water and recipe

splashingsparkling
sparkling and splashing
And for two days, hardly any of it rain. That's what I like :)

Oh and I don't know if you wanted the actual recipe for beef olives. It's really quite nice and ever so adaptable and undemanding.

For two.

-You do need some very very thinly sliced beef. Quite nice and lean and not too many stringy bits. About 2 to 3 pieces per person, 12 centimetres approx square (or round or irregular) about 1/2 centimetre thick. Butchers will slice it for you but you need to check the piece they're slicing off. Or just say, it's for beef olives and see if they look blank or not :)
-Enough made up stuffing to spread all over the beef slices (I use ready made dried but no reason why you shouldn't make your own if you like)
-olive oil for frying - Oh about a tablespoon or two.
-Half a small onion, chopped or sliced,
-Half a big carrot cut into rings,
-A stick of celery sliced,
-One or two cloves of garlic crushed,
-1/4 pint of beef stock,
-1/4 pint of red wine,
-A generous squeeze of tomato puree,
-A bay leaf and a nice casseroley herb like thyme, oregano or marjoram. (fresh or dried :)
-Some water,
-Salt and pepper to season (though you might not need it if your stock is salty).

Preheat the oven to about 160C
Beat the beef with a rolling pin or a meat beater until it's even thinner and a bit bigger in area.
spread the stuffing over it.
Roll up each piece of beef with its stuffing and use cocktail sticks to sew the sides up and to fold up the ends so the stuffing is sealed in. (about 3 per olive*/paupiette - the french recipe uses needle and thread but I'm allergic to those. Actually I did once use cotton and tied them up into little parcels but really, cocktail sticks are easier).
Heat the oil in a nice solid casserole (Oven and hob safe) and brown the olives very quickly all over(ish - well they've got cocktail stick ends sticking out all over, you can't be fussy about doing them all over).
Put them on a plate and fry the onion, celery and carrot till the celery and onion are soft and slightly browned then add the garlic and fry for a few more seconds.
Put the olives back, add the herbs, wine, stock, tomato puree, herbs, salt and pepper and add enough water to cover the olives.
Bring gently up to a simmer and then put in the oven. Cook for, Oh, half an hour to an hour and a half depending on the quality/tenderness of the meat and what else you've got going on (like blogging) and who's not back for dinner yet and who's back and starving hungry right now and how long it takes to cook the potatoes and veg.
Check the amount of liquid every half hour or so and gently slosh the olives around so they don't stick to the bottom of the casserole - at that temperature they shouldn't but you never know.

You can add mustard to the flavouring of the gravy if you like (along with the liquids). You can skip things like wine, garlic and tomato puree. (but make up the liquid with water or stock). You can use stock cubes or home made.
Nice with mash or boiled and a not too watery green veg. Or roast veg.

*Like I said, not an olive in sight. The 'olives' must be the meat parcels...I expect paupiettes means something like - Oh well here we are. A definition.

Got to turn off now, there's a thunderstorm approaching a bit faster than I expected!
Back later :)