Italian Sausage Stew - my prize-winning recipe

Yesterday we made the sad decision to cancel our holiday to visit family in South Africa.  Thank you very much furious Mr Volcano living in Iceland. 

This morning I checked my e-mail and I found a reason to smile.  My Italian Sausage Stew recipe has won the prize for best stew recipe on FoodsForFriendsYeah!

I've won a Julie and Julia DVD and cookbook.  I've been dying to see this film and I can certainly do with Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Food For Friends Yeah is a well designed, friendly and informative foodie community started by two foodie-friends.

Thanks so much - you've made my day!!!

Here is my prize-winning recipe:

This great stew is quick and easy to make. You can get in the door, chuck it all in one pot in 30 minutes, sit down with a glass of wine and 30 minutes later be tucking into a flavour-packed, comforting, rib-sticking stew. To make this gluten free I use gluten free sausages and Doves plain gluten free flour.

Serves 6

2 packs of pork sausages cut into meatball size pieces

2 smoked gammon steaks [approx 400g], cut into smallish lardon size cubes [ I also use a pack of smoked bacon cut into small pieces if I can't find any organic gammon steaks - as I only eat "happy" pigs]

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium or 1 very large onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced or finely chopped

250ml dry red wine

500ml of beef stock

100g of tomato paste

200g of pitted calamata olives

3 large for 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

3 large bay leaves

2 heaped tbsp of plain flour

salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

Large heavy bottomed saucepan or stove top friendly casserole dish

Method:

Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil over a moderate heat until transparent. Add the carrot and stir fry for a few more minutes.


Turn up heat and add the sausages and gammon. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir fry until meat is sealed.


Sprinkle the flour over contents of pot and stir for 1 minute. Add the red wine, stir and let the alcohol evaporate. Add tomato paste and stir some more to coat.

Add the beef stock, olives and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then either turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or if you’re using a casserole dish put into the oven at 160°C for 30 minutes.


Delicious served on mashed potato, polenta or brown rice along with some spring greens or broccoli on the side.

Gluten-Free Middle East Adventures

This Saturday I had a friend up from London for lunch.  In true mad-me style, I decided to serve three dishes which I've never done before.  She's a very old friend, so if everything went pear-shaped we could have popped in the car and retreated post haste to the nearest gastro-pub.

I made Moroccan Lamb Tagine from an Anthony Worrall-Thompson recipe [although being tagine free I used my trust LeCreuset casserole dish] - as usual I made some tweaks:

• I didn't have any of the argan oil he used, so I just used more olive oil
•  I didn't have lamb stock, so used Knorr vegetable stock granules instead
• Waitrose didn't have shoulder of lamb, so I used diced leg of lamb
• both Anthony and my friend are allergic to gluten, so I served the dish on brown rice instead of cous cous

I'm pleased to say it turned out great!  Rich, deep flavours, with melt in the mouth lamb and as an added bonus leftovers tasted even better the next day.

On Saturday morning I decided that just having the stew and rice would be a bit too "brown" and also a bit too "soft" on the palate - so I decided at the last minute to make tabbouleh as an accompaniement.    Aaaah, but bulgar wheat is well ..... wheat, so another no, no.  So I used quinoa instead.  This "gold of the incas" worked really well. 

Having recently ordered tabbouleh in my favourite Lebanese restaurant Noura, in central London, I realised that the salad is a lot better with very little bulgar wheat involved.  To the point where it makes up about 5% of the dish and the salad has white flecks and is mainly a luscious green.    So I only used half a cup of quinoa.

For dessert I served Cinammon and Wine Poached Pears.  I missed out the caramelisation stage, because I tried twice and the butter and sugar wouldn't caramelise, it split. [No idea why].   However, having just the pears, syrup and marscapone worked beautifully.  I couldn't find the wine they recommended on the shelf at Wiatrose, so used this one.  This dessert was light, had a wonderful depth of flavour and is going to become a favourite.

Having friends over makes me push the boat out and thank goodness I have three more "fall back" recipes for entertaining in future.

Photos courtesy of:  Flickr.com - creative commons - sundaydriver & dumin