January's 'beat the blues' dinner

So, this is a week or so late but here goes January's dream meal. A mix of recipes, Hugh's, mine and mum's. A dinner party winner or a family meal treat. This isn't an elegant meal but it is hearty, warm and you can prep almost everything well in advance. Also, the soup freezes well and the casserole can do a few days in the fridge as leftovers! Serves 6-8.....

Starter: Beetroot and Feta soup

Beetroot is in season in January and quite frankly food of the Gods. A pain in the arse to peel but a pair of disposable gloves soon sorts this out. The link above takes you to the recipe which I am not going to rewrite however, I think Hugh has a few things wrong! Firstly, if you have a food processor, peel the beetroot and shred it in the food processor before you cook it. Secondly, beetroot needs a lot longer than Hugh's 7-10mins. I find a good 20mins is necessary. Thirdly, nope, everything else is perfect!

Main: Rin's awesome Lamb casserole

Ingredients:

1-1.5kg stewing lamb (cubed)
1 onion (finely chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1-2 fresh chillies (finely chopped)
2 sweet potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1/2 punnet mushrooms (sliced)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 bottle of full-bodied red wine
Beef/lamb stock (approx 300ml)
Olive oil
A bit of flour
Salt, pepper
Herbs - rosemary, thyme, oregano or whatever else you might have.

To serve: 

Coucous
Mint sauce
Greens

Method:

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees (if you have 3 hours....) or 180 degrees if you need to eat sooner....
Get a big pot with a lid on the stove

In a mixing bowl, put a tablespoon or two of flour and toss in the lamb. Coat the lamb with the flour.
Heat up a glug (JO language) or two of olive oil in the pan and put in the lamb to brown the meat. Cook on a high heat until the lamb is brown. Now add the onion, garlic and chilli, turn the heat down a bit and cook until the onion has gone a bit glossy and see through (sweat).

Now add the sweet potato, mushrooms and can of tomatoes. Stir this all together and pour in as much of the bottle of red wine as you like - lamb can take it! You need to decide how thick / thin you want the casserole sauce. Make sure the meat is all well covered using either just wine or a combination of wine and stock - you choose! Season and add your herbs. I generally use dried herbs for casseroles and often just throw in a good bit of mixed herbs.

Once the pot is bubbling on the stove, pop the lid on and put it in the oven. Ideally you want to have it in the oven for 3 hours at 150 and I check mine every hour or so and add more wine / stock if it starts to reduce down too much. If you don't have 3 hours to spare, just cook at 180 for at least 90mins.

To serve, make up enough coucous to feed 6 and once ready, add a decent dollop of mint sauce and stir through. I realise this is cheating and I should have you chopping mint and finding vinegar etc but life is too short and mint sauce is yummy! Cook whatever greens you want to go with it. I usually do beans but beans at this time of year are horrid so peas or broccoli will work!

Dessert: Mum's awesome fridge cheesecake

Growing up in South Africa, this was always hailed as a real treat and saved for special occassions. I think that is because tinned mandarins in SA are (or were) really expensive. Here of course they are silly cheap so I have probably had this more in the last 12 years of my life than the first 24!

Ingredients:

Tennis biscuits (SA shop) or failing that dark chocolate digestives (1/2 pack)
melted butter
10ml gelatine
25ml cold water
250ml Philadelphia cream cheese
150ml lemon juice
300ml condensed milk
50ml boiling water
5ml vanilla extract
200ml cream
2 tins mandarin oranges

Method:

• Sprinkle the gelatine on the cold water and leave to soak
• Add gelatine mix to boiling water and stir until dissolved. Let this cool
• Meanwhile, line a cheesecake size dish with the tennis bisuits or......, if you want a true cheesecake base, blitz your chosen biscuits in the blender / food processor and then mix this with melted butter (you need to judge how much) and line the base of your dish to about 0.5/1cm
• Mix together the cottage cheese, condensed milk, vanilla essence and cooled gelatine mix. Once mixed, add the lemon juice very slowly and mix well. This should be a thin mixture
• Beat the cream until stiff and fold into the lemony mixture
• Pour this mixture onto your biscuit base, cover with clingfilm and pop in the fridge to set (at least an hour). 
• Once set and just before serving, drain the mandarins and arrange ontop of the cheesecake.

For a more elegant serving suggestion, crumble a biscuit into the base of about 6-8 small wine glasses, pour the mixture on top for individual servings.