Aromatic Beef & Sweet Potato Casserole

This aromatic casserole is guaranteed to make your taste buds work. It is sweet, tart with a hot kick but no flavour overpowers the other. It is just perfect. The vegetables are sweet ones like sweet potato and butternut squash although swede is quite peppery sometimes. I created this dish as I went through my herb & spice pantry which my awesome wife sorted for me lately. It seems that whenever I go to find something there I never do so she made sure that everything is sorted and easy to find. Oh, I'm so messy!! Anyway, give this casserole a go as something new and different from the norm. You can replace butternut squash with pumpkin as well. For about 6 servings you will need...

• 800g diced beef
• ½ large butternut squash, diced
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• ½ swede, diced
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 piece cinnamon stick
• 2 inch piece liquorice root
• 1 black cardamom pod, crushed
• 1 ½ teaspoons hot paprika
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 500ml beef stock
• 500ml water

How to...

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Heat oil in a cast iron casserole and add the beef. Cook the beef until brown, about 5 minutes.
3. Add vegetables, parsley, liquorice, cardamom, cinnamon & hot paprika and stir well. Cook for about 5-10 minutes.
4. Add stock & water, stir again.
5. Cover and put in oven for 3 hours.
6. Serve with mashed potatoes and extra chopped parsley.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Kawlata bix-Xikel tal-Majjal - Maltese Vegetable Soup with Pork Shank

For the majority of Maltese people, this is heaven in a bowl. It is a simple dish made out of the freshest vegetables and meat. If you are not so keen on the meat bit, just eliminate the pork shank, although this has now turned into another recipe as a Kawlata  without meat is called Minestra. Anyway, I could not resist when we got our vegetables box delivered and saw all that colourful and fresh produce in front of me, I had to prepare a good old Maltese vegetable soup. When we do this, we do a huge pot of it and in fact the amount of ingredients that we prepared for it were enough to fill a very large pot. After we just freeze what is left in portions, although if eating during the following days just store it in the fridge for a couple of days and reheat as necessary. In Malta it is traditional to serve it with grated cheese and Maltese crusty bread. The best thing about this soup is that when I chop the vegetables I chop them roughly to give the soup a very rustic look :) Also, slow cooking makes sure that all the flavours infuse together. We use the a cured pork shank for this soup, this can also be found labelled Ham Hock or Ham Shank here in England. It gives the soup a delicious flavour and when the soup is cooked, you can flake the meat it in the soup as Amanda likes it or else after having a bowlful [or two] of soup, eating it on the side with some bread. Heaven!! Well, enjoy making it, the ingredients list is very versatile and the amounts can be changed depending on the size of the pot. For a huge pot you will need...

• 1 Pork/Ham shank
• 3 large Potatoes, roughly diced
• ½ butternut squash or 500g pumpkin, diced
• 1 small Cabbage, chopped
• 1 courgette or Marrow, diced
• 4 small Onions, split into 4 pieces
• 1 small Cauliflower, split into florets
• 4 Carrots, diced
• 1 Turnip or ½ a swede, diced
• 100g Pulse mix or yellow split peas (pre-soaked overnight or longer)
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 vegetable or pork stock cubes or stockpots 
• 75g of small shaped pasta such as ditalini
• Salt & pepper
• 2 litres of water

How to...

1. To start with, put the pulse mix or yellow split peas in a small pan cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Drain and set aside. 
2. At the bottom of the large pot, put the shank, skin part down and then add all the other ingredients, apart from the pasta. Give the pot a stir with a wooden spoon. 
3. Bring to the boil on a medium heat and then turn heat to low and simmer for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. About 10-15 min before turning off heat, add the pasta and cook until pasta is done. Serve with grated cheese and some crusty bread!

Enjoy!!

R&A