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Beef Daube Recipe from Lancaster House Head Chef

Damien Ng shows us how to make a great value winter favourite

I have always been of the opinion that when it comes to planning a great meal, sometimes its best to look to the past rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. Every chef boasts about their “own interpretations” or “contemporary twists” on dishes. But for me personally, you’d be hard pressed to beat a true classic that’s been around for generations. Something your Gran might have made. Something that evokes warm, childhood memories of happy times at the family dinner table.

With this is mind, here’s a dish we’ve reincarnated recently at Lancaster House, and what’s more, it’s incredibly easy and also relatively cheap to make.

Beef Daube in a Guinness & Red Wine Stew and “Real” Dumplings (For 2)

Ingredients

For the Stew For the Dumplings
  • 2 Beef Daubes diced into 1½ cm cubes
  • 1 Large Diced Onion
  • 1 Small Swede & 2 carrots cut into 1cm cubes
  • 2 celery sticks (roughly chopped)
  • 3 Tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
  • 2 glasses of red wine
  • 2 cans of Guinness or stout
  • 25g Fresh Thyme (finely chopped)
  • ½ bulb of garlic (crushed)
  • Beef-based Thickening agent
  • 4½ oz of Self Raising Flour
  • 1½ oz of Beef Suet
  • ¼ tspn of Salt
  • 1 tbsp of Chopped Parsley
  • ½ tbsp of Fresh Thyme
  • 2 Cloves of Garlic
  • 3½ fl/oz of water

Method

  1. Place all the ingredients (except the thickening agent) for the stew in a deep sauté or good non-stick saucepan
  2. Add the red wine and the Guinness and make sure there is enough to cover all the ingredients, bearing in mind some of the liquid will evaporate during cooking. If you need to add more wine, then feel free to do so. (You can never have too much of a good thing I say!)
  3. Bring the pan to boil. Once it’s reached boiling, turn the heat down and let it simmer for at least 1 hour, or until the meat is tender.
  4. For the dumplings, place all your carefully weighed out ingredients (except the water) into a bowl and make a “well” in the middle of it. Now add the water and mix with your hands to make into a nice soft, spongy dough.
  5. Clean and dry your hands thoroughly. Now add a little flour to cover the inside of your hands and roll out 6 balls of the dough mixture into round dumplings
  6. As soon as the meat is tender, start adding some of your thickening agent (Bisto is good). But don’t thicken it too much as you don’t want it to burn after you’ve added your dumplings
  7. Now, the most important part. Season with Salt & Pepper (to your own liking) and add the dumplings to the pan and keep on a low heat for another 15-20 minutes. The dumplings should rise a little.
  8. Serve into a bowl accompanied with your favourite vegetables. I’d go for some nice creamy mash and green beans. Hope you’ve also saved a little red wine to accompany your meal

 

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Top Tenor Launches Season of Song

I was expecting an evening of fine operatic singing. After all, Nicky Spence is hailed as ‘Scotland’s top tenor’ and has been getting some excellent reviews of late. I was not expecting to be so thoroughly entertained by Nicky’s quick wit, humour and engaging repartee. His personality and performance launched the Low Wood Bay Events Calendar beautifully and set the stage for an excellent season of top class entertainment.

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20 course red rose menu to celebrate Lancashire Day

Lancaster House Foodworks RestaurantLancaster House will be celebrating Lancashire Day and its 20th Birthday in true red-rose style this Sunday by offering a Lancashire Sunday Lunch menu with a difference.

To mark the county’s big day and the hotel’s two decades in business, Lancaster House is serving a 20-course Lancashire tasting menu on Lancashire Day, November 27th at the very special price of just £20.  It’s thought to be the largest tasting menu ever served in the county.

Just 20 places are available for the exclusive meal which will be served in the Hotel’s Lancashire-themed Foodworks Restaurant from 1pm.  Head Chef, Damien Ng will be celebrating the produce of the county in each course with some well-known Red-rose favourites as well as using the best produce from local suppliers.

Dishes on the “Taste-of” menu include contemporary and traditional twists on Morecambe Bay Shrimps, Bury Black Pudding, Minted Lancashire Hot Pot, Bowland Pig Cheek, plumb and cream cheesecake, chocolate sticky toffee pudding and  Lancashire Cheeses.

“We wanted to celebrate Lancashire Day and our own 20th birthday by doing something really special,” said Damian.  “Tasting menus don’t normally include more than ten dishes but we wanted to create a menu that would show the diversity and quality of the great produce and recipes that come from Lancashire.

“Restaurants like ours are fortunate to have access to some fantastic produce on our doorstep.  As well as having some well known traditional recipes, we’ve seen local produce in the county go from strength to strength over the last decade or so.

“It is going to be a big challenge both for the team in the kitchen to prepare so many different dishes but also for the waiting staff who will have to move particularly quickly to get each of the dishes out to our guests.

“There’s no need to worry about how you are going to get through twenty dishes!  Each course on a tasting menu is a small sample of a traditionally much larger dish but still encompassing all the flavours and balance. So hopefully everyone can complete their culinary journey of this great county.

Lancaster House, was opened in 1991 by HRH Princess Alexandra and has enjoyed two decades of success, winning many awards including twice-named “Lancashire Large Hotel of the Year”, “Taste Lancashire Highest Quality” and more recently Gold Status in The Green Business Tourism Scheme.

The bookings for the lunch will be strictly limited to 20 places and on a “first-come first-served” basis and the epic-meal will be served from 1pm.

To make a booking contact Lancaster House on 01524 844822.

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