Beef Stir Fry With Black Bean Sauce

You now how life is about economy at the moment, everyone tries to cut down their spending. Well fair enough, so budget meals are a choice of many of us. So as I always say, left overs are the best . Any left over meat of a roasting joint make a wonderful dinner. I had a bit of beef left over, so I used it in a stir fry this time. It is unbelievably quick to make. You have a good flavour to it and no one would think that it's a budget meal. Fair enough we cut the cost of our spending but it doesn't mean we can't eat a lush dinner at the same time.  So do you have any meat left over from your roast dinner? Here is a recipe all the family will enjoy.

For The Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 bell red peppers

2 carrots (chopped like match sticks)

1 chilli

2 cloves of garlic crushed

Olive oil

Sesame Oil

Left over beef

2 nest of medium egg noodles

1 jar of black bean sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves: 3

Method

Chop the vegetables and fry them on a high heat in some olive oil. This will take about 3 minutes.

When vegetables are soft enough add the crushed garlic and fry for another minute.

Add the black bean sauce, and a little splash of water . In the meantime, boil the noodles in some hot water, following the instructions on the packet.

Add the beef and lower the flame so you just warm it trough . It will take about 4 minutes.

Add the ready cooked noodles to the pan and stir it all together, drizzle over some sesame oil and serve while hot.

Lamb Burgers and Spicy Relish

Moroccan cuisine, great flavours . Done into burgers, instead of the everyday beef burger. With a spicy relish that compliments it very well. I didn't use any mint in the lamb burgers as I am not a big fan, but you can chop some and add to the mixture if you like the combination of lamb and mint. They do go very well together.

Lamb Burgers

Ingredinets

400 g lamb mince
1/2 a red onion
 2 garlic cloves
Fresh parsley
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp gram masala
Seasoning
Olive oil


Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Level : Medium
Serves: 5

Method

Sauté the onion and garlic , then tip in a bowl and leave to cool. Add the spices and parsley to the onion. Add the mince and season. Shape them into balls and then flatten a little to form a burger. I managed to make 5 burgers in all. Chill them in the fridge for 30 minutes , for better results when frying, Remember to take them out 10 minutes before cooking. To help them re adjust to room temperature a little.  Fry them in a non stick frying pan with a drizzle of oil. Cook for about 6 minutes on each side. Serve with the relish .

Spicy Relish

Ingredients

1/2 a red onion

1 red pepper

A big handful of cherry tomatoes

2 green chillies

Parsley

Dried oregano

1/2 a lemon (juice)

Seasoning

Olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time; 5 minutes

Serves: 5

Level ; easy

Method

Cut the onion in quarters brush with olive oil and grill on each side down for 5 minutes. Do the same with the red pepper.Skin side up. Grill/ char the pepper for 5 minutes . Get all the ingredients ready in a food processor with the onion and pepper. Whiz and there you go. If you don't have a food processor , chop everything with a knife , remember to leave the onion and pepper cool first.

Beef Stew With Dumplings

The weather lately has been so could, that nothing beets a nice warm hearty stew to warm you up, especially if you have been out in the cold all day. Nothing better for your man to return to then a nice hot stew.

Beef Stew

Ingredients

500 g of diced organic beef

Olive oil

Butter

Seasoning

1 onion

2 celery sticks

6 bacon rashers

3 garlic cloves

Chopped butter nut squash 300g

200g of sweet potato diced

4 sun-dried tomatoes

25 g plain flour

A few porcini mushrooms dried

2 bay leave

Some fresh thyme

Dried oregano

A good splash of Worcestershire sauce

2 cubes beef stock, dissolved in 500ml of hot water

A glass of port or red wine

1 tsp powder English mustard

1 tbsp tomato purée 

A pinch of sugar

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 hours

Serves: 4

Level : Easy

Method

Drizzle some oil in a lidded pot. Add the onion , garlic, and celery and soften a little. In the meantime while this is cooking, Spread your meat on a chopping board, season , sprinkle with the English mustard and plain flour . Set aside for a while. Crisp the bacon in a frying pan and set aside .

Add the meat to the pot and brown all over.

Add the sun dried tomatoes and the porcini mushrooms to the pan with the onion. Add some Tomato purée .

Add the herbs and the bacon. Add the Worcestershire sauce and cook for a minute , before adding the wine. Cook the wine for another two minutes and add the warm stock. Add a pinch of sugar to the stew. 

Bring everything to a boil and cover. Leave to cook for an hour 30 minutes.

In the meantime you can start the dumplings, and clear the kitchen. 

Time to add the butter nut squash and sweet potato to the pan . Make sure these are cut in chunk as they are vegetables that cook so quickly. You will need to avoid stirring the stew as you might break all the vegetables , and it will look like a mashed up soup.  Cover and leave to cook for another hour. 

The last 30 minutes before serving add the dumplings to the stew, leave them on top and only half submerge and cover with a lid. Remove the bay leaves before serving. Serve with some bread.

Dumplings

Ingredinets

250 g self raising flour

125 g cold butter

Seasoning

A splash of water

Method

Get a mixing bowl and add the flour and season.

With a cheese grater, grate your butter. This is why it need to be cold, as you won't find it easy to grate if it's half melted. 

Get your hands in the mixture and work the butter into the flour, it will look a little like bread crumbs.

Add a splash of water, only a little , you don't want to end up with a dough. Start shaping the dumplings into balls. If not using straight away , leave in the fridge. Take them out 10 minutes before using.

 

Stuffed Roasted Butter nut Squash

This is such a good vegetable, it's nutty flavour is just fantastic. So many things you can do with it. This meal works great for vegetarians without the bacon.

Roasted Butter Nut Squash

Ingredients

1 butter nut squash halved lengthwise 

Olive oil

Seasoning

1/2 cup rice

1/2 cube chicken stock

1 Spring onion

2 rashers of bacon

Parsley

1 garlic clove

Feta cheese

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: About an hour

Serves : 2

Level: Easy

Method

Cut you butter nut squash , de seed. Pre heat the oven on 180 degrees. Brush the butter nut squash with olive oil and fresh pepper. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

I din't use a whole butter nut squash as it was too big. I saved the top bit for another time. I'm sure I will find a way to use it. 

In the meantime. Ad some hot water to the rice and crumble in the chicken stock. 

Fry the bacon until nice and crisp and set aside.

Prepare the crushed garlic , spring onion and parsley to use as soon as the rice is ready. 

When the rice is ready mix it with everything else , the bacon, onion , garlic and parsley

Get the squash out of the oven and fill with your mixture, crumble some feta cheese on top and return in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

 

Cauliflower soufle'

This is something I came across this week, I normally follow my diary and prepare dinners for the week ahead. But my man decide to come home with two juicy steaks and I need to come up with something to serve with the steaks. I had a quick look in my fridge to see what I can find that needs to be used. So I found cauliflower, cheese and double cream. They work miracles together.

Cauliflower   Soufle'

Ingredients

1/2 cauliflower

150 ml of milk

25 g butter

25g plain flour

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites

Some double cream

Cheddar

A pinch of nutmeg

Seasoning

Olive oil

Level: medium

Serves: 6

Method

Grease six ramekins with some butter and line them with baking paper. To help the baking paper sit better, try wetting it and scrunching it first before you line the ramekins. Preheat the oven on 180 degrees.

Boil some water and add the cauliflower florets to it. Cook until soft enough to be mashed. 

Melt the butter in a pan with some oil. Add the flour and combine. Take off the heat and add the milk little at a time, and stir well. Back on a low heat. Add the mashed cauliflower to the mixture. Make sure the mixture is hot and thick enough. Add the Dijon mustard, a pinch of nutmeg, cheese and season. 

Separate the eggs. Add the yolk to you cauliflower mixture . Returning to the egg whites, whisk until you obtain stiff peaks.

Fold little by little in the cauliflower mixture.

Fill the ramekins , and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Remember not to open the oven while this is cooking, or you won't have the result you are looking for. 

Take out the oven , leave to cool for a few minutes before taking them out of the ramekins. 

Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with the cheese and a little double cream, put back n the oven for 10 minutes and serve.

Yummy Pork Steaks

Very simple, meal . Anyone could cook this. The other day I bought a lovely waga mama sauce and that's what I'm using with recipe to give the pork a little bit of a different flavour. If you don't have this sauce or can't get your hands on one, just use any good marinade you can find in the supermarket to brush over the meat before cooking, Or maybe just sprinkle some chilli flakes on top. That should do the trick.

Pork Steaks

Ingredients 

5 pork steaks

Olive oil

Seasoning

Fresh tarragon

Waga Mama sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Serves: 3

Level : Easy

Method

Place the pork steaks on a chopping board. Remember always to use a separate chopping board for raw meat and vegetables, this avoids salmonella and any other bacteria from raw meat to contaminate your vegetables.

Rub the pork with some oil, the sauce , season and chop some tarragon and sprinkle over. 

fry in a non stick pan, 1 minute on each side on high heat. Then lower the heat to medium and cook for a further 6 minutes on each side.

Rest the meat for a couple of minutes before serving. Sprinkle some more tarragon over .

Serve with some mash and any steamed greens

Minestrone

Minestrone, this is a type of soup. The only difference is that it's not liquidized . Good healthy and very nutritions , low calorie dinner. Plus it's filling and warm , brilliant for these cold days. I flavoured it a little adding bacon and chicken to it. You could do it with just the veggies. But I was using it as a main dish for dinner, so I needed something else to it to make it more filling.

Minestrone

Ingredients

4 rashers of bacon
Olive oil
Chopper rosemary
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 onion
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 broccoli
1/2 cauliflower
Tomato paste
Dried oregano
Dried mixed herbs
2 bay leaves
2 chicken stock cubes
200 g baby spinach
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen broad beans
A handful of rice
A handful of small pasta ( I used bows)
Chicken breast ( halved lengthwise to make it thinner and cook quicker)
Parmesan
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves : 5
Level : Medium

Method

Fry the finely sliced bacon until crisp. Set aside for later. Get all the sliced/ diced vegetables, apart from the broccoli, tomatoes and spinach. Heat up a little oil in the pot, and fry the vegetables until a little soft. Season , and put the bay leaves in. Add the tomato paste. Crumble the stock cubes,add the dried herbs and cover with hot water. Cover the pot  with a lid and leave to cook for 15 minutes.

Now it's time to add the chicken breast. They will poach in the liquid of the minestrone. Cover and leave to cook for a further 20 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes, rice and the little pasta. Cook for a further 15 minutes, before adding the broccoli, peas and broad beans . Cover for a further 5 minutes and add then add the spinach . Cover and turn the heat off, leave the spinach to wilt for a couple of minutes.

Serve the minestrone topped with chicken , sprinkle over some bacon from earlier and parmesan shavings.