Stout beef casserole and cottage pie rebrand

Having enjoyed the beef, mushroom, Guinness pies a few weeks ago, I thought I’d push the same idea into a lovely, warm serve of winter heartiness.

This is basically beef bourguignon, but with stout instead of red wine. Serve with creamy mashed potato, and roast broccoli and cauliflower - adding almond slivers is also good, but last night I forgot!

Unlike the pie version, I err on the side of big with the meat pieces. It’s almost like they are little steaks which you’re encouraged to slice and smear with the sauce and mash, rather than just spoon in.

Roast veggie tip: why par boil, when you can par zap? Many roast vegetables benefit from par boiling to soften the centre, so that the outside can be crisped. A couple of minutes in the microwave means less water, less flavour down the drain - and less time wasted. Just saying…

Don't forget the French onions!

For a regular casserole, you pop it covered into the oven for 3 hours. But I use the slow cooker for 8.

As a bachelor dad, I get the recipe to the first stage a night ahead. Then pop it in the fridge.

Next morning, into the slow cooker, and away I go to work. That way, after school when my kids come home, they open the door to that rich and homey smell. They might not be here as often as I’d like, but it’s their home, and their dad loves them. Food can say that.
Serves 4

Ingredients

1kg chuck steak 75g pancetta, roughly chopped 1 cup stout 1 cup beef stock 1 tbsp salt 3 tbsp olive oil 3 tbsp butter 1 brown onion, roughly chopped 2 carrots, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 2 tbsp plain flour 3 bay leaves 8 eschalots, peeled 150g button mushrooms, sliced 2 sprigs thyme

Serve with buttery mashed potato and roast broccoli and cauliflower (with slivered almonds - if you remember... )

Method

1. Cut beef into 4–5 cm pieces.
2. Place the stout in a saucepan and reduce by a third over a medium-high heat, then add beef stock and bring to a boil.
3. In frying pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter over a high heat. Season the beef with salt and fry in batches until caramelises as the edges and corners. Set the fried beef aside and add another 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter to the dish. When the butter is foaming, add the onion and carrot and reduce heat to medium-low . Cook for about 8 minutes, then add the garlic. Cook for a further 4 minutes, then add flour , mix through and gently cook for about 3 minutes.
4. Gradually pour the hot stout and stock mixture over the onion and carrots, stirring to ensure no lumps form. Bring to a gentle boil. Return the beef to the pan with any resting juices and bay leaves. (Stage 1 complete) Cover and cook in oven for 2 ½ hours in oven, or 8 in slow cooker.
5. In a frying pan, heat the remaining oil and butter on a medium-high heat, add pancetta and cook until lightly coloured, about 4 minutes, then remove from the pan. Add the eschalots and cook until they deepen in colour (about 3–4 minutes), then remove. Finally, add the mushrooms and lightly sauté (about 4–5 minutes).
6. Add the pancetta, eschalots, mushrooms and thyme leaves to the braised beef. Cook for a further 15 minutes. Serve with buttery mashed potato, extra thyme and freshly ground pepper, and roast veggies.

Rebrand

Next day, pull out the leftovers from the fridge and cut the beef and veggies into small pieces. Scoop up all the sauce, and place everything into a pie pot.

Take the mash leftover and combine with 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and 1 tablespoon of grated pecorino cheese.

For best results, as ever, let the whole lot come to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 160º

Top the casserole pie filling with the mash mix, fluffing it up with a fork. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes. If necessary, pump up the heat at the end to get the browny edges happening.

Shank you very much!

Slow cooked lamb shanks and rice

Some thoughts on Greek cooking

Lamb and olive oil are the first things that come to mind for many people when thinking of Greek food. While Greece might not have the best olive oil in the world (close, but no banana), the olives themselves are something else. I remember driving through Kalamata - and there they were! I love Portuguese olives best of all (though getting your hands on the really good ones isn’t easy in Sydney).

What is often forgotten is that Greek home cooking is very veggie friendly. Fundamentally a peasant cuisine, meat was a rarity. Stuffed vegetables, spinach and feta, olive oil and bread. Lemon juice to add zing. And legumes. Those guys sure know how to cook a bean!

Well, I can’t claim any fancy leguminous techniques here: my chickpeas come out of a can. But the overall effect is a hearty farewell to winter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 1 cup lamb stock
• 4 lamb shanks (see lamb two ways)
• 1 can chickpeas (including brine)
• 2 cups long grained rice
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• pepper to season
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• About .25 cup each olives and feta cheese

Method

The whole thing takes about seven hours, but very little effort.

I use a slow cooker for this. Otherwise, use an oven-proof dish with a good sealing lid, and put in the oven at 110º.

Steam two cups of rice.

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan, and brown the lamb shanks for about 2 minutes. Place them in the slow cooker when done. Drop the heat and sauté onion and garlic. Once the onion is translucent, add the stock and salsa and stir to deglaze the pan. Add bay leaves, rosemary, pepper. Pour contents of pan over lamb shanks.

Set slow cooker to low and cover. Leave slowly cooking for four hours.

By this time, the lamb will be well cooked - but not quite with the marrow-strong flavour we are looking for.

Add the chickpeas, folding into the rest of the contents. Replace lid.

After another two hours, add the rice, feta and olives, and fold through again.

One hour later - ready to serve.

In praise of a hardworking freezer

Freezer jolly good fellow

In my bachelor world, my freezer is generally well stocked, literally. Stocks of various kinds, my beautiful all-purpose tomato salsa, a meal or two ready to go. And bags of frozen vegetables.

Yes! I admit it.

This is a bachelor food blog after all - not a stuck-up fine dining blog (although I do think my dining is fine…)

I do not plate: I dish out! I do not partake: I chow down!

Having freezy things handy, enabled me to whip up a very well received veg casserole for my boys last night between school finishing and evening trumpet lessons. And it kind of went like this…

Potato-layered vegetable casserole

(I dedicate this to my niece, Lauren, who has been a vegetarian for years and for whom, as a very thoughtful fishing expedition snack, I produced several pieces of lovingly purchased roast chicken)

Ingredients

• 3 medium Desiree potatoes
• 500g frozen winter vegetables
• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• .25 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (aka the Empire in a bottle!)
• .25 cup grated parmesan or other sharp cheese
• Pinch smokey paprika
• Olive oil, salt and pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 160º

Wash and thinly slice potatoes, leaving the peel on. Place these in salted, boiling water for about 5 minutes. You want them to soften, but retain their shape. The time will depend on how thinly they are sliced. I use my hand V-slicer, which I love! Drain the potatoes when done - don’t cover, it’s important to let them steam off.

Toss the frozen veggies (don’t let them thaw) together with the salsa, sauce and stock.

Oil a deep baking dish.

Starting with a layer of potato, a drizzle of olive oil, a little pepper. Then the veggie mix. And so on.

Top it off with a couple of layers of potato. Sprinkle with cheese and finish with paprika.

Place in oven for 30 mins. Raise heat to 200º and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the potato topping gets brown and crispy.

Serves 4 as an accompaniment, 3 as a main.

Marrickville chicken feast!

At Marrickville Markets the other day, I was assured by the Wootton beef guy, that the chickens he sold from his mate’s farm would be the best I’ve ever tasted. A big call. But I can confirm it was pretty damn good. This is how I cooked it.

Recipe: Chicken pieces, risoni pasta, and green beans

Ingredients

• 1 chicken cut into eight pieces
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups risoni
• 3 cloves garlic
• .5 kg green beans
• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 3–4 red, tabasco chilis, chopped
• Chopped parsley
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Black pepper

Method

You’ll need a heavy-based oven-proof pan with a good lid. Preheat oven to 200º.

In this dish, place chicken pieces skin-side up, along with peeled garlic cloves, halved. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with pepper.
Cook uncovered in the oven for 15 minutes until the skin begins to brown and look crispy.

Remove from oven, drop temperature to 150º. Removed chicken pieces from pan, add chicken stock, then risoni and beans.

Return the chicken pieces to the pan, then sprinkle the tomato salsa and chopped chilli over the top.

Cover, and return to oven for 30 minutes. We’re aiming for the risoni to be plump and soft, but not mushy.

Finally garnish with chopped parsley.

Three pots

In praise of the three pot rule

In some ways this is even more important in a big kitchen where all that bench space can tempt you to reach for one pot after another the moment you feel the need. Yet, for the bachelor kitchen, the three pot rule is equally relevant.

In fact, the only rule more relevant is this one: “Everything in moderation (including moderation)”.

Now, where were we?

Figuring out how the family meal (even on the nights when it is a family of one) can be accomplished with three pots or less is a way of planning the meal project, getting it done with good care and little waste.

My favourite pot is a Le Creuset shallow casserole dish. One of the many things I like about it (apart from it being a gift from good friends) is that the lid handle allows the lid to sit stable and flat, making it the perfect place to rest browned meat or sautéed vegetables.

Like this.

Recipe: Braised steak with onions, mushrooms and red wine

Ingredients

• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons Lea and Perrins (or other Worcestershire sauce)
• 4 tabasco or birds eye chilies
• 1 double handful button mushrooms
• 1 double handful garden herbs (parsley, oregano, basil)
• 2 round steaks
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tablespoon each: dried oregano, ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Place flour, dried oregano and pepper in a clean bag
• Halve the steaks and shake in the flour bag one at a time and set aside (like on the lid of your handy casserole dish!)
• Peel and slice onions into rings
• Clean mushrooms (I like to leave them whole for this dish, just trimming the stalks)
• Peel and slice garlic cloves, chop chilies
• Heat oil in a heavy based pan
• Brown steaks on each side, then set aside
• Add onion and drop heat to low. Sauté for a few minutes. Add garlic and sauté a few more minutes
• Turn up heat, then add wine and boil off the alcohol and deglaze the pan
• Add mushrooms and chilies and, once the liquid boils again, add stock, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste, and again bring to boil. Return the steaks to the pan. Then, when the liquid boils one last time, drop to a very low simmer
• Cover and simmer for one to two hours
• 30 minutes before serving, toss in round beans and cover again
• 15 minutes before serving, toss in garden herbs and cover again

Serve with steamed rice (pot number two)

A two-pot screamer!