could only get one pack of each rather than two packs of the same thing.
I approached it as somewhere between a stew and a pot roast. For both, I started with a layer of diced carrots and onions in the bottom of a lidded casserole dish. Some or all of the veg can be sauted first for flavour, but with two on the go it may be easier to fry just the meat.
Fry the steaks/chops at a heat high enough to brown the outside to get some good flavour built up from the Maillard reaction. (I happened to have some beef fat saved from a previous roast, which was useful for adding further flavour in frying.) The browned meat then goes on top of the veg. If necessary, pack spaces around the meat with some more diced veg, although ideally use a dish that the meat fits in reasonably well. Deglaze the pan and add the liquid to the casserole dish. Add enough hot water or stock to barely cover the meat. Since I didn't have any appropriate stock handy, I used commercial stock cubes crumbled over the meat.
Add seasonings. I used HP sauce and worcestershire sauce plus a couple of whole peppercorns to season the beef, and for the mutton used soy sauce, the sad remains of some originally fresh but now dried out root ginger put into the stock whole, together with a couple of tablespoons of concentrated tomato paste.
At this point it could go in the oven as is, but I prefer to cover the meat with potato. I used the remains of a pack of baby new potatoes, and cut some larger potatoes into similar sized pieces. I've done scalloped potatoes in the past but prefer halved, quartered potatoes if there's room in the dish.
Lid on, and into the oven at about 150 C for two hours. These cuts require long, slow cooking to make them tender.
End result -- the blade steak fell apart if you looked at it too hard, the mutton was still slightly stringy but otherwise tender. And rich flavour in both.
Since I'd done several meals' worth, I reheated the blade steak by putting the appropriate number of servings into a covered saucepan and simmering gently until heated through, and then uncovered to thicken the sauce by evaporation, almost to the point of burning. This took the stock done to an intensely flavoured thick glaze. Definitely even better the second night. :-)
I approached it as somewhere between a stew and a pot roast. For both, I started with a layer of diced carrots and onions in the bottom of a lidded casserole dish. Some or all of the veg can be sauted first for flavour, but with two on the go it may be easier to fry just the meat.
Fry the steaks/chops at a heat high enough to brown the outside to get some good flavour built up from the Maillard reaction. (I happened to have some beef fat saved from a previous roast, which was useful for adding further flavour in frying.) The browned meat then goes on top of the veg. If necessary, pack spaces around the meat with some more diced veg, although ideally use a dish that the meat fits in reasonably well. Deglaze the pan and add the liquid to the casserole dish. Add enough hot water or stock to barely cover the meat. Since I didn't have any appropriate stock handy, I used commercial stock cubes crumbled over the meat.
Add seasonings. I used HP sauce and worcestershire sauce plus a couple of whole peppercorns to season the beef, and for the mutton used soy sauce, the sad remains of some originally fresh but now dried out root ginger put into the stock whole, together with a couple of tablespoons of concentrated tomato paste.
At this point it could go in the oven as is, but I prefer to cover the meat with potato. I used the remains of a pack of baby new potatoes, and cut some larger potatoes into similar sized pieces. I've done scalloped potatoes in the past but prefer halved, quartered potatoes if there's room in the dish.
Lid on, and into the oven at about 150 C for two hours. These cuts require long, slow cooking to make them tender.
End result -- the blade steak fell apart if you looked at it too hard, the mutton was still slightly stringy but otherwise tender. And rich flavour in both.
Since I'd done several meals' worth, I reheated the blade steak by putting the appropriate number of servings into a covered saucepan and simmering gently until heated through, and then uncovered to thicken the sauce by evaporation, almost to the point of burning. This took the stock done to an intensely flavoured thick glaze. Definitely even better the second night. :-)