Chilli's

Boef Bourgignone.

I made this on holiday a few weeks back. I
start with 8oz of lardons fried in the Dutch Oven.

I then add 8oz each of chopped onion, celery,
carrots and a few chopped cloves of garlic.


A bottle of Burgundy or any nice red wine, and
a couple of pounds of rump steak.

Fry the steak hard to seal in the juices.

Deglaze the pan with some of the wine.

Add the beef, the rest of the wine, and some
good beef or veal stock.

Spend a wee bit of time skimming off any
surface fat.

Dont use salt at this stage, plenty comes from
the lardons.


Caramelise some shallots and button mushrooms
using olive oil and a wee bit of sugar.

Add them about 10 minutes before serving,
with a handful of chopped herbs and freshly
ground pepper. Nice with crusty French bread
and red wine.

The Mrs and I at the wedding of her
nephew Steven. The kilt outfit is a
simple black, with the Dress Gordon
tartan tie. Do'nt we look cute!!

We recently visited the Railway Museum at York.
The highlight of the trip for me was the
Bullet Train exhibit, Fantastic!!

How to make Halep.

This is my own version of a popular dish from the Agakan Turkish Restaurant in Perth Road, Dundee. They use donner meat, but here I'm using pork fillet, marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and steak seasoning powder. I give it a good stir to coat the meat and leave it for a while to soak in.

Meanwhile, I'm gently frying some sliced onion, green chilli and garlic in a mixture of olive oil and unsalted butter.

In another pan I fry some chopped chilli in olive oil.

Careful not to burn the onions.

The chilli's are cooked and the flavour infused into the oil so now I add some tomato puree, salt, sugar, water and garlic to taste. Make sure that you have at least 3/4 of a pint because the bread soaks up lots of liquid.

The onions are slightly caramelised now so I add some chopped toasted pitta bread in a layer on top of them.

The chilli/tomato sauce is now ready so a handful of chopped coriander/cillantro is added and the sauce poured over the onion and pitta bread mix.

Let it simmer for a wee while to soak up the chilli sauce.

Meanwhile, I've been gently frying the marinated pork fillet. Let me say at this stage that this dish works equally well with chicken, beef, lamb, kofta's even nice butchers sausages

Quite a bit of liquid comes out of the pork and marinade so be patient and allow it to gently dry out. Do'nt let it burn.

All of the liquid has now been absorbed and the meat is covered in a sort of paste made from the marinade.

The meat is now ready to be placed on the onion and pitta bread, and placed under the grill for a few minutes to caramelise.

This dish works very well with humous, rice, salad and toasted pitta bread.

I did this just for you, Susan Burnett...