Steak and Ale Pie… and Cheese Straws
During the week Kerri ordered a lovely red pie dish. We had planned to make pie during the week, but some semi-unplanned midweek partying laid waste to those plans. So we tried it last night and were struck with some of the karma of having put it off during the week.
Steak and Ale pie it was, and the filling needed to be simmered for an hour and a half. We left the saucepan in the care of our slightly dodgy hob but the lowest setting of the smallest burner was too high and when we came back to check on it (after only an hour rather than an hour and a half), we found that it had cooked dry and half of it had burned. So we sorted through it all and cut off the burned sections of the burned bits and added some more stock, along with some parsnip in the hope that a bit of sweetness would counteract the burned taste. It tasted good in the end, but we’d lost some of the filling and that caused the pie lid to sag in the middle.
Sadly the lovely red pie dish isn’t really visible in that picture; I’ll be more attentive to such detail next time.
We made cheese straws with left-over pastry; they worked without a hitch 🙂
Bagel Pizza
Kerri wasn’t feeling well today so stayed at home. For lunch she made herself a sort of bagel pizza… a bagel topped with bruschetta topping, cheese and chorizo. Mmmmmm……
Moussaka
Mmm this turned out really well; the picture doesn’t really do it justice.
Kerri has written out the partially home-grown, partially looked-up recipe that we used:
500g lamb mince
Onion
3 gloves garlic
Red wine
Vegetable stock
Large tin of tomatoes
Mint
Oregano
Cinnamon
Bay
Salt and pepper
Fry onions and garlic until translucent. Add lamb, turn up heat and fry until cooked.
Add red wine, stock and tinned tomatoes and cook at full heat for about five minutes.
Turn down heat and add dry ingredients.
Simmer for 45 minutes.
Layer with cooked, sliced potatoes and grilled aubergines.
Top with cheese sauce (add two egg yolks to cooked cheese sauce, fold in beaten egg whites).
Add parmesan cheese and bake for 45 minutes.
Pot Roasted Chicken with Creamy Lemon Sauce
Yesterday we decided that today we would spend the whole day indoors and cook pot-roasted chicken. Which we did. First we browned the chicken and then sweated onions, celery, carrots and leeks. Then the chicken went back into the pot with the vegetables and thyme, bay, cloves and peppercorns. We added half a bottle of white wine and some water and chicken stock to just cover the chicken, then brought it to the boil and put it into the oven for an hour.
Once the chicken was cooked, we let it rest while we reduced some of the stock, then added lemon juice and cream and reduced some more. The result was really good. The chicken was tasty and tender while retaining some bite. The sauce was nicely balanced between lemony, chickeny and creamy. We had it with some mashed potatoes, peas and an attempt at Vichy carrots. Top marks for the chicken, sauce and the mash; the vegetables could have done with a bit of work though.
We drank a South African sauvignon blanc with it as that’s what we had open, but it would have been matched really well with a good white Burgundy.
While doing this, we also cooked moussaka for tomorrow. We’ll have to wait to see how it turned out.
F
Breakfast
Homemade muffins served with butter and cheese (for Stephen).
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups bran
2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups flour
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons bos
1 cup fruit
Beat eggs, oil and sugar together.
Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
Bake in greased tins at 200c for 15 minutes.
Mixture can be stored in fridge for up to 30 days.
G
Pizza
Friday night….good TV, fine wine and homemade pizza.
Like last time, we made this with the (alledged) Pizza Express recipe. I think we’ll have to find a new recipe though, this one doesn’t behave all that well. Neither of us are that experienced with dough though so it could just be our lack of understanding.
After all the resting and kneading, we placed it on the pizza stone, topped it with some tomato sauce (normally we make our own, this time we used a jar of Waitrose bruschetta topping, it was much better) red and yellow peppers, sundried tomatoes, artichokes, spicy sausage and cheese and cooked it at 200 for about 15 minutes, just until the cheese melted really. It was brilliant.
G
Chicken Tagine
Tuesday night seems to have become Marathon Cooking Night. Last week we made three dishes, this week we did the fajitas and chicken tagine, which we ate last night. It was good, we had it with cous-cous and bread while watching Masterchef.
G
Beef Fajitas
After the success of last week’s chicken fajitas, we attempted steak fajitas. We did them exactly the same way but they just weren’t very good. I don’t know why. They were edible but just not brilliant.
G
Stuffed Pasta
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 gloves garlic, crushed
1 stick celery, finely chopped
20g porcini mushrooms
500g minced beef
3tbs Marsala (or sherry)
2tbsps tomato puree
S&P
1tbs parsley, finely chopped
Generous grating nutmeg
1tbs worcester sauce
125ml milk
Fry onion, garlic, celery and mushrooms on a medium heat until soft and translucent.
Add beef and cook for approximately 10 minutes.
Add Marsala, turn up the heat and cook for approximately 3 minutes.
Add tomato puree, parsley, nutmeg, worcester sauce and milk.
Simmer for one hour.
Fill cooked pasta with mixture, top with grated parmesan and grill until melted and brown.
Cheese On Toast
Mmmmmmmmmmm 🙂
