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This is one of my favourite dinners of all time. When I lived in France some years back I used to eat this dish a lot.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of cous cous (amend, see 1.)
• onion
• 1kg cubed meat, or mince meat (I like to use beef)
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 chopped red chilli (or use curry powder if you hate chilli)
• 2 dried bay leaves (or 4 fresh)
• 1-2 whole garlic cloves
• seasoning
• oil to brown meat
• HP Sauce (optional)

Method:

1. In a bowl soak a packet of cous cous for 5-10 minutes, change the amounts depending upon the number of people you are cooking for. Then set aside.
2. In a large saucepan (with a lid), fry an onion in a little oil, then add about 1kg of cubed meat. I like to use beef. You can also use mince meat if you prefer. Brown the meat well.
3. Add a splash of water to stop the meat from catching. Then add seasoning (salt and pepper). Now comes the spicy part, add 1 chopped red chilli (remember the smaller the chilli the hotter it will be, however if you freeze any chilli it will become the same heat as the hottest chilli - be warned). Also add 1 can chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, whole garlic cloves, and a good dollop of HP or brown sauce! (Also if you hate chilli, then why not use curry powder?)
4. Cook the meat without the lid on, simmering away for 35 minutes. If you want you can add sliced carrots and cauliflower to bulk the dish out, this is optional. The meat needs to be almost cooked before the next stage. Now remember you may want to cook the meat for longer (perhaps 45-50 minutes), or use a pressure cooker for about 20 minutes.
5. Right, your meat is virtually cooked, and now you are ready to see to the cous-cous! Take a large sieve and place the cous cous in it. Then hang the sieve over the pan, so it does not touch the meat etc. Now put the lid on top of the sieve.
6. The cous cous will become really fluffy, because it is cooked in the steam of the dish, and takes on much of the flavours.
7. After 15-20 minutes, you ready to serve. Make a ‘filled circle’ of cous cous on the plate, then add a ‘mountain’ of meat and sauce on top! Deeeelicious!

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This recipe is unashamedly meaty! I had decided to batch cook a fair amount of meat for the Jewish holidays and it is customary to use flanken (beef flank, i.e. side of beef), to make tzimmes (honey roast). I had never actually cooked with flanken before, preferring to cook a large roll of beef instead. This year I did both, in the same pot too!

This is how the finished flanken and roast beef roll looked straight from the oven! This is a very easy recipe to make and the results are fabulous - as confirmed by all at Casa Marge.
A note about the meat: how much meat you want to cook will depend on how many people you are cooking for (and how hungry they are!) When I bought the meat I had a look at what the butcher had on offer and decided on two small pieces of flanken and one large beef roll. You may find your butcher has a large piece of flanken and the rolls of meat are small. Use your own judgement. I would strongly suggest you ask the butcher about cooking times when buying the meat!

Ingredients:

• Roast beef roll (your butcher will prepare this for you)
• Flanken (ask your butcher for beef flank)
• Carrots (about 3-4 large ones)
• Onion (large)
• Prunes (I used a 250g packet, but you might want to use less)
• Bay leaf (1 or 2 dried, or 3 fresh - again you may want to use less if you are cooking less meat)
• Rosemary (about a teaspoon of dried herb or a sprig of fresh)
• Oil to brown the meat
• Seasoning
• Honey (I used 3 tbps for a large beef roll and two pieces of flanken, adjust accordingly)
• Balsamic vinegar (1 tbsp) optional
• HP sauce (1 tbsp) optional
• Two cloves of garlic (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to a high heat for 20 minutes.
2. Season the meat to taste. I like to use coarse sea salt at it doesn’t ‘disappear’ into the meat straight away.
3. Heat the oil and brown the meat carefully, making sure you get all the surfaces sealed. Set the meat to one side. (NB: This process doesn’t actually seal the meat as such because after cooking you will notice the volume of the meat has decreased because it looses moisture. However it is good practice to brown the meat as it adds to the flavour).
4. Chop up the onion into slices and the carrot into batons, keeping the pieces fairly thick. Very lightly brown the vegetables in the same pan you did the meat in. You may need to add a little more oil. Place half the veg in the bottom of a large, deep pot (see pic above), or similar that is suitable for the oven. Add half the prunes and the garlic cloves (simply peeled and not cut), and herbs.
5. Place the meat in the pot on top of the veg and dried fruit. (You could use dried apricots if you wish but not raisins!), and add the rest of the veg and prunes. At this point if you wish you can add 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and a splodge of HP sauce.
6. Mix the honey with a little water and pour over the meat.
7. Put the lid on the cooking pot (if you have no lid, then buy a proper oven pot you big silly! Or failing that use foil - just be careful when taking the pot out of the oven), and place in the top part of the oven - or as near to the top as you can bearing in mind the size of the cooking pot.
8. Cook on high for 1 hour and then turn the light down to medium and cook for another hour or so.
9. Naturally if you are using less meat you will need to lessen the cooking time. Personally I don’t hold with that pink in the middle nonsense about meat, so I like my meat well done. You may prefer it differently. Each to their own I say, even if you are weird…
10. Serve with potato kugel.
11. This dish will freeze well. Allow the meat and gravy (there will be loads of it!), to cool and transfer to large freezer bags or plastic freezer dishes.

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