Bah-Humbug Steak and Ale Pie

Favourite pub food, hands down, is steak and ale pie!  There's nothing I love better (well, that's a lie...I love a lot of things and people, yes people too) than sitting in a warm pub, near an open fire, with a pint and a hot steak and ale pie, oh and with the husband too.  But let me one up that.  Being able to recreate all of that while wearing comfy pants?  H-E-double-hockey-sticks YES!

I made mine with this Bah-Humbug Ale in honour of my Grinch husband, who holds my Christmas decorations hostage in the attic until he sees fit to have them out (they're too tricky to get down on my own - and there are spiders up there).

Don't let the idea of making pastry put you off.  I have made pastry in the past (and it turned out not too bad I might add) but purely for cost and ease I buy the ready made stuff.  The cost of butter is near enough the cost of ready made pastry and it saves time and effort.  Something I learnt in teaching: decide on your objective and take the steps needed to achieve it.  If your ultimate goal is to make pastry from scratch then, by all means, go for it!  But if what you want is a homemade (bar the pastry) steak and ale pie, then cheat away.  Jamie Oliver does!

I used Jus Rol but many grocery stores do their own version. 

I cooked the filling in a large casserole dish (I love my Le Creuset dish - made possible by generous wedding guests, thanks peeps!)  and then divided it among two dishes for individual pies.  This can be made in a large pie dish or lasagna pan and cut into slices to feed a larger crew.  I like to use mushrooms to bulk out the meat (and I like mushrooms - the hubs, not so much). 

Here's a tip - If you don't need all of the pastry, cut the chunk in four and freeze any unused sections (according to packet directions).  I used a quarter section for each pie.  I rolled out my ready-made pastry, draped each sheet over the individual dishes and brushed a little milk on them.

They were in the oven for about 20 minutes.  And then, with a fire roaring and snuggled in my comfy pants (actually I think I was in full on pyjama mode, the ones with little doggies on them) we feasted!  Plates were cleared (except for a few unwanted mushrooms from a certain so and so).

Steak and Ale Pie serves 2 (double or triple on up to feed more!)
350g of stewing steak
6-8 mushrooms, quartered
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon of cornflour/cornstarch
splash of Worcestershire sauce (even though I know how to pronounce this I always say worse-esther-sher-shiiire sauce)
beef stock cube made according to directions
1 bottle of delicious ale

Brown the meat in a frying pan and then transfer to a casserole dish.
Saute the onions for a few minutes and add the garlic just as the onions begin to brown and fry for a further minute or so.  Add to the casserole dish.
Taste test the ale. (that's a very important step!)
Add mushrooms, a splash of W-sauce, the stock and ale (hopefully you haven't tested the whole bottle)
Top up the casserole dish with water so that all of the contents are covered.  The mushrooms will float ;)

Cover and cook at 180°C for about 2 hours or until meat falls apart and sauce has thickened.  Transfer to individual dishes or pie plate, cover with rolled out pastry, cut a little vent, brush a little milk and cook for a further 20 minutes, bringing the temperature up to 200°C.

Tell me, What is your favourite pub grub?  How are you kicking off the Christmas season?  When will you start decorating?  And don't tell me you started in November...

Lamb Leftovers Take 2

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I still had loads of lamb leftover from my roast on Sunday and not wanting another wrap I had a look in the fridge and cupboards to see what I could come up with.  I love mixing up a lot of different ingredients without a recipe to follow.  It's fun to see how it turns out.  Sometimes it's fantastic but other times it goes straight in the bin!

I thought some sort of tagine would work nicely with the ingredients I pulled from the fridge.  Here's what I had to work with:

 And these are the spices I thought might work best:

Ah - just noticed the spelling mistake on my spice jars! The horror!

The roast vegetables (butternut squash, red onion, carrots and garlic - still in the skin) were also from Sunday's dinner and the sundried tomato paste was starting to near its expiry date.  This way I could use up all the leftovers one go.

Here's what I did:

Saute finely chopped onions in a little oil for a few minutes until soft.  Add a tsp each of cumin, turmeric and cinnamon.  Take roasted garlic out of the flesh and mash in with onions and spices.  Thinly slice red chili (or finely chop- however you like it and include the seeds for extra spice).  Chop tomato in sections and add to the pan.  Toss in the lamb already cut into chunks.  Add one can of chopped tomatoes and 2 tbsp of sundried tomato puree.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until desired thickness.  Add the vegetables in at the end as they are pre cooked.  (For uncooked veg I would par boil or add in at the beginning with some stock to allow them to cook through)

I also tossed in a handful of raisins and dried cranberries (they are already pre mixed in a container as I have them on cereal).  This added a little sweetness to the spice and was really good.

I ate this over couscous. Really delicious.  It's fun to play around with different flavours and I hate waste.  So I gave myself a little pat on the back for this one.  Nothing ended up in the bin and there was enough for 2 servings too!  Win win.

Lamb Leftovers

Last Sunday I made a roast dinner because I had bought a huge frozen leg of lamb and there were actually people here to eat it.  My brother was visiting before he heads off to France for the winter.  It was delicious but try as we might we were unable to finish it off.  And then he was gone and I was stuck with loads of leftovers. 

I didn't fancy eating the roast dinner as it was the night before so rummaging in my fridge I found some wraps (it's only a small fridge - there really wasn't that much rummaging to be done) and thought a lamb wrap of some type might be nice for lunch.  I took to Google for inspiration and realised I was missing a vital ingredient for a lamb wrap - tzatziki.  I had a looky loo to see how I might make my own - cucumber? check! (I actually had 2) Everything else?  Nope!  So I improvised.

 I had some sour cream (the base of tzatziki is supposed to be natural yogurt but hey, it's in the same food group) and herb and garlic cream cheese.  I stirred about 2 tbsp of each together until blended well and added finely chopped cucumber (about half).  I shredded some lettuce, thinly sliced some red onion and chili and then layered everything on the wrap, heating the lamb through while I fried the leftover roast potatoes to make hash browns.  Then I dug in!

It was delicious and super easy.  Sure, nothing probably beats the real thing but you gotta do what ya gotta do!  There was still some lamb left after this meal and I'll tell you all about that concoction in tomorrow's post.  Anyone else get creative with lamb leftovers or totally fudge a recipe by substituting pretty much every ingredient?  Do tell!

Rack em up!

It's not a meal if it ain't got meat!  Or so I've heard...over and over again!  Being surrounded by carnivores (my fiance, my brother and a little dog who's under your feet the minute the bacon hits the pan) means a higher intake of protein around here.  Last year, when I was back in Canada for the summer, my brother made me dinner.  He said he was making chicken fingers - and he wasn't lying.  When it came time to eat, it was in fact, an entire plate of chicken fingers.  Not a veg in sight, not even a potato!  They were delicious, but I swear I could feel my kidneys going into overdrive.

So when he offered to make dinner earlier in the summer, I knew what to expect.  Meat, with a side of meat.  Ribs were on special and I had thought about tackling them myself but knowing Marc had made them before I knew best not to mess with a good thing.   He made it look so easy.  And they were the most amazing ribs I'd ever had.  I knew I should just give it a go sometime.

This past weekend was the last long weekend of the summer (if you can call it summer!)  and although it rained the entire time and I had pretty much declared summer over, I thought ribs would be a last ditch effort at getting a little taste of summer and an easy bbq cheat (since we lack the essential piece of equipment a bbq doth make).  Back when Marc had made ribs, he had noticed a distinct lack of barbeque sauce in the condiment aisle, necessary for the sauciest of ribs.  We have a small supermarket around the corner from our house and I'm sure size is responsible for the slim pickings but I found something new this time around:

In honour of our recent family trip to Ireland (fondly referred to as Fam Jam 2011) where copius amounts of Guinness were consumed (Coors Light for the mumster - I know, we couldn't believe it either) I decided to use this to saucify my ribs.  The recipe is easy and can be adjusted for as many or as little people you are cooking for.

Kindly shared by my brother, it goes a little like this:

Saucy Fall off the Bone Ribs
2-4 trimmed rack of ribs (or as many as you need)
2 oranges sliced (or enough to cover the bottom of your pan)
water
1-2 shots of whiskey (optional)
barbeque sauce 

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F.  Lay the sliced oranges at the bottom of your pan.  Place the ribs on top of the orange slices and don't worry if they overlap slightly.  Add water (and whiskey if using) to just cover the orange slices.  Cover the pan with foil and bake for 3 hours or so.  Remove from the oven and glaze both sides with barbeque sauce.

Now here is where I would put them on the bbq, or at best under the grill in the oven.  Well you already know that we don't have a bbq and well, our grill is broken and has been, ahem, since we moved in, 4 years ago.  So I popped them back in the oven for a bit and just hoped for the best.  I should have kept a close eye on them and glazed them a few more times because those babies crisped right up and got a little burnt on the edges.  Marc had forgotten to tell me to keep on glazing.  Whoopsy!  So whether you are finishing them off on the bbq, under the grill or baking in the oven, keep on glazin' on.

I served them with roasted potatoes and sweet corn but decided while eating,  that the ribs would be best served with things you can eat with you hands (now I see why wings are served with crudités).  Picking up a sticky fork is just not nice.

And if you happen to have some crispy edges, just choose the best rack for yourself,  like I did.  The men will just be happy to be eating meat!

Summer Time is Barbeque Time

One of my favorite things about summer time is the food.  Well,  my favorite thing about anytime is food!  But I loooooove BBQ's.  What's not to love?!  Friends and family gathering together, the refreshing drinkypoos, the smorgasbord of food on offer, the glorious sunshine.  Oh wait, I live in England and in the north to boot!  Sunshine, and of the glorious kind, is hard to come by.  But with just the slightest hint of the yellow stuff you can smell the meat in the air and hear the sizzling from over the wall (England's version of the backyard fence).

We recently visited my Aunt and Uncle (I'm lucky enough to have some family over here) and they are the BBQ King and Queen.  The weather wasn't brilliant but it was dry and after a few cocktails I was feeling like I had been in the sun all day anyway.  The prep was easy (I helped a little) and the food was fantastic.  All in all a great day!  So, I often try to recreate this at home but it's never quite the same.  A) We don't actually have a barbeque and 2) Well, we don't have a barbeque.  We're on the lookout for one but in the meantime I use my George Foreman Grill for the meat and the oven for potato products.  Too often though, my favorite bbq food is missing because I can never find them in the supermarket...

TA DA!!
For four summers I have looked for corn on the cob, still in its husk with no such luck.  Then on Tuesday there is was, at Morrison's 3 for £1.  SOLD!  Now I'm pretty sure that's more expensive than it is back in Canada but it certainly beat the vacuum packed corn sold for thrice the price - Yes, that's how it normally comes, 2 husk free cobs sealed in a vacuum pack.  So anyway, I took it home and last night we had a makeshift BBQ.  The weather was sunshining all day (rare but true) and eventhough we wouldn't be able to eat outside (sun doesn't actually mean warm) I thought it best to squeeze in one last grill on the GFG before the summer comes to a close.  As I shucked the corn I told W. (my fiance) how as kids, my brothers and I would shuck the corn on the front steps.  It was fun for us to be helping and fun for the adult folk inside getting some peace and quiet.  Then I had to explain to him what shucking meant.  Which tells me that finding this "corn on the bone", as my little brother used to call it, might not happen again for a long while.  Now, it was no peaches and cream but along with our tasty burgers, it was a great meal.

I like to make the burgers myself.  You can change up the meat you use, depending on the taste you're going for or what might be on sale, and use different spices to change up the flavour.  I have a basic recipe that I like to use and then vary it depending on what I have available or what toppings we might be using.

Simple Burger Recipe
500 grams of beef mince
1 egg to bind
bread crumbs (a couple handfuls - just to absorb some of the egg)
chopped onion 
chopped chilli
chopped garlic
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and press into patties with your hands (or with that burger maker thingy from Tupperware - still trying to find me one of those!)  I haven't put any exact measurements because I think it's all down to taste.  You really only need the first 3 ingredients, and can even get by with just the first two, then add what you like.  This can be cheaper and definitely tastier than what you can find in the shops.  And also more fun - if you have kids get them squishing their fingers in the the mixture - I don't have kids but I was one and it's fun.  And very important, avoid the chilli if you're going to get them involved - it stings a little!

Hopefully you can squeeze in another BBQ or two but for me I'm pretty sure summer is done and dusted.  There's a roaring fire in my living room (don't worry it's in the fireplace) and I'm wearing flannels and slippers.  Oh well, at least I have George Foreman!