Long and short of it

 It's 4pm and already dark, so I'm mentally in the slow-cooking zone. Long, slow, comforting, not much texture so I barely have to put any effort into chewing, definitely incorporating carbs, these are the prerequisites for this time of year. Especially when outside events seem to be adding months onto every day and time means nothing. The slow agenda doesn't work for the world of work and commitments, though, so I also offer an alternative, a comfy oven risotto (yes! Right on Confined Kitchen brand!) that takes half an hour tops.

Bloody Mary Beef

This is a family favourite, short prep, long cooking, freezes well. You can reduce the quantities according to requirements. 

For this you need 1kg of beef brisket. Using a casserole dish with a lid, season and then brown the brisket in a splash of oil. 

Once it is browned, lower the heat and throw in 4 red onions, quartered and a whole head of celery, chopped into 5cm pieces. Soften the veg for around 10 mins, then add:

700ml passata

2 tbsp Worcester sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp vodka

1 tbsp port

Dash Tabasco

2 bay leaves and several sprigs of rosemary

Put the lid on and stick it in the oven for 5-6 hours until the beef is falling apart. Take the beef out, remove any string on the joint and shred. Put the shredded beef back into the sauce and serve - we had this with horseradish mash and veg, but it works with baked potatoes, pasta or even rice.

Oven-baked risotto

This is a fail-safe standby (stop sobbing, risotto purists). You can add any meat (or none) and any veg or herbs. I have made this with salmon and asparagus, tomato and cheese and roast vegetables - you just need to adjust when you add the bits and pieces. The original recipe from my mother-in-law is bacon and cherry tomato.

Fry off 250g of bacon, chopped small. Add a finely chopped onion and a large slice of butter and cook until soft. 

Add 300g of risotto rice and stir through until it's coated, then add half a glass of white wine (or vermouth or whatever you have) and cook until the wine is absorbed. 

Add 150g of halved cherry tomatoes and 700ml of chicken or veg stock. Stir, put the lid on and stick in a 180 oven for 20 minutes. 

When it's done, stir in 50g of parmesan and leave to sit for 2 minutes before eating.

This a great one for a plate of comfort with very little effort. Obviously I had to make a separate plate of food for Child 2, who inexplicably hates risotto, but at this stage I needed easy more than I needed to stick to my parenting guns. I have a feeling this is going to be a long winter (no cinema, no theatre, no restaurants, no sparkly Xmas shopping followed by overpriced mulled wine) so let's start as we mean to go on - long, slow, carby. I may nap through the whole season...