Scottish Beef Stew

Stay warm and cosy with this old fashioned Scottish beef stew recipe. Tender chunks of beef with onions, carrots and swede in a rich beef gravy. This fall-apart beef cooked in the slow cooker or oven, perfect for Burns Night or any other nights!

This is classic comfort food that is made with simple ingredients and is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1kg stewing/braising beef, cut into bite-size chunks
• 2 tbsp plain flour, mixed with a pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 tbsp cranberry sauce
• 500ml red wine
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium  potatoes, peeled and chopped
• ½ small swede, peeled and chopped
• 700ml beef stock, if using cubes, just use 2 cubes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 tsp dark brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp crushed black pepper
• fresh thymes sprigs

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan. Dust the chunks of beef in the flour and fry the beef for 7-8 minutes until golden brown all over. Add the onions and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Add the cranberry sauce, then pour in the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add in the carrots, potatoes, swede, stock, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle boil then transfer to a slow cooker and cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours. Alternatively you could place a lid on the pot and cook in the oven for 3-4 hours, stirring a couple of times during cooking.

Serve topped with a little fresh thyme and some freshly cut bread. 

                                  

 

Seitan Chicken & Stuffing Roast

Have you had enough of that nut roast? Are you crying out for the perfect Sunday joint?

Look no further. Whether it's your Sunday roast or that all important Christmas dinner, this seitan chicken & stuffing roast joint will impress any guest!.

This stuffed seitan roast is full with flavour!. Just because it is vegan doesn't mean it doesn't taste amazing! This roast can be made in the morning and left to cool before things get too hectic. Then just slice off the portions you need for dinner and reheat for 10 minutes until hot all the way through just before serving. This way, it frees up space in the oven and makes preparing dinner more relaxed and less overwhelming!. The perfect centerpiece to Christmas, Thanksgiving or even just a homey dinner with the family. This stuffed seitan roast is just as great during the holidays as it is during the year!

Ingredients:

Wet ingredients:

• 200ml boiling water
• 1 tin (400g) cooked chickpea and aquafaba from tin
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Dry ingredients:

• 250g vital wheat gluten
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 4 tsp vegan bouillon powder
• 2 tsp onion granules
• 1 tsp garlic granules

Stuffing:

• 100g sage and onion stuffing

Method:

Sage & Onion Stuffing: Add 200ml boiling water to the stuffing mix in a bowl.  Mix until consistent then add 1 tsp vegan spread. 

Leave to stand whilst you make the dough, then add a little more water so the stuffing is not dry. You want it to be a bit sticky.

For the dough:  Put 200ml water, lemon juice and the tin of chickpea beans with all the juice from the tin into a plastic jug.

Using a stick blender, blitz until it makes a completely smooth paste.

Grind the nutritional yeast, stock, onion and garlic granules using pestle and mortar or electric herb mill (if you have one at home) until it makes a fine powder and add to the wet mixture, blitz until combined.

Now add the gluten to the food processor then pour in the wet mix whilst it's running then hold on as its going to get a bit active. Mix on full power for 2 minutes.

Leave to stand for 1 minute.

Mix on full power again for 2 minutes or until a uniform stretchy consistency has been achieved.

Making the joint: Spread the dough flat and measure it to be as wide as your steamer and twice as long.

Roll out the stuffing to match the width of the dough then place near the top of the dough.

Roll up the stuffing with the dough and create the joint shape.

Tuck in excess dough around the roll of the joint, try to make this as uniform as possible.

Oil a sheet of aluminium foil then roll up the roast as tightly as you can, cover this with another layer of foil so it looks like the photo. 

You will need to gently force this into the steamer. Steam for 1 hour.

                                  

Turn out the joint and pop it back in upside down and steam for a further hour.

Pop the joint out and flip it over then steam for a final 30 minutes.

When the joint has finished steaming, remove the foil, put it on a cooling rack and leave to stand for 30 minutes, this will let it tighten up and form an outer layer.

Carve into slices and serve!

Notes: Ideally you want to make the joint the day before to let it rest and firm up completely. This makes it much easier to carve.

Agar Agar Koi Fish (Koi Jelly)

Want to "wow" your family with something sweet, beautiful and auspicious this Chinese New Year? Try making Koi Fish Jelly!

There’s a Chinese proverb that goes ‘nian nian you yu’ (年年有余) which means having things in surplus every year. As ‘yu’/ surplus sounds like ‘fish’, which symbolizes wealth and prosperity, the Chinese loves to serve fish on Chinese New Year. With this recipe, you can have fish for dessert too 😉

I absolutely enjoy making this jelly. Seeing how the fish come to life is so satisfying. It's like magic!

Ingredients:

• 9g Agar Powder
• 100g granulated sugar
• 650ml water
• raisin, for the fish eyes
• yellow and red food colouring
• Koi mould

Method:

Make the agar jelly: Add water, sugar and agar powder into a pot of water to boil, then lower to a simmer.

Stir until the sugar and agar powder has dissolved. Turn off the heat.

Next, take some of the agar liquid (about 3 tablespoons) into a small bowl. Using a tweezers, grab the raisin, dip it into the agar liquid, and then place the raisin into the eye of the koi mould (do this to both eyes).

Add yellow food colouring to the bowl of agar liquid and mix well. With a teaspoon, add a bit of the yellow agar mixture to the koi mould. It only takes about 1-2 minutes to harden.

Next, take again some agar liquid about 3 tablespoons into a small bowl. Add red colouring to the bowl and mix well. With a teaspoon, add a bit of the red agar mixture to the koi mould.

When it has hardened, gently pour the agar liquid into the mould. Allow it to set. Find some bowls or cups to hold the mould steady!.

Poke any air bubbles with a toothpick. Once set, place in the freezer or fridge to chill for an hour. Once it is firm, you can easily pop the koi jelly from the mould, or if needed use a toothpick for assistance.

Beef & Stout Pie

Rich and savoury, this beef and stout pie recipe is always a huge success every time I serve it. This beef and stout pie is the perfect St Patrick's day dinner recipe. Succulent beef and mushrooms cooked in rich Guinness gravy baked under hot milk pastry is a dish that is guaranteed to impress.

Dark and hearty on its own, the Guinness gives an incredible richness to the finished pie. Its flavour goes particularly well with the beef. 

Meat pies are common all over the British Isles. And beef and Stout pie is particularly common in Ireland where it's also referred to as Beef and Guinness Pie. 

Don't let the length of this recipe scare you away. Even though it has quite a few steps, it's really a simple recipe.

 

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 1¼ cups milk
• 135g lard
• 3½ cups plain flour
• ¾ tsp salt

For the filling:

• ½ cup flour
• 1 tsp thyme
• 675g stewing beef
• 1 brown onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup sliced button mushrooms
• 1 can Guinness stout, approx. 2cups 
• 2 cups beef stock
• ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2x45g butter 
• 45g butter, melted for greasing the tin

Method:

For the hot milk pastry: Cut the lard into small chunks. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine the milk and the lard, heating until it is almost boiling.

Combine the salt and the flour, then slowly add the hot milk to the flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Or if you have a food processor, you can combine the flour mixture and hot milk, pulsing until a dough forms into a ball.

Flour your counter. Form the dough into a disc shape and let it rest for about 20 minutes, or until cool. Once the pastry is cool, you can wrap it and refrigerate it up to two days, but you have to let it come to room temperature first.

In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, pepper and thyme. Add the beef cubes, tossing them until coated with flour. Heat vegetable oil to fairly high. Fry off the beef in batches, don't over crowded the pan. After all the pieces are browned, set aside the beef.  

In a cast iron or oven safe pot, over medium heat, melt 45g butter and add the mushrooms, allowing them to sweat and cook. While the mushrooms are cooking, melt another 45g butter in another pot and cook the onions down slowly, allowing them to caramelize. Once the mushroom are cooked down add the beer to the cooked mushroom and bring it to a simmer. Reduce the beer by half, then add the beef, caramelize onions, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper, then add the garlic and thyme. Simmer the stew until the beef is tender. You can also transfer the beef stew mixture into a slow cooker to cook until the beef tender. Allow the beef stew to cool before adding to the pastry.

For the pastry: Roll the pastry dough out to about ¼ inch thick on a floured surface. Brush a muffin tin thoroughly with melted butter, then using a round cookie cutter to make the initial shape, press the dough-round into the muffin tin. Fill the dough with the cooled stout stew, then cut another round to make the top of the mini pie. Roll the two edges of the pastry together. Cut a small vent on the top. Repeat until all of the dough and stew have been used up. Chill the meat pies in the fridge while you heat up the oven. 

Pre heat the oven to 190ºC/170ºC for fan assist oven. Place your muffin tin filled with chilled pies into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Serve with vegetable of your choice. Enjoy!