Beef Casserole

By popular demand here is a recipe for a gorgeous slow cooked beef casserole.   I easily got 4 portions out of this (well 2 and then we both went back for another helping with some left over for the next day!)  Slow cookers are great, start all your ingredients off in a pan and then transfer them over into the dish and leave it to cook, so simple!  This one took about 3 hours to cook but it was totally worth the wait, the beef melted in my mouth.

To make the beef casserole you'll need the following:

• 1 pack of beef cubes or braising steak
• 8-10 shallots either left whole if they are small or cut in half if they are quite large
• 1 pack of baby button mushrooms either left whole or cut into quarters
• 1 carrot sliced (don't bother peeling)
• 1 tin of cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle of red wine ( any will do as long as its good quality)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 200ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp mint (this was actually added by mistake but it blended in well)
• 1 tsp thyme
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil for cooking

Its quite a long list of ingredients but it creates such a beautiful meal! 

Cut your beef up into nice bite sized chunks (the picture is not the size the beef ended up, that's how it started!) and seal in a frying pan for a couple of minutes.  It doesnt need to be cooked all the way through, you are just starting the process off.  Add to the slow cooker.



In the same pan that you used for your beef, fry the shallots, mushrooms and garlic in a little olive oil for a couple of minutes and add that to the slow cooker.  Meanwhile add your carrots to a pan of boiling water for about 5 minutes otherwise I find that when the rest of the ingredients are cooked the carrots are still as tough as old boots! Once cooked drain and transfer to the slow cooker too

In the same pan again, add the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes cooking off some of the alcohol, then add this to the slow cooker.

Add your tinned tomatoes, tomato ketchup, tomato paste, stock, herbs and seasoning to the slow cooker and give it a good stir to mix it all together.  Cook on high for 3 hours and voila...a beautiful beef casserole.

                                                  Before                                      After

Serve with some creamy mash.  I can't tell you just how good this is, infact writing this is making me so hungry im off to eat the leftovers!!

Anchovy Dressing

So in my last post I promised to blog about anchovy dressing.  This dressing goes really well with the tray baked cod, but you could have it with plain cod, red mullet, seabass, haddock etc.  Its also really nice drizzled over new potatoes.  It is strongly flavoured so you don't need to put loads of it over your food.  The recipe was adapted by my mum from a Gordon Ramsay recipe.

To make the dressing you'll need:

• 50g can anchovy fillets (drained)
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 generous tbsp white wine vinegar
• 100ml olive oil

Gordon's original recipe also used 1tsp chopped tarragon but my mam has never used it as she didn't have any in when she first made this. 

Its really simple to make the dressing and its ready in a matter of minutes.

Add the ingredients into a blender and whiz until blended...told you it was simple!

It doesn't look the prettiest dressing but it tastes great with your fish and potatoes.

  

Easy tray baked cod

This recipe is inspired by Jamie Oliver and adapted to my own tastes.  Its really easy to make, and you can make it ahead and its ready to put in the oven when you need it.  For those following Weight Watchers each serving is 9 points

To make the tray bake to feed two, you'll need:

• 2 cod loins
• 6 slices of pancetta or 4 slices of prosciutto - it doesn't matter which one you use the process is the same
• small new potatoes
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped into pieces
• 2 bunches cherry tomatoes on the vine
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Olive oil

Lay 3 pieces of pancetta in a row on a piece of cling film.  Place the cod loin on top of the pancetta and season with a bit of pepper and a little bit of the dried parsley.  Wrap the cod in the pancetta by folding one side of the pancetta over the cod and then the other, using the cling film to help you.  Repeat the process with the other cod loin

Par-boil your new potatoes in a pan for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Meanwhile heat your oven to 220 degrees or gas mark 7.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and sear the fish for a minute each side. 

Add the fish to the baking tray and then add the cherry tomatoes, potatoes and peppers scattered about the rest of the tray. Drizzle a little olive oil over everything and season with a little salt, pepper and parsley.

Put the tray in the oven for 20 minutes until the cod is cooked and the pancetta is crispy.  Serve with some anchovy dressing. Yum!

Fillet Steak, Homemade Chips and Bois Boudrin

I'm not going to start blogging about how to cook a perfect steak because quite frankly if i get it spot on its a miracle - most of the time I end up overcooking it slightly and its not as pink in the middle as my boyfriend would like it.  This weekend however, I did end up cooking a really nice steak and its all thanks to Gordon Ramsay and his Good Food guide to cooking a great steak.  You can find the link here. 

I can however, tell you how to make really nice chips without a deep fat fryer and a lovely bois boudrin to go with it!

To make the chips you'll need:

• Potatoes - I use one large potato per person, whatever you have in the fridge will do, this time I used baking potatoes.
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 tsp dried Parsely
• Olive oil

And to make the bois boudrin you'll need:

• 1 large shallot, chopped into small pieces
150g small cherry tomatoes , halved, or 3 medium tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard 
½ lemon , juice only
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil

To make the chips

Heat the oven to the highest setting - Gas Mark 9 or 250 degrees.  Slice the potatoes into chunky strips - no need to bother peeling them or anything, just clean them and leave the skin on, it adds to the flavour.

Add the potatoes to a pan of boiling water and simmer for around 10 minutes.  Drain the water from the pan and add the par boiled potatoes to a baking tray. Drizzle some olive oil over the chips, add the parsely and some salt and pepper and mix everything round so that all the chips are coated.  Put the chips in the oven for around 15-20 minutes, turning occassionally until golden and crispy

To make the bois boudrin

According to Gordon, this should be served cold but I personally preferred it warmed through, so here's what you do.  Put all the ingredients in a pan and simmer gently on a low heat for around 15 minutes and...well its done. Simples! Serve with your steak and chips either on the side or on top of the steak.

American Blueberry and Lemon Pancakes

I came across this recipe for American blueberry pancakes on BBC Good Food and added my own little twist with a bit of lemon juice.  You can find the original recipe here.  With pancake day and valentines day coming up you could cook your other half breakfast in bed...or you could just eat them yourself! :-)

The recipe below makes 10 pancakes and believe me 5 each is more than enough - I couldn't finish mine but they were absolutely delicious! To make the pancakes you'll need:

• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 1 pack of blueberries
• 1 lemon
• small knob of butter
• honey for drizzling

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients - the self raising flour and baking powder.  In a separate bowl add the egg, milk and the juice from half a lemon and whisk together. 

Make a well in the middle of the flour/baking powder and add the wet ingredients - I don't have a mixing bowl at the moment so I used a pan to combine the two.  Then whisk together and create a thick batter.  Melt a knob of butter and then add this to the batter, then beat until its all mixed together.

Add half of the blueberries to the mix and stir gently.  At this stage you could add any fruit you liked really - raspberries, raisins etc but the blueberries are gorgeous.

Melt a little butter or oil in a non stick frying pan.  Take a large tablespoon (or in my case I found a serving spoon worked well) and pour a spoon full of the mixture into the pan.  Depending on how big your pan is you can cook 3 or 4 at a time.  Cook the pancakes for 2 or 3 minutes on each side  - I found that once the mixture started to look like it was cooking on the top side and little bubbles were starting to appear then it was time to turn.

When the pancakes are cooked stack them on a plate and sprinkle the rest of the blueberries on. Squirt a little bit of lemon juice over the top then drizzle some honey all over the plate and tuck in!!

BEEF!!

One of the presents we received for Christmas just gone was a lovely selection box of beef from Donald Russell 

For one reason and another it took me a while to get round to order the selection box, but it was finally delivered to my door last week.  The beef comes vacuum packed and frozen so you can take it straight from the box and put it in to the freezer ready for when you want it.  Because it's vacuum packed it also lasts for a lot longer than if you got a bit of beef from the shop or butchers and put it in the freezer.

The selection box came with beef cubes, sirloin steaks, rib eye steaks, fillet steak, rump steak and minute steak.  Mmm my mouth is watering as I write this! So watch out in the coming weeks for some tasty beef recipes, such as fillet steak with chips and bois boudrin and beef bourguignon. Phwor!

Roasted Pepper and Tomato Soup

A week on from my last post and the scrummy leek and potato soup, it's still cold, wet and miserable in Manchester, so its time for another soup recipe.  This one is roasted pepper and tomato soup.  Its a great way to use up your left over tomatoes that you bought with all the good intentions of making a salad (who wants salad in January/February anyway!).  The recipe below makes enough soup for two and is 3 propoints per serving.  Use calorie controlled spray instead of olive oil if you want a soup with less points

You'll need the following:

• 1 sweet red pointed pepper
• 1 pack of cherry or plum tomatoes
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Tomato Ketchup
• 1 beef oxo cube
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• Salt and Pepper

Firstly cut the sweet pointed pepper in half and deseed.  Then cut each half into half again and put on baking tray.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees or gas mark 6.  Sprinkle some of the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and seasoning on top of the peppers and put in the oven to roast for around 15-20 minutes.  Set to one side to cool and then chop into little pieces

To the pan add the rest of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, the crushed garlic, parsley, basil and some salt and pepper.  Chop your tomatoes into chunks and add to the pan along with the roasted peppers.  Add a dash of tomato ketchup and stir everything together so its coated in the olive oil and vinegar.

Simmer the tomatoes/peppers on a low heat for around 10-15 minutes until they are soft and the sauce has thickened.  A lot of people would take the skins off the tomatoes and peppers but I leave them on as I think it adds to the flavour...that and I just cant be bothered peeling the skins off them!

Add 1 beef oxo cube to 350ml of boiling water and stir until dissolved.  Add the stock to the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes. 

Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth.  Then return to the pan to warm through again.  Check for seasoning then serve with some nice crusty bread.