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.

Goliath Sausages

Autumn has come to my world surprisingly early this year.  It’s only mid-September and yet the blackberries have gone over, the night time temperatures have slipped to single figures and the mornings are chilly.  Taking the dog for an evening stroll now means returning to the cosy glow of a lamp lit home. 

Yesterday was one such perfect autumn day.  We had a lovely romp out in the cool sunshine and then came home to put this casserole together.  The only thing missing in my world was the Aga!! 

This dish is really just a pared down version of the Guinness sausages recipe I gave a few months ago.  I called it Goliath sausages because I cooked them in one of my husband’s favourite ales – Wychwood’s Goliath ale.  In reality, you could use any ale or dark beer of your choice! 

For two of us I used : 

6 good meaty sausages

2 large onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 small carrot

1 sprig of rosemary

1 bayleaf

1tb flour

2tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 anchovy (optional, but gives a lovely meaty depth of flavour)

Salt and pepper to taste

1tb olive oil 

Firstly, brown the sausages all over.  While they are browning, peel and slice the onions into thick half-moons. 

Cook the onions in the olive oil for 10 to 15 minutes, so that they get nice and brown without burning.  Peel and dice the carrot and cook with the onions.  Finely chop the garlic and add that, cooking for a few minutes.  Add the anchovy and push around the base of the pan to ‘melt’ it. 

Add the flour to the onions and carrot and mix well in, gently pour in the ale (so that it doesn’t froth up too much) and stir in.  Add the rosemary, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce and sausages and give another stir.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Bring to a simmer on the hob and then cover with a close fitting lid.  Cook in the oven at 150^oC/275^o F/gas mark 1 for 3 hours.  You want to have a nice gravy with this so if it seems to dry out at all just add a little more boiling water (half a cup or so). 

This really is best served with buttery mashed potato to mop up the gravy!

 

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)

Irish Stew (my version)

As I was away on holiday on St David’s Day I thought I’d share a recipe with you to celebrate my Celtic cousins’ Patron Saint’s day instead – St Patrick’s Day. 

Traditionally Irish Stew contains pearl barley, but I prefer it without so this is my own particular version.  Actually, the purists in Ireland don’t use barley either and the version I had when we were in Ireland (County Mayo) contained only lamb, onion and potato.  I like to add carrot to my version and I’ve given it a little Welsh twist by using leek instead of onion but you could use onion if leek isn’t easily obtainable. 

For two to three people : 

2 lamb leg steaks

1 large or two small leeks

2 medium carrots

2 medium potatoes

1 small sprig of rosemary

1 bayleaf

1tb flour

2 pints of lamb stock

1tb olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly cut the leg steaks into large pieces and fry in the olive oil to brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate as they are browned. 

Slice the leek/s lengthways and rinse well under running water, then cut into slices approximately ½ an inch thick.  Peel the carrots and cut into fairly big pieces and do the same with the potatoes. 

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed, and gently sweat the leek and carrot for 10 minutes.  Return the lamb to the pan and add the tablespoon of flour, stirring well to absorb any juices in the pan.  Slowly add the lamb stock, stirring well to eliminate the risk of lumps forming.  Add the potatoes then season with salt and pepper and add the chopped rosemary and the bayleaf.  Cover and cook on a very low simmer for two hours, or pop it into the oven to cook at 150^oC for two hours. 

(150^oC = 300^oF = gas mark 2)

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.