Tag Archives: bread

The Best Beef Stew – served in bread bowls

03 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Beef, Meals in one

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The Best Beef Stew

This is Dave Lieberman from Food Network’s recipe.
I got this recipe about 7 years ago and no other stew comes close to being this delicious. It is the BEST!
I made this for a dinner party and served it in bread bowls….just for fun! My guests LOVED it.

What you will need:

2 pounds beef chuck for stew, cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
4 medium carrots, peeled, halved and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 small onions, diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans reduced-sodium beef or chicken broth
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 medium russet or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 handfuls green beans, ends trimmed (optional)

 Season the beef cubes lightly with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy 6-quart pot over medium heat. As soon as the butter starts to turn brown, add half the beef and raise the heat to high. At first, the beef will give off some liquid, but once that evaporates, the beef will start to brown. Cook, turning the beef cubes on all sides until the pieces are as evenly browned as possible, about 5 or 6 minutes after the water has boiled off.

If the pan starts to get too brown at any point, just turn down the heat a little. Scoop the beef into a bowl and brown the rest of the beef the same way using the remaining butter. Scoop out the second batch of beef, then add the carrots and onions and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until the onion starts to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour until it has been worked into the veggies and you can’t see it any more. Pour in the chicken broth, wine, and crushed tomatoes, and toss in the rosemary.

Slide the beef back into the pot and bring the liquid to a boil. Turn down the heat so the liquid is just breaking a gentle simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook about 60 minutes. Stir the stew several times while simmering so it cooks evenly and nothing sticks to the bottom. Stir the potatoes into the stew, cover the pot completely, and cook until the potatoes and beef are tender, stirring occasionally, about another 60 minutes….maybe longer.
Add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes until the green beans turn bright green and are cooked through but still have a nice snap to them.

Enjoy!
Joy

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Onion and Olive bread

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in pizzas and bread

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Onion and Olive Bread

After a busy Christmas season and getting settled into my new flat I finally got the time to do a proper bit of cooking this weekend. Making bread is a little messy but every time I make it I ask myself why I ever bother to buy it as it’s so easy to make, tastes great and there is a strangely satisfying feeling of seeing it rise.

One of the beauties of making your own bread is that you can put whatever you want in it. From cheese, olives, seeds to lardons.

What you need:
7g of yeast
Pinch of sugar
300ml warm water
500g of flour

150g of roughly chopped green onions
1 1/2 chopped onions
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped dried rosemary

Add your yeast, warm water and sugar in a bowl and leave for 10 minutes.

In a pan fry the onions until they are golden.

For the dough, in a bowl add the flour and make a little well. In the well add the yeast mixture, onions, olives, rosemary, salt and pepper. Gradually incorporate the flour into the well and mix until it becomes dough. Add  more water or flour as necessary (the dough should not be sticky but elastic).

Place the dough on a clean floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. Place the dough into a large bowl and cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise for 2 hours in a warm place. After the two hours knead for about a minute and shape into a flattish round shape. Place the dough on a greased baking sheet/ tray. With a knife make criss-cross cuts into the top of the dough and cover the dough for another 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 220C. Dust the top of the dough with a little flour and place the dough in the oven for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 200C and continue cooking 20 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow and have a golden crust.

You can eat it warm or cold. I had some for my breakfast with some smoked salmon, yum!

Enjoy
Mel

My Favorite Grilled Cheese

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Meals in one, Simple meals

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I’ve been eating grilled cheese like this for about ten years now and often forget that most people don’t add extras like I do.

Eating becomes a challenge when you are taking care of a newborn. Because I am breastfeeding, I have to incorporate healthy foods throughout my day.
This has been my “go-to” when I only have a few minutes to cook but want to feel full and satisfied.

Here ‘s what you need:
2 slices of whole wheat bread
2 slices of cheddar cheese
1 avocado (sliced)
1 tomato (sliced)
1 teaspoon of butter

I buttered one side of each slice of bread and put the butter side down on a hot pan on medium low heat.

Each slice of bread gets a slice of cheese. One piece of bread gets the avocado and the other gets the tomato.

The two slices of bread are cooking simultaneously (open faced) because this grilled cheese is so thick that it’s too hard to flip.

Once the cheese has melted, I place one slice of bread onto the other so that I can enjoy all of the ingredients in every bite.

*Please note that this sandwich is also good cold and great for picnics.
 The ingredients do not take up a lot of room, can be easily assembled and you can usually find the ingredients in any country.
 You can use the exact same ingredients or you can use a fresh baguette and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

 Mel and I have eaten this sandwich quite a bit when exploring a new city because it is easy to share with someone and inexpensive!

Joy

Live Below the Line – oat bread

04 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in Live Below the Line

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Flat bread - Live Below the Line

Well I’ll let you guess what I had for breakfast this morning… and yes you would be right it was porridge!

For lunch I had a starter of grated carrot with a bit of ginger and a baked potato with a third of my can of baked beans.

For dinner I decided to be a bit creative and made flat bread. So I took some oats and grinded them so that they became a bit like thick flour, I added a clove of garlic, a teaspoon of tomato purée and mixed it all together to make dough.

I made two fillings; the first was with a third of a can of tuna mixed with a tablespoon of cream cheese. The second mix was a simple hummus; I minced some chickpeas with some of its liquid (for flavour…) and a clove of garlic.

Once I’d made these fillings I split the dough into two separate balls and rolled them out with a rolling pin. I then heated a pan and then one by one cooked the flat bread by putting it on the pan and flipping it over after a couple of minutes. Then I added a different filling to each and folded over. Not bad though I was definitely missing a big salad!

To find out more https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-christianaid

Mel