Seeing as it’s now properly cold outside, I’m in need of some hearty, warming recipes to see me through till spring. Every thing from stews to soups. Inspire me.

My top 2 – I do love winter food

Casoulet (trad French with Duck Confit and Toulouse sausages)
Chicken Fricassee

egg-nog

booze, sugar, eggs, cream – all the basic food groups really

Beef Bourguignon
Stew (beef, beer, that sort of thing) with dumplings
Savoy cabbage with sausages (imagine sort of a fresh, not pickled sauerkraut)
Chile
Roast chicken which leads to chicken pie and chicken broth with the leftovers
Rabbit in beer as well

Chicken Fricassee

Ooh, not made one of those in a while. Good shout.

egg-nog

booze, sugar, eggs, cream – all the basic food groups really

Always wondered exactly how to make eggnog. Brandy/whisky + eggs + sugar + cream all mixed together?

Coming in from a long day out in the cold last Saturday, hot bath followed by leek and potato soup in a bread bowl in front of the Kitchen fire

heaven …….

Bread bowl?? Wow. That I have to try.

Beef Bourguignon
Stew (beef, beer, that sort of thing) with dumplings

Beef and things with beer, can’t go wrong really, eh? Like it.

Well thats the point. Days you can’t be arsed with a “proper” thing, you just brown your beef and throw in anything that sounds tasty.

Stovies
Stockpot from butcher.
Boil a load of tatties
Fry onion in lard from stockpot until soft
Add stock from pot and mix till liguid
Add a fair amount (a tin) of corned beef and mash
Mash and mix in the tatties.
brown sauce is often good, but my local butcher’s stockpots are rich enough not to need it.
Serve with something like bread or oatcakes.

Kleftico – Mmmmmmmmlamb

Tartiflette – MmmmmmmmCheese

Sausage casserole. Mmm….

Pea and Ham soup.

Tartiflette is where it starts and ends. Filth.

Pea and Ham soup.

from a chicken?

@jota and @lunge – they are perfect

It’s not where my Ham or peas come from no.

Joolsburger & Lunge beat me to it

Tartiflette
Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 1½ hours

Ingredients
50g unsalted butter
175g bacon or lardons
1kg waxy potatoes peeled and sliced to a 3mm thickness
Salt and freshly ground pepper
250g Reblochon cheese
568ml carton double cream

6 bottles of Amstel beer

Instructions

Open beer

Heat oven to 150°C/gas 2. With half the butter, grease a shallow baking dish, about 25 x 30cm.

Add chopped bacon / lardons to a frying pan. Fry for about 5 minutes until crisp and brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Open beer

Toss the potato slices with salt and pepper. Arrange half in a layer in the dish. Sprinkle with the bacon. Top with half the cheese, season again (remember the bacon is salty already). Top with the remaining potatoes. Pour enough cream over the top to just cover the potatoes – you may not need it all. Dot with the remaining butter.

Bake for about 1¼ hours, whilst drinking 2 more beers, or until the potatoes are tender. Dot with the remaining cheese, and return to the oven until brown and bubbling (about 15 minutes). Remove from the oven, cover with foil and leave for 10-15 minutes before serving with remaining beer.

been off work today feeling pretty unwell/
just made a chicken curry with onions, carrots, chickpeas, chilli, garlic, toms, garam masala, cumin.

nice and hot n spicy, served with cauli rice.

I’ve just phoned my good lady with a special dinner request. Got to have it now. Damn it will have to do about three hours on the treadmill to pay for it.

I’ve just phoned my good lady with a special dinner request. Got to have it now.

Giggidy!

@Gee-Jay – that’s priceless, I was getting indignant and about to post that there is no beer in Tartiflette

Oh no, much better places for beer than in tartiflette 🙂

You’d still be right as Amstel is not beer. 😀

Ooft, tartiflette, the food of gods.

Beef and bean stew is one of my winter faces. Basically minced beef, whatever veg you fancy, beef stock and a can or two of baked beans with a bit of parsley and Worcester sauce to taste. Hearty.

Thanks guys and gals. chicken fricassee tonight and beef stew tomorrow. Reckon tartiflette on Thursday. Win.

Venison stew with dumplings ( A big **** off saucepan and it does several days)
Cheese & potato soup.
suet pudding
Good old fry up The usual suspects with fried bread and black pudding
Spag bol
Beef chilli

All proper winter fodder.

Venison Black Forest (not Gangyan), style. Chunky bits of venison, soaked in red wine with red wine vinegar, cloves, rosemary, carrots and an onion. Sits in this lot, in the fridge for three days then slow cooked in the big cast iron pot… yum yum.

Or my personal favourite at teh moment, venison wellington packed with either stornoway black pud or haggis, veg to match, parsnips etc etc…

Ten there is an industrial helping of lamb curry or bbq marinated lamb…

No need to cook tartiflette for me; loads of local restaurants and bars serve it.

Pie and mushy peas

Lamb and Beetroot Casserole.

Haggis, neeps and tatties
Leek & Tomato Soup
Beef Stew
Sausage, Tomato, Lentil Casserole

BigButSlimmerBloke – I’m going to show my ignorance now. What’s a stockpot exactly? Not sure either of my local butchers do one – and wouldn’t even know what to ask for.

Ooft when the next batch of homemade bacon has finished curing I HAVE to make tartiflette!

All these fancy foreign reciepes tut tut. They are all designed for foreign winters and not the damp cold miserable winters served up by Blighty.

As much as I like Tartiflette the inclusion of rebluchon cheese makes it far from everyday cooking. The English version would be Pan Haggerty which is all done on the hob with slices of spuds layered with onions salt & pepper and cheddard cheese repeat layers and then pour over stock to half cover spuds and simmer on hob for about an hour. Sprinkle top with cheese and place uder hot grill.

Sausages shallots and bacon in cider is ideal to serve wih the Pan Haggery. Cook sausages in a pint or so of good cider – ideally something cloudy that gives you the shudders when drank – until reduced down to a third. Meanwhile cook a sliced onion, plenty of streaky smoked bacon and peeled whole shallots in a heavy frying pan – twoards end of browning add a clove of garlic and herbs of choice. Once browned nicely add some flour and stir and fry for a minute and then add some mustard. Add sausages and cider and stir. Add seasoning/liquid to get desired taste and thickness of gravy.

Split pea and hock of ham soup in a slow cooker is amazing to come in from the cold and dark and smell all ready to go!

Keeping in British a good toad in the whole with some decent greens and gravy is to die for on a hot night.

And given my all round sausage love I’d recommend sausages and veg like onions peppers courgettes with plenty of spices and a splash of wine roasted in the oven.

And obviously don’t forget your heavy sticky puddings to ensure you stay welded to the chair by the fire for the duration of the evening. Any crumble with custard does this with ease and if this is insufficient to weld you to a chair then seconds with extra custard always finishes the job.

I’ve not made an Apple Charlotte for a long time and had forgotten how good they taste on a cold winters evening.

I’m going to show my ignorance now. What’s a stockpot exactly? Not sure either of my local butchers do one – and wouldn’t even know what to ask for.

It’s a small plastic pot, about the size of a single trifle or yoghurt pot containing a stock in jelly form and with a layer of lard or dripping over the top to seal it. Something like this.
My butcher has less dripping and more stock and the stock is black so it looks a bit like Guinness. Another butcher i go to, there is a bit more dripping and the stock is more of a brown colour.
Definitely worth asking for for non-spicy meat/gravy dishes.

Spanish winter food:

Lentils with chorizo

Cocido

Stuffing roll – a favourite now – great at Xmas or just as a roast instead of chicken/lamb/etc.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4968/chestnut-and-cranberry-roll

Everyday’s a school day. Thanks BBSB.

Chicken and Chorizo stew – easy, quick and very tasty

Fry up a mixture of red and green peppers in some olive oil until browned, tip into a bowl and put to one side

Add some sliced Chorizo to the pan, fry until golden and the red oil comes out – tip some of the oil out if too much

Add in some sliced chicken breast and brown in the Chorizo oil, add some finely chopped onions and garlic, a good spoonful of paprika, some dried chilli flakes and oregano – season well

chuck in some red wine, let it reduce and then add in a tin of tomatoes – simmer for 20 mins.

Add in the peppers, and then a drained tin of either butter beans or chickpeas (both equally good).

Serve with either rice or cous-cous.