Want to cook like a champ? Here is a recipe from previous Celebrity MasterChef winner Liz McClarnon to try your hand at.
INGREDIENTS
Serves four
4 fillets of beef, about 175g each
3 Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 large stoneless prunes
4tsp mango chutney
2 streaky bacon rashers, cut in half
250g ready-made puff pastry
200g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
75g salted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2tsp truffle oil
1/2 Savoy cabbage, shredded
400ml double cream
1tbsp olive oil
3 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
Milk, for glazing
For the oxtail jus:
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1tbsp olive oil
3 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
300ml port
200ml oxtail stock, plus 4tbsp extra
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6). Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes and simmer for 20 minutes, or until cooked. Drain and keep warm.
For the oxtail jus, put the garlic cloves and shallot in a frying pan with the oil and parsley. Add the port, bring to the boil and reduce by three-quarters. Then add the stock and reduce by half. Keep warm.
Fill the hole in each prune with the chutney and roll in a piece of streaky bacon. Pierce with a cocktail stick and cook on a baking tray in the oven for seven minutes. Remove from the oven and keep warm.
Roll out the pastry and cut out four 8cm diameter circles. Put them on a floured baking sheet, glaze with a little milk, then cook in the oven for 12 minutes, until golden. Remove and keep warm.
Meanwhile, cook the mushrooms in 25g of the butter in a saucepan, add seasoning and the truffle oil. Keep warm.
Put the cabbage in 300ml of the double cream in a saucepan, and add seasoning. Cook for 10-12 minutes until tender.
Mash the potatoes with the rest of the double cream and butter.
Cover the beef in the olive oil and salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan and then hot seal the beef for a few seconds on each side. Transfer to a roasting tin, add the thyme and rosemary and spoon the extra stock over the top. Put in the oven for six minutes.
To assemble, place a puff pastry circle on each plate. Score a circle in the top, push it down, and fill with mushrooms. Add some creamed cabbage, a prune in bacon, and quenelles of mash. Place a fillet of beef on top, add the jus and serve.
Recipe is from The MasterChef Cookbook, published in paperback by DK, priced £14.99 (DK.com)
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