For the second year in a row I have made a beef pot roast for New Years Day Dinner. I like that it’s simple when realistically you are going to wake up late, and most likely a little bit worse for wear.
This morning when I eventually woke up, I went straight into making it.
Despite the relaxing necessary this weekend I did want to post something food related. Don’t worry I am multitasking and breaking in my wedding shoes at the same time. Is it worrying that the word I most associates with shoes after 30 minutes is “ouch”!
This braised beef dish is another great autumn recipe perfect for a Sunday evening. I got this recipe for Rich Braised Beef with Melting Onions from the October edition of Good Food, and it appealed to me as it was so simple and I had all the ingredients I needed.
Budget or healthy, so often these two things don’t go hand in hand. Healthy fresh vegetables are for example are often more expensive than fast food.
This recipe combines the two by reducing the amount of red meat in your bolognese sauce and replacing it with puy lentils. Voila – healthier and more budget conscious!
For me perfect winter food is warming, rich and easy to make, there is less hovering over the stove, less stress. This “pie” is exactly that, instead of making a meat pie incased in pastry you make the meat filling then top with a square of puff pastry on the plate!
Ok so I wanna be up front. I didn’t make these meatballs myself.
So I cheated, but this turns what would have been a bit of a palaver into a 30 minute week night meal.
This is another idea from Nigella’s latest cook book “Kitchen”. You can win a copy by filling in this questionnaire.
This recipe caught my eye by being a little bit different but still firmly in the “safe” category. This is something I could make and know it would work out fine.
One of the problems when you are first trying a new slow cooker recipe is the anticipation. You have picked from hundreds of recipes online or in cook books, you have hunted out all the ingredients, entrusted them to the large pot and placed the lid on top. Yet at this point you have to wait, often for 8 hours.
If I am in the unfortunate position to be home while I am slow cooking, I’ll spend too much time peering through the condensation.
An ongoing internal dialogue as to whether I should lift up the lid, only for a moment, just to check.
They say lifting the lid on a slow cooker adds 30 minutes to the cooking time, I say lifting the lid on a slow-cooker is tantamount to opening Christmas presents and resealing before putting them back under the tree.
It ruins the surprise.
When you do eventually lift the lid off it can all to easily be a disappointment after being built up for so long. This recipe, however, will be no disappointment.
Everyone has their standard method of cooking a steak, usually I fry mine, some people grill them (or broil them), my mother-in-law* bakes them.
On New Year’s Day my she made steaks for 13 people by baking them! These are a definite crowd pleaser, and are much simpler than if you wanted to fry or grill that many steaks.
*(almost) mother-in-law, it might feel like it, but we aren’t married yet 🙂
Can you believe that before today I had never tasted a chestnut before? I remember playing conkers as a child, but I can’t have been very good cause I didn’t even seem to remember what they look after the tough brown outer layer is removed.
I have waxed lyrical enough about the wonders of a good stir-fry many a time, and here is another reason to try them out. This one is really made by the vivid greens of the broad beans (or fava beans) and the broccoli alongside the deep purple of the red cabbage.
Broad bean, Broccoli and Red Cabbage Stir-fry
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