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Grazing on England’s green and pleasant land |
Camden food and drink | review | Claire Latimer's recipe for peppered steak
Clare Latimer says there’s no harm in occasionally giving in to our cravings
I WAS shocked to read that the Camden Sustainability Task Force is considering a recommendation to reduce the amount of meat and dairy available on sites controlled by Camden Council (Letters, April 10).
By all means try to keep Camden greener but don’t try to change the lay of the countryside. For example, a livestock farmer in Cornwall can’t use his land for anything except grazing animals or growing animal feed.
But more important is that “the green and pleasant land” comes from animal farming and this is the only way that birds, bees and butterflies will be able to exist.
Do we want all our beautiful countryside to have tractors chucking out diesel and making arable planes throughout the land? I am all for the task force helping green matters in Camden but please leave the countryside to those who know.
Peppered steak
My mum, who is now 90, has a yearning to eat red meat, very dark chocolate, a small whisky and a glass of red wine every day along with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Her “gut reaction” has made her look better than she has looked in years. I believe in giving what your own body yearns for, in moderation.
Ingredients
Serves 2
1 teasp whole black pepper corns
2 sirloin or fillet steaks 200g each
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp brandy
Splash red wine
Salt.
Method
Start by crushing the peppercorns very coarsely with a pestle and mortar (or use the back of a tablespoon and crush them in a bowl).
Now take a shallow dish, large enough to hold two steaks comfortably side by side.
Pour the olive oil mixed with the clove of crushed garlic into a large, shallow dish and coat each steak evenly on both sides with the crushed peppercorns. Place the steaks in the dish and then turn over so each side is well covered with the oil, garlic and oil mixture. Cover and leave them aside for several hours, turning them over once.
When you are ready to eat the steaks, heat a heavy-based frying pan to a very hot heat. Put each steak straight into the pan and keeping the heat high, and turn them once after one minute.
Then lower the heat and cook them how you like. Either “blue”, which means only a flash in the pan to produce a very rare steak; for medium rare give them three more minutes, and for well done, four more minutes.
One minute before the end of your chosen time, pour in the brandy and then the wine. Let it bubble and reduce down to about one-third of its original volume and scrape up all the brown gooey bits from the pan. Grind over some salt and serve the steaks with new potatoes and perhaps some fresh spinach.
Pour the sauce over the steaks.
Moroccan chicken in filo
This is a great quick and easy supper dish. All ingredients can be kept in the freezer and store cupboard.
You can use frozen spinach blocks and just thaw before using.
Serve with a tomato, red onion and little gem salad.
Ingredients
Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
50g butter, melted
2 chicken breasts, skin removed and cut up
1 teasp ground
cinnamon
Small handful raisins
50g pine nuts
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Good handful fresh spinach, washed well and stalks removed
100g filo pastry.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.
Put the olive oil and one third of the butter into a large frying pan and add the chicken.
Fry over a gentle heat until the chicken turns opaque.
Add the cinnamon, raisins and pine nuts and then season and mix well. Remove from the heat and stir in the spinach leaves.
Melt the remaining butter in a small pan and brush the inside of a 20cm metal or china quiche dish.
Unwrap the filo pastry and brush the top layer with the melted butter and then place into the quiche tin with the edges overlapping.
Repeat with the rest of the layers and melt more butter if necessary.
Spoon the chicken mixture into the pastry case and then bring in the overlapping pastry and scrunch together closing up the pie. Brush butter over the top.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
Serve warm, cut into slices like a cake.
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