For week 2 of the Pick n Pay Freshly Blogged competition our challenge was called "Meaty Moment"
and the ingredients we were given were:
- Knorr Beef Stock Pot
- Beef suet
- Typical soup vegetables (carrot, celery, potato)
- Beef shin
- Star anise
- White wine vinegar
For the duration of the competition we may use pantry ingredients including flour, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, pepper and a few other basics. We were also allowed to omit one of the above ingredients, add one
grocery item and 2 fresh ingredients.
I decided to omit the star anise (I'm just not a big fan) and to add puff pastry, an onion and tomatoes.
If you like what you see - please go and vote for my recipe by clicking here!
For me a stew needs a starch to wipe up the
last bit of sauce on the plate – like a good bunny chow.
However, I decided to
go with something a bit more French and a bit less Durban – a puff pastry
casing called a vol-au-vent.
Beef Suet was a new experience to me and I’ll
definitely use it more often. It is dirt cheap plus it
adds a layer of richness
to the dish that vegetable oil simply doesn’t have.
Beef shin is a tough, sinewy cut of meat
and needs to be pressure cooked or slow cooked. I used a pressure cooker but
that step in the recipe could easily be replaced with 4 hours in a slow cooker.
Here is my recipe:
Ingredients
500g beef shin
75ml minced beef suet
1 punnet PnP soup mix (containing 1 potato,
1 carrot, 1 celery stalk – no leafs)
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
20ml PnP white wine vinegar
1 Knorr Beef Stock Pot dissolved in 2 cups
of boiling water
1 roll puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, egg white & yolk mixed
Instructions
Remove the outer layer of skin/sinew from
each piece of meat and cut into cubes.
Keep any bones.
Heat a pressure cooker on the stove to a high
heat, add 60ml of beef suet and stir until melted.
Add the chopped onions and sauté for 4
minutes.
Add the remaining tablespoon of suet, then
the beef including the bones (they add lots of flavour).
Add a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Brown the meat – the more it sticks to the
bottom of the pot, the better!
Add the vinegar and scrape loose all the
bits at the bottom of the pot.
Add the vegetables and stir for a few
minutes.
Add the stock and close the lid of the
pressure cooker.
Cook for 1 hour (from the time of closing
the lid)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Use a cookie cutter or other object to cut
4 circles (10cm diameter) from the puff pastry.
Then use a smaller object to press another
circle in the middle of each bigger circle –
don’t cut right through the dough.
Put them on a sheet of baking paper and
brush with the egg.
Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut out the crust
of each inner circle.
Scoop the filling into each casing (remove any bones!) and cover with the cut out lid.
Disclaimer: For this recipe and for the upcoming challenges, I'm using and promoting PnP specific ingredients - it is a PnP competition after all! If, during the competition, I come across a PnP ingredient which I feel is inferior I will suggest an alternative in the recipe. But so far the ingredients have been great so I doubt that will be necessary!
Looks Delicious!
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