Stuffed Red Pepper, with Minced Beef and Chickpeas

 I diced Polish red peppers and cooked them with the leek and the carrots and the chickpeas for about 25 minutes. Then I added the minced beef, and oven roasted the whole assemblage of red pepper and the minced beef for another forty-five minutes under glass at a low to medium heat (stir frequently!). I added half a dozen bay leaves.

Remove the bay leaves as you find them. Serve with a baby leaf salad or Spinach leaves.  

Spicy Garlic Lamb and Spinach

Ground minced lamb which had been browned and then simmered under glass for two hours. Then I added diced mushrooms, lamb stock, oregano, and two bay leaves. Then simmered again under glass for another 45 minutes, with some onion gravy granules. I added diced spinach leaves and spring onion, plus half of a chopped yellow pepper. 

I added several crushed cloves of garlic, and a couple of red chillies, which I removed (along with the bay leaves) after an hour or so. 

Served with steamed potatoes (thirty minutes or so), and boiled podded peas. 

Baked Potato with Ground Lamb

The baked potato was begun first, with a little butter, in a roasting tray in an oven heated to 190 deg C. It took one hour and fifteen minutes to cook (not wrapped in tin-foil). Check every fifteen minutes, particularly if you don't have an oven thermometer.

From the fridge I took the Fresh ground minced lamb I cooked a couple of days ago, which had been browned and then simmered under glass for two hours. Then I added diced mushrooms, lamb stock, oregano, and two bay leaves. Then simmered again under glass for another 45 minutes, with some onion gravy granules.

I added diced spinach leaves and spring onion, plus half of a chopped yellow pepper. Serve hot.

Ground Lamb and Mushrooms, with Brocolli Spears

Fresh ground minced lamb, browned and then simmered under glass for two hours. Then I added diced mushrooms, lamb stock, oregano, and two bay leaves.

 Simmered again under glass for another 45 minutes, with some onion gravy granules. Served with Brocolli spears, cooked in salted water for ten minutes under glass.
 

Carrot Soup with a Garlic and Coriander Naan Bread

 A couple of medium sized carrots grated in a rotary grater I bought from Aldi many moons ago, and diced one small onion. Cooked together in a small pan with some water for about two hours at a low heat under glass. I added some arrowroot mixed with water (cornflour will do as well). Plus two bay leaves. Then I added a pinch of paprika, a pinch of turmeric, black pepper, and some dried coriander leaf. Allowed to cook for a further ten minutes. 

Served with a piece of garlic and coriander naan bread, toasted for a couple of minutes in a standard kitchen toaster. 

Beef Bourguignon Potato Pie

I made the beef bourguignon stew first, not with cubed beef, but with ground beef instead. Cooked with carrots, onion, diced mushrooms, paprika, red wine (a delicious Italian merlot), bay leaves, garlic, and thyme. Plus beef stock. Cook for between one and two hours. Kept in the fridge for a couple of days, and then decanted into a standard pie tin. Remove the bay leaves.

The potatoes were boiled, then mashed with a little salted butter and olive oil. Creamed with a little milk. I also added some dried coriander leaf to the mash.

The mashed potato was added to the top of the pie tin, and textured with a fork, to increase crispiness.

Cooked for between forty and fifty minutes at 180 deg C on the middle shelf of the oven (check progress by eye). It may take a little longer.

It is customary to include chopped bacon in beef bourguignon, but I usually skip this ingredient.

Served with some French's American mustard. German mustard will do as well.

Brisket Beef with Vegetables

I cooked a joint of brisket beef in a slow cooker for six hours, along with two bay leaves (creates a great smell in your kitchen in the morning, if you do this overnight). The joint was allowed to cool, and was cut into slices with an electric knife.

The courgette slices and the carrots were cooked separately, as were the Brussels sprouts. The juices from the cooked joint were decanted from the slow cooker into a saucepan, and the courgette and carrots were added, along with some beef stock. I mixed some cornflour with water to thicken the gravy, and added that. Simmered at a low heat for thirty minutes, until the vegetables were tender, stirring regularly.

The sprouts were cooked in boiling water for seven minutes, and the slices of brisket were reheated in a steamer for ten minutes before serving. Dust with black pepper!

Ground Beef and Potato Chilli

A beef chilli made entirely without onions. 500 grams of ground scotch beef (5 per cent fat) was browned in a saute pan in a little sunflower oil for twenty minutes at a high heat, quickly reduced to a medium heat. Stirred every minute or so.

Once all the beef had browned, one medium sized cubed courgette was added to the pan, and one medium sized cubed parsnip. Stirred in thoroughly. Add half a red bell pepper, diced. Cook for another fifteen minutes at a medium heat.

After that add the fresh deseeded and diced chillies, red and green. Cook for another five minutes before adding three quarters of a pint of boiling water to the saute pan.

Add a half teaspoonful of turmeric powder, the tomato puree, the beef stock, and the bay leaves (three). Simmer under glass for an hour to two hours, until the beef is tender. The contents of the pan can be mashed before serving, but this is not necessary.

Serve with separately boiled potatoes, and some ground black pepper.

Vegetable Soup with Red Camargue Rice

Soup made with carrot, celery, red Camargue rice, red onion, split peas, tomato puree, sunflower oil, and vegetable stock.

The split green peas were soaked overnight. The carrot, celery, red onion were stir-fried for fifteen minutes in sunflower oil, and then I added half a pint of boiling water. I added the soaked split peas, the camargue rice, and the bay leaf. Cooked for at least forty minutes under glass at a low heat.

At this point I added a couple of squirts of tomato puree, and some vegetable stock.

 Cooked for another forty five minutes at a low heat under glass. Add herbs, according to preference. Serve with black pepper. But delicious as is!

Root Vegetable Ground Beef Casoulet

The ground beef was browned at a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently, and then I added a diced red onion, and finely diced carrot.

Stir-fried for another fifteen minutes, and then boiling water was added, plus some beef stock and two bay leaves. Simmered for one hour under glass.

Some of the ground beef stew was used for another dish, and the other half spent a day in the fridge. The second half was brought to the boil, and I added more carrot, with larger chunks this time, plus most of a medium sized turnip. Cooked for half an hour, and then I added diced green beans, a teaspoonful of capers, some fresh rosemary leaves, black pepper, paprika,Worcester sauce, and dried oregano. Simmer under glass for twenty minutes before serving.

Ground Beef with Roast Potato Wedges

5% fat ground beef (400g) from the local co-op. Browned at a medium heat in some sunflower oil for twenty minutes or so, stirring frequently.

I diced a large leek, after topping and tailing, and then cutting it into four lengthwise. Easy to prepare this while the beef is browning.

Turn up the heat and add the leek,  and stir together with the beef. After five minutes turn the heat down to medium, and stir-fry together for another ten minutes, until the diced leek begins to brown.

Add three quarters of a pint of boiling water, along with the vegetable and beef stock, and one large bay leaf.

Simmer under glass at a low heat for ninety minutes. Add more water if necessary.

The carrots (two small) were diced into chunks and boiled in water for thirty minutes, after which I added some dried coriander. Allow to cool while you prepare the roast potato wedges.

The potato wedges were peeled and cut into shape, and then parboiled for ten minutes. Then they were put into a bowl and covered with a plate. I shook them up for a minute or so to make the surface fluffy. Then I drizzled them with two teaspoonfuls of goose fat, and shook them again for another minute or so (the goose fat is not an essential ingredient, and any cooking oil can be substituted). The potato wedges were placed on a roasting tray in an oven preheated to around 190 deg. C.

Roast for fifteen minutes, checking them every seven minutes or so. Turn after fifteen minutes and allow another fifteen minutes. They may be ready by this time, or even after twenty minutes, but it depends very much on the kind of potato you use. Mine took a bit longer than thirty minutes. Watch them carefully, and remove them from the oven when they are golden brown.

An utterly delicious meal which was well worth the preparation time.

Ground Beef with Leek and Green Beans

Some excellent 5% fat ground beef (400g) from the local co-op. Browned at a medium heat in some sunflower oil for twenty minutes or so, stirring frequently.

I diced a large leek, after topping and tailing, and then cutting it into four lengthwise. Easy to prepare this while the beef is browning.

Turn up the heat and add the leek,  and stir together with the beef. After five minutes turn the heat down to medium, and stir-fry together for another ten minutes, until the diced leek begins to brown.

Add three quarters of a pint of boiling water, along with the vegetable and beef stock, and one large bay leaf.

Simmer under glass at a low heat for ninety minutes. Add more water if necessary.

Served with green beans boiled in salted water, black pepper, and with a serving of grilled french fries in a home-made spicy salsa.

Honey Ham Pasta with Sage

Honey ham trimmings, stir-fried with chopped spanish onion and diced red and yellow pepper in sunflower oil. Add one shredded salad tomato. Add two thinly sliced cloves of garlic.

Once the contents of the pan begin to brown, turn down the heat and add boiling water. Then add a squeeze of tomato puree, and a ham stock cube. Also add a bay leaf. Stir occasionally.  Simmer for at least an hour under glass. Ten minutes before it is ready to serve, add half a teaspoonful of dried sage.

Prepare the penne pasta ten minutes before serving. I used Dove's farm wheat-free pasta in this case, which behaves very much like the standard Durum wheat version during cooking (i.e., it doesn't dissolve into nothing). It also has the texture and taste of regular pasta.

Fish out the bay leaf, and add the ham and onion sauce to a bowl. Drain the pasta and add it on top. Stir through a little. Serve!

Parsnip and Leek Soup

A rich soup made with parsnip, leek, celery, carrot, turnip or swede, green lentils, tomato puree, turmeric, vegetable and chicken stock, paprika, basil, rosemary, bay leaf,  and oregano. With a generous sprinkling of black pepper.

Chop the vegetables into chunks. The vegetables were first stir-fried in some sunflower oil, until soft, then I added boiling water. Cooked under glass with two bay leaves for at least an hour and a half. Allow to cool.

Once cooled, mash the vegetables. Remove the bay leaves. Add the green lentils (a third of a cupful), two squeezes of tomato puree, half a teaspoonful of turmeric, half a teaspoonful of paprika, the vegetable and chicken stock, plus the herbs (two pinches each if dried). Cook for another hour.

Blend the mixture for at least a minute until smooth. Cook for a further half an hour, by which time it will be ready to serve. Add black pepper according to taste. Served (in this case) with home-baked wheat-free brown bread, made with Dove's farm brown flour.

Cottage Pie with Mushrooms and Peppers

A bargain tray of ground (minced) beef, 5 per cent fat, encouraged me first to make a beef chilli, and then to make a slightly spicy cottage pie.

The beef was browned for about twenty minutes, with a little sunflower oil, together with white onions. During the last five minutes of this period, I added sliced chestnut mushrooms, and deseeded red and green chillies. After that I added some beef stock, a bay leaf, and some Bisto browning (cornflour), in order to thicken the gravy. That was served with basmati rice.

For the cottage pie, made subsequently, preheat the oven while the semiskinned potatoes are boiling (to 180 deg C or thereabouts). Mash the potatoes in a glass bowl. Add two dessert spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt and blend together. Add a little white pepper. Spoon the mash over the ground beef base, and texture with a fork.

Cook for an hour at least in the middle of the oven, checking during the last half hour that the potato topping is not overbrowning.

Ground Beef with Shredded Brussels Sprouts

Stir-fry chunks of carrot, diced mushroom, green beans, and onion in olive oil in a large saute pan, until tender (about fifteen or twenty minutes). Add 450g of ground beef to another saute pan and cook at a medium heat. After the beef has begun to brown, stir the beef and the vegetables together, and cook for another twenty to twenty-five minutes at a moderately high heat, stirring every minute or so.

Add the bay leaves (I added two), the beef stock, the paprika and the gravy granules. Add black pepper, a diced half of a green pepper,  Stir together. Cook for another hour, stirring every five minutes, before serving.

Cut the Brussels sprouts into six pieces, and steam under glass for about seven minutes. This is a common way to serve sprouts in Italy.

Burgers in a Chilli and Mushroom Sauce

Two beef burgers from Aldi, cooked in their own fat, along with two red onions and chopped tomatoes. Twenty minutes is sufficient to cook the burgers thoroughly, turning them twice. Move the onions around the pan during this time, so that they caramelise, but do not burn.

The sauce was made with finely sliced mushrooms, five finger chillies, some onion gravy powder, vegetable stock, and two squirts of tomato puree.

Stir fry the mushrooms in a separate lidded pan until they squeak. Add half a pint of water. Add the destemmed finger chillies, the gravy powder (two teaspoonfuls), the vegetable stock, and the tomato puree. Stir until the sauce thickens. Add one bay leaf.  Turn down the heat and simmer until the burgers are ready.

Once the burgers are cooked, decant to a serving plate along with the fried tomato and onions. Spoon the chilli and mushroom sauce, and serve. Delicious, simple, and warming!

Brisket Beef with Carrot, Courgette, and Brussels Sprouts

A sliced brisket joint with vegetables. The brisket was reheated in beef stock along with two bay leaves for flavour. .

The Brussels sprouts were boiled for seven minutes under glass. The carrots and courgettes were steamed for twenty minutes.

That's it. Serve with some freshly ground black pepper!

Beef Chilli with Potato, Mushroom and Sweetcorn

A ground beef chilli made with sweetcorn rather than red kidney beans.

Ground beef, browned in a saute pan for twenty minutes to half an hour. Add sliced onion, diced carrot, and cook until the onions are softened and beginning to brown.

 Add some boiling water, plus six chillies with the stems removed, three chopped cloves of garlic, half a tin of sweetcorn, bay leaf, and six to eight chunkily sliced mushrooms. Add three squirts of tomato puree, a pinch of paprika (or smoked paprika), beef stock, and some chopped basil leaves.

Turn down the heat and simmer the beef for two hours under glass, until tender. Stir occasionally. Remove the chillies before serving if you do not want to eat them. They provide lots of heat just by being in the dish while it is cooked.

Serve with boiled potatoes. Delicious!

Christmas Chicken, with Sausage Meat Stuffing, and Chestnuts

Christmas lunch is often a complex piece of cooking. This one was no exception. The main components were: roast Maris Piper potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, sliced chicken breast, sausage meat and sage and onion stuffing, oven roasted sausages dressed in bacon (pigs in blankets), and a chestnut, onion and mushroom gravy.

The main trick is to get all of the components hot at the same time, and delivered to the plate within two minutes. Everything except the sausages was prepared the previous day. I used three rings on the hob to reheat the sprouts and carrot (in one pot), the chestnut gravy, and the chicken slices in some chicken stock. The roast potatoes were reheated in the microwave. The slices of sage and onion stuffing were toasted under the grill. The pigs in blankets were cooked from scratch in a fan-assisted oven. You have to watch these carefully, since they can be ready several minutes before you expect them to be.

I started with the vegetables, the chestnut sauce, and the chicken, which took three pots. Heated under glass at a low heat.

Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, chopped carrot, sliced chicken breast cooked in some chicken stock. The chicken breasts (four altogether) were cooked the previous day in the oven, in roasting trays and wrapped in aluminium foil. They can be cooked in ten to fifteen minutes at 200 deg C. These pieces had been frozen, and so I left them in the oven for forty minutes altogether, with the heat turned down for the last fifteen minutes, to ensure that they were heated all through.Wrapped in foil this is not a hazardous process, since the chicken is cooking in its own juices, and does not dry out. The chicken slices were very tender when served. 

The Chestnut sauce was made with Merchant Gourmet brand cooked chestnuts, sliced, half a white onion, and diced chestnut mushrooms. Additional ingredients were: a splash of dark soy sauce, a pinch of paprika, two bay leaves, and some oregano. Plus a splash of a dry sherry. 

The second item was the pigs in blankets.These were cooked from scratch at 180 deg C, for a notional 25 minutes. Ovens are so variable, even with an internal thermostat, that they were essentially ready in 15 minutes. I turned off the heat and put them back in the oven to make sure that they were thoroughly heated, and took them out after 20 minutes.

The first list of items were removed from heat after simmering for ten minutes or so.

The third item was the sage and onion stuffing. Because it contained pork sausage meat it was important to make sure it was thoroughly heated. Cooked under the grill, and the slices were turned once using a fish slice (about seven minutes each side - judged by eye). Made from scratch with:

Outdoor bred sausage meat from Sainsbury's, one diced apple, one diced onion, three medium handfuls of porage oats, one beaten egg, 40 g of salted butter,
a teaspoonful and a half of dried sage. Cooked in the oven on the previous day at around 180 deg C, for forty minutes (watched carefully). I used a silicon bread tin, so the stuffing was cooked much like a meatloaf. Sliced when cold, and stored in the fridge. 

I've made stuffing before, but not as good as this one!

The roast potatoes take just five minutes to reheat, so they were the fourth item to be started. I've blogged about roasting potatoes before, so search on roast potato for the details. In this case I used olive oil rather than goose fat, which is a popular choice at Christmas, but isn't strictly necessary to get excellent roast potatoes.

All components of the meal were thoroughly heated and cooked and still hot before serving. All components were on the plate within two minutes, starting with the sausages and the stuffing, followed by the chicken, the roast potatoes, the vegetables and the chestnut and onion sauce. Serve with Cranberry Sauce.

Does this seem like a military operation? Yes it does. It needs to be thought through first, with every part properly sequenced in your head before you start. After that, it is no problem. Especially if the major cooking is done on the previous day.