Roast beef

The cut is called topside here, it's just behind the tail and it's very lean. The indigenous cook it for hours at a high temperature until until it achieves that acclaimed brick-like texture. Not having mastered that technique yet though I chose to cook it a low temperature until 60 degrees in the centre. Since the cut is so lean you need to add some fat for cooking; this was done by tying a herb infused layer of fat around the roast. The tying was done by the farm, the infusion by me.

With the beef two types of cabbage cooked with fennel and white wine, extremely fresh and tasty.

Gulyás

Gulyás (pronounced Gooy-ush, more or less) is the national dish of Hungary and I've been wanting to give it a go for some time. Finally I convinced one of my Hungarian friends to reveal the secret recipe that - if I understood it right - originates from 12th century Transylvania and has been passed on from generation to generation since.

The dish is essentially beef soup with pasta balls but the original flavouring (paprika and caraway seeds) gives it a bite. I thought it could have done with some garlic but the recipe explicitly forbade that.

All in all a very nice dish with a pleasant aftertaste that stays for a long time. It did make me very thirsty though and water doesn't seem to help, not sure what will...

Boeuf Bourguignon

Good for a rainy day, because it takes almost all day. A mountain stage at the giro works too. Today we had both, how glorious! You can find the recipe anywhere.

I'm watching Julie & Julia while writing this and just as I was typing the title there was a scene about this dish, spooky.

With it some homemade bread, another consequence of the rain and giro combo. Ingredients are water, flour and yeast, and an egg. Here is a picture of one of the loaves.

Pasta with pork & tomato sauce

Pork belly, tomatoes and lots of herbs: parsley, sage and oregano because that is what is available right now in the garden. Very quick and simple and the herbs (when I say a lot I mean A LOT) make the sauce rich and tasty.

Pork roast with an enormous broccoli salad

The pork - shoulder - was roasted for a very long time on a very low temperature. It came out nice and juicy, luckily. The broccoli salad is simply broccoli, oil, garlic and lemon. Cook broccoli only briefly, if it's fresh it's best nearly raw.

Pasta with asparagus

Homemade gnocchetti with asparagus sauce and their tips. The gnocchetti were made using the standard gnocchi attachment. The sauce is very simple but the taste is incredible if you use good fresh asparagus. The exact recipe must not be written down but instructions will be given face to face on request.

Kebab with white cabbage

I assume it's ok to call these Kebab. It's minced lamb mixed with oregano, parsley, sage, mint and garlic, shaped into small sausages and fried in oil.

The cabbage was braised in butter and white wine together with pak choi and a hint of goats cheese for a little extra ovisian emphasis.

Please note the chip in the plate; this was done on purpose to create a rural shepherdian atmosphere. If you serve this at a dinner party do try to crack each plate in a different place. There's also some rice on the plate but I'd recommend skipping that as it didn't really fit.

Lamb casserole

A rustic stew from lamb, beans, tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and rosemary. It cooks itself more or less, but since it has beans in it you need to plan a day ahead.

Tagliatelle al Ragu

The ragu was made from minced beef and pork, onion, celery, carrots, parsnip (for that local touch), wine and beef stock. Everything except the wine, and salt, pepper and oil obviously, was home made or bought from local organic producers; as in having organic production I mean.

Tagliatelle is very simple to make yourself if you have a pasta machine. If you don't have one it takes a little bit longer but it's still worth the effort. The one thing you have to be careful with is to have everything ready before cooking the pasta as it cooks in less than a minute and needs to be mixed with the sauce immediately. Here's a little something to listen to while rolling the pasta dough.