Winter Warming Pot Au Feu

Well, we promised you a delicious, hearty winter-warmer, so that’s exactly what you’re getting this week – it’s Pot au Feu! This classic French dish is a staple during the winter months and it’s got everything you might want on a cold January night after work. Literally translated as "pot on the fire", (doesn’t get much cosier than that, eh?!) this dish uses mostly winter vegetables and the best cuts of beef for stewing. It is one of Carine’s favourite classic slow-cooked stews - earthy; meaty and full of vegetables, served in a clear broth which is – and here we quote – “scrumptiously delicious”.

Sounds pretty good, huh? Let’s get started! This recipe serves 6 people, and can be a real showstopper, or you can simply keep it all for yourself and have it several days in a row!

Ingredients

• 1.5kg Beef (choose the best cuts for stewing – we recommend oxtail, cheeks, brisket or additional lean beef)
• Beef bones for deeper flavour (optional)
• 3 large carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 potatoes
• 2 turnips
• 2 medium leeks
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Bouquet Garni (2 bay leaves, 5 fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley – traditionally tied together with cooking string, but this isn’t strictly necessary!)
• 1 beef or vegetable stock cube (optional)
• 10 black peppercorns
• Coarse sea salt (to taste)

Method

1) Tie your meat with cooking string to help it keep its shape while it cooks. If you can’t find cooking string, cut the meat into big chunks instead.

2) Peel the carrots, wash your leeks and celery, then cut all into large chunks.

3) Peel your onion and stud it with the cloves.

4) Place your meat, stock, and bones if you have them in a large pot and add 5 litres of cold water.

5) Bring to the boil and skim the broth regularly, removing the foam.

6) Once the mixture no longer forms a foam on the top, turn down the heat and add the rest of the ingredients.

7) Bring the mix back to the boil, cover it then let it simmer over a very low heat for a minimum of 4 hours (if you have a slow-cooker, you can use this, turning the setting to “Low”).

8) To serve, remove the meat and vegetables from the broth and place them on a plate, then ladle over a little broth. Carine serves her pot au feu with Dijon mustard or Dijon Mayonnaise, but we’ll leave your condiment choices up to you.

Bon appetite! We hope this warms your cockles. If you do have a go making this at home, get in touch on Twitter and let us know – we’d love to hear how you got on! 

Do Something Good in 2016

Welcome to 2016! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, full of food and family and friends. But, after all that decadence and all that receiving, we thought it was time to give a little back, so this month we’re focussing on eco-friendly food and eating sustainably. To kick us off, we chatted to Carine about what eco-friendly food meant to her, and why it is important.

What is “eco-friendly food” or sustainable food exactly?

For me, eco-friendly food, or sustainable food, means eating food that is grown locally, using a sustainable agriculture and also eating food seasonally. Eating seasonal vegetables which are locally produced and organic puts you right at the heart of the movement.

Is this something you’ve always been interested in? How did you get into it?

That is an interesting question. I come from a part of the world where organic and sustainable food is a way of living and this was something that I, somewhat wrongfully, took for granted for a number of years. But I have always been fascinated by the process of growing my own vegetables or having my own coops – eggs, fresh meat, etc…. You see, back when I was living in Cameroun, locally-produced food was easy and much cheaper than imported food. And, more importantly, it constituted the staple and cultural belief of locals like me. Market stalls, which might be called “farmer’s markets” in the UK, were open daily.

That said, at age 9-10, I wasn’t so thrilled to be asked to wake up early in the morning to stroll through the local market stalls or being asked to go and look for that special farmer located at that special corner because that farmer always had the freshest vegetables in the market (according to my relatives).

Even though I was a city girl from Yaoundé (the capital of Cameroun), I always preferred spending time in the countryside with my cousins. I felt joyful whenever we could cook our meal made from home-grown vegetables. I was always so jealous that, not only was there a family allotment, but each and every one of my cousins had their own small allotments and learnt to cultivate greens from as young as 5. I was always super excited when we visited, wanting to run in the fields, and get a bucket to scoop out my own prawns or fish from the river (Yes you heard me, this was how easy it was to get prawns - as long as you had the right technique…) and cook my own vegetables. In fairness, that excitement seemed pretty crazy to my relatives as this was their daily routine, so they didn’t see anything exciting about having to harvest yet another root vegetable.

Just speaking about this now has got me really excited all over again! Really, eating sustainably has always been a passion, even before I could say my first word.

What do you do currently to eat and cook sustainably?

There are two things that are truly dear to me - being able to grow my own vegetables, and trying as much as possible to limit my food waste. Again, this is largely due to my background. Although I lived most of my life in Europe, those early years spent in Africa have taught me to respect what you put on your plates, on so many levels.

My 2014 New Year’s Resolution was to get myself an allotment, after having done all sorts of growing experiments from my tiny back yard in Brixton. Now, most allotment-seekers knows that this is near impossible if you live in London. I, therefore, started to look for alternative options, so I was thrilled to find myself a back garden to grow my vegetables through landshare.net. 

My 2016 New Year’s Resolution is to create a network of local farmers with surplus crops – food which I would like to use for my “Ugly Veg”-themed supper clubs throughout next year. As I am also a keen forager, this surplus food, along with the fruits of my foraging, will help invent the most creative, healthy, yummy, and eco-friendly meals. And I am officially calling out to anyone who can help me achieve this.

How can we all be a little more eco-friendly with our food? Give us your top tips.

1) Grow your own. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a simple grain transform into something you can safely eat. The best is knowing that you made it happen. Eating locally can help you trace and trust what you eat but growing as much veg as you can, even from your kitchen window, is a great step forward.

2) Eat locally and in season. This is food at its best.

3) Forage, forage, forage. There is no shame in it! It is super-healthy, fun and eco-friendly - as long you bear in mind an element of sustainability when harvesting your findings!

4) Turn your back on mass-produced ready meals. Cook more yourself and share your food! Don’t leave it to other people. The sharing economy has made it fun, and so much easier, to share your experience and skills, and there are plenty of platforms out there which can help you achieve just that.

Merry Christmas Markets!

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a tasty foodie gift. Thankfully, Carine will be selling a multitude of delicious stocking fillers at a number of Christmas Markets across London this month.

This Friday she will be heading to Wimbledon High School from 3-5:30pm and these are some of the delicious things you can hope to find… if you get there quick enough!

Hot Chocolate Sticks

Choose from triple chocolate or chocolate with marshmallows – these cocoa treats are perfect for winter. Simply swirl them into a cup of warm milk for the best hot chocolate yet.

And, even better, tune into the blog or our YouTube channel next week, and we’ll show you how to make a version of these yourself!

The Green Sauce

Curious about this “green sauce” we keep talking about? The top-seller in Carine’s Marie’s Little Jar line will be available to sample at each of her Christmas markets!

Also available will be her hot-hot-hot chilli sauce, The Red Sauce. With a delicious, aromatic flavour like nothing you’ve come across before, this one is not for the fainthearted!

Peanut Candy

A childhood favourite from her home in Cameroon, if you’ve never had peanut candy before you are in for a treat! These Peanuts roasted with sugar are the ultimate moreish nibble. You may want to get more than one packet…

Carine will also be selling lovingly-packaged Christmas hampers so, if you can’t pick just one thing…you don’t have to! The ideal Christmas gift for a food-loving someone who wants to try something a little different. 

Come say hello in Wimbledon on Friday or keep your eye on our Twitter account for other upcoming markets!

Urban Foraging - Chestnuts

Chestnuts are a fabulous, wintry ingredient which can be used in all sorts of Christmassy recipes – whizz them into your stuffing for a little earthiness, add them to a nut-roast for your vegetarian friends, or simply roast them and eat them with a little salt. You can buy chestnuts in your local supermarket for around £1 for 100g, perhaps a little more or less if you go for a trendy farmers’ market, but we’re going to give you a few tips on how to find them for free, right on your doorstep!

Carine loves to forage, be it for windfall plums spotted by someone’s garden, or mushrooms in the woods of Sweden, there is nothing she likes better than to be out of doors, looking for food. And chestnuts are some of her favourites which can be found in the heart of London, so she took us urban foraging to demonstrate.

The two locations she chose this week were Clapham Common and Putney Heath – both medium-sized green havens most commonly used by dog-walkers and families with small children. I’d love to tell you exact locations, but Carine has sworn me to secrecy – partly because part of the fun is stumbling across these treasure troves yourself and partly because...Carine doesn’t want you stealing all her chestnuts! She spotted the trees on Clapham Common one day when she was taking her daughter to playgroup and it goes to show how little these natural foodbanks are signposted.

Here are a few tips to follow to ensure you find a bumper crop:

1) When it comes to nuts, there is a high possibility that a squirrel or two will beat you to it. Since they need the food too, we don’t suggest you fight them off, just try to go early on in the season and there will be enough for you both.

2) Make sure you know the difference between the chestnuts you can roast and eat (“sweet chestnuts” - larger) and the chestnuts you make conkers with (smaller). Take a look at our pictures to be sure.

3) You’re going to need gloves because chestnuts can be very spiky – if you don’t have suitable hand-wear, place your chestnut on the ground and gently prise them open with your feet, rolling them around a bit first with your foot to loosen them up.

4) Try to go for ones which are already starting to open – this shows they are ripe.

5) Chestnuts often come with three or so inside – two little ones and one big one, go for the biggest.

And there you have it! The perfect winter day out – pick your area, bring the family (and plenty of gloves) and go exploring! You don’t need to look just for chestnuts either, while we were out, we also found some apples and Carine plans to whip something up using them both. So keep an eye out for that and, until next time, happy foraging!

And, to see a bit more, check out Carine's YouTube channel HERE.

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