Improv Super Stew

Perhaps my Blog has found it calling: cooking! Whist I am not typically a frequent cook, I did do a GCSE in Food Tech and have the general capabilities, but sometimes eating out is just so much more appealing.

However, after the pancake success and knowledge that I had some (reduced) casserole beef in the fridge I decided to make a stew/broth thing... due to my plans changing I had no time to find a suitable recipe so I had to improvise and make it in flash (because I was going to a gig to see Kelly Clarkson... another story) which had a recipe for disaster written all over it!

So, after a quick dash via Sainsburys on the way home, this occurred:

A standard packet of diced beef into a frying pan with a whole finely chopped onion, a lining of oil was hot before they were put in

Now, I peeled two (very) large potatoes, two medium carrots and skinned a six button mushrooms

500ml of beef stock, with a minature bottle of red wine along with 500-750ml of boiling water in a giant stew-pot on a high heat to come to boiling

Veg were chopped chunkily, in haste

Beef was now browned and had produced lots of juices

Beef and juice into pot, along with all veg

This was all I had planned, however, I made a few additions into the pot:

One crumbled Oxo cube, around a tablespoon of instant beef gravy powder

A satisfying squirt of tomato puree and a little less of garlic puree

A liberal shake of salt, pepper, thyme and mixed herbs

I found some frozen green beans in the freezer so I chucked in a couple of handfuls of them

I waited until this all came to a boil, and then it was left at an intense simmer for an hour and a quarter, stirring occasionally. The stove here is electric so I turned it off as I left for the gig, so the heat would have slowly died down over the next half hour or so.

And the results: shockingly good! I did fear over my perhaps liberal quantity of red wine, but that reduced as it simmered. There are many areas for potential change as opposed to improvement, perhaps a couple more green veg (I really hate the stringy bits you get in frozen beans...) and a beef tomato. The overall consistency of the liquid was still runny, so for someone who despises thick gravy it was perfect but some may prefer to thicken it slightly with corn-flour.

Anyhow, I think the key rule here is that as long as the principles are right, it can't go that wrong! I was slightly dubious with my minimal simmer time, whereas many recipes suggests 3+ hours, but the par-cooked meat solved that problem.

So, go forth and cook! And let me know how it goes! Anyone made pancakes today?

Pancakes

Well, I admit I've neglected poor little blog in the past week or so, but the coming week is currently planned by the hour and the prior week was not much better, so blog didn't quite make it onto the to do list.

However, today, along with my housemate Albane, we made pancakes! I am sure this would not be a notable event for many people, but for us, despite not being inexperienced at cooking, our success rate does sometimes leave something to be desired for, be it Albane who loves rice so much she still manages to cremate a pan each time she does so, or myself who can cook any veg and any meat as long as is with pasta and Tesco 'generic' pasta sauce.

Thanks to dearest Delia (I did try to Nigella but I couldn't find her pancake recipe) we followed her guidance and along with Albane + Chris teamwork we made six divine pancakes! My attempt last year failed miserably, a sort of shallow fried yorkshire pudding explosion, so I am beyond overjoyed at how they turned out.

Notable thoughts that we discussed whilst making the masterpieces were roughly as follows:

a) if you can cook a pancake does it mean you are now ready to have a child, for all parents must make a pancake for their child

b) should we set up a pancake shop, so we can make pancakes, sell pancakes and make money

c) we have enough flour to make over one hundred pancakes

d) how varying the quantity or milk/butter/flour/salt/sugar could alter the taste/texture of the pancakes

e) how could a man ever resist us now we are able to say 'Darling, go back to sleep whilst I go and make you some pancakes for breakfast?'

f) we may replace men with pancakes and get fat and never have a man again because we are fat but we will still have pancakes and we love pancakes because they love us back

So, I took a couple o f pictures of the pancakes, cooking, on the plate and I couldn't resist, my child/gerbil also had some pancake, because she is almost a human, just in gerbil form. She loved it, and I think the sugar sent her a little deranged.

So, much happiness from this unexpected culinary success and I urge one and all, make pancakes this week and let me know how it goes!

Pancake love, Chris xx