Tag Archives: melandjoy

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

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

Clafoutis or Migourin?

06 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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I made a clafoutis the other evening with some of the cherries I brought back from France.  It’s a very simple dessert to make and is pretty healthy as there’s no sugar or butter.

What you will need:

Cherries (enough to cover the bottom of your oven dish)
1 cup of flour
1 cup of milk or red wine
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking powder 

Place the cherries at the bottom of a buttered baking dish. As there’s no sugar in this dessert the  more cherries the better in my opinion.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. In a large bowl whisk the flour, milk, eggs and baking powder. Pour the mixture over the cherries and place the dish in the oven for about 45mins or until golden.

For something a little different:

My French grandmother always replaces the milk with some red wine to make a migourin, a speciality from the Loire region in France.  

Now get cooking, it’s cherry season!

Mel

Cherry jam

05 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in Jams and chutneys

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Cherry jam

I went to my parent’s home in France for a long weekend with a few friends. We had a fantastic time enjoying the sun, swimming in the pool and best of all picking cherries in the garden. This year they came early and if we’d arrived any later they would have been too ripe. The tree was covered in cherries and in just 15 minutes we had a big basket full of them, yum! The only problem was that they were so ripe we couldn’t have eaten all of them before they started to rot, so we made jam.

It feels so satisfying to pick fruit and then make something from them.

What you will need:

1kg of cherries
1kg of sugar
Empty jars

Cooking time – 1 hour

You can either de-stone the cherries before making the jam or after (it will not change the flavour). I didn’t remove them before as they were so ripe and used that weight to measure the sugar.

Put the cherries in a big pan with the sugar and mix so that the sugar covers the cherries. Put on a medium heat and stir occasionally until the sugar has completely melted and then turn the heat to low, cover the pan and leave to simmer. Stir the jam from time to time for about an hour. A white foam will create on the top of the jam, remove as much as possible.

Just before the jam is ready, get some empty jars, boil water and pour into the jars, this will disinfect them. Once the jam is ready, empty the water and pour in the jam – using a ladle or a jug can make this easier. Immediately seal the jar with the lid. Leave to cool and then refrigerate.

To make jam the rule I always use is the same weight in sugar as fruit, or a little less sugar if the fruit is nice and ripe.

Jams and chutneys can make great presents, all you need is some nice material, some beads and a label for it to look that bit special.

Mel

Mushroom Sandwich, Anyone?

30 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Meals in one

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It sounds a bit strange but my husband and I had this in Amsterdam and I have been making it ever since!

What you need:

1 clove of Garlic (minced)
Fresh Parsley (finely chopped)
1 Onion (chopped)
1/2 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Butter
1 cup of sliced Crimini Mushrooms (I am sure you can use different kinds, Crimini works best for me)
Salt & Pepper
1 Tablespoon Goat Cheese
1 Egg (Over Easy)
Splash of wine (white or red)
1 piece of bread (Your choice, but I found that the thicker, the better)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (I think our maximum is 250C do you guys have a different temperature to us?).

Put a saute pan on medium-low heat. Let the pan get hot before adding your olive oil.
Then, add your onion, garlic, butter, salt & pepper.

After a minute or so, add your mushrooms and let this mixture heat up together until you see the water extract from the mushrooms. This usually happens in 3-5 minutes.

During this 3-5 minutes, spread the goat cheese onto your bread and put the bread in the oven for 3-5 minutes. You are just melting the cheese a little so it shouldn’t take long.

The water from the mushrooms should have evaporated by now and this is when you add your wine and turn your heat on low. Keep the pan uncovered and let the wine slowly cook down to nothing! This should take about 10 minutes.

While you wait for your wine to disappear, remove your bread and start to fry your egg over easy.

Once the wine is gone, put the mushroom mixture over your bread and cheese and top it with fresh parsley.

Now you can put your egg over easy on top and enjoy!

Joy

Baba Ganoush – the courgette way

22 Sunday May 2011

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This is a simple dip that goes well with nachos or as a side dish with fish or meat.

What you will need:

3 courgettes
Cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Half a lemons juice
Food blender

Turn the oven on to 200c. Cut the courgettes into slices and put in an oven proof dish, sprinkle cumin seeds, the garlic cut in halves, salt and pepper. Add about three tablespoons of olive oil, make sure it coats all the ingredients. Put the dish in the oven for about 30mins, stir the courgettes every 10 mins.

Once cooked remove from the oven, put into a food blender and add the lemon juice. Blend all the ingredients for a few seconds.

You can also do this with aubergines.

Mel

Lamb with cinnamon and prunes

11 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in Lamb

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There’s a fantastic butcher by my work and so after Live Below the Line I decided to treat myself. I ended up getting some lamb scrag (on the bone) and only spent £4 for three big pieces of meat. So I left there quite happy.

I decided I’d try a lamb tagine (though without the tagine).

 So what you will need:

For the lamb (feeds three)
Lamb scrag on the bone (one per person)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
Half an aubergine
10 prunes
1 cinnamon stick
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tablespoon of butter
Salt and pepper

For the couscous
Couscous
Olive oil
Chilli flakes

Mix the stock cube with about 300ml of boiling water in a bowl. In a big pan add the butter and brown the lamb and onions. Add the water and all chopped vegetables, cinnamon and bring to a boil, add water so that it nearly covers all the meat, cover and simmer for about 30mins. Add prunes and cook for another 15mins. Depending on how you want the liquid to be, remove the lid to reduce 10mins before it’s cooked. Total cooking time should be about 45mins.

About 10mins before your lamb is ready put some couscous in a bowl. Add a tablespoon of oil, chilli flakes (add to taste) and salt and pepper and mix. Add the appropriate amount of water and cover until it’s ready.

 This is an incredibly easy and scrumptious dish!

Mel

The end of Live Below the Line

09 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Live Below the Line

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 Thank you to everyone who sponsored me to Live Below the Line, I never thought it would be so difficult. With boredom of eating carbs carbs and more carbs I really came to realize what an absolute luxury it is that I’m able to afford good food. In the few days of changing my diet I felt weak, bloated and I was eating just to feed myself.

A few of my colleagues also took part in the fundraiser, leading up to it all we could talk about was what we were going to eat. Last week all we could talk about was what we couldn’t eat. I am definitely enjoying eating properly again, so far I have eaten steak, crab and lamb, yum!

Mel

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

Live Below the Line day 1

03 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by in Live Below the Line

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LBL - porridge

Well with my first day over I’ve already tried tea with custard powder and porridge with cream cheese and water. I must say that I will be having my porridge without the cream cheese tomorrow morning.

I still had £1.12 left so I bought 26 tea bags for 9p, an extra banana for 10p, a carrot for 7p, celeriac for 56p and a garlic bulb for 30p. So I’m now left with exactly 0p.

For lunch today I had a baked potato with two tablespoons of cream cheese and a third of a can of tuna, not bad but the potato was quite small so I had some left-over porridge from breakfast for a mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner was an interesting one of pasta with a celeriac, garlic and tomato purée sauce. I minced some celeriac and added a clove of garlic with a teaspoon of purée and added half a cup of boiling water. Once the pasta was cooked I added the sauce and simmered for about 5 minutes. Not bad for a first meal… though it was missing a bit of salt and pepper.

What’s been the hardest thing today has been the lack of caffeine as I’ve had a headache all day long. Ah bring on tomorrow!

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

Mel