August 2013 - Roasted Root Vegetable Stew

I lost my cooking mojo a while ago which, subsequently, made me lose my blogging mojo. 

I have actually made two things from this issue. Although I accidentally deleted the photo of Curtis Stone's Sherry-braised pork shoulder with asiago mash from my camera card by accident. I thought I had already downloaded it, turned out I hadn't. Not that it was much of a loss of a photo. While the dish was fabulous with lots of flavour with a tang from the sherry and sherry vinegar. The meat was melty and oozy but it didn't really photograph well. It really looked like I had just dumped it on the plate, splat. With the mash I used a combination of potato and sweet potato and because I couldn't get asiado cheese I used their suggestion of mozzarella. I am not sure I would worry about the cheese in the mash again. It was lovely but the pork dish was already rich and since the mash was made using cream the addition of cheese was just a bit much for me. It made enough at there was plenty left over but I vac packed and froze them. I could take one out and photograph it but it would probably look worse. 

The other dish that I made was Jamie Oliver's Roasted Root Vegetable Stew with Herby Couscous. This was really good. Although I have to question the use of butternut pumpkin in something called "root vegetable" but hey, it tasted good. It also called for celeriac and on the day they only ones available were really soft, spongy and very sad looking so I bought some turnip instead. Since there was a decided lack of green in the dish I added some halved brussels sprouts when roasting. They ended up a bit dark so I think I would either do them whole next time or would add them in a bit later. The couscous went with it beautifully. This is one I would definitely make again. It was especially good after a couple of days without too many veg included with meals. 

Roasted Root Vegetable Stew with Herby Couscous

1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped 

1/4 butternut pumpkin, chopped 

2 carrots, chopped 

2 turnip, chopped 

6-8 baby brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

Splash red wine vinegar (I used raspberry) 

1 tsp dried thyme

1/3 c olive oil 

1 red onion, sliced 

1 bay leaf

1 rosemary sprig, leaves chopped 

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp tomato paste 

400g can tomatoes 

2 c (500ml) vegetable stock

Couscous

1/4 c couscous

1/2 bunch parsley, chopped 

lemon juice

Combine root veg, tbsp oil, vinegar and thyme. Roast at 200 C for 40 min or until just cooked. 

In a saucepan cook red onion for 5 min over low heat. Add bay leaf, rosemary and flour and cook for a further 5 min or until onion is soft. Add tomato paste and cook for 2 min. Add tomatoes & 400 ml stock. Simmer for 20 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add roasted veg and then cook a further 10 min. 

For couscous: add couscous and remaining 100ml hot stock to a bowl and cover and stand for 5 min. Add parsley and squeeze lemon juice.