My friend and her daughter arrive in Florida this week and I'm trying to get food cooked so that I can enjoy being with them rather than spend all the time in the kitchen. This Sunday we will be having this delicious beef stew which is a hybrid of my mothers recipe, homemade yorkshire puddings and veggies...yummy. PS..I'll add some pics on Sunday ;-)
Serves 4
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10mins prep, 2 1/2 hrs cooking
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs lean stewing beef
- 1 large yellow onion medium diced
- 3 sticks of celery sliced at a diagonal in 2 " pieces
- 3 large carrots sliced at a diagonal in 2 " pieces
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
- 3 medium potatoes peeled and sliced in 1/4 thickness ( you can add more if you are not going to serve potatoes with your meal)
- 1/4 cup thyme leaves
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 cups beef stock, low sodium
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I used Grey Poupon)
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- kosher salt and ground pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
You will need a casserole dish that you can fry in then transfer to the oven, or a frying pan with a casserole dish. I use a Le Crueset casserole
- Set oven at 300 F ( 150 C)
- Cut meat into 2" pieces
- Season well with salt and pepper
- Coat the meat with the flour and shake off excess
- Heat one tablespoon of oil at a medium hot heat.
- Brown the meat on both sides, you are looking for a nice crust, don't cook through and don't crown pan as the meat wont brown. Once all meat done remove from casserole and turn heat down to medium.
- Add rest of oil, heat and then add onion, celery, carrot, thyme. As you stir remember to scrape all the good bits off the bottom of the pan
- When the onions have started to soften add the meat back to the casserole, then add the wine, stock, mustard and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, stir well and then cover with lid or foil and put in oven.
- Cook for 2 hrs and then shut off oven and leave to cool down if you are going to eat another day. If not you can thicken if required with some corn starch (flour) and a little water - it depends how thick you want your stew.
We're having with Yorkshire Puddings, Roast Potatoes and Vegetables and all I have to do is take the stew out if the freezer now and heat up! Hurrah!
Enjoy!
I have loved carrot cake ever since I arrived in America. It started with Publix bought cakes ( which pale in to insignificance against this one) and developed in to a little project to develop a deliciously moist carrot cake of my own. I am a lazy frosting maker so I have used a shop bought one here..next project, find a lovely frosting to go inside and on top. This is a big cake...make sure you have guests coming else you will feel decidedly sick because you wont be able to resist it!
Ingredients
- 225 g (8 oz) carrots, peeled and grated
- 200 g (7 oz) self-raising flour
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 175 g ( 6oz) dark brown soft sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) sunflower oil
- grated zest 1 orange
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sultanas
- 50 g (1/4 cup) desiccated coconut
- 50 g (1/4 cup) pecan nuts toasted & chopped
For the syrup glaze & icing:
- Juice 1 small orange
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 oz (75 g) dark brown soft sugar
- 1 Betty Crocker Vanilla Butter Icing or make your own!
2x 8 inch cake tins –lined with baking parchments
1. Heat the oven to 180 °C (350 F)
2. Combine the oil, eggs and sugar and whisk until sugar dissolved.
3. Sift the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon and stir in
4. Add all the other ingredients and combine
5. Pour equal amounts into each cake tin and put in the oven for about 30 mins…you are looking for a springy but firm feeling…put a skewer in to check cooked through.
6. Melt the sugar and juices together, pierce each of the cakes with a skewer, and pour the syrup over.
7. Leave to cool (I leave in the fridge overnight) Then sandwich the cakes together with half the icing and cover the top with the rest.
8. You can toast some coconut for the top for decoration….delicious…..!!!!
