Here's What I Had For Dinner - Part III - Don't quote pics!

Dizzyblonde

dartboardio wrote: »

OK I hope the meat turns out OK...it looks a bit hard. Feels it too. Hope this isn't a disaster, I put it into a pot of stock and let it simmer instead of staying in oven! Hopefully when the gravy and sauce are in the pie with meat later it'll soften up a bit

It doesn't matter that you've simmered it on the hob rather than in the oven. Hope it turns out well

Mystery Egg

Grandeeod wrote: »

Add this to the mix. You will not regret it.

Attachment not found.

NEVAH!

I'd only do that if chips were involved. :pac:

dartboardio wrote: »

OK I hope the meat turns out OK...it looks a bit hard. Feels it too. Hope this isn't a disaster, I put it into a pot of stock and let it simmer instead of staying in oven! Hopefully when the gravy and sauce are in the pie with meat later it'll soften up a bit

The trick is to cook it in the gravy. You can make a simple gravy for a casserole/pie with butter, onions, flour, beef stock, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, a bay leaf, a bit of dried thyme, some beer or red wine, and some tomato puree. The trick to getting meat tender is cooking low and slow, oven or hob. The cut of meat matters too, but low and slow never fails.

Remember every cooking disaster is only a learning opportunity.

Let us know how the pies go.

Grandeeod

Mystery Egg wrote: »

NEVAH!

I'd only do that if chips were involved. :pac:



The trick is to cook it in the gravy. You can make a simple gravy for a casserole/pie with butter, onions, flour, beef stock, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, a bay leaf, a bit of dried thyme, some beer or red wine, and some tomato puree. The trick to getting meat tender is cooking low and slow, oven or hob. The cut of meat matters too, but low and slow never fails.

Remember every cooking disaster is only a learning opportunity.

Let us know how the pies go.

I'm thanking the last bit. But I cannot find it within my heart to thank the first part.:D

Alf Stewart.

dartboardio wrote: »

Sorry for all the questions. I'm doing your pie recipe today! Well I'm going to use mince meat or stew beef. Would u recommend cooking the meat before hand so it doesn't go hard? Then put into pie and cook in oven? With gravy and worcestire sauce.

The beauty of pies is that anything can make a good filling, from sweet to savoury for vegetarian to packed full of meat.

I will try and run through the way I did the very first time I made them.

First thing to do is make sure your pastry is out of the fridge, and brought up to room temp before you begin, as this will help you mould them into the dishes, and should also help to prevent them sticking to the dishes.

Gently fry a small onion, finely chopped with a few cloves of crushed garlic cloves, when translucent throw in your steak pieces and fry until the meat has browned.

Add in a few grated carrots, and a grated courgette, stir it all together, when carrots and courgettes have softened, add in a few lugs of Worcester sauce, and season with salt and pepper, and a shake of basil and mixed herbs.

Next add maybe a quarter to half a cup of gravy (I just use bisto, etc) mixed with boiling water.

Throw in a stock cube and let it all simmer in the pan for a good ten to fifteen minutes until the liquid has thickened and reduced.

Now turn pan off and let the pie mixture cool.

**Grease pie dishes to ensure pastry doesn't stick**

Unroll your short crust pastry, and placing a pie dish upside down, cut around it leaving 5/10mm extra just to spare. Then mould into dishes with a decent overlap around the dishes.

Do the same with your puff pastry, and set aside. These are your pie tops.

Ensuring your pie mixture is cooled, pour into dishes ensuring there is some room between mixture and the pies "lid".

Using some egg wash, go around the rim of your pie crust with a brush, this is your glue, and will help the two pastries bond together.

Place your puff pastry caps on, and using a fork or serrated edge, crimp the pastry together, and then guild
Fold in on themselves.

Brush the tops with egg wash, pierce a couple of holes for the steam to escape, and bung in oven for 20/25 minutes until golden brown.

I have probably left a few ingredients, or key stages out, as in writing this from memory, but that's pretty much the gist of my method/ingredients anyway.

dartboardio

.

dartboardio

After all my humming and hawing, it was finally ready. Absolutely delicious!

Puff pastry was a bit too hard on top probably due to cooking an extra few mins over. Beef gravy and veg inside were beautiful seen as the carrots were cooked earlier in beef stock,, next time would add more gravy deffo. All in all delighted!

Very easy to do just long time waiting for the beef to be quite tender.

Served with homemade thick chips, and chef brown sauce! Yummmy can't wait for seconds.

Though quite shocked looking at a plate of pie and chips after waiting 3/4 hours - it was the beef i swear!




**right click the little icon and open image in new tab** yes you probably all know this but I'm kind of a newbie.

Alf Stewart.

I got in after a long hard days graft to find the wife had made dinner.

Beef curry, cooked in the slow cooker.

It was nice, but after a few mouthfuls, I thought the beef (stewing beef) didn't have the same texture to it, as when I would make it.

So, (treading carefully) I asked, when she put the curry on.

3pm she said.

I was eating it at 6pm. She's a vegetarian btw.

Nuff said.

dartboardio

So I seen a yummy looking recipe on operation transformation website, BBQ chicken - chicken fillets and make a sauce of 100g Ketchup , tbsp cider vinegar, tbsp worcestershire sauce, tbsp orange juice, and a bit of honey. Mix it all together and throw onto chicken and into the oven, simple! it came out absolutely delicious I didn't even get a chance to plate it as my homemade chips weren't ready.... so a bit of a stand up / on the go dinner!

Made more of the 'bbq' type sauce to go with it except i customized the recipe to passata instead of ketchup, butter, and a bit of vinegar and chilli powder, boiled then simmered and wow it was amazing!!

Dizzyblonde

Mr. Dizzy is doing quite a bit of cooking this week. He made last night's curry, and tonight he cooked chicken & veg in black bean sauce.

StripedBoxers

Monday was fillet steak, baked spuds and veg.

Tuesday was chicken wraps.

Today was rashers, sausages, black pudding, poached eggs and brown bread. A rare meal these days and very enjoyable when I do have it.

Grandeeod

Loads of curry talk lately and I'm a curry person.:D

Made a Chicken Madras today. Marinaded the chicken in red wine vineger, madras spice and tomato puree. I always do it very slowly in a pot then, after adding finely chopped onion, more madras spice, blended tomatoes/garlic and chicken stock. After a slow 40 min simmer add some chopped coriander for a few mins. Ready to go! It reheats perfectly and believe it or not is low cal too. Proper curry doesn't have to be this high cal thing we think it is.

However I will be adding lots of Basmati rice and a shameful few chips to the mix, so that the low cal thing goes right out the window.:D

Mystery Egg

Sh1tty day so takeaway it was.

Set meal for one, shared between two, with leftovers for tomorrow! And we have big appetites!

Poppadom with mango, onion chutney and mint yoghurt, lamb dopiaza (extra green chillies), gobi aloo, mixed pakora, pilau rice, garlic and coriander naan. We're stuffed!

StripedBoxers

Spicy chicken wraps with homemade chips and coleslaw.

Grandeeod

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Sh1tty day so takeaway it was.

Set meal for one, shared between two, with leftovers for tomorrow! And we have big appetites!

Poppadom with mango, onion chutney and mint yoghurt, lamb dopiaza (extra green chillies), gobi aloo, mixed pakora, pilau rice, garlic and coriander naan. We're stuffed!

Very bold, but I've been there. Tomorrow night is takeway night for me!

Mystery Egg

Grandeeod wrote: »

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Sh1tty day so takeaway it was.

Set meal for one, shared between two, with leftovers for tomorrow! And we have big appetites!

Poppadom with mango, onion chutney and mint yoghurt, lamb dopiaza (extra green chillies), gobi aloo, mixed pakora, pilau rice, garlic and coriander naan. We're stuffed!

Very bold, but I've been there. Tomorrow night is takeway night for me!

Bold me arse! Tis only dinner

Grandeeod

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Bold me arse! Tis only dinner

LOL! Love it!

dartboardio

Made spaghetti bolognaise last night but the sauce was made from scratch, trying to do a healthier version of the dolmio jar... so used garlic onion, beef stock, passata, cumin, worcestershire sauce, oregano, basil, sugar and lemon! Was absolutely gorgeous

dartboardio

For dinner today /tonight I had chicken jalfrezi with normal rice! From an Indian restaurant takeaway

Shenshen

I got home early yesterday, so I made us Jamie Oliver's lentil chili, with rice, sour cream, grated cheese and nachos.
I had already halved all the ingredients given, we both stuffed ourselves to the max, and there's still enough left over for one lunch and filling 2 baked potatoes. It's a bloody generous recipe.

Alf Stewart.

Shenshen wrote: »

I got home early yesterday, so I made us Jamie Oliver's lentil chili, with rice, sour cream, grated cheese and nachos.
I had already halved all the ingredients given, we both stuffed ourselves to the max, and there's still enough left over for one lunch and filling 2 baked potatoes. It's a bloody generous recipe.

Been searching for the recipe, but not having much success. Unless this is it?

If so, in well up for giving it a go, seems like one of those dishes i could cook and the whole family could get stuck into, rather than two dishes, one for the veggie and one for the carnivores.

I do see a nutmeg in that recipe though. Having never bought a nutmeg in my life, does anyone know where to pick one up?

I will be in Eurasia later today, if it's to be found in an Asian spice shop.

Shenshen

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

Been searching for the recipe, but not having much success. Unless this is it?

If so, in well up for giving it a go, seems like one of those dishes i could cook and the whole family could get stuck into, rather than two dishes, one for the veggie and one for the carnivores.

I do see a nutmeg in that recipe though. Having never bought a nutmeg in my life, does anyone know where to pick one up?

I will be in Eurasia later today, if it's to be found in an Asian spice shop.

That is indeed it. It's definitely a dish that doesn't make you feel like you're missing out on anything, but if you have any compulsory carnivore around the table (one that will not consider a meal complete unless it contains meat), maybe just offer some Mexican-spiced chicken pieces on the side for them?

I've got a little jar of grated nutmeg in the cupboard at all times as I find it essential in mashed potatoes, and I think I bought the last one in Lidl.

I would definitely recommend using half-quantities, though. You'd need to cook it in a stock pot otherwise.

Alf Stewart.

Shenshen wrote: »

That is indeed it. It's definitely a dish that doesn't make you feel like you're missing out on anything, but if you have any compulsory carnivore around the table (one that will not consider a meal complete unless it contains meat), maybe just offer some Mexican-spiced chicken pieces on the side for them?

I've got a little jar of grated nutmeg in the cupboard at all times as I find it essential in mashed potatoes, and I think I bought the last one in Lidl.

I would definitely recommend using half-quantities, though. You'd need to cook it in a stock pot otherwise.

Yeah just watched her YouTube video, and in definitely giving that a lash this evening.

I would agree with you about splitting the ingredients in half! That recipe is calling for two cans of red kidney beans, and two cans of black beans.... (that's gas):) that'd be waaay too much for a family of two adults and two under 6s.

I will throw a picture up later.

RentDayBlues

Ate out last night for the first time in so long, and boy was the wait worth it! We dined at pickles, it was so tasty. I had their take on chicken wings to start and then their lamb shank curry, I'm still full! Definitely worth a visit

Dizzyblonde

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Ate out last night for the first time in so long, and boy was the wait worth it! We dined at pickles, it was so tasty. I had their take on chicken wings to start and then their lamb shank curry, I'm still full! Definitely worth a visit

My daughter ate there before Christmas and was raving about it.

Shenshen

Vegetable korma with paneer and naan :

StripedBoxers

Fillet steak and baked potatoes. So good.

beertons

Turkey burgers and wedges. The kids even said they referred them to beef burgers. Nyom nyom.

Alf Stewart.

Shenshen wrote: »

I got home early yesterday, so I made us Jamie Oliver's lentil chili, with rice, sour cream, grated cheese and nachos.
I had already halved all the ingredients given, we both stuffed ourselves to the max, and there's still enough left over for one lunch and filling 2 baked potatoes. It's a bloody generous recipe.

I am so pleased I discovered this recipe.

Delicious.

Gloomtastic!

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

I am so pleased I discovered this recipe.

Delicious.

Sorry, I haven't been paying attention. Is this the recipe?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/kerryann-s-chilli-con-veggie/

Alf Stewart.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Sorry, I haven't been paying attention. Is this the recipe?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/kerryann-s-chilli-con-veggie/

That's the one.

Had a bit of bother tracking down black beans, managed to get some in Tesco. Not sure if they're the right ones or not.