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ngredients
A small panettone, 500g
500ml milk
250ml double cream
4 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
125g caster sugar
100g cooked chestnuts
1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp crystallised stem ginger, cut into small cubes
1 tbsp glacé cherries, cut into small pieces
1 tsp finely chopped angelica

Method
● Place the milk in a saucepan together with the vanilla pod, split in two with its seeds scraped into the milk, and the chestnuts broken into smaller pieces. Bring gently to the boil, simmer for a moment and then allow to cool.
● Combine the whole eggs and the egg yolks together with the cream and sugar in a bowl and strain the cold milk over them and whisk together well. Mix together the chestnuts with the ginger, cherries and angelica in a separate bowl. Cut the panettone into four segments and then into slices a centimetre thick. Lay them overlapping in a shallow ovenproof dish, sprinkling the dry mixture over each slice but covering it with the next slice. Pour over the cream mixture and leave for ten minutes.
●Press the panettone back down into the cream mixture, sprinkle over a teaspoon of granulated sugar and bake in a preheated medium hot oven (Mark 6, 400F, 200C) for 25 minutes, by which time it should have puffed up and the custard set. Serve warm but not piping hot.

9 Simple Steps to Great Braised Meat

There are 9 basic steps to braising meat:

(1) Season the main ingredient with salt and pepper.

(2) Heat a few tablespoons of oil and/or butter in a heavy pan or Dutch oven.

(3) Saute meat or vegetables in the pan on medium-high heat until the meat browns.

(4) Deglace the pan by pouring broth, stock, wine or juice and scrape any pieces of meat that are stuck to the pan and stir.

(5) Add cooking liquid (water, stock, wine, juice or some combination) to the half-way point of the main ingredient.

(6) Cover and place the meat on the middle of a rack in an oven that has been pre-heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

(7) Cook until completely tender. This can range from 1 hour to 6 hours, depending on what you are cooking.

(8) Remove the pan from the oven and strain the meat and vegetables out of the liquid.

(9) Remove the excess fat floating in the liquid, and then reduce the sauce to desired thickness by cooking it down over low heat until it thickens. Or, make gravy by adding a mix of equal parts fat and flour (a roux).

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons peanut oil (I used extra virgin olive oil because that’s all I had)

2 ½ cups chopped onions

2 carrots cut into ¼ inch dice

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

Salt & pepper, to taste

4 pounds beef shanks, cut 1 ½ to 2 inches thick

2 ½ teaspoons ground coriander

1-teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 ¾ cups brown stock (beef stock)

1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk

1 cinnamon stick, 3 cardamom pods, lightly smashed and 2 bay leaves – wrapped in some cheesecloth

Freshly chopped cilantro for garnish

How to Make Braised Beef Shanks

Start by preheating the oven to 325 F. Heat a large enough Dutch oven or roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil. When the butter melts, add the onion, carrots, garlic and ginger.

Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the vegetables begin to soften. This should take about 10 minutes. Be sure to stir every once in a while so the vegetables don’t burn. Remove the vegetables from the pan and reserve.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan along with 1 tablespoon of oil and turn up the heat to medium high. When the butter melts, start browning the beef shanks on all sides. Don’t overcrowd the pan. If you can’t fit them all into the pan without touching each other, brown some separately. When all the shanks are brown, remove them and reserve them on a large plate.