Shin of Beef

Yesterday I cooked a shin of beef, bought from a farmers market. The ingredients depend on what you have in the house (or choose to buy in advance)

Ingredients

1 shin of beef of a size to fit into your pan
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed (I only had one)
2 leeks, cleaned, with dark green bits removed, and the rest sliced into narrow rounds
1 celery (small) or 2 or 3 stems from a large one sliced thinly
1 large onion chopped finely
2 Kallo Just Bouillon beef stock cubes dissolved in a pint of boiling water

Method

Put all the vegetables into a stockpot
Add bouillon mix until vegetables are just covered
Place shin on top
Bring to the boil then simmer gently for about 4 hours
Leave all in the pan until cooled.

I have an induction hob (boast, boast) and usually simmer vegetables at setting 2, but for this I turned it down after about half an hour to 1 so that it was barely bubbling.

Remove the meat to a plate and slice. (or just divide up as it is meltingly soft) The fat round the outside is so easy to remove and discard.

I had a small shin and divided the meat into enough for two meals with the rest cut up into the beef and vegetable soup, which is what is left in the pot.

Eat some of the soup over a day or two and leave the rest for later.

Pumpkin Terrine

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

1 pumpkin (6 or 7 lb, 8 in diameter)
1 cup finely diced onion
2 slices rye bread, diced
½ cup(packed) grated Swiss cheese
2 tsp prepared horseradish
1 ½ cup milk
1 – 2 cups vegetable stock
salt, black pepper, cayenne, nutmeg to taste

Optional rye croutons
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Method

Preheat oven to 350 F

Prepare the pumpkin as though you were going to make a lantern, but stop short of carving the face, cut off the top, remove the seeds and stringy stuff

Place onion, bread, cheese, horseradish and mustard inside the pumpkin, mix with your hands until well combined
Add milk and stock (as much as you can fit in) along with the seasoning, stir it up

Line the pumpkin lid with a piece of foil, place it on top, place the filled pumpkin on an ungreased baking tin.

Bake until the pumpkin is tender (about 2 hours or so).

To test for tenderness, remove the lid and gently stick a fork into the side, it should go in easily

To serve, scoop deeply to bring some pumpkin pieces from the sides and bottom along with the soup. If desired top with croutons.