Soilman's Allotment Blog

Pork and bean casserole

There's something wonderful about pulling parsnips and carrots from the ground, fresh, and dicing them into a stew. Tonight's winter staple is pork and bean casserole:

Ingredients
A large double handful of lean pork, diced
Two large onions, chopped
One and half large carrots and a whopping parsnip (see above), all chopped
A large double handful of black beans (or pinto beans)
1 tablespoon flour

Method
Soak the beans overnight. In a heavy casserole, fry the pork in some oil until it starts to brown. Add the onions and flour and fry for two minutes. Add all the other ingredients, plus a bouquet garni and a pint of good stock. Cook in a low oven for two hours, stirring occasionally. Add more stock if it gets too dry.

A Spanish version would leave out the root veg and substitute chorizo sausage and butter beans for the pork and black beans. Plus red wine and paprika. Yum, yum.

Celeriac dauphinoise

Now for the hard part: getting rid of all the celeriac. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE it. But the wife gets a bit restive the fourth or fifth time we eat it à la rémoulade, so I have to get creative.

The answer is to add it to gratin dauphinoise. It's easy, delicious and a wonderful way to use up celeriac. Simply slice some potatoes (Desirée works well) and celeriac very thinly. Wash the spud slices in cold water to get the starch out. Pat dry.

Now arrange the potato and celeriac slices in alterating layers in a buttered, oven-proof dish. On top of each layer, scatter a crushed clove of garlic and some salt and pepper. Pour single cream over the whole (stop when the cream level is about an inch below the topmost slice).

Bake for 90 mins at about 150 degrees in the very top of the oven. I put grated gruyère cheese on top 20 mins before I take it out:

Here's one I made earlier

Today is a first: a Soilman recipe.

It's a Russian salad called, oddly, 'Vinaigrette' (Russian takes many words from French and slightly 'misuses' them).

It has three great attractions: a) it's cheap, b) it's a great way to use surplus root vegetables at this time of year, and c) it's rather tasty.

Cooked ingredients: Two large beetroots, about five big carrots and two medium potatoes (all boiled)

Raw ingredients: A small can of peas (or fresh peas if you have them), five or six pickled gherkins, one onion

Method: Simply cut all the veg into tiny cubes and mix them up with chopped dill and three tablespoons of oil. Season to taste.

The chopping is, I should admit, a pain. But the end result is healthy and nice. And it keeps in the fridge for up to a week.