BONE STOCK PHO

A glorious bowl that hugs and loves you back, this wonderful yet simple dish is loaded with super health giving properties that boost your immune and detox your system, there is nothing you won't love about this dish.  Gorgeous thin ribbons of steak and thai noodles bathed in a seasoned broth with star anise, lemongrass, ginger and a hint of cinnamon.

Pho is made from roasting beef and marrow bones and making a simple yet packed with flavour stock that you then build your dish around, you can also make your Pho broth with left over roast chicken or roast pork bones.  Building your dish traditionally you would add to your bowl noodles, beansprouts, thinly sliced rare beef, sliced chillies ladle of the beef bone stock, a dash of fish sauce and lemon juice finished with a sprinkling of fresh coriander.

Prep 15 minutes / Un-attended cooking time 3 hours / Assembly time 5 minutes

make my broth up in advance the reason for this is two fold, firstly I like to store my broth in the fridge so that once it has gone cold and jelly set I can scoop of the fat and discard and secondly it is ready to go for quick and speedy suppers during the week, I can have a gorgeous healthy meal on the table in under five minutes.

Ingredients

(serves 2)

Beef Broth

2 beef knuckle/leg bones

1 marrow bone

2 carrots scrubbed

2 sticks celery rough chopped

1 leek rough chopped

3 star anise

1 stick lemongrass bashed

1/2 stick cinnamon

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 onions halved

1 lemon halved

3" piece ginger halved

To Serve

6oz piece of rib or fillet beef

(allow 20 minutes chill time before use)

1 tsp coconut or ground nut oil

1 handful beansprouts

2 spring onions

1 red chilli

Noodles cooked

1 tbsp fresh coriander

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp lemon juice

First pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees to roast your beef bones for approx one hour, no need to do this if you are using left over roast beef bones.  Place the roasted bones and all the gorgeous scrapings from the roasting tin into a deep saucepan, add three litres of water and bring to a gentle simmer.  Meanwhile in a frying pan on a medium heat and caramelise the onion, ginger and lemon, this releases their natural sugars and adds another depth of flavour to the broth, add these to the stock saucepan along with the rest of the broth ingredients, carrots, celery, leek, star anise, lemongrass, cinnamon and fish sauce.

Leave to gently simmer for three hours and skim off any scum that collects on the top, the slower you simmer the less scum will be produced and you will make a clearer purer stock.  Once your stock has bubbled away for three hours and reduced by half, increasing the depth of flavour, strain through a fine mesh sieve or muslin.

Heat a non stick frying pan to medium hot, rub the beef with a dash of oil and sear the fillet on all sides for two minutes for rare and four minutes for medium, take off the heat, wrap in clingfilm and place in the freezer for twenty minutes, this will firm up the beef making it much easier to thinly slice, while the beef chills, place 600ml of stock in a saucepan and bring to a just simmer, turn down to tick over, take your beef from the freezer and thinly slice into ribbons.

In your bowls place a handful of noodles, top with a handful of beansprouts, a sprinkling of spring onions, chillies and coriander, place the ribbons of beef piled high in the centre and then pour over your hot beef stock, adjust the seasoning if needed with a dash of fish sauce and or lemon juice then enjoy your bowl of goodness, health and happiness.

MAHI MAHI MANGO LIME TACOS

Gorgeous fresh zesty lime and chilli marinated Mahi Mahi served in a soft homemade taco, topped with a fresh zingy mango chilli and lime salsa finished off with a dollop of daisy sour cream and pan seared peppers, these are soooo gorgeous that I question why we don't eat them more often, this batch did not even make it to the table they were loaded and eaten right there on the kitchen centre island.  A perfectly messy family face stuffing taco moment to cherish.

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 7 minutes
Making Soft Tacos 7 mins / Resting time 30 minutes / Cooking time 2 minutes each

Ingredients

(serves 4)

600g Mahi Mahi (sustainable sourced)
2 good glugs of cold pressed olive oil

2 limes juiced

Sea salt and black pepper
2 large bunches watercress
1 pot sour cream
1 small bunch coriander

Mango and Lime Salsa

1 ripe mango peeled and finely diced

2 tomatoes finely diced

2 spring onions finely sliced

1 red chilli finely diced

2 tbsp fresh coriander chopped

1 red pepper chopped 1" squares
1/2 lime juiced

Soft Taco's
500g 00 flour
10g sea salt
50g olive oil
320g water

Place the Mahi Mahi in a bowl or food bag season with salt and pepper, pour over the olive oil and half the lime juice and leave to marinate while you make the taco dough.

If your making your own soft tacos then do this first, place all the ingredients in a large bowl with a dough hook or by hand in bring all the ingredients together, knead for five minutes and then cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Take your dough and divide in to 12 smaller balls, roll out to around 6-8" disks.  Heat a skillet to medium high heat and cook each soft taco for approx 1 minute on each side until slightly charred and puffed up, wrap in a warm tea towel to keep warm.

Heat your griddle to medium heat, rub the fish with the olive oil, sea salt and pepper, place on the griddle and leave to cook without touching for 2-3 minutes when you can see the fish is half way cooked by the colour change on the side, add the red pepper to the pan to sear, then turn the fish over and finish cooking for a further 2 minutes, take the pan off the heat, squeeze over the lime juice and leave to rest while you...

Make the mango salsa by combing all the chopped ingredients and season with sea salt and pepper then the lime juice, place in a serving bowl on your table along with the warm tacos, bowls of watercress, sour cream and side of coriander.

Serve the fish and pan seared peppers on a large family sharing platter then just let everyone dive in and load their own tacos just how they like them...

DIRTY LOADED MASHED POTATOES WITH STEAK BUTTER GRAVY

WARNING...EAT IN PRIVACY!

My face just wants to fall straight into this glorious plate of can’t stop eating creamy cheesey bacon loaded butter steak gravy mashed potatoes, best eaten alone in privacy or with people who love you and with a spoon so you can maximise the load on each mouthful.  The dirty steak gravy is a touch decadent but so worth it, juicy steak and dirty mash a gorgeous dinner.

20 minutes cooking time/ Super easy

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

1 kg Idaho potatoes peeled and rough chopped

1 453g tub Philadelphia cream cheese

2 sticks of butter

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

12 rashers natural un smoked bacon

4 spring onions finely chopped

300g 4 mix Mexican cheese

Steak n Gravy

Optional!

1 - 2 10 oz ribeye steaks

1 glug olive oil

1 stick butter room temperature 

500ml beef bone stock

200ml Madeira

All the resting juices from the steak

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

Sea salt and black pepper

Dirty Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Place the potatoes in a large pan of simmering water with a generous pinch of salt.  Cook the bacon crispy, chop and reserve to one side along with the chopped spring onions.  When the potatoes are fork tender around 20 minutes drain and leave to steam in the colander for 5 minutes, place back in the pan the lowest heat, add the butter and cream cheese, salt, pepper and apple cider vinegar, mash to a smooth consistency.

Steak n Gravy

While the potatoes are cooking heat a shallow skillet hot, rub the steaks with olive oil and the whole stick of softened butter, sear each steak for 1 minute on each side then turn the heat down to medium and finish cooking for a further 1-2 minutes each side for medium rare, spoon the butter over the steaks basting them as they cook, take the pan of the heat and leave the steaks to rest for at least 15 minutes.

Remove the steaks and slice on the diagonal, any juices on the chopping board scrape back into the pan.  Add the three tablespoons of butter to the pan and melt on a medium heat, add the flour and stir in until smooth, cook this roux for 5 minutes stirring all the time.  For a quick option add the stock and Madeira to the roux and gently whisk until combined.  Bring to a simmer which will thicken the gravy, season with salt and pepper.  For a more intense flavour reduce the stock by one third and the Madeira by half before adding.

To Finish Loaded Potatoes 

Mix half the Mexican cheese, bacon and spring onions into the mashed potatoes, stir to combine, serve the potatoes on to a platter then top with the remaining cheese and bacon, pop under the grill/broiler for a few minutes just to melt the cheese, remove and sprinkle over the spring onions.

Going Dirty !

Prepare the potatoes as above but before adding the final cheese, bacon and spring onions, (or mix everything in) make several wells in the potatoes with the back of a ladle,  pour in some steak gravy, layer the sliced steaks over the top then optional top with the remaining cheese, bacon, pop under the gril/broiler for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese, sprinkle over the spring onions and enjoy.