Grillade des marinières du Rhône

A real meal at last.

I managed a quickie readymix Indian dinner on Tuesday, which turned out rather well. I used tandoori paste to coat some lamb and mushroom kebabs, and made a side veggie curry with a tin of crushed tomatoes, a packet of frozen peas, carrots & cauliflower, a tin of kidney beans, and some rogan josh paste. Add basmati rice, a few pappadams, and some yoghurt and chutney for a decent work-night meal.

But the star of the week was the Grillade that we ate last night. This is a recipe from Elizabeth David's An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. It's supposed to be a casserole made by busy boatmen, who needed to put a dish on to cook and then ignore it while they worked. I've made it enough times now that the recipe is in my head. One day I must check and see how different it has become.

You need about 1kg beef. I like to use a topside or silverside roast. Remove fat and tendon, and slice it thickly into small steaks of around 50-100g each. Slice 2 large onions. Put one third of the onion in the bottom of a casserole dish; add a layer of half the meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with onion, meat and onion again on top. Now make a paste of 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour, and dot that in pieces over the top. Seal with buttered brown paper and put the lid on. Bake in a slow oven for 2 hours.

The next step is to make a salad dressing! Mix 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 3 chopped anchovies, a finely chopped clove of garlic, and a handful of chopped parsley. Stir this into the casserole, and bake for another half hour. Done! Serve with new potatoes and steamed green veggies, or just with good bread and a green salad. Serves 4-6.

I was out of parsley this time, so I used rosemary instead - the kind that comes as a paste in a tube. While I mostly prefer to use fresh herbs, this is an exception. Fresh rosemary is too spiky and tough to use this way.

Cooking today: Nothing, we have leftovers and we're going out to the Night Markets.