The new challenge has gone live! The theme this week is Meaty Moments, sponsored by Knorr. You can check my entry and if you like it please click to vote HERE 
Each week the contestants of the Pick n Pay Freshly Blogged challenge receive a list of ingredients that we have to transform into something delectable.
Week 2′s mystery ingredients were:
- Beef shin
- Star anise
- Soup pack (1 carrot, 1 celery, 1 potato)
- Knorr Stock Pot (I used the veg instead of beef)
- White wine vinegar
- Suet
- Two fresh ingredients of your choice
- One grocery item of your choice
- One ingredient may be omitted (I left out the white wine vinegar)
Also allowed are a list of staple pantry ingredients.
With this week’s spread I made a tender, slow-cooked beef shin dish that took six hours in the oven. By the time it was ready, it was meltingly soft and falling apart. Served with asparagus purée, steamed asparagus and mashed potato. On the side was fragrant star anise glazed carrots, to which I added lots of butter, brown sugar and a touch of salt. To add some crispy crunch, I used the suet (I’ll get to that later!) to make little pastry bites flavoured with the rosemary. Also good for scooping up the mash and gravy
I didn’t add quantities for the recipe below, to save space, but you can view and download it here.
My first instinct was to go for garlic, but I really wanted the flavor of rosemary and I also used it in the pastry bites which made it more versatile (also for colour). The stock pot was tasty enough under the circumstances and imparted a good flavor to the dish.
And I discovered this! Red wine is extremely popular in French cooking especially with meat. Finding this halaal version really opened up many doors!
But of course I wouldn’t have a corkscrew and ended up smashing the cork into the bottle after many failed attempts, spraying the juice all over myself.
Let’s get to the recipe now. Add the 500g beef shin to a pot bubbling with butter and olive oil. Not too much at a time or it will release too much juice and start stewing instead of browning.
This is how it should look. If it doesn’t, throw it all into a dish and fry bit by bit until it looks like this.
Remove beef from the pan and add carrots and celery.
When that’s golden, toss the beef back in, with the Inah, salt, pepper and rosemary.
And cook on high until it reduces and looks like this. Sticky and luscious and gorgeous.
It’s almost a pity to ruin it with water and stock, but it has to be done.
Pour into an oven proof dish and let it bake on 180 degrees C, for about six hours. Stir occasionally. I left it to do a photo shoot, came back two hours later to stir, left again to do shopping and it was so well behaved. You should add loads of garlic, thyme and onion to your dish since you won’t have restrictions!
Now the carrots. Cut up into batons (that’s fancy talk for thick match sticks), let it steam for a few mins in water and brown sugar. When you’re left with a sticky glaze, stir in butter and season with salt. Yum!
Now for the horrendous stuff called suet. I should have left this for last in case it ruins your appetite. This is hard fat from around the kidneys of an animal. Its commonly used in pastries, especially puddings
A traditional English thing I’m told.
I made it into this pink riddled lump of dough, sprinkled with rosemary to make it more appealing.
Cut out and decorate. Can you tell that I like to decorate cakes? The end result was a flaky, crisp, surprisingly light disc. BUT I KNEW WHAT IN WAS IN THERE and could not enjoy it. That taste, it came back to me for days afterward to make me shudder and cringe.
Let’s start over. Asparagus time! Cut off the woody parts, about a third of the stem, and steam until tender but still firm. Remove a few spear heads and save for garnishing. For the rest, cook further until soft and add a teaspoon stock. Blend or blitz until smooth and creamy.
Plating up is the most daunting part! And we have to submit square images.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe, let me know if you made it or if you have any questions.
