Riverford spiced beef, an old favourite, we have only cured it at Christmas over the last few years but it really is so good that, this year, we thought we would give it a longer outing. Very slowly roasted or gently simmered with carrots and onions it makes a meal fit for a king. Serve with creamy, mashed potato and some horseradish and apple sauce (finely grate fresh horseradish into apple sauce).

Ingredients - serves 4-6

1.25kg Riverford spiced beef
4 medium onions, peeled &quartered
8 large carrots, peeled, cut lenghthways & sliced
3 sticks of celery, diced
3 bay leaves
sprig of thyme
100g flat mushrooms

for the sauce:
2 bramley apples
3 cloves
3tbsp sugar
2tbsp lemon juice
100g grated horseradish

Method

1 Put the beef, mushrooms, herbs and a third of the celery, onion and carrot in suitable sized casserole, cover with cold water and gently bring to the simmer. Skim every ten minutes and poach very gently for two hours. Remove the beef, discard the vegetables and sieve the liquid back into the casserole. Add the beef and the remaining vegetables and return to the simmer. Continue to gently poach until the vegetables are nearly cooked. As long as you keep the liquid at 80-90°C the longer you cook it the better (within reason). Remove the beef and allow to rest and firm up while the vegetables finish cooking.

2 For the horseradish and apple sauce: core, peel and dice the bramleys. Put the diced apple in saucepan with the cloves, sugar and 50ml of water. Cook gently, stirring occasionally until the apple has collapsed. Add the lemon juice and finely grated horseradish. If you like your horseradish hot take it off the heat and spoon into a bowl. If you don’t mind some of the flavour dissipating, you can bring back up to temp and ‘hot fill’ into clean jars – it will keep, unopened, for ages. Serve with mashed potato and some of the broth. I like the sauce so much that we’ve started making it for the shops - Horseradish & Apple Sauce - £2.95/jar.