Curried Beef Cheeks

Organising Appetite events calls for many, many meetings and meetings call for food (and wine). This week it was my turn to host and, as ever, I wanted to cook something a bit special.

Given our meeting was after work, I knew I wouldn't have any time to cook on the night so I needed something that would be ok to make ahead and then simply heat up for serving. Initially I thought about this Tuscan Braised Beef which is truly delicious, but as soon as I started talking beef cheeks on Twitter, I was offered a Jamaican curry recipe by fellow foodie Jools Cyprien.  

Curried Beef Cheeks

First of all I had to make the Jamaican curry powder and although there were a lot of ingredients, I was lucky to have most of them in (although I do admit to using black mustard seeds instead of yellow ones and I couldn't get any fenugreek seeds so I used the ground stuff).

3 teaspoons ground turmeric
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
2  teaspoons cayenne or any Red Chilli Powder
3 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
3 teaspoons cumin seeds
2″ Stick of Cinnamon
4 Cardamom Pods
4 teaspoons Whole black pepper
2 teaspoons star anise or aniseed
2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons of ground ginger
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon whole allspice

All this needed grinding down to a powder and, not really fancying a good couple of hours at the pestle and mortar or the electric pepper mill (which can only hold a small quantity of anything at any one time), I finally invested in a coffee grinder. If you don't have one, I suggest you invest £16 or so to buy one. 

Curry powder down, it was time to get on with the curry itself.

2kg mutton or other meat such as Ox cheeks, chopped into bite size pieces
2 x Large Onions finally diced
3-4 cloves of garlic crushed
1 x small thumb sized piece of ginger finely sliced
3-4 spring onions finely sliced
1 - 2 teaspoons of all spice 
A few sprigs of thyme leaves chopped 
2-3 tbsp of the curry powder (see above)
1 can of coconut milk
250ml chicken stock
1 further tbsp of the curry powder (see above)
1 scotch bonnet chilli 
Salt pepper to taste 
Sprig of thyme

I combined the meat with the diced onions, garlic, ginger, spring onions, all spice, thyme leaves and 3 tbsp of curry powder and left it to marinade in the fridge for 24 hours.

The next day I heated up a large pan over a medium heat, added a good glug of olive oil and the other tbsp of curry powder to gently fry it until dark. I then added the meat along with all the spices. Once the meat was browned off I added the coconut milk and stock, followed by the whole scotch bonnet and the sprig of thyme.

I then brought everything up to the boil, turned it down to a gentle simmer and left it cooking away for about 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally until the meat was beautifully tender. Just before serving, I removed the scotch bonnet and the thyme. 

I wanted to serve it up some rice and peas and Jools pointed me in the direction of this recipe which worked well. Everyone enjoyed; it was packed full of flavour, but really wasn't all that hot, despite the scotch bonnet!  

It's one I'll be doing again... and next time I'll stick some chunks of potato and carrot in for the last 40 minutes or so of cooking.

Cheers Jools!

A squiffy afternoon in the Wig & Pen

Ok, this is just a quick one... and it's all about getting pleasantly squiffy in the afternoon (tut tut!).

I recently spotted a bargain of a Living Social deal for a platter and a bottle of wine at the Wig & Pen for £15. Considering the platter alone is £15.95, I was having this one...

With a long overdue catch up with a friend coming up, I booked us in for yesterday afternoon.

My friend was slightly late (shock horror - she is never late!) and on telling the waiter that I would wait for her to arrive before choosing the wine, he brought over a carafe of water and a couple of glasses.  Given that I hadn't asked for any water this was an early sign that I was going to be looked after.

The wine options were a couple of bottles from Bordeaux; a merlot and a sauvignon blanc mix.  Afternoon drinking and girlie chats calls for white wine (although gin and tonic is also a good option), so we went for the sauvugnon blanc.

I can't remember the exact price of the wine, but I did spot that it wasn't the cheapest bottle going which is refreshing to see in one of these deals.  It was delicious too; hence us buying two more bottles after we finished the first (whoops!).

The platter arrived and at first I'll admit that I thought it looked a bit on the small side but as we tucked in it was clear that there was just the right amount for the two of us; especially as extra bread was provided when requested.

With an array of meaty delights and slabs of cheese this was just the thing for me.  Sliced pork pie (with a tasty terrine like filling), meaty pate, blue cheese and brie with bread, rosemary flavoured butter, pickled onions, a couple of chutneys and a cucumber salad; we devoured the lot!

Feeling incredibly relaxed and pampered (I think I poured myself one glass of wine) we stayed for the afternoon catching up and generally just putting the world to rights whilst slowly getting rather squiffy.

Check out their new bar menu here.  With an excellent wine list and a superb collection of cocktails (trust me - I've tried a few) the Wig & Pen is a perfect place for some afternoon squiffiness....

My Day in the Life of a Sheffield Appetite

I apologise for being a bit distracted from the blog recently, but I do think it can be justified as just before Christmas another food blogger, Ros, and I thought it would be fun to get a few of our foodie contacts together for a pint down the pub.  Given our enthusiasm for food in Sheffield, the idea of a pint down the pub quickly evolved into the rather extravagant idea of a full blown event with demos and food.

After deciding to focus on some of Sheffield's food producers I contacted a few to test the waters and see how much interest there was.  We were amazed at the responses and we quickly realised that Sheffield is crying out for all things food!

From that point, even though we hadn’t even worked out how the event was going to work, I already felt committed; I didn't want to let the producers down, or worse still, come across as someone who doesn't see their ideas through to the end.  So, after a series of meetings, Ros and I, with the help of the husbands, set up Appetite.

The premise behind Appetite is to bring people of Sheffield together over food.  Food producers, chefs, restaurateurs, cafes, delis, pubs and food lovers; Appetite is for everyone.  We would love to get Sheffield on the food map; a difficult task for this industrial city, but hey, it's gotta be worth a go.

Luckily Ros and I are quite similar in our approach to things and we agreed that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it properly.  So, the next step was to set up our website.  Ros' husband has his own computer business (Your PC's Best Friend) so he was able to do everything 'techie'.  It was then up to Ros and I to agree the format and the content.

With the website came the logo, and despite the fact that none of us are particularly artistic, I think we've done quite well.  The blue works well against the gleaming steel like text and we have the option to change the colours according to the seasons. 

We were also thinking about venues and Fusion Organic Cafe seemed an obvious choice for us.  Not only did Fusion win an Eat Sheffield award last year, they have a gorgeous premises and we knew that they wouldn't be open for customers on a weekday evening (their bistro nights are held on Thursday’s and Friday’s).  Thankfully Melvin could see the potential in Appetite and he agreed to lend us his venue.

With a website, venue and a list of interested producers we planned A Day in the Life of a Sheffield Appetite.  From breakfast, to lunch, to dinner and dessert we had a producer lined up for every single meal of the day (including elevenses and a mid afternoon snack!).

Then we went live!  Again, we were stunned by the level of interest and we quickly sold out.  The press have been incredibly supportive too with the Sheffield Telegraph, Sheffield Star and Postcode Gazette publishing small articles to advertise the event.  I also managed to swing an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield!

Realising that there was no turning back and feeling under pressure to make sure the event ran smoothly Ros and I went into anal overload.  You have never seen so many lists, tables, plans and calculations; but come the week leading up to the event I felt pretty calm about the whole thing because I knew we'd put the work into the planning.

Of course the big day came around quicker than any of us imagined and before we knew it, we were at Fusion setting the room up for the main event.  Then the producers started to arrive.  Then the guests started to arrive...

There were lots of friendly faces; PJ Taste Peter, Urban Pantry Reece, Eat Sheffield's Niki, The Food Places' Steph and Dave... along with many new ones.  We had the press in full force too as Lesley Draper from Sheffield Telegraph, Ellen Beardmore from the Sheffield Star and Matt Dixon from Postcode Gazette had joined us... more pressure for us to get this first event spot on!

After a quick introduction to the event the demos started as follows;

Breakfast – Moss Valley Fine Meats showed us how to make bacon and sausages.

Elevensies – Teabox gave a tea master class and Komal of Fusion Organic Café bake a cake.

Lunch – Just Preserves paired their chutneys with Pork pie by John Crawshaws and cooked some chicken and prawns with a chilli relish.

Afternoon Snack – Fusion Organic showed us how to make a lamb pasty.

Dinner – Whirlow Hall Farm gave a talk about their farm and chef Pete from The York demonstrated how to make a warm egg and kale salad using ingredients from the farm.

Dessert – Tamper Coffee gave a quick chat about the coffee scene along with some coffee tasters.  Our Cow Molly also gave a talk about their super fresh milk whilst the guests tucked into affogattos made using Our Cow Molly milk and Tamper coffee.

Beverages – Bradfield Brewery donated a lovely selection of beer and we had wine donated by Moss Valley Fine Meats and Just Preserves.

Unfortunately that’s about as much as I can tell you about the event.  See both Ros and I spent the evening organising everyone, timing the demos, making sure the guests and producers were happy and clearing up.  I was too busy to even eat anything (although I did manage to snaffle half a boiled egg at some point)… I tell you now, from the initial planning to the event itself, it was bloody hard work but oh my!  What an amazing night!

Everyone worked so hard at making the event work with the producers helping us and each other with the food preparation, handing samples out and cleaning down.  There were many happy faces in the audience (and many full bellies!) and this made all the work worthwhile.  To go and watch some food demos is one thing, to have back stage seats is another, but to host an event like this is an amazing experience.

We’ve had some truly excellent feedback, check out the Appetite website for some of the lovely things that have been said about our first event.  Of course, we won’t let these comments go completely to our heads… we know that there are improvements to make and we’re committed to making sure that our events get better and better! 

Because, yes, there will be more events; in fact we’re already working hard on the next one.  We want Appetite to show off as many of the producers and chefs that we have in Sheffield as we can, so there’ll be a variety of formats used, focusing on different food businesses and charities on the way.

To keep up to date with our forthcoming events follow Appetite at @AppetiteSheff or check out the events section of our website.