Rob182 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 That's true chaps! It was nicer than a dominos and we did have fun making it. When I get my new place, that's going to be one of my main meals I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 trying my first steak and ale pie recipe tonight Ingredients: Serves 4 • a ceramic or porcelain dish • a packet of ready-made shortcrust pastry • 850g lean braising or stewing steak, trimmed and cubed • 1 large white onion, peeled then chopped finely • 1 tbsp plain flour • 250ml local ale • 250ml hot water • 1 cube quality beef stock • salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste • a dash of English mustard or grated horseradish • 1 tspn vegetable oil for frying • an egg Method 1. Place the beef in an oven-proof dish, having rubbed the meat with nutmeg and pepper, then cover with the ale of your choice and set aside for a couple of hours. You could do this the night before and place the dish, covered, in the bottom of your fridge. 2. When you are ready to begin the cooking process, bring out your dish of marinaded beef and set it aside. Place a pan on medium heat, drizzle some oil into it, chop the onion finely and drop it in to sautée gently. When the onion is a pale golden brown, take out your beef, piece by piece, dust with flour and drop into the pan to brown gently. Whisk the rest of the flour, the salt and mustard — or horseradish — into the marinade mixture left in the dish. Once you have browned the beef sufficiently, slowly add the marinade mixture, stock and water, then leave to simmer and reduce. Wash the dish, ready for use again. 3. While waiting for the liquid to reduce, roll out your pastry on a floured board. The stew needs to be moist but not wet when cooked, bearing in mind that some evaporation will take place in the oven. When it is ready, ladle the stew into your dish and drape the pastry over it. Using a knife, trim the edges and make a hole in the top. Fold in the edges of the hole and use your knife to press into the pastry around all the edges and make a scalloped pattern - for a really professional look, you may decide to cut out little patterns and add them around the edges of the hole. Brush the top of the pastry with a little whisked egg yolk to glaze. 4. Place in a pre-heated medium oven at about 180°C for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. You should expect some variation in cooking from different ovens. Some hold moisture in, some allow it out, some distribute the heat with a fan, others insist on charring the top or bottom of your creation. The time and temperature offered here are in the way of a generalised pointer. If you are uncertain how your oven will perform, keep your eye on proceedings and use the colour of the pastry as a guide. Golden brown and crisp is your aim. yay or nay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaretMahoney Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I'll fill you guys in on what I've concocted over the last day, I have to credit the recipe to my buddy. Although I can't really call it a recipe, more a method of cooking, and it's nothing you haven't heard of before. We take a shoulder cut pork loin with bone, and we put into a slow cooker. We then poured almost two pints of beer on it. Yesterday my recipe was a big bottle of Guinness. I then proceeded to dice up one green bell pepper, one red bell, one tomato, one jalapeno, three habaneros and a couple cloves of garlic. Also half of a granny smith green apple and a quarter red onion. I cooked that all together on the slow cooker for 12 hours. Now it's back home on the warm setting simmering to a glorious taste. (At least I hope so!!) Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaretMahoney Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I'll fill you guys in on what I've concocted over the last day, I have to credit the recipe to my buddy. Although I can't really call it a recipe, more a method of cooking, and it's nothing you haven't heard of before. We take a shoulder cut pork loin with bone, and we put into a slow cooker. We then poured almost two pints of beer on it. Yesterday my recipe was a big bottle of Guinness. I then proceeded to dice up one green bell pepper, one red bell, one tomato, one jalapeno, three habaneros and a couple cloves of garlic. Also half of a granny smith green apple and a quarter red onion. I cooked that all together on the slow cooker for 12 hours. Now it's back home on the warm setting simmering to a glorious taste. (At least I hope so!!) Thoughts? By the way this is made to be shredded and then put onto a sandwich with a bit of bbq sauce. Should be MONEY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 trying my first steak and ale pie recipe tonight ... yay or nay? Fairly standard approach, though it sounds like it's cooking the meat too quickly. Step 2 doesn't make it clear that you should deglaze, not just put the stock etc in (scrape up all the bits stuck to the pan as you add the liquid, so it forms part of the gravy). Also in this step, they say simmer and reduce, but these are two different things. If you want the meat to be very tender you should simmer it very gently for a long time, ie the liquid just quivering and with one or two little bubbles coming up. Reducing is boiling faster, to concentrate the sauce. Lots of recipes would tell you to remove the meat when you want to reduce the sauce, and add it back in after. If you just boil it fast for a short time, you are likely to toughen the meat. I wouldn't bother marinading the meat the day before - you probably get a better result by cooking it slowly than by marinading and cooking quickly. Best of all would be cooking slowly the day before, then letting it sit overnight and finishing off the pie the next day, so it marinades in a richer mixture, having already been cooked and softened. But marinading it will also help to tenderise it, which means you don't need to cook it for quite as long. It's just that with cheaper cuts of beef, which is what you want for this, the long slow cooking breaks down the bits which really add body and flavour, as well as making the meat tender. Because it's best cooked slowly, it's hard to do from scratch when you come in from work, which is where cooking the meat slowly the day before helps. Other options are to use puff pastry instead of shortcrust, and to have pastry as the lining for the pie dish, not just as a top crust. Depends if you like soggy pastry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I cooked that all together on the slow cooker for 12 hours. Now it's back home on the warm setting simmering to a glorious taste. (At least I hope so!!) Thoughts? I am reminded of the Viz Top Tip: if you want a nice meal but can't be arsed getting up from your armchair, simply place the ingredients in a slow cooker, attach it to a tortoise, and leave a trail of lettuce leaves from the kitchen to your armchair. Six hours later, a perfectly cooked meal will be delivered at your feet. But on the recipe, pork on the bone is ideal for that approach. A couple of "warm" spices like cumin and cinnamon might also work well, if you like those flavours. In which case, harissa would work better in the sandwich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juju Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Me and my GF made a pizza last night, I can honestly say that it was the best pizza I've had in my life. Sainsburys: rough prices (from memory).. 2 pizza bases - £1 Tomato Puree - £74p Mozarella Cheese - £1.15 Pack of Turkey - £1 Pack of Ham - £1 ish Mediterranian Roasted Vegetables - £2 I've got enough to make another pizza. I thought that making your own was meant to be cheap, but it's worked out at around £3.50 per pizza. I think, in the future, I'm going to just by the bases, tomato puree, cheese and some ham! Next step - make your own tomato sauce, that will improve it 100% - really. Slash a decent glug of olive oil in a pan, put on the heat. Chop up an onion, pretty finely, and start to fry it. Add a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed. Clice up a chilli, just the one, and add that. Just looking to booste the tomato taste, not add "heat". Before the onion starts to brown, add a carton of creamed tomato (rather than chopped - sometimes also called "passata". Warm through, and just mill in a bit of black pepper, and tear off a couple of bits of basil from a plant (theyre £2 from sainsburys and are reuseable if you keep watering them). Once its warmed through, coat the doughy base. Much better than that puree - which is too strong, and not flavoured enough. And its seriously foolproof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 ^^Completely agree with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 trying my first steak and ale pie recipe tonight Ingredients: Serves 4 • a ceramic or porcelain dish • a packet of ready-made shortcrust pastry • 850g lean braising or stewing steak, trimmed and cubed • 1 large white onion, peeled then chopped finely • 1 tbsp plain flour • 250ml local ale • 250ml hot water • 1 cube quality beef stock • salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste • a dash of English mustard or grated horseradish • 1 tspn vegetable oil for frying • an egg Method 1. Place the beef in an oven-proof dish, having rubbed the meat with nutmeg and pepper, then cover with the ale of your choice and set aside for a couple of hours. You could do this the night before and place the dish, covered, in the bottom of your fridge. 2. When you are ready to begin the cooking process, bring out your dish of marinaded beef and set it aside. Place a pan on medium heat, drizzle some oil into it, chop the onion finely and drop it in to sautée gently. When the onion is a pale golden brown, take out your beef, piece by piece, dust with flour and drop into the pan to brown gently. Whisk the rest of the flour, the salt and mustard — or horseradish — into the marinade mixture left in the dish. Once you have browned the beef sufficiently, slowly add the marinade mixture, stock and water, then leave to simmer and reduce. Wash the dish, ready for use again. 3. While waiting for the liquid to reduce, roll out your pastry on a floured board. The stew needs to be moist but not wet when cooked, bearing in mind that some evaporation will take place in the oven. When it is ready, ladle the stew into your dish and drape the pastry over it. Using a knife, trim the edges and make a hole in the top. Fold in the edges of the hole and use your knife to press into the pastry around all the edges and make a scalloped pattern - for a really professional look, you may decide to cut out little patterns and add them around the edges of the hole. Brush the top of the pastry with a little whisked egg yolk to glaze. 4. Place in a pre-heated medium oven at about 180°C for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. You should expect some variation in cooking from different ovens. Some hold moisture in, some allow it out, some distribute the heat with a fan, others insist on charring the top or bottom of your creation. The time and temperature offered here are in the way of a generalised pointer. If you are uncertain how your oven will perform, keep your eye on proceedings and use the colour of the pastry as a guide. Golden brown and crisp is your aim. yay or nay? Looks good but try added a good portion of grated cheese into it to add to the flavour. I use Guinness or London pride Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpaywasawesome Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Next step - make your own tomato sauce, that will improve it 100% - really. Slash a decent glug of olive oil in a pan, put on the heat. Chop up an onion, pretty finely, and start to fry it. Add a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed. Clice up a chilli, just the one, and add that. Just looking to booste the tomato taste, not add "heat". Before the onion starts to brown, add a carton of creamed tomato (rather than chopped - sometimes also called "passata". Warm through, and just mill in a bit of black pepper, and tear off a couple of bits of basil from a plant (theyre £2 from sainsburys and are reuseable if you keep watering them). Once its warmed through, coat the doughy base. Much better than that puree - which is too strong, and not flavoured enough. And its seriously foolproof. Sounds good, will substitute the tomato puree in my pasta sauces with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Next step - make your own tomato sauce, that will improve it 100% - really. Slash a decent glug of olive oil in a pan, put on the heat. Chop up an onion, pretty finely, and start to fry it. Add a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed. Clice up a chilli, just the one, and add that. Just looking to booste the tomato taste, not add "heat". Before the onion starts to brown, add a carton of creamed tomato (rather than chopped - sometimes also called "passata". Warm through, and just mill in a bit of black pepper, and tear off a couple of bits of basil from a plant (theyre £2 from sainsburys and are reuseable if you keep watering them). Once its warmed through, coat the doughy base. Much better than that puree - which is too strong, and not flavoured enough. And its seriously foolproof. add a pinch of sugar to take the "rawness" taste of the tomatoes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juju Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 add a pinch of sugar to take the "rawness" taste of the tomatoes Very Happy Or do what I do, if I fancy a change from tomato. My favourite pizza, is to make up a white garlic sauce, simply by melting butter, (i prefer the taste to using olive oil) and when its hot, adding crushed garlic, and then some flour. Cook the mixture through for a min of 30 secs, but usually closer to 2 mins, til you get a thick golden paste. Then slowly add milk to thin, until you get a garliccy white sauce. Then I tend given the "milder" taste of the base and sauce, to add a cheese like say gorgonzola or dolcelatte, something soft and blue veined, to give some bite to the dish, rather than mozarella, and finish with black olives, peas and thinly sliced leeks or mushrooms - the green on white gives a great colour. Or you could slice a tomato and have something very "italian" green white and red ! The best 2 tips for any italian food, is to firstly :- use the best quality ingrediants, when more strongly flavoured food like thai or indian dont call for them. Say on a pizza, a cheap block of industrial mozarella wont have that delicate flavour of a fresh buffalo milk cheese, and wont melt into luscious pools on top in quite the same way. Same with sun dried tomatoes. By fully dried, and rehydrate them yourself, marinating in decent olice oil, black pepper and basil leaves. Nicer than the rubbish in a jar marinaded in sunflower oil you can buy. Dont get cheap packet ham, get a smaller quantity of nice ham, say. The difference is worth the sacrifice. You said Pizza was not as cheap as you thought - trust me, the topping s put on by big chains are pretty ropey in general. Secondly :- Dont cram too many flavours together - a really good dish will have fewer than four "big ticket" flavour items. Like pizza, one with a huge crush of toppings, will rarely stand out. Decide what flavours you like and that work together, and just add a few of them. If you like say a pizza like me, I have sun dried tomatos, black olives, and say, sometimes mushroom. Really on that tomatoey/cheesy goodness, even 2 flavours is enough - let them breathe! A Pizza with 2 toppings you really like will always be nicer than one with 3-6 that dont work or make it too "busy". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 To add a couple of things to Juju's excellent post: Tesco's sell 3 main types of mozzarella (not counting mini mozzi balls, low fat, basics or whatever other variations). Working down in price, organic, then fresh mozzarella, then something described as "mozzarella for pizzas". On no account buy the last one, ever, for any purpose, and especially not for pizzas. It's rubbery, and when you put it in a hot oven it burns and extrudes industrial slime over your otherwise nice pizza. Ugh. The fresh mozzarella balls work well, and that's what I use. Sun dried tomatoes - make them yourself. Buy ripe tomatoes when they're on offer. Not the slightly hard, underripe ones. If anything, you're better with ones that are at the end of the sell-by date, as long as the colour is rich and they look fully ripe. Halve them, put them on a baking tray cut side up, and leave them in a very low oven (max 100c) for a few hours. You can add a small dribble of olive oil on the cut side part way through cooking. Telling when they are done is judgement, not science. Tips - you don't want them completely dried out. They should still have moisture, but not be watery like fresh tomatoes. They should be done when they look part dried and wrinkly and have reduced to almost half size, when the sides still give slightly when you squeeze them, but don't let them get blackened or so dry they feel hard. Let them cool, then pack them in a jar and cover them with the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can afford. You will reuse it either for more tomatoes or as salad dressing or both, so it's not wasteful. They need to be submerged, or you will get mould growth, so they will need weighting down, even slightly. I use those plastic spacers that come in jars of peppers, which serve the same purpose. You can also add sun-dried tomatoes to the base sauce, whizzed up - it's another depth of flavour. Agree that you don't need many things on a pizza. Lots of people load it down, as though the more they put on the better it will be, but the weight stops it rising so much and it is just too dense and heavy. Next step is to make your own dough. It's not hard, the dough also makes foccacia so you can make two things with the same process, and it tastes better than any pre-bought base you can ever buy. I can post something on that another time if there's any takers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Cheers for the tips Juju and Peterms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonp Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Next step is to make your own dough. It's not hard, the dough also makes foccacia so you can make two things with the same process, and it tastes better than any pre-bought base you can ever buy. I can post something on that another time if there's any takers. Agree totally on the make your own pizza base, so easy and so much tastier. tastes like a real pizza instead of a shop bought one and a lot cheaper. Pretty much all you need is strong bread flour and yeast which will last for the next pizza night as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Chicken and garlic pickle curry tonight...yum yum :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Looks delicious! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Looks delicious! It is rather tasty ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I canno even think of the word recipe! put it up! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Its basically the madras type curry I've posted before, but with half a jar of garlic pickle added. Works a treat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts