Slow Cooker Beef Stew

 Ok, I know this photo doesn’t exactly look appetising, but it’s a photo of what was a truly delicious meal.

The meal is Slow Cooker Beef Stew, made from this recipe on the BBC website.

Onions, garlic and celery are fried up with carrots, bay, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and water.  

The stewing steak is browned and added with the vegetable mix to the slow cooker, then two beef stock cubes are crumbled on top, and everything is seasoned with salt and pepper. I also added frozen peas.

The slow cooker then does its work (8-10 hours on low or 4 hours on high). 

If you want to thicken the sauce, two tablespoons of cornflour made into a paste with water are added to the slow cooker and is left to cook for another half an hour.

Once cooked, the stew is served on mashed potato.

This stew has a deep, rich flavour and is very satisfying. And of course, the slow cooker makes it very low maintenance cooking.

If you like stew, then I recommend giving this recipe a go.

My Mother’s “Hotch Potch” - Beef Stew

 

It’s cold here and definitely a good time for stews and hearty meals. One of my favourite stews is my mother’s hotch potch, pictured.

There is no set recipe for this - it’s about using what you have. In rough terms, to a large casserole dish, I added 500g cubed chuck steak that had been tossed in a mixture of salt and plain flour (I did this in a freezer bag for easy clean up), 500g peeled and chopped potatoes, and whatever other veg you have to hand (I used carrots and beans, but mixed frozen veg works a treat). Take a generous heaped metal tablespoon (the big spoon not a baking measure) full of plain flour and mix it with just enough water to make a paste - put that in the casserole dish with the meat and veg, and shake in some Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce to taste. Crumble in a beef stock cube, season with salt and pepper to taste, then add enough water to the pot to just cover the meat and veg.

Cook in a preheated 180 degree Celsius oven for around 2 hours, and that’s it.

The crucial step is using enough flour to make the sauce thicken, otherwise you end up with tasteless watery stew (which I have done a number of times). 

A perfect dish served with crusty bread to soak up all of that  yummy sauce.

WWDH - Spiced Meatballs with Sticky Chilli Sauce

Kayte is resurrecting Wednesdays with Donna Hay on a casual basis. We may not post every Wednesday, but we will post whenever we make a new Donna Hay recipe.

This week, I made a recipe from Donna’s new book, One Pan Perfect. The recipe is Spiced Meatballs in Sticky Chilli Sauce. There are great Asian flavours in these meatballs - garlic, ginger, green onion and chilli.

 I baked my meatballs instead of frying them, and used a chilli tomato chutney in place of the Korean chilli paste in the recipe. I think these changes went well.

I served my meatballs with cauliflower rice and veggies.

I highly recommend both this recipe and Donna’s new book.

My Mum’s Meatballs in Tomato Soup

 I had a hankering recently for the meatballs baked in tomato soup that my mum makes. I rang her for the recipe so I could make them. It always makes me laugh when she gives me a recipe because the quantities are so I exact.

There is not much else to say about these meatballs except that they are good! If you would like to try them, you will need:

500g beef mince

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

1 egg

2 slices bread, processed into crumbs

1 x 400g tin tomato soup

plain flour or dried breadcrumbs to roll the meatballs in

1/2 soup can of cold water

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients except the soup, water and flour.  Make balls of the desired size from the mixture with wet hands.

Roll the meatballs in flour (or dried breadcrumbs) and place in a large casserole dish. Pour over the tomato soup, then the water.

Bake the meatballs in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with rice and vegetables.

Beef Goulash and Braised Cabbage

One of my more recent cookbook purchases is Just Add Love, by Irris Makler.  The byline is "Holocaust survivors share their stories and recipes".  The recipes come from Jewish women from all over Australia, and includes not just recipes, but the stories of the people behind them. It really is a fascinating and inspiring read.

As it is still quite cold in Melbourne, and I wanted to find a way to use the stewing beef I had in the freezer, I turned to this book for recipes.  I wasn't disappointed - Annetta Able, a woman of Czech origin, had contributed a recipe for beef goulash.  The goulash was thick and rich and hearty - perfect for a cold night.

I bought cabbage to go with the beef goulash, and Just Add Love has a recipe from Rita Ross for braised red cabbage that intrigued me because it contains apple.  I had a green cabbage - no matter - and a single Granny Smith apple, so this seemed like the perfect recipe for me.  Rita says that the juxtaposition of the sweet and sour make this braised cabbage, and I agree - I really enjoyed the freshness of the braised cabbage which resulted from the sweetness of the apple with the  tartness of lemon, both of which help to lift the cabbage out of the realms of the mundane.

To make Annetta's goulash, you will need:

1kg stewing beef, cubed

1 finely chopped red capsicum

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 finely chopped onions

2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup beef stock

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the onion until translucent.  Add the beef and fry until the beef is browned.  Add the paprika and salt and stir to combine.

Add the stock, capsicum, tomato paste and caraway seeds,  and bring the mixture to the boil.  Turn down the heat to a bare simmer, cover the pot, and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.  If you need more water, add it half a cup at a time, and check every half an hour to ensure that the goulash does not boil dry.  The aim is for all of the water to be absorbed into the sauce, so don't add too much.

The goulash is ready when the meat is soft and tender.  Adjust the seasoning as necessary.

For the braised cabbage, you will need:

1 finely chopped onion

1/2 cabbage, shredded (the recipe says red, I used green)

2 tablespoons vinegar

2  green apples, peel on, roughly chopped (I used one as I only had one)

rind of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion in a large frypan until translucent. Add the cabbage and the vinegar to the frypan and stir to combine.  Add the lemon juice, apples, lemon rind and caraway seeds and mix well, and season to taste.

Cover the frypan and cook on low heat for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Before serving, take out the lemon rind.

I served the goulash and cabbage with mashed potato - a perfect accompaniment for me, but you could also serve with pasta, rice or nockerl, as suggested in the recipe.

Creamy Coconut Beef and Vegetable Curry with Rice

Winter has come to Melbourne almost overnight.  After enjoying beautiful balmy, sunny days, a couple of days ago, the cold and rain hit.  People have become walking bundles of clothes (mostly black - it is Melbourne!), and I have dug out the scarf, wool coat, hat and flannelette PJs.  Some people enjoy the cooler weather, but I am not one of them.  Unfortunately for me, it is likely to stay cool now until January next year, but the really cold months are now through to September/October.

One of the only good things about winter for me is the food.  Soups, stews, curries and hot puddings with warm custard go down a treat in winter.  It is also a good excuse to find a pub with a warm fire and snuggle in with your favourite drop. 

I recently made this Creamy Coconut Beef and Vegetable Curry, based on this recipe from Taste, which is perfect for the cold weather.  It's made in the slow cooker, so is easy on the labour.  Next time, I'd thicken up the sauce (mine may have been thin as I used frozen vegetables, adding extra moisture), but flavour wise, it fit the bill.  Ginger, coconut and tomato flavours combined with the curry paste made this a wonderful dish.

To make it, you will need:

1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1/3 cup rogan josh curry paste
1.5kg chuck beef, cut into 4cm cubes
400g can chopped tomatoes
250ml chicken stock
500g packet frozen vegetables
1 tablespoon cornflour
270ml coconut cream
boiled or steamed rice 

Heat the oil in a large frypan, then add the ginger and cook until softened.  Add the curry paste and cook until aromatic.  Add the beef and cook until it is just browned.

Put the beef mixture into a slow cooker.  Add the tomato and stock, and stir to combine.  Cook on high for 5 hours.  Add the vegetables and cook for another hour.

Combine the cornflour with a third of a cup of coconut cream, and add to the slow cooker.  Cook with the lid off the cooker for 10 minutes or until thickened (which did not happen for me!).

Serve the curry with the rice.

Beef and Lemongrass Meatloaf - Helen Goh recipe

How were your Christmas celebrations?  I hope you had a fabulous time with family and friends.

Now that Christmas is over, it is back to normal in the eating and drinking department.  If you are looking for a break from that leftover turkey and ham, I can highly recommend Helen Goh's Chicken and Lemongrass Meatloaf.  Helen states that it can also be made with pork or beef mince, so I chose beef.

This meatloaf is unique in that it contains lots of Asian flavours - lemongrass, chilli, ginger, coriander, fish sauce and soy.  It is quite a big meatloaf - I got 10 serves out of it, perfect for freezing some for another day.

If you would like to try this meatloaf, you will need:

2 slices white bread
120ml milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 chopped onion
2 minced cloves garlic
thumb sized knob of ginger, minced
2 minced stalks lemongrass
1 minced red chilli
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves and stalks
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 kg chicken, pork or beef mince
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Glaze

2 tablespoons sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Tear the crusts off the bread and rip the slices into small pieces. Put the bread pieces in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle over the milk, and set aside to soak.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent. Add garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli, cook for a minute, then remove from heat. Add the onion mixture to the bread mixture and allow to cool.

Add the coriander, fish sauce, soy sauce, eggs, sugar, salt and pepper to the bowl and mix with your hands to combine. Add the minced meat and mix gently until combined. Chill the mixture in the fridge and preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Press the mixture into a 23cm x 12cm x 7cm loaf tin, packing it down to remove any air pockets. Cover the pan loosely with a large, double layer of aluminium foil, then place a rimmed baking tray over it. Carefully flip over the tray so that the foil is on the bottom and the meatloaf is upside down, with the loaf tin over it. Loosen the foil and spread it out, as if lining the base of the baking tray. Put the meatloaf in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. 

Remove the meatloaf from the oven and carefully lift off the loaf tin. Return the meatloaf to the oven without the loaf tin and bake for a further 20 minutes. 

While the meatloaf is cooking, make the glaze by combining the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

Remove the meatloaf from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 22o degrees Celsius. Spoon the glaze over the top of the meatloaf and return it to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes, brushing the meatloaf with the glaze a couple of times during that time. 

Take the meatloaf out of the oven and allow it to rest on the baking tray for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Phillippa's Sausage Rolls

Who doesn't love an Aussie sausage roll?  Spicy mince, flaky pastry and tomato sauce (of course!) merge to make one delicious, popular treat.

I recently made the sausage rolls from Phillippa's Home Baking, which use rough puff pastry and a mixture of beef and pork mince.  For those not from Melbourne, Phillippa's is a bakery institution established by Phillippa Grogan, famed for its breads and other baked goods. 

These sausage rolls did not disappoint - they had flaky pastry, and were just on the right side of spicy and juicy:

Have I tempted you to make some sausage rolls for yourself?  If so, you will need:

Rough puff:

225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g cold butter, cubed
125ml chilled water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the butter, water and lemon juice.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients together into a rough dough, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 20cm x 30cm, with the edges being as straight as possible.  Fold one short end of the dough into the middle of the rectangle, then fold the doubled over part of the dough over the top of the remaining third of the dough so that you have a folded piece of pastry measuring 20cm x 10cm.  Wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Repeat the rolling and folding process with the pastry three more times.  You now have ready to use rough puff pastry!

Sausage rolls: 

80g fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion, chopped
100ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
350g beef mince
350g pork mince
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped thyme or sage
1 x rough puff pastry
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Process the breadcrumbs in a food processor to make medium sized breadcrumbs, and place into a large bowl.

Put the onion, tomato sauce, mustard, salt and pepper into the food processor and blitz to a puree, then spoon into the bowl with the breadcrumbs.  Add the mince, parsley and herbs to the bowl and mix with your hands until well combined.  Place into a covered bowl and chill.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.  Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicon mats.

Lightly flour your work bench, then roll out the rough puff pastry into a rectangle measuring 48cm x 30cm.  Cut the pastry into three pieces measuring 30cm x 16cm each.

Take the sausage meat mixture and divide into three even pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll  each ball into a sausage measuring the length of the long end of the pastry.  Place one sausage on the edge of one long end of a pastry strip, brush the opposite long end of the pastry strip with water, then roll the pastry, starting with the sausage edge, to enclose the sausage in the pastry. Press the edges of the pastry join lightly with a fork to seal.

Repeat for each of the other two pastry strips and the remaining sausage mixture.  Cut each long sausage roll into the desired size using a sharp knife (I cut each into quarters for party sized sausage rolls).

In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork, then using a pastry brush, brush this egg wash mixture over the top of the sausage rolls.  

Place the sausage rolls on the lined trays and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. 

Serve the sausage rolls hot with lashings of tomato sauce.

A Warming Stew - Cholent

I am a big fan of stews in the winter.  They are hearty and filling, making them a perfect shield against the bitter cold.  Even better is a stew that can be made in the slow cooker - a dish involving minimal preparation and a "set and forget" mentality.

In this vein of thought, I came across a recipe for Cholent in Allyson Gofton's Slow - Mouth Watering Recipes for the Slow Cooker and Crock Pot.    Cholent is a beef brisket stew, chock full of vegetables and hearty pearl barley.  Browning the beef before putting it in the slow cooker is optional,  so of course I skipped that step.

The resulting stew is thick and warm and comforting - just the thing to lift the soul on a dark, cold winter evening.

 If you would like to try making Cholent, you will need:

1 x 400g tin butter beans
1.5kg beef brisket
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 crushed cloves of garlic
1/2 cup pearl barley
4-5 medium white potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 turnip,  peeled and sliced
1 crushed bay leaf
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1/3 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups beef stock

Drain the beans and scatter over the bottom of your slow cooker.  Scatter the pearl barley,  onion and garlic over the beans, then place the beef on top.  Add the potatoes, carrot turnip and bay leaf.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, paprika, pepper, ginger and cinnamon, add to the stock, then pour over the ingredients in the cooker.  Cover the cooker with a lid and cook on high for 5-6 hours.

Serve and enjoy.

Red Tractor June - Veal Schnitzel with Mushroom Sauce

It is really cold and grey in Melbourne at present, so it was pleasing to see that this month's Red Tractor recipe was something warm and hearty.  The recipe was for Veal Schnitzel with Mushroom Sauce.

The calendar saying this month is very true:   

It makes me think that my efforts have been for a reason.

I liked the mushroom sauce with this recipe, which is made with canned mushroom soup.  It is something that I can make again with another dish.

Without further  do, here is the recipe for the Veal Schnitzel:

4 x 100g veal steaks, flattened
1/2 cup plain flour
1 egg, lightly whisked with a bit of milk
2 cups soft fresh breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter

Coat the veal with flour, and shake off the excess.  Dip the veal in the egg mixture, then in the breadcrumbs to coat well.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil and butter in a fry pan and cook the veal on each side until golden, then drain on paper towel.

For the mushroom sauce:

20g butter
250g button mushrooms, sliced
1 crushed clove garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
420g can cream of mushroom soup

Heat the butter in a small frypan, then add the mushrooms and cook until tender.  Add the garlic and paprika and cook for one minute.  Add the soup, bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat.

Serve the veal schnitzel with the mushroom sauce and potato mash and green beans.  

Moroccan Tagine

The chilly weather in Melbourne continues, with blasts of icy cold winds and sunny but warmthless skies.

It is truly soup and stew weather, so I was pleased when the latest newsletter from my physiotherapist linked to both a soup and a stew recipe. Naturally, I made them both.

The  stew recipe is a Moroccan Tagine from Taste.com.au. It is full of flavour and suitably hearty for cold nights.

To make it, you will need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 750g gravy beef, trimmed, cut into 3cm cubes
• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 medium carrots, peeled, halved, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Moroccan seasoning
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cups Massel beef stock
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
• Brown rice, to serve
• Cooked green beans, to serve
• 
  

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Heat half the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Brown the beef in batches, then transfer to a plate.  

Heat the remaining oil in the casserole dish. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring, until onion has softened. Return the beef to the dish. Add the  flour and seasoning, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon.

Stir in the stock and tomatoes. Bring the mixture to the boil. TCover the casserole dish and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 1 and a half hours.

Remove the stew from the oven and stir in the chickpeas. Return the stew to the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the beef is tender. Take the stew out of the oven and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.

Serve with rice and beans. 

 

Crispy Beef & Shiitake Noodles

Today is a significant day in history, at least for some famous musical (or musically associated) people that interest me.  First up, it is the lovely Jane Asher's 72nd birthday.  If I had the time, I would have baked one of Jane's cakes from Beautiful Baking.  Jane used to own a shop called Jane Asher Party Cakes and Sugarcraft in Chelsea, which I visited way back in 2006.  Jane is multi-talented - she is also a famous actress (from the original Alfie among many other things dating back to her childhood), and even wrote a fancy dress costume book back in the 1980s that featured a young Emilia Fox as one of the models.  Jane was also famously Paul McCartney's girlfriend (and at one stage, fiancé) during the 1960s.   

It is also Agnetha Faltskog's 68th birthday.  Agnetha is, of course, the blonde bombshell from ABBA, the 1970s supergroup.   I grew up on a steady diet of ABBA, and I vaguely remember having ABBA socks (being way too young to attend their concerts or buy their albums).  I still love watching ABBA videos and singing along to their music.

And also on this day, on a much more sobering note, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana ended his own life.  It is not an event I would have remembered being today, but I was reminded of the fact when watching the Smells Like Teen Spirit video on YouTube and seeing the comments. It's funny how I thought of that song today.

These things have nothing to do with today's recipe, but I thought it would be remiss of me to let the day go by without mentioning these famous people who have impacted me in one way or another.

The recipe is for Crispy Beef and Shiitake Noodles, from p37 of the March 2018 edition of Taste magazine. I love a stir fry, and this one has strong Asian flavours that are sure to please stir fry fans.

To make it, you will need:

450g fresh hokkien noodles
2 teaspoons sesame oil
200g halved shiitake mushrooms
3 crushed cloves garlic
450g beef, cut into strips
3 teaspoons ginger paste (I just used crushed ginger from the tube)
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 cup peanut oil (I just used olive oil)
200g bunch broccolini, halved lengthways
100g baby spinach
1/4 cup oyster sauce
toasted sesame seeds and sliced fresh red chilli for serving

Prepare the noodles if you want to according to the packet (I never bother).

Heat the sesame oil in a wok and add the mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.  Add half the garlic and stir fry til golden.  Transfer to a bowl.

Combine the beef, ginger, five spice, wine and the rest of the garlic in a bowl.  Transfer to a plastic bag, add the cornflour and shake to coat.

Heat the peanut oil in the wok, and cook the beef in three batches.  Transfer each batch to a plate once cooked.

Add the broccolini to the wok and cook over medium high heat until tender crisp.  Add the noodles and cook for 2 minutes, then add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Return the mushrooms and beef to the pan, add the oyster sauce and toss to coat.

Serve sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and chilli. 

Beef and Broccolini Noodle Stir Fry

My magazine cull yielded many recipe treasures, which I am now storing in a large box.  Some of the recipes are for baking (of course!), others are for special occasions, while others are for day to day use.

One of the day to day recipes that I found was a terrific low fat Beef and Broccolini Noodle Stir Fry from p86 of the February 2009 edition of Delicious magazine.

This recipe is simple, quick and tasty - perfect for a weeknight meal.

To make this stir fry, you will need:

400g fresh egg noodles
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup oyster sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 bunches broccolini, trimmed
1 tablespoon oil
400g lean beef mince
4 spring onions, sliced
sesame seeds to serve

Mix the sauces with the garlic, ginger and vinegar in a small bowl.

Cook broccolini in boiling salted water until bright green and slightly crisp.  Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok add the beef and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until browned and cooked through.  Add the noodles, sauce, broccolini and spring onions and stir fry for 1 minute or until heated through.

Sprinkle the stir fry with sesame seeds and extra spring onions, if desired.

Curtis Stone's Sausage and Asparagus Pasta

In another delve into the supermarket magazines, I chose to make Curtis Stone's pasta with sausages and asparagus from the October 2017 Coles magazine.  As a disclaimer to my comments, I am not a huge pasta fan or a huge sausage fan.  So, you may ask, why did you choose to make this?  Well, because it sounded quick and easy and a good thing to make to  take to work for lunch.

Don't get me wrong - this pasta was OK, and I think it got better as the week went by.  I think part of my indifference to it stemmed from the sausages that I used (Woolworths beef, garlic and rosemary sausages; sacrilege, I know, when the recipe calls for Coles Beef Oregano and Parsley Sausages). I think plain old beef sausages would have been better.

If pasta is your thing and you like sausages, then this would be a great quick and easy dinner.

The recipe is as follows:

1 tablespoon olive oil
500g beef sausages (I am agnostic as to which ones you use)
2 chopped cloves garlic
1 1/3 cups passata
250g large spiral pasta
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 4cm pieces
20g grated parmesan

Remove the sausage meat from the casings and break into small chunks.

Heat the oil in a frypan and cook the sausage meat until golden brown.  Add the garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant.  reduce the heat and add the passata.  Simmer and cook for 2 minutes or until the passata reduces slightly.

While the sausage is cooking, cook the pasta according to the packet.  During the last 2 minutes of cooking time, add the asparagus. Drain the pasta and reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid.

Add the pasta and asparagus to the sauce and toss to combine, then add 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid to the sauce to thin it out.  Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parmesan and serve.

Tasty Beef Casserole

The weather has been less that salubrious lately (by Australian standards - I realise that we have it easy compared with some of you).  Cold, wet, windy grey days have become the norm, and even the sunshine has no real warmth.  I have also had a cold for the last week or so which has made things rather unpleasant - I am over the worst of it now, but I had quite a few sleepless night coughing and spluttering, and the dreaded feverish sweats.

The August Red Tractor recipe is a very appropriate hearty stew - a Tasty Beef casserole.  Here is the calendar quote for this month:

It's so true for dogs isn't it - they get so excited when they think adventure is on the way.

This stew contains fruit chutney for additional richness - it really was good, and hit the spot on cold, wintery nights.

To make this stew, you will need:

1kg chuck steak, cubed
1/2ablespoon olive oil
2 brown onions
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 cup beef stock
400g tin tomatoes
1/2 cup sweet fruit chutney
(I also added some frozen peas)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

In a large casserole dish, brown the beef in batches in the oil on the stovetop, then transfer to a plate.  Fry onions until soft.  Add carrot slices, garlic, tomato paste and flour.  Stir to combine.  Add lemon rind and juice. stock, chutney, beef pieces and tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and cook in the oven for two hours or until the beef is tender.

Serve with potato mash or rice.

Hairy Dieters' Beef Stroganoff

I like hearty dishes in cold weather, and the Hairy Dieters' Beef Stroganoff surely hit the spot.  The Hairy Dieters have taken an old favourite and made it calorie friendly, for example, by subbing cream with half fat crème fraiche.

You can find the recipe posted online here, but I highly recommend the book that it comes from, The Hairy Dieters Eat For Life.  What's not to love - beef, mushrooms, onions and of course, sauce!

I served my beef strog with boiled wholegrain rice to soak up all the lovely sauce.  Definitely a winner!

Eating with Ellie - Steak with Grainy Mustard Sauce and Parmesan "Fries" - Sauce It Up

For Eating with Ellie this week, Kayte chose the theme of Sauce It Up. 

I decided to make Steak with Grainy Mustard Sauce and Parmesan "Fries" from So Easy.  The mustard sauce was excellent with the steak. and I highly recommend this simple but tasty dish.  The "fries" (oven baked potato chips) were also very good with their cheesy finish.

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.