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Chilly Outside? Warm Up with Some Comfort Food!

BY JAMIE OLIVER

Beef Stew Serves 4 Perfect Braised Spinach Chocolate Clafoutis with Caramelized Oranges Serves 6 to 8

(ARA) - When it gets chilly outside, my wife Jools goes mad for this stew and the kids love it, too. A side of braised spinach with chocolate clafoutis with caramelized oranges for dessert are the perfect comfort food companions for this delicious meal.

The beef stew is pretty straightforward, but I’ve added squash and Jerusalem artichokes, which partly cook into the sauce, making it really sumptuous with an unusual and wonderful flavor. Don’t worry if you can’t get hold of either of these ingredients. You can add various root vegetables and swap the potatoes for pearl barley or butter beans. And if wine doesn’t happen to be that close to home then a little stock, water or even a mild beer or Guinness can be really good substitutes.

The other great thing about this stew is that it gets put together very quickly. This is partly to do with the fact that I don’t spend any time browning off the meat. Even though this goes against all of my training, I experimented with two batches of meat and I browned one first before putting it in the stew and just used the other batch straight in the pot. The latter turned out to be the better stew, so I’ve stopped browning off the meat for all my stews these days.

A lovely thing to add when serving the stew up is a sprinkling of gremolata. This is a mixture of lemon zest, garlic and rosemary, and as soon as it hits the warm stew it really brings the flavors to life, so do try it.

Beef Stew - Serves 4

• Olive oil
• Knob of butter
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 handful of fresh sage leaves
• 1.75 pounds stewing steak
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Flour
• 2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved
• Optional: 1/2 butternut squash, halved, deseeded and diced into 2-inch chunks
• Optional: 1 handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved
• 1 pound new potatoes
• Optional: 2 to 3 artichokes, peeled and quartered
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1/2 bottle red wine
• 1 cup beef or vegetable stock

For the Gremolata

• Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• Small handful of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

To an appropriately sized pot or casserole pan, add a little oil and your knob of butter and slowly fry off your onion and all of the sage leaves for 3 or 4 minutes. Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato puree, wine and stock and gently stir together. Season generously with black pepper and just a little salt. Bring to a boil, place a lid on top, then put into the oven at 320 degrees until the meat is tender. Sometimes this takes 3 hours, sometimes 4. This can depend on what cut of meat you’re using and how fresh it is. The only way to test it is to mash up the meat, and if it falls apart easily then it’s ready.

Many times when I haven’t got time to make dinner in the evening, I just put this in the oven after breakfast, then clean up and go out for the day knowing that I’ll be coming home to a lovely dinner. Or, I just program the cook time and temperature for the beef stew on the “Favorites Cycle” on my Amana range. That way, Jools can get dinner started with the push of a button.

Once it’s cooked, you can turn the oven down to about 200 degrees and just hold it there until you’re ready to eat. With my Amana range, I just put the meat in the separate warming oven and it keeps it at just the right temperature while I prepare the rest of my meal.

The best way to serve this is by ladling big spoonfuls into bowls, accompanied by a glass of French red wine and some really fresh, warmed bread. It’s lovely when torn up and shared. Sprinkle some of the gremolata mix over the stew before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference -- and remember, you can always go back for more so don’t go over the top.

Perfect Braised Spinach

The simplest way to cook spinach is in a pan with a little olive oil, butter, a grating of nutmeg and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice with a lid on to let it steam. This will taste great, and it goes with just about anything -- pasta, fish or meat. If there is any excess moisture when the spinach is cooked, just tilt the pan so it runs to the other side and pour it away. Let the spinach sit for a minute and then serve.

Chocolate Clafoutis with Caramelized Oranges - Serves 6 to 8

The nice thing about this recipe is that the fruit accompanying it can be varied -- certain things work really well with chocolate, like oranges, clementines, apricots or cherries, so give them a try.

• 5 oranges
• 7 1/2 tablespoons best-quality dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa solids)
• 5 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup full cream milk
• 1/2 cup best-quality white chocolate, broken up
• 2 cups of crème fraiche

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. First zest 3 of your oranges, then carefully remove the outer peel and slice them across into wheel-shaped pieces just under 1/2-inch thick. Break the dark chocolate up, place in a small bowl and slowly melt it over some simmering water, giving it a stir once in a while with a spatula.

You will need a deep 8-inch metal tin or earthenware dish to cook the clafoutis in. Rub the inside of it with a little of the butter. To make the clafoutis, sift the flour into a separate bowl and add the almonds, half the sugar, the salt, eggs, yolks, orange zest and milk. Whisk up until smooth and then add the rest of the butter to the melting chocolate. Scrape all the melted chocolate and butter into the batter mix and put into your tin. Poke little pieces of white chocolate into the batter, then place the tin in the oven and bake for around 16 to 20 minutes. It will rise and should be firm around the edges but sticky and gooey in the middle. This doesn’t mean it’s undercooked . . . it means it’s perfect! So be careful not to overcook it or it will just be like a boring sponge. It’s so easy to check on this cake when it’s baking in my Amana range -- the EasyRack oven rack is shaped like a “U,” so I never have to worry about touching it.

While the cake is cooking, bring the other half of your sugar to a boil with about 6 tablespoons of water on a medium heat until you have a golden caramel. Remove from the heat, add the juice from your remaining oranges and stir it in to loosen the caramel syrup slightly. Arrange your oranges nicely on a plate, pour over the caramel and serve with your chocolate clafoutis and a bowl of crème fraiche.