Boozy Braised Steak and Onions with Mustard and Horseradish

 This is another variation on a theme, steak and ale pie filling with a little twist.  The addition of cherry tomatoes gives it a summer twist and practically makes it a salad!  The weather here has turned unseasonably autumnal and I was looking for something comforting to cheer us up!

For two people :

1 pieces of braising steak

2 small or one large onion/s

1 clove of garlic

1tb flour

1tsp English mustard powder *

1tsp creamed horseradish

2 anchovies

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

Bottle of ale of your choice – we like the Wychwood range

7/8 cherry tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the mustard powder with the flour and season with salt and pepper, use to coat the two pieces of steak.

Peel and halve the onions, cut into half-moon slices, peel and chop the garlic and chop the anchovies.

Arrange half the onion slices on the bottom of an oven proof dish, sprinkle with a little of the surplus flour and mustard mixture, add the steaks and then the rest of the onion slices and another sprinkle of surplus flour mixture.  Season with salt and pepper to taste, scatter the chopped garlic into the dish along with the chopped anchovies and dot with horseradish.  Pour over the ale and give everything a gentle stir.

Cook at 170^oC (325^oF / gas mark 3) for three and a half hours.  Add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and stir, then add the cherry tomatoes and pop back into the oven for a final half an hour cooking.

*if you can’t get mustard powder simply add 1tsp made English mustard to the casserole with the horseradish.

Moose Pasta Bake

I found Moose steaks at my local Lidl just before Christmas and I was very keen to try them out.  I already had dried moose shaped pasta (from Ikea) and so this dish was born!  You could, of course, replace the moose steaks with venison or beef, and any pasta shape would do for the bake.  Penne would probably be best. 

In keeping with my belief that life is too short to make pasta bakes on the day, and especially life with a dog (!), I made the meat sauce the day before I wanted the pasta bake.  Meat sauces are always so much better for a day or two sitting around.  I cooked the pasta in the morning and assembled the pasta bake ready to be cooked in the evening. 

To serve two, with another two for the freezer (or four!) I used : 

500g Moose steaks (or diced casserole beef, or venison)

1 large onion

1 stick of celery

2 cloves garlic

2 anchovies

1 sprig rosemary

1 450g  tin of chopped plum tomatoes

750ml bottle of red wine

Salt and pepper to taste 

1 bunch of basil 

200g of dried pasta 

 

1 or 2 oz of grated cheese

Wash the basil and separate the leaves from the stalks.  Keep the leaves in a bowl of water until later and finely chop the stalks.  Peel and coarsely chop the onion, finely chop the celery and garlic and sweat in 1tb of olive oil for 10 minutes or so, with the chopped basil stalks..  Add the anchovies and push them around the pan until they melt.  Then add the diced meat and brown in the pan.  Finely chop the sprig of rosemary and add that to the pan too. 

Add the tin of tomatoes to the pan and stir, then gently pour in the bottle of red wine and season to taste.  Bring to a simmer on the hob and then pop the lid on the pan and pop it into the oven.  Because you want to keep the lovely rich sauce, I covered the pan with a sheet of foil before putting the lid on. 

Cook in a low oven (140^oC / 275^oF / gas mark 1) for three and a to four half hours.  You want the meat to be meltingly tender, but not over cooked and a dry sauce so adjust the cooking time accordingly. 

Cook the pasta for half of its cooking time and then set aside.  If you are making the sauce the day before, and pre-cooking the pasta, ensure that the pasta is cold before you add it to the meat sauce. 

Tear the set aside basil leaves and add to the meat sauce, and then add the pasta. Turn into an oven proof dish.  Add a generous grating of cheese and then cook at 200^oC / 400^oF / gas mark 6 for 30 to 40 minutes, until the dish is piping hot (depending on the dish and your oven).

Hobgoblin Casserole

This is nothing more than beef in beer; I named this after my favourite ale to make it with!  You could use any good beer, I just prefer the Wychwood Hobgoblin.  Wychwood’s Goliath is another very good one, or you could try one of the Black Sheep ales which are very good.

This is a bit of a cheat’s recipe in that I cut out quite a few corners because of time pressures.  With the flavour of the ale and the long slow cooking it makes little difference to the finished dish though! 




 

For two people : 

1 large onion, peeled and diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

½ lb of stewing beef

4 large mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thickly

1 sprig of rosemary washed and finely chopped

1tb Worcestershire sauce

1tb tomato puree

1tb flour

1 bottle of good ale/beer

Salt and pepper to taste 

Gently cook the onion and carrot in 1tb of olive oil for a few minutes, while you chop the rosemary. 

Add the beef to the onion and carrot and stir together, then add the rosemary and the flour and stir well.  Slowly add the beer (because it will froth up) and then the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, mushrooms and seasoning. 

Cook,covered in a slow oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours at 150^oC/300^oF/Gas mark 2

 

This is delicious served either with mashed potatoes, or brown rice and a green vegetable.

 

Beef and cannellini bean stew

The weather here has been so wet, cold and miserable that we’ve turned to cheering ourselves up with lovely casseroles and stews again!  After a few particularly miserably wet days I thought this delicious stew would be just the ticket to bring some much needed warmth to our bones and put a smile back on our faces! 

This is real hearty fare, and a complete meal in itself.  It takes no time to put together, and will require nothing more from you than an occasional stir while it sits in the oven for four hours.  It’s another one of those lovely frugal meals, the beans bag out the meat to stretch it further and uses one of those cheap cuts of beef that respond so well to long slow cooking. 

You could begin, as you would with other casseroles, by browning the meat and the vegetables; but to be honest there is so much flavour in this with the Guinness and the long slow cooking that if you skip that step, you won’t miss it. 

The quantities I give below will feed four people, generously.  You can either halve it for two people, or make the whole amount and keep half of it back for another day.  It won’t freeze very well because the vegetables will become too soft, but it will sit in the fridge for a day or two without coming to any harm.  

4 oz/1 cup of dried cannellini beans

2 baby or 1 large leek

½ a large swede (rutabaga)

2 medium carrots

1 stick of celery

1 medium turnip

1 medium potato

½ lb shin of beef (or any suitable casserole/stewing beef)

1 440ml can Guinness

1tb Worcestershire sauce

1 tb tomato puree

1 sprig rosemary

2 bayleaves

1 pint beef stock

1tb flour

Salt and pepper to taste 

Starting the night before you want to make your casserole, soak the cannellini beans in plenty of boiling water, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to soften the skins. 

Prepare the vegetables by washing and peeling and then start dicing the leek, chopping the stick of celery quite small, chopping the carrots, swede and turnip into quite big chunks and adding to a large ovenproof casserole.  Cut the beef into big pieces and add to the vegetables.  Add the tablespoon of flour and mix well with your hands.  Chop the rosemary and add that to the pan, together with the bayleaves and season to taste.  Pour in the Guinness, Worcestershire sauce, stock and then add the tomato puree.  Cut the potato into big pieces and add that, together with the drained cannellini beans and then give everything a good stir.  Put a firm fitting lid on and pop into a low oven to cook for 4 hours.  I cooked mine at 160^oC (300^oF / gas mark 2).  Stir it from time to time, and add some more hot water if it seems to be drying out at all before the cooking time is up. 

Best served on one of those days when the rain is lashing the windows, a gale is howling and with a good helping of freshly baked bread!!   

A brandy sipped quietly by a roaring fire would finish it perfectly; but we can’t have everything can we!

Dinner in a Yorkshire pudding!

This has been one of my standby meals for more years than I care to remember!  It truly is a dinner in a dish, as it all cooks in one casserole in the oven.  The vegetables bulk it out and can help stretch a little meat quite a long way so this is quite a frugal little dish. 

On working days this is something that could be put together the evening before and left to simmer quietly in the oven for a few hours, needing absolutely no attention from you at all.  All you’d need to do after work then is make the Yorkshire pudding and re-heat the filling in the oven at the same time. 

For two of us I used : 

½ lb (250g) minced beef

½ a swede (rutabaga)

1 medium carrot

1 onion

1 large potato

1tb flour

2tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp mixed herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary etc)

¾ pint of hot beef stock

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly peel and dice the onion, sweat gently in a little olive oil.  Peel and dice the carrot and swede, and add to the onion.  Sweat gently for 10 minutes.  Remove to a dish. 

Add the minced beef to the empty pan and brown, then return the vegetables to the pan.  Add the flour, herbs, Worcestershire sauce and gradually the beef stock, stirring to eliminate the risk of lumps forming.   

Peel the potato and cut into big chunks, and add to the minced beef in the pan.  Stir, bring to a simmer and then pop into a low oven for 2 hours.  I cooked mine at 160^oF (300^oC / gas mark 2). 

To make the Yorkshire Pudding I used : 

1 x 8” sandwich tin 

3oz plain flour

1 egg

3 fl oz milk

2 fl oz water

Salt and pepper to taste 

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and season, make a well in the centre and add the egg, milk and water.  Beat well so that there are no lumps whatsoever in the mixture.  Traditionally it’s made the night before and left to sit, the longer you can leave the batter mixture the better. 

When you are ready, grease the sandwich tin well and heat in the oven (it needs to be very hot), pour the batter mixture into the tin and cook for 25 to 30 minutes at 220^oC (425^oF/gas mark 7). 

(I made mine before making the casserole and just re-heated it at the last minute when we were ready to eat)

Corned Beef Pie

This is a classic hand-me-down recipe here in the Valleys, and almost every family has its own version.  Traditionally made on an enamel pie plate, or old dinner plate, it is incredibly versatile and can be fancied up (!) by making it in a deeper pie dish (quantities adjusted accordingly), or even in a big tin for feeding larger numbers at buffets etc. 

As simple as this pie is, it is such a well loved one in my family.  Not a gathering is complete unless we have a ‘corned dog pie’! 

Some families include carrot in their recipe, others tomato or brown sauce.  This is the version that my family makes.  The quantities below will make either a generous plate pie, or a standard Pyrex quiche dish pie.   

I used : 

1 tin corned beef

2 medium potatoes

1 medium or 2 small onions

2 tsp mixed herbs

2-3 tsp dried sage 

1 packet of shortcrust pastry

1 egg to glaze 

First, peel and cut the potatoes into small pieces and then boil them.  Dice the onions and add to the boiling potatoes to cook. 

Cut the corned beef into chunks and add to a large mixing bowl.   

When the potatoes are cooked drain and mash them with the onions.  Add to the bowl containing the corned beef and mix everything together.  The heat from the potatoes will soften the corned beef and make the mixing easier.  Add the herbs and give it another good mix.  I like my pie to taste quite herby so I’m generous with the herbs.  If you prefer, just add a teaspoon at a time and taste, adding more until you like the flavour.  Season to taste with salt.

Roll out your pastry and line the plate or baking dish.  Add the corned beef mixture to the dish and cover with a pastry lid.  Brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven until the pastry is golden. 

I'd like to dedicate this recipe to my first husband, who always loved my corned beef pies!  With much love and affection, and thanks for all the happy times.

Chilli con carne

I’m almost too ashamed to post this recipe, being as far removed from the genuine thing as it is probably possible to get!   

Back in the 70’s my Mum began experimenting with quite different dishes from her usual repertoire.  They didn’t make a frequent appearance, but were a real treat when they did appear.  This is my version of the chilli that she used to make. 

I generally use either pinto beans or red kidney beans.  The version pictured is made using black eyed beans as they were to hand and I wanted to use them up.  You see my shame! 

The recipe below is a very generous one.  There’s no sense in making something like this, that is going to take several hours cooking time and will freeze so well, in small portions.  Once cooked I portion it up in plastic boxes and pop them in the freezer.  If you do the same with the cooked rice then you always have a ready-meal in the freezer.  The dried beans and batch cooking make this quite a frugal dish.

I used : 

1½ lb (750g) minced beef

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp chilli powder

2tsp paprika

Pinch of curry powder

2tsp oregano

Dash of Worcestershire sauce (about 1 or 2tsp)

1tsp tomato puree

2 large (400g) tins of chopped tomatoes*

1 or 2 fresh red chillies, diced

2 beef stock cubes

8oz of dried red kidney/pinto beans soaked overnight or 2 large (400g) tins of red kidney beans

Salt and pepper to taste

 

If you are using dried kidney beans, add them to a pan with some boiling water and cook on a full rolling boil for 10 minutes and then drain. 

Peel and dice the onions and sauté in 1tb olive oil for 10 minutes, until it starts to brown.  Peel and chop the garlic and add to the onion, cook for 2 or 3 minutes before adding the minced beef to the pan.  Cook gently until the beef is browned and the pan is dry. 

Add the Worcestershire sauce, cumin, chilli powder, paprika, curry powder, tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, stock cubes, fresh chilli and oregano and give a good stir.  If you are using dried beans then add them now.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir again.  (If you are using tinned beans, add them after the first 2 hours of the cooking time.) 

Bring to a gentle simmer and then place in a medium oven (160^oF 300^oC / gas mark 2) for 3 hours. 

*if Dress sauces are available where you live you can replace one of the tins of tomatoes with a tin of Dress tomato and chilli sauce.  I half-fill the jar with cold water and shake it, adding that to the chilli too.

Steak and mushroom pie

Who doesn’t like a pie!  Hubby loves my pies and this is one of his favourites.  It's very economical as it uses the cheapest cuts of beef, and the mushrooms will stretch the meat to make a delicious and filling pie. 

I like to make something like this the day before we want it as I always find that the flavours develop on keeping. 

For two of us I used: 

1 big onion

1lb stewing beef (clod, shin, skirt etc)

½ lb mushrooms

1tb flour

1 pint beef stock

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

1tsp mushroom ketchup (optional, if you don’t have it leave it out)

1tsp tomato puree

2 small sprigs of thyme

1 small sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

1 bayleaf

2 tb olive oil

1 pack of flaky (puff) pastry (you can make your own but frankly it isn’t worth the faff!  You won’t use it all and the leftovers can be frozen for another time.)  If you can't get flaky/puff pastry then shortcrust pastry will be fine.

1 egg, beaten to glaze the pie.  You could replace the egg with milk, or even water if you don’t want to waste a good egg as a pastry glaze! 

Firstly, dice the beef and brown in 1tb of olive oil.  Remove to a plate when browned. 

While the beef is browning peel and dice the onion, then brown in the second tablespoon of olive oil. 

While the onion is cooking, clean a third of the mushrooms and chop fairly finely.  Add to the pan with the onions and sautee for a few minutes.  Return the beef to the onions and mushrooms and toss around to mix everything together. 

Add the flour to the beef, onions and mushrooms and mix thoroughly.  Gradually add the beef stock, stirring to eliminate any risk of lumps.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, mushroom ketchup (if using), tomato puree and herbs and mix in.  Bring to a gentle simmer and then cover. 

Cook in the oven at 150^oC (300^oF/gas mark 2) for 2½ to 3 hours. 

After the first hour, clean and slice the remainder of the mushrooms and add to the casserole, stirring to give it all a good mixing. 

The pie I am making is a lidded pie, which is to say it just has pastry on the top, not on the bottom.   

If you are making the pie filling ahead of time, allow it to cool completely before you add the pastry lid.  If you are making the filling to cook straight away you can add the pastry lid now.

To make it up, roll out a piece of flaky pastry about 2” or 3” larger than your pie dish.  Cut the extra pastry and use to line the edges of your pie tin.  Brush with beaten egg then add the pie filling to the tin.  Lay the lid over the dish and trim to fit.  Brush with beaten egg and cook at 180^oC for 20 - 25 minutes (30 – 35 from cold), until the pastry is golden.

Valentine's Dinner

Valentine’s Day.  The day that comes once a year to let us show our loved ones how much they mean to us.  Yeah right! 

I show my love with every meal, and for his part, hubby shows his love with the countless little thoughtful things he does for me.  The cups of tea he brings me in bed after a particularly sleepless night; the middle of the winter trips to the beach when I need to top-up my mermaid blood being just two.

For Valentine’s Day though I want to make us something special, something that we’ll really enjoy.  We both really like Italian food, especially antipasto platters so I thought I’d start us off with that.  I’ll put together a pasta bake that can sit quietly in the oven while we’re making our way through the antipasto and then we can finish off with a raspberry pannacotta.  The red of the raspberries will be perfect for Valentine’s Day!  I know I ought to make the pannacotta, but I’m going to buy them this time – it’s my day too after all!

So to start with we’re going to have an assortment of antipasto – our favourite bits and pieces!

Two types of salami, Milano and Napoli

Parma ham

Olives

Artichokes

Sun dried tomatoes

A generous handful of rocket (arugula) scattered over my lovely olivewood board.*

For our main course, I made ahead of time the lovely beef cacciatore that we enjoyed so much recently ( http://thehappyhousewife12.blogspot.com/2012/01/beef-cacciatore.html ) thinking that it would be perfect as a pasta bake.  For convenience I cooked the pasta ahead of time and assembled the dish so that it could be popped into the oven when we were ready for it.  

To go with the pasta bake I thought I’d make my hubby’s favourite starter/side – asparagus wrapped in Parma ham.  I know asparagus is out of season now, that it’s been flown in from goodness knows where – but it’s Valentine’s Day and if my Valentine wants asparagus, then that’s what he’s going to get!

This is a really lovely starter or side dish and a simple assembly job.  Just wrap 3 or 4 asparagus spears in Parma ham and lay on a baking sheet.  I allow 2 bundles per person.  Once they are all on the baking sheet, drizzle with a little olive oil (garlic olive oil is nice too), especially over the tips, and then grind a little black pepper over the bundles.  Cook at 200^oC for approximately 10 – 15 minutes – keep your eye on them as they will go from done to ruined in a short space of time!

For the pasta bake, that will need 30 – 35 minutes (or a little longer depending on how cold it was going into the oven) at 200^oC.

*The olivewood board was something that we’d both fancied having for a while and spotted it in an Italian delicatessen when we were on our travels in Windsor last summer.  Saw it, wanted it, had to have it ...... had to carry it around with us all day too!

Beef Cacciatore

Hubby loves a beef casserole and after two days away from home in London, a long train journey and a drive home in the dark and rain I knew it would be the welcome home he needed.  As good as the food was, I suspect that the greeting the dogs gave him was more appreciated! 

This is my version of this lovely classic Italian dish.   

500g diced casserole beef

1 onion

1 clove garlic

2 anchovies

1 sprig rosemary

1oz dried mushrooms

5 or 6 fresh mushrooms

1 jar of Dress sun-dried tomato sauce (or large tin of chopped plum tomatoes)

1tsp mushroom ketchup

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

250ml of red wine

250ml of beef stock 

Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and add a cup of boiling water, leave to soak while you get on with everything. 

Add a little olive oil to a pan and brown the beef pieces a few at a time, removing to a dish as you go. 

When all the beef is browned, add a little more oil and then the chopped onion, and cook for 5 minutes or so before adding the garlic.  Cook for a further 5 minutes and then add the anchovies, pushing them around the pan with your wooden spoon until they ‘melt’. 

Drain the soaking mushrooms, reserving the water, and chop.  Add the chopped mushrooms to the onion and garlic, and then chop and add the rosemary to the pan.  Give everything a good stir and add the meat, and stir well around the pan again. 

Add the Worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup, scraping the bottom of the pan as you go to pick up any sticky bits from cooking the beef.  Add the contents of the jar of Dress sauce (or the can of tomatoes) and stir in.  Pour the reserved mushroom soaking water into the sauce jar and shake around, then add to the pan and stir.  Add a cup of red wine, a cup of beef stock and stir in.  Season and bring to a simmer.  Once the pan is starting to simmer cover with a lid and pop into the oven to cook at 150^oC for 3 hours. 

Clean and slice the fresh mushrooms and add to the pan for the last hour of the cooking time.

If you feel that it is becoming too dry add some boiling water with a little Worcestershire sauce added. 

I served this with some buttery garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.

Steak and Guinness Pie

This was what we saw the New Year in with last night!  I often make a steak and Guinness casserole but I’m in full-on pie mode at the moment so I decided to give it a pastry lid.   

I always find making something like this the day before you want to eat it is best, as the flavours develop and mature with overnight keeping. 

Guinness is a very assertive flavour, but the mushroom ketchup, tomato puree and Worcestershire sauce served to soften it a little.  By all means replace the Guinness with an ale if you prefer, or even leave it out all together and use all beef stock. 

1 onion

1 stick celery

1 carrot

1 clove garlic

1 or 2 anchovies

3 rashers of bacon

500g diced casserole steak

6 or 8 big mushrooms

Mushroom ketchup

Worcestershire sauce

Tomato puree

440ml can of Guinness

1tb flour

Seasoning

Sprigs thyme

2 bay leaves

¼ pint beef stock 

Peel and dice the onion and carrot quite small, wash and dice the stick of celery and sautee in a little olive oil (or anchovy oil) for 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes, then add the anchovies and push around the pan until they melt.  Remove to a dish.

Add the chopped rashers of bacon and brown in a little olive oil.  Remove to the same dish as the vegetables. 

Add a little more olive oil and brown the diced beef in batches, removing them to the dish of vegetables as they brown. 

Return everything to the same pan and add the tablespoon of flour, stirring it around well.  Add the can of Guinness and stir well, scraping up anything sticking to the bottom of your pan.  Add the mushroom ketchup and Worcestershire sauce – as much as will fill the bowl of your wooden spoon, and a squeeze of tomato puree and stir in.  Then season and add the herbs.

Bring it up to simmering point and then pop into the oven to cook at 150^oC for 3 hours.  After this time the liquid will pretty much have cooked away to leave a lovely rich gravy. 

After an hour, add the cleaned and quartered mushrooms and stir in. 

The pie I made is just a lidded pie, it has no pastry base.  To make it up, roll out a piece of flaky pastry about 2 or 3” larger than your pie dish.  Cut the extra pastry and use to line the edges of your pie tin.  Brush with beaten egg then add the pie filling.  Lay the lid over the dish and trim to fit.  Brush with beaten egg and cook at 180^oC for 30 minutes from cold.

To make the Stilton pie, I added 2 teaspoons of Stilton cheese and dotted them around the pie filling.  For the pastry lid, roll out the pastry to a rectangle, season with black pepper and add some crumbled Stilton cheese to two thirds of the pastry.  Fold the bottom third over the middle third, and then fold that over the top third.  Re-roll the pastry and use it to top the pie as described above.  The cheese in the pastry gives a double-whammy of Stilton deliciousness, but you can leave it out if you aren’t as fixated as I am!

Happy New Year to you all!

Lasagne - my version

This was the dish that won me my husband! 

It’s one of those dishes that I used to make on the weekend when I worked as it needs a long slow cooking, but provides plenty of freezable portions. 

I never consider making less than the following quantities, and usually have enough to make a lasagne for four serves, plus another three or four serves of sauce for the freezer. 

500g each minced beef and pork

1 big onion, peeled and chopped
A dash each of Worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

About an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms soaked in ¼ pint boiling water

1 or 2 anchovies

2 400g tins of tomatoes *

* (if you can get hold of Dress tomato and basil sauce, replace one of the tins of tomatoes with one jar of this)

2 beef stock cubes
2tsp paprika
A small pinch of curry powder
2tsp dried oregano
7 or 8 medium mushrooms, peeled and sliced
A small bunch of fresh basil

Salt and pepper to taste
Squeeze of tomato puree

Approximately 9 lasagne sheets (the exact number will depend on the size of dish you are using.

One tub of supermarket finest four cheese sauce.

Grated cheddar and parmesan cheese to finish

Peel and chop the onion and fry in a little olive oil (or some of the anchovy oil) for 10 minutes, until it turns a nice golden brown.  Add the chopped garlic and toss around in the pan for 5 minutes.  Add the anchovies and push around the pan with your wooden spoon until they ‘melt’. 

Add the minced beef and pork to the pan and break up with the wooden spoon. Brown over a medium heat until the meat is browned, the pan is dry and any liquid from the meat is evaporated. 

At the same time as the meat is browning, strain the soaked dried mushrooms, reserving the soaking water, and then chop fairly finely.   

Add the chopped soaked mushrooms, the Worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup to the meat and season with salt and pepper.  Add the paprika and pinch of curry powder and stir well.  Add the tinned tomatoes (and the jar of sauce if using, rinsing the jar out with the reserved water from the soaked mushrooms and add that to the pan).  Add the tomato puree, the dried oregano and crumble over the beef stock cubes.  Give everything a good stir and bring to a simmer.  Cover and either simmer on the hob for two hours, or cook in a low oven. 

After an hour, peel and slice the fresh mushrooms and add to the pan and stir in.  Cover and leave for the final hour. 

Immediately before serving, wash and tear the fresh basil leaves and add to the pan, giving it a good stir to distribute them throughout. 

To assemble the lasagne, first layer 3 sheets of pasta on the bottom of the dish and then top with some sauce.  Layer over a further 3 sheets of pasta and top with the same quantity of sauce again.  Layer over a further 3 sheets of pasta and top with the cheese sauce.  Finally, sprinkle over the grated cheese and pop into the oven until the cheese and sauce is bubbling. 

If you are making this ahead of time (and I usually do as it improves on keeping), allow the meat sauce to cool before adding the top layer of pasta and topping with the cheese sauce. Finally sprinkle over the grated cheeses and heat in the oven.  If cooking from hot it will only require 20 minutes or so, until the cheese is bubbling.  If re-heating from cold it will need 30 - 40 minutes.

The quantities given above have yielded eight serves: four portions of lasagne and a further four of sauce to serve with spaghetti – the ubiquitous spag bol!