Very Slow Roast Pork Belly in Cider, Apple and Spices with Colcannon

I think I am getting obsessed with pork belly, not ideal if you're also trying to loose weight.  I have cooked this a few times, differently every time but I think I have hit on the best recipe yet.  The way I cooked this was quite different from previous attempts, the main difference was i wanted a good jus from the cooking process.  The other differences was the time.  I marinated this for a shorter period of time, only 4 hours but cooked the meat for 8 hours in a low heat. I read recently the term 'ticking over' which is a culinary term to describe a cooking process where there is barely no noticeable cooking going on.  This was about 130-140degrees in a conventional oven, fan assisted as we know cook a lot quicker and they cause much greater evaporation which you don't want.  

The Marinade

The great thing about apple is that it really lends itself to both sweet and savoury dishes and works incredibly well with both herbs and spices.  The main spice I used was Star Anise as that works well with both meat and  apple.  The other spices used were a combination of All Spice, Juniper Berries, Fennel seeds, cloves and black pepper.  The spices, excluding the Star Anise, were ground in a pestle and mortar and rubbed into the meat side of the joint.  If the butcher has left the saddle of fat on the underside, remove this and save it for something else - had I been un-phased by the 1,500 calories I was already going to consume I would have used the fat to cook the cabbage and spring onions for the calcannon but as I am still able to get into my skinny fit jeans and I am about to unleash my near naked body on the Red Sea coast so I thought better of it.

Ingredients

• 5 All Spice (berries or seeds - not sure what you call them)
• 5 Juniper Berries
• 10 cloves
• 1 flat teaspoon of Fennel seeds
• 1 heaped teaspoon of sea salt
• 10 pepper corns

Once you have cut the fat off and scored the meat (I would do this yourself as I have had butchers cut into the flesh so deep that they have nearly come through the other side and you really only want to score it).  Pour boiling water of the joint both sides and then dry thoroughly and salt the rind.  Turnover and rub the marinade into the meat and break the star anise into bits and put into the meat.  Place in some tin foil and leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight if you have got your act well and truly together.

To cook the pork belly you will need

• 2kg of Pork Belly for 4 people
• 2 cooking apples
• 2 medium onions
• 1 bottle of premium dry cider

Take the pork belly from the fridge brush off the marinade (I left in the star anise as that can be removed after cooking) and place on top of the melange of roughly chopped onions and apples and pour in half the cider in a baking tray and then place in a low oven - about 130-140 degrees and cover with foil. This was a conventional oven and suggest going lower if fan assisted.  You really want this just to tick over - I put the joint in the oven at 1pm and we were planning on eating at 8pm.

So to cut a long story short, having kept one eye on the cooking, remove the foil and top up with cider.  This was at 7pm so 7 hours in and turn the heat up.  Now to finish this dish off you take the meat from the roasting tin and remove the juices, apple and onion which are now very well cooked.  Put these in a cylindrical sieve and mash through so that all the liquid is removed and you are just left with a pulp.  The remaining liquid is one of the nicest tasting jus I have ever tasted.  It is quite liquid but as you are having this with mash I couldn't see the point of reducing this any further, I did also add some chicken stock to this.  To have reduced this down i think would have made the jus too intense and to have used cornflour was just cheating and I refused to do that.

Finally place the meat under a grill and let the crackling bubble up and really crisp - a very satisfying part of the process.

The dish was served with colcannon, again a nice easy dish and one that can be made in advance as the final process is quick.

For the colcannon

• 4 large mashing potatoes (Maris Piper is a good all rounder)
• 1/2 a medium size savoy cabbage
• 6 spring onions
• 1 good slab of butter
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• (cream optional)
• seasoning 

Slice the cabbage nice and thinly removing any of the core,  Fry the cabbage for 3 or 4 minutes until it has wilted, be careful not to brown it and then add the finely diced spring onions and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes.  You want to make sure there is still some bite left in the greens.  I didn't use cream but if you did then when you have mashed the potato you then add the cream and nutmeg and whisk.  One very useful piece of kitchen equipment is a potato ricer - goodbye lumpy potato, hello restaurant quality mash every time.

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I feel very bad that I don't have an image of the finished dish but I managed to take several pictures all of which were out of focus but to explain the serving is simple - the colcannon as above served with a decent square of pork belly with a good helping of that wonderful jus all over and around.  An awesome dish though I say so myself...

Black Pudding and Tiger Prawns and Mushroom Duxelle Wellington with Wild Mushroom Sauce

This dish makes sense when you think about it.  I understand it if you're a non black pudding person but believe me, and I did test this on some non black pudding people, the upshot is they now like black pudding.  I wouldn't have said that I was a particular fan of black pudding myself but that's down to the black pudding - as with everything there is good and bad and I would say that bad black pudding is not a nice experience by any measure.  However good quality black pudding, as I have since discovered, since my days of screamingly average cooked breakfasts  on our annual pilgrimage to Ireland fishing on the Corib during the Mayfly, where black pudding sat on the plate staring back at you, daring you to slice into it and bite it, is a pleasure.

Pork and seafood as we already know is a great combination, something the Chinese had worked out long ago and now it's very trendy to mix the two together.  Whether it's Palma Ham and Monkfish or Chorizo and Scallops or Roast Pork Belly and Prawns (see Honey, Soy and Chinese Spice Pork Belly with Prawn Tempura) it isn't such a great leap to add black pudding together with prawn.  Add a lovely creamy wild mushroom sauce to this and you have a delicious, rich dish that is perfect as a starter.  I had experimented with this on my own so I had this as a main course and would have happily have devoured the entire lot saved by the fact that I was desperate for others to try it and not just take my word for it!

There are two stages to this.  Making the Wellington and making the mushroom sauce although it makes sense to cook the mushrooms and shallots at the same time for the base of the sauce and the duxelle.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized shallots
• 200g Oyster and Chestnut mushrooms
• 25-50g Dried chantarelle and porcini mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of chopped sage (or half that if its dried)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper (this is hot so be careful)
• 25ml of medium dry sherry or 50ml of white wine
• 1 knob of butter for the duxelle
• 200ml of single cream
• 200ml of chicken stock
• 100g of black pudding
• 200g of fresh prawns
• Puff pastry (you could make your own but let's face it why bother!)
• 1 egg (for the glaze)
• Salt and Pepper

Stage One


For those that don't know a duxelle is a stuffing or element to a sauce involving two of my essential favourite ingredients - the shallot and the mushroom.  A duxelle is common to Wellington's and is essentially finely chopped shallot or onion (shallot being more refined and less, 'oniony') mushroom and herbs.  It is then cooked off with wine or sherry and reduced to as dry as you can mixture.  If you are making a beef wellington it needs to be very dry as a lot of moisture is given off by the meat when it rests and moistens the 'croute'.

Cook off the shaIlots in a knob of butter and then add 150g of the oyster and chestnut mushrooms finley chopped, sweat down and then add the herbs and put to one side in the dish.
Stage Two
Add the black pudding.  In this instance the black pudding was large so I had just two large slices which I fried in the pan along with the mushroom.  This needs to be fried until cooked through which is about 2-3 minutes on both sides.  Remove the black pudding from the pan and then slice into small cubes.

Stage Three

Roll out the puff pastry so that you have enough to cover the black pudding and the prawn mix and add the black pudding.

Stage Four 

Now slice the fresh prawns into small pieces and add to the pan and cook through until pink and mix with the duxelle and then layer on top of the black pudding.

                                          

Stage Five

Roll the Wellington together and put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180c.  While the Wellington is in the oven finish the Wild Mushroom sauce by adding the dried mushrooms to the stock and once they have re-hydrated add the stock and mushrooms to the remaining duxelle which is in the pan. Add the remainder of the wine or sherry and cook off the alcohol and then finally add the cream and reduce until thick enough.

Stage Six

Remove the Wellington and serve as appropriate.  As a starter, 2 pieces with the Wild Mushroom sauce would be perfect as a starter.  I ended up eating half of this and I could, as I say, have munched my way through the lot...

Now to add credibility to this dish Andy Jones has since added this to the repertoire at The Mansion....'nough said!

Painted Heron on Cheyne Walk

The Painted Heron has a great reputation.  It was one of those evenings when we decided we wanted a curry (actually we wanted Tsunami but couldn't get a table until 10.30).  We phoned at lunchtime and getting a table for 8.30pm on Friday night was no problem.  Should that mean anything?  May be curry eaters are going more native and exploring Tooting and Brick Lane.  We arrived and were promptly seated, which was as far as the promptness was going to last.  They were clearly expecting a quiet evening as they had staffed accordingly but as we all know there is a minimum level you can't go below and they seemed to have limboed too far below that.  We ordered the set menu, this seemed the most sensible option as 1)  That normally includes dishes the restaurant would like to show off and 2) it covered all the curry bases from my point of view.

The Painted Heron has as I said earlier a great reputation and has received many accolades including Nomination for Best Indian Restaurant and Top20 in Taltler's Restaurant Guide last year so our expectation of the food was high, that combined with the food positioning as being modern Indian...

We kicked off with the essential bowl of poppadums and associated dips, pretty standard fare for any self respecting Indian restaurant but certainly nothing out of the usual, what was unusual and I can not say for certain but it looked suspiciously like one of the waiters was putting unused relish back in the pot when i visited the men's room downstairs where the kitchen is located - it wasn't a bin and it was being put back not added to...

Let's not dwell too long on that and move on to the food.  The pre starter was Mixed lentil sprouts & pea poppadum roll which was perfectly pleasant with two flavoursome dipping sauces, one not unlike hoisin sauce.  The starter was a mixed tandoori plate with tiger prawn, chicken tikka and lamb chop and was perfectly cooked and the marinade bursting with flavour - this was what we had come for.  The lamb was wonderfully rare, the chicken thankfully not.  

Then came the sorbet - it was allegedly a champagne sorbet, none other than Piper Heidsieck but I could have sworn it was lime sorbet.  It was way too sweet and lacked the sharp acidity that I was expecting as a nice refreshing interlude.  The main event arrived and I felt like I was on familiar territory with essentially a Chicken Tikka Massala,Menu description: Chicken tikka with almonds in tomato & cream curry  pilau rice and a naan bread (how many times have I said that in an Indian restaurant?) Salmon tikka with samphire & basil and Lamb roganjosh.  This was, how should I put it?  It was average, that's not to say that had I had this at my local Indian restaurant I would have said 'It's good tonight'  (as we know these things tend to ebb and flow.  But this was one of the top Indian restaurants in the country and therefore expectation was running higher than that.  It was pleasant, naan dipped in the sauce, just how I like it, but no culinary epiphany that's for sure.  Now I am leaving the best bit until last and i have added a drizzle of irony there.  OK its fair to say i have NEVER ordered pudding in an Indian restaurant in my life.  By that point my buttons have already become weapons of mass destruction so rarely have the minuteness of space to include a pudding but we were on a set menu and pudding we shall have. 


This was a mango kulfi lollipop and was incredibly sweet but what made it worse was the drizzle of factory made raspberry purée.  It was not a pleasurable experience.  

Over all it was a very pleasant evening, the staff were friendly and the food was good but not earth shattering and at £117 (that included a nice bottle of Gewürztraminer) I would say average value for money.

Service 3.5 out of 5

Food 3.5 out of 5

Value for money 3 out of 5

Veal Scallopini with wild mushroom sauce with Rosemary roasted and fried zuchini

I made this as an homage to my favourite Italian restaurant, Numero Uno. Numero Uno/London Eating,  I have this dish pretty much every time I go there (juggled with Taglietelle Frutti di Mare)  The dish comes with roasted rosemary potatoes and the crispy fried courgette (zuchini).  I am not sure which mushrooms they include in their sauce but I am pretty sure there's a porcini and a chanterelle in there somewhere, oh and there certainly is a lot of cream....yum.

So on that premise I undertook this dish, I bought some dried porcini (they weren't cheap) and dried chanterelle and fresh oyster and chestnut mushrooms.

Ingredients for 2 people

• 2 veal escalopes (these should be gently flattened)
• 250ml chicken (or veal) stock
• About a handful of dried porcini and chanterelle (I have small hands so that's about a tea cup full)
• 100g of a mixture of oyster and chestnut (or whatever you fancy)
• 100ml medium dry sherry, 
• 1 flat teaspoon of dried sage (Flat tablespoon of fresh) - Sage is very strong so go easy
• 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, 
• 2 small shallots (very finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed then finely chopped)
• 100ml of single cream.  
• Black pepper (probably enough salt in the stock if using cubes)
• 2 small courgettes
• 2 medium sized potatoes

For the batter

• Flower and water.  This is really simple just mix water into some flower so that its still very goey and will stick and cover.  You can make a more elaborate one if you fancy but I didn't feel it necessary 

Stage One

Chop the potatoes into cubes, par boil, drain and then add to heated oil in a roasting dish with plenty of rosemary and then season. Toss in the oil and then place in the oven for 25 minutes at 180 degrees.(keep an eye on them) 

Stage Two

Flatten the veal and salt and pepper both sides and leave to one side.  Finely chop the shallots and garlic (after hitting with the back of the knife) and add to a frying pan and gentle fry.  

Stage Three

Put the dried mushrooms in the 1/2 pint of stock so they hydrate.

Stage Four

Slice the chestnut mushrooms but leave the oyster mushrooms whole (unless they are huge in which case halve until you are happy) and add to the frying pan along with the sage and parsley and gentle fry until they soften.  Then add the stock with the now hydrated mushrooms and cook to reduce gently.

Stage Five 

Chop the courgette into small batons and coat with the batter and shallow fry in a wok.  Make sure they are just covered by the oil and the oil is very hot.  These won't take long, probably 4 minutes or so.  Once they have started to brown take them out and place in a bowl with kitchen roll and place in the oven.  If you have timed this right then the potatoes should have browned so turn the oven off and leave to keep warm.

Stage Six

Sear the veal in a hot frying pan and then add the sauce to the pan so you combine the veal juices and then add the cream and reduce until it thickens.

The dish is complete.  Plate up the veal and cover with mushrooms and sauce and add the potatoes and the courgettes.  I used some of the potato cuttings and sliced with a mandolin and deep fried so I had potato crisps as a garnish.  Dare I say that it tasted better than Numero Uno?  Well it was my version and pretty close to the original...you would have to ask the wife as I couldn't possibly comment.

Honey, Soy and Chinese Spice Pork Belly with Celeriac, Wasabi Purée and Prawn and Cauliflower Tempura

This was actually a really simple dish to make.  The only hassle is the tempura but all that involves is battering and frying.  The good thing is everything else can just wait until you have cooked the tempura.  I liked the idea of this dish as you have the succulent pork with the spicy celeriac and the crispy prawn goes very well with the pork dipped in some soy.  Next time I make this however i think i would serve with a more elaborate sauce.  Problem with slow roasting pork belly with the marinade is that it's not like cooking a roast and have lots of lovely browned juices to form the base for a sauce.  However the soy did work well as the saltiness complimented the natural sweetness of the celeriaic and the pork has been marinated with honey.  You could use Hoisin Sauce or make a more elaborate dipping sauce and that you can do by adding sesame oil, lemon juice, garlic and dry sherry.
Ingredients (for 2 people)

• 1lbs pork belly  (the piece I had was very meaty and needed a lot longer to cook)
• 6 cauliflower florets (3 per person)
• 6 raw prawns
• 1/2 Celeriac
• Large teaspoon of wasabi (or use horseradish) 

For the marinade

• 3 star anise
• 1 flat teaspoon of chinese five soice
• 1 flat teaspoon of fennel seed
• 1 flat teaspoon of corriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt

Grind the above in a pestle and mortar and then transfer into a mixing bowl and add the following

• 2 grated cloves of garlic
• 1 piece about 2 inch by 1 inch of ginger grated
• 1 tablespoon of runny honey
• 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons of dark soy
• 1 tablespoon of chopped mint

Stage One

Score the pork belly with a knife but don't cut into the meat.  Pour boiling water over it as this opens the scoring up and the meat tightens up.

Stage Two
Grind the spices in a pestle and mortar and then add them to the remaining marinade ingredients and the coat the pork well.  I coated the rind which in hindsight I wouldn't do again as this does caramelise the fat which means when you come to crisp it at the ends it burns slightly.  Leave this to marinade for at least an hour, longer if you have the time.  I placed the pork on a bed of carrots but you could use a wire tray and then add 1/2 pint of water and cover with tin foil so it doesn't dry out.  It will evaporate so make sure you keep adding water.  This needs to cook for a minimum of 4 hours at around 150 degrees.  I wouls say it totally depends on the cut.  Some pork belly i have had has been very thin and this piece was fat, in terms of meat content and was nearly 4 inches in depth.  This needed at least 5 hours to properly render the fat down.

Stage Three
Cut the celeriac into cubes, keep back 8 cubes which  you will roast in the oven for 20 minutes.  The remaining cubes you boil for about 15 minutes or until they are tender.  Once you have cooked the celeriac add some butter (cream if you just don't care!) and then add a teaspoon or two of wasabi to taste, you don't want it overpowering but you do want to taste it.
Stage 4 
The tempura.  The trick is the water.  You have to have this ice cold.  When i made this before I didn't have the water cold enough.  This time i put a container of water in the freezer. This must be done just before cooking. Sift 3oz plain flour and 1 tbsp cornflour with ½ tsp fine sea salt into a large mixing bowl. Then add 7fl oz ice-cold water along with a few ice cubes using a whisk, but don't over beat. Do not worry if its lumpy. (One recipe used sparkling water which I may try next time.)

Stage 5
Heat up oil in a wok or deep pan so that there is enough to cover the prawns and the cauliflower.  You won't be cooking enough to cool the oil but if you are doing this for 4 people make sure the oil remains hot by not putting too much in.  One thing I would do next time is use smaller florets and may be par boil and then dry and cool down in the fridge.  The prawns take no time at all and you really only need a minute or two but longer for the florets.
Stage 6
Plate up your masterpiece.  I put a dollop of purée in the middle and laid the pork next to it with the florets on one side and the prawns on the other with a dipping bowl on the slate (that's right, slate, how poncey is that!)

This was great fun to cook and wasn't that hard and will be refining this as i think it has potential to be a great dish

Harwood Arms, a pub or a restaurant?

When is a pub a pub and not a restaurant?  Before I answer that with my opinion, which is after all only an opinion and not fact but as a pub landlord I feel entitled to have a view, I want to say that the Harwood Arms is great.  So why does it matter whether a pub is a pub or a restaurant?  Well it matters from a point of expectation, add a Michelin Star and you have a serious identity crisis as expectation suddenly quadruples.  The Chelsea set have standards you know...

The Harwood Arms battles with the desire to still be seen as a pub and the fact that you now can't book a table for 2 months! Drinkers give way to diners, lets face it if you are running a successful business then you are not going to give a table to drinkers when diners are waiting.  That is the essence of a pub in my opinion that it has drinkers.  A pub originally was a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic beverages and rarely served food unless you call the jar of decade old pickled eggs and onions and pork scratchings food.  The invention of the gastro pub was a restaurant in a pub (and a great way of hiking prices) .  Competition from many other sources of restaurant chains, bars etc. meant that the way to survive was to change but that's the point they have changed and as such can't be called a pub (or does having a quiz night mean you are still a pub?).  I guess the difference between a restaurant is that its closed when the kitchen is closed and a pub remains open.

Anyway that doesn't alter the fact that the food was very good, and very well priced baring in mind this establishment is a Michelin Starred restaurant (note 'restaurant').  The prices for starters hovered around the £6-£7 mark, mains around £15 and puddings around £6.  That is cheaper than many of the pretentious gastro pubs that exploded a few years ago selling overpriced kangaroo burgers and ostrich pie.

So down to business what did we have?  The menu is a well balanced selection of dishes, not overly fussy and complicated with an obvious, I say obvious as Mike Robinson, the chef, is passionate about it, slant towards game and in particular venison.  Venison features heavily on the menu and we shared the venison platter for 2 which consisted of the now famous venison scotch egg, carpaccio, glazed rizolle and (not sure why this was on a plate of Roe Deer?) smoked ham with pickled wild mushrooms and radishes.  The scotch egg was molle, perfectly cooked.  The winner was the raw venison, that seemed to have more flavour than the venison around the scotch egg.  Venison has very little fat and I felt that it lacked the moistness that you get from pork.

The other dishes ordered were the snails cooked with oxtail and bone marrow and were sensational, a great mix of texture and flavour.  The ox tongue which was served with a cauliflower croquette was a little bland and personally I am not mad about the texture of the meat, the croquette was a nice addition.  One thing that was starting to feature heavily was deep frying and breadcrumbs with each dish had breadcrumbs included, even the snails and three items deep fried.

For the main course 2 people went for the Cullen Skink, I went for the braised beef cheek and one, the cod with salsify fritters.  The Cullen Skink came with a crumbed deep fried hen's egg which again was cooked perfectly.  The CK was served more like a stew than a soup and was made with mussels and not smoked haddock as I would have expected.  I think I went for the best choice - the beef cheek was beautifully tender and served with a silky smooth jus which had to have been a stock made with pig trotters as it was stunningly gelatinous and flavoursome, one of the best I have ever tasted.  The purée mash was as you would expect, rich and creamy and the glazed carrots were nicely al dente and well seasoned.  I can't say what the pickled walnuts were like as they were forgotten!  I didn't get a chance to try the cod but it was apparently excellent.  The only comment was that all the dishes were served in bowls which made sense for the CK but not sure that it was the best choice for the cod dish.

We couldn't not try the mini doughnuts, what a great idea for a pudding and perfect for sharing as so often when you get to that stage of the eating process sharing is the only option.  The doughnuts have a marmalade centre and served with an orange sherbet and whipped cream.  It's fantastically indulgent pudding (yet more deep fried action).  Finally the last dish was Camp coffee ice cream with bourbon biscuits which I did not try but again was reliably informed was delicious.  

We chose a bottle of Monte Velho Branco, Heredade Do Esporao, Alentejo, Portugal, 2008. Portugal has been terrible at marketing wines as you rarely see them. The only Portuguese wine you tend to see is the fortified variety but this was, as they had described as rich and fruity but crisp which it was, I will be hunting that one down. With my beef I was recommended a glass of Campo Nuevo which never fails, a good tannic wine that got to work on the lovely richness of the dish.

The service was very friendly, not the quickest but as we were reminded that they are a pub not a restaurant! We also weren't informed about any specials even though I understood there was. The bill came to around £50 per head and we had ordered aperitifs and 3 bottles of the lovely wine. I think that represents tremendous value and I hope that they don't succumb to the temptation of increasing the prices as a result of their overwhelming popularity. It is a great place to go and eat, laid back, friendly and exceptionally good food for the price.

Chicken Goulash with Seasonal Vegetables

Perfect cold weather food, make a fire and a pig of yourself 

Well you could argue that this is nothing more than a great way of emptying the fridge of what you have been trying to use up all week and giving it a posh name just by sticking paprika in it!

That's true but this does actually turn out to be a really simple and delicious all-in-one meal which the kids LOVED and that, as any parent knows is a joy.

The recipe can be adapted depending on what you have in the fridge so the following is not essential (apart from the chicken as that would make it another kind of goulash wouldn't it.  A goulash can be a soup or a stew and the word goulash comes from the Hungarian 'herdsman' (ah he knows how to use the internet i here you mutter under your breath)

Just a little sidetrack here about cooking with potatoes.  I love potatoes in stews, casseroles, goulashes or whatever you want to call them.  Potatoes vary from waxy to floury and this is important to know when you are cooking with them.  If you use floury potatoes in stews you end up with potato soup and waxy potatoes make very poor mash. Obvious you say but it doesn't end there.  Different potatoes behave differently at different times of the growing season.  It is worth checking depending what you are using potatoes for at Love Potatoes website

Ingredients for 6 people

• 4 large chicken breasts
• 6 rashes of panchetta (or bacon it's just that I had panchetta and I think smoked streaky bacon would be better)
• 4 large carrots
• 6 medium sized potatoes 
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 large onion
• 300 g of closed cup mushrooms
• 500g of passata (sieved tomato - this gives the sauce a much thicker consistency)
• 1 pint of chicken stock
• 2 heaped teaspoons of paprika
• 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard (if you have been following this blog you may have noticed I use this a lot)
• Salt and Pepper

Stage One

Cube the chicken into and slice the bacon and add to a hot casserole dish (Dutch oven) and seal the meat and  cook the bacon through.

Stage Two

Chop the vegetables into decent sized chunks so they hold their form and add to the pot

Stage Three

Add the passata, stock, paprika, mustard and bring to the boil.

Stage Four

Once it has simmered on the top for a few minutes check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as required.

Stage Five

Cook for about 2 hours at about 160degrees and take out the oven.  I would then, depending on how thin the liquid is, put on the hob without the lid and reduce as required.