Speedy Beef and Vegetable Pie - for Random Recipes #45

This month we are rifling through our magazine cuttings for Random Recipes, the challenge run by Dominic at Belleau Kitchen.  I have all but given up buying magazines as I can find recipes on the internet with so much more ease.  However, a couple of weeks ago I had a little time to kill in the supermarket and so was drawn to browse through the cooking magazines.  Eat in is a new magazine for me and I was drawn to the Comfort Food on a Budget.  This mag has been sitting around on the dining room table, so I picked it up and it opened at this Speedy Beef and Vegetable Pie.



Speedy Beef and Vegetable Pie
Serves 4-6
1 tbsp veg or olive oil
1 onion chopped
500g beef mince
500g frozen mixed vegetables (I didn't have any so used diced carrots)
25g onion gravy powder (didn't have any of that either,  substitute tbsp flour and beef stock cube)
320g sheet puff pastry
Milk for brushing (I used a beaten egg)

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/ Gas 7.  Grease a 20cm square ovenproof dish (more deviation from me!).  Heat the oil in a saucepan over a high heat. Saute the onion for 3 minutes or until softened.  Add the mince and cook for 3 minutes or until browned.
2. Add the vegetables, gravy powder and 125mil hot water. (If using flour add a tbsp of flour and cook, stirring for 3 minutes to cook out the starch, crumble in the stock cube then add the water.) Cook stirring for 3 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Transfer the mixture to the prepared dish and set aside to cool for at least 5 minutes but longer if you can.
3. Place the pastry sheet over the mince to cover. Tuck the overhanging pastry inwards to form a border around the inside edge of the dish. Score the top of the pastry with a sharp knife.  Brush with milk.  Bake for 15 minutes or until browned.  Serve the pie with herbed mash or vegetables.  I served my pie with slow cooked Braised Red Cabbage.

The pie was excellent, it always surprises me what seems to hit the mark on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but this pie was definitely a hit!

Labels: Beef, pastry, Pie, Random Recipes

posted by Janice @ 07:00 13 Comments

Sweet Apple Slices for Random Recipes #44

I've been a bad, bad girl. It's been such a long time since I've played at Random Recipes with my friend Dominic from Belleau Kitchen and I feel bad about that because it's one of the most fun blog challenges and has led me to make some interesting recipes and to use cook books that have lain unopened on the shelves for years.
So to make up for that my Random Recipe #44 'something sweet - random internet search', is a bit of an apple for the teacher. As my usual way of finding recipes is to go to that great big search engine in the sky and see what delights it offers me, this was a breeze - I searched for something sweet with apples.  Sweet Apple Slices was the first recipe that caught my eye, slices of apple cooked briefly in a simple syrup and baked in a low oven.

The apple slices were crisp at the edges but still slightly soft in the middle with a thin layer of caramelised sugar on top. I ate them right away and they were really good, the apple flavour was intensified by the heat and caramelisation.  I don't think they would keep very long, but they do look pretty, don't you think?

I'm hoping my apple for the teacher will endear me to Dom enough for him to include my variation on a recipe in Random Recipes #44, that and the fact that I changed the whole of the Slow Cooker/Cooked Challenge to allow him to participate without a Slow Cooker!

Labels: Apple, caramelised, Healthy, Random Recipes, snack, Sweet Apple Slices

posted by Janice @ 18:08 10 Comments

Chorizo Burgers - A Random Recipe

It wouldn't be Christmas without a new cookbook. I was lucky enough to receive two new books, 'eat, The little book of fast food' by Nigel Slater:


 and 'Dear Francesca, a cookbook with love' by Mary Contini:


They are both lovely books to read as well as to cook from so it was no hardship to choose a random recipe from one of my new books as requested by Dom at Belleau Kitchen for the Random Recipes Blog challenge.



Nigel Slater won the 'eeny meany miney mo' selection and then I just opened the little book of fast food randomly to find myself at the page for chorizo burgers. The recipe is copyright so I can't share it in it's entirety but there are only three ingredients: minced pork, cooking chorizo sausages, salt and pepper and ciabatta or pannini rolls. Nigel uses more chorizo than pork, my burgers were more like half and half. I simply formed the mix into burgers and fried them with a very little oil in a non-stick pan. 

I made the burgers rectangular to fit better onto the rolls!

The burgers were really easy to make on a Friday night, when I would usually stick a pizza straight from the freezer into the oven! The texture was nice and soft and the chorizo sausage gave the burgers a delightful smoky piquancy. I will definitely make these again.



I used Heck Smoky Chorizo style sausages, they have a good flavour and softer texture than some chorizo which made them easy to mix with the minced pork. Please don't be alarmed by the Use By date, they were frozen well before that date and defrosted in the fridge overnight before becoming burgers!

@FarmersgirlCook Thrilled to hear this. Thank you. And lovely picture.
— nigel slater (@NigelSlater) January 18, 2014

Labels: Burgers, chorizo, easy, fast, Heck Food, Mary Contini, Nigel Slater, Random Recipes, sausages

posted by Janice @ 15:34 9 Comments

Dare to bare...your kitchen cupboards!

In an effort to give us an easy time for the busiest month, Dom has decided, that for our Random Recipes, we should open our larder and cupboard doors and show everyone what is inside!  Now I like a nicely ordered cupboard, but my good intentions don't seem to last long and everything always ends up shoved in.  I've tried using tubs and jars to decant my ingredients, but it just doesn't seem to work for me.  I do have some little baskets to try to keep the little pots and jars in, but it could all do with a tidy up again.

Anyway, here goes:

I have a big double, floor to ceiling, larder unit and this is the shelf with all the random spices that don't fit on the spice rack on the inside of the other door.  At the front cinnamon, Colman's mustard powder, La Chinata sweet smoked paprika, black peppercorns, a herb/spice rub and some beef oxo cubes.

In the shelf below I have more of the baking ingredients, that tub of Food Thoughts cocoa shouldn't be in that basket, but has obviously been shoved in as I couldn't get it in anywhere else.  There are some bottles of food colouring, a jar of crystalised ginger and, over on the right, baking powder, cake release and vanilla extract.

This is the worst cupboard, pasta, rice, beans and a giant bag of granulated sugar I bought in my online shop without realising it was so big!  The green box sticking up is vegetarian suet that I used for my mincemeat.   I do have to say that there is not much in the way of out of date goods, I had a good clear out not that long ago.

I hope you enjoyed a look into my larder,  if you'd like to join in pop in to Belleau Kitchen to find out more about this excellent blogger challenge.

Labels: Belleau Kitchen, cupboards, dare to bare, pantry, Random Recipes

posted by Janice @ 21:40 8 Comments

Crunch-Topped Cod - A Random Recipe

I've missed a couple of months of Random Recipe posts, the blogger challenge run by Dom at Belleau Kitchen.  It's a lot of fun to take part, however due to impending work on my kitchen I've had to clear all my cookbooks away into bags and boxes, but I came across a pile of old Bella Cookbook magazines to which I applied the standard Random Recipe formula!

My random choice was January/February 2004, goodness nearly 10 years ago!  I did love this magazine, looking through these copies there are loads of recipes that I have made and must revisit.

However, Random Recipes is about making recipes you have overlooked and never made so my random pick is Crunchy Topped Haddock Cod, or other white fish of your choice.  I used frozen cod because it was what I had in the freezer.

Crunch-Topped Cod
Serves 4
4 (175g/6oz) pieces of cod fillet (or other white fish)
4 small tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
2 (250g) bags spinach, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 (250g) tub mascarpone cheese
75g/3oz Cheddar cheese, grated
1 (30g) bag plain crisps, lightly crushed

1. Preheat the grill to high.  Place the cod on a foil lined grill pan. Season with salt and pepper.  Top with tomato slices. Grill for 3-4 minutes until the fish is cooked through. 
2. While the fish is cooking, heat the oil in a large pan.  Fry the garlic of r1 min.  Add the spinach. Cover; cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until wilted.  Draini n a sieve, pressing out the excess liquid with the back of a spoon. Season with nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper.  Keep warm.
3. Apread the mascarpone over the tomatoes an fish.  Top wth Cheddar chees; season.  Grill for 2-3 minutes until melted. Scatter over the crisps; gril lfor 1 min until golden. Serve the fish with the warm spinach.


I made some mashed potatoes and served them topped with the spinach and cheesy fish.  The from fish fillet flaked easily and the combination of the creamy mascarpone, juicy tomatoes, sharp Cheddar cheese and crunchy crisps was a total delight.

Labels: Belleau Kitchen, cheese, cod, crisps, Mascarpone, Random Recipes, spinach, tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:50 7 Comments

Mixed Vegetable Curry - A Random Recipe

Now, I know we are supposed to randomly pick the recipe were going to cook, but in this case I had a lot of vegetables in the fridge so I picked randomly from the Vegetarian chapter and came up with 'Mixed Vegetable Curry' on page 228.

Labels: Cinnamon, coconut milk, curry, Random Recipes, spices, vegetarian

posted by Janice @ 20:13 7 Comments

Dill Onion Yogurt Bread - for Random Recipes

 I am so pleased that I found the time to take part in Random Recipes this month.  I love homemade bread and although I don't have a problem making it, somehow I don't get round to doing it very often, but as Dom at Belleau Kitchen has challenged us to a Random bread making challenge, it was the perfect opporutunity to try something different.
First take your Bread books, there were eight, then choose one at Random. It's the 5th of May (might not be by the time this is posted but that is the day of the 'Random choosing') so pick number 5.

Dill Onion Yogurt Bread
For a 1 1/2 lb (675g) loaf
120ml (4fl oz) water
185ml (6fl oz) natural yogurt
3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried dill weed
1 tbsp dried onion flakes (I sauted a finely chopped onion in butter instead)
1 tsp salt
425g (15oz) strong white flour
2 1/4 tsp fast action yeast

Put all the ingredients into the bread pan of your machine in the order suggested by your machine I structions. Set for white bread, medium crust. Press start.

 Note: as long as you keep the salt and yeast separate when you add them to the pan I find the order doesn't matter. 

No bread machine? Just use any handmade white bread recipe, BBC Food have an easy white bread recipe by Paul Hollywood which explains the techniques.

Printable Recipe


 I was really impressed with the even texture of this bread, the dill and onion had spread through the dough beautifully and it had baked to a golden crust.  The recipes suggests that the loaf is good for sandwiches and I can see why.  It is lovely and soft and the savoury taste of herb and onion would add to the flavour of the filling.  When I had tea at The Dorchester (highly recommended) one of the sandwiches was chicken served on basil bread and it was divine.  I may try making some of that myself using this recipe.

The loaf is very tasty indeed and the herb and onion is not overpowering.  I'm looking forward to having some tomorrow with the leek and potato soup I made.

Labels: Bread, Dill, onion, Random Recipes, the new Bread Machine book, yogurt.

posted by Janice @ 06:00 12 Comments

A cup of coffee and a Treacle Bite!

It's time to 'Get Random Baby' or so Dom at Belleau Kitchen tells us.  Yes, it's time for another Random Recipe, this time using the Random Recipe Generator thingummydoodah, a technical term I'm sure.

It still required the dreaded counting of the cookery books as it grows every time I look, anyway my random choice was The Dairy Book of Home Cookery by Sonia Allison for the  Milk Marketing Board, originally published in 1968, this edition published in 1977.  The book belonged to my Mother-in-law and has retained it's place on my cookbook shelf as it has some good recipes in it.

And so to the opening of the book in a random fashion...it opened at a double page of biscuit recipes - RESULT!  There were many to choose from: Currant biscuits, Cherry biscuits, Spice or Cinnamon Biscuits, Chocolate Flake Biscuits, Jam Sandwich Biscuits and on and on... However,  I decided to go for Treacle Bites as I have a bit of a glut of rolled oats.


Treacle Bites (makes 24)

100g/4oz self-raising flour, sifted
75g/3oz rolled oats
25g/1oz desiccated coconut
100g/4oz butter
125g/5oz caster sugar
2 level tbsp treacle
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp milk

1. Combine flour with oats and coconut
2. Put butter, sugar and treacle into saucepan, very slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
3. Remove from heat. Add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in milk.

This is so much fun, it puffs up like puff candy!

4. Pour hot mixture on to dry ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Leave on one side for 30 minutes or until firm.
5. Break off 24 pieces of mixture and roll into marbles.

Rolling the biscuit mix was easier than I thought, not too sticky, they do spread a lot and I would probably make mine smaller next time as my 'marbles' were more like 'walnuts'!

 6. Transfer to buttered baking trays (leaving room between to allow for spreading), Bake in centre of moderate oven 180C for 15 minutes.
7. Leave on trays for 1 or 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack.  Store in an airtight tin when cold.

Treacle Bites Printable Recipe


The verdict: FANTASTIC!  I think these are some of the nicest biscuits/cookies I have ever made and I will be making them again, I would also try making them with golden syrup as I think that would work well too.  Now I must confess that I only had 15g of coconut so used some mixed seeds to replace it, so this is obviously also an adaptable recipe and if you don't like coconut, you know that you can replace it with small seeds, like sesame seeds.

And now for the well-deserved cup of coffee.  As my regular readers will know, I've reviewed quite a few different ground coffees recently.  Just before I went on holiday, I was sent some coffee by Aromo.  Aromo is a company run by three ordinary guys who simply live and love espresso and the mystic of coffee.  The main focus of their business is espresso coffee in single serving pods, but as I don't have a pod machine, I was sent the Aromo Bounce 100% Arabica ground coffee which retails at £4.00 for 250g.

We realy enjoyed this coffee, not being espresso fans we made our coffee in our filter machine and it was excellent, a really smooth rich blend at a very reasonable price and went very well with the Treacle Bites.  If the pods are anything like as good as this, then they are well worth trying.  Aromo coffee is available as ESE Coffee Pods   Senseo Compatible Coffee Pods   Nespresso Compatible Capsules

Labels: Aromo, Belleau Kitchen, biscuits, coffee, cookies, Random Recipes, The Dairy Book of Home Cookery

posted by Janice @ 21:23 18 Comments

Rice Pudding with Butterscotch Apples

Random Recipes is now going into it's third year and to celebrate Dom at Belleau Kitchen is kindly allowing us to choose our book our own way.  We still have to pick a random recipe from it to celebrate our love of recipe books and those wonderfully talented people who write them (with apologies to Dom for paraphrasing!).


The book I chose for my Random Recipe was The River Cottage Year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  I picked this up  recently for £2.99 in a discount book shop.  The randomness of my recipe choice is relative since I decided to go with the chapter for February, on the basis that the recipe was likely to be suitable for this chilly time of year, but I promise that I did choose the recipe in the February chapter quite randomly, just by identifying the beginning and end of the February chapter and then opening the book randomly to find...

Rice Pudding with Butterscotch Apples 

Serves 6
For the rice pudding
50g unsalted butter
100g pudding rice
500ml whole milk
500ml double cream
50g caster sugar
Fresh nutmeg (optional)
For the butterscotch apples
4-5 firm, tart, eating apples (about 400-500g)
50g unsalted butter
50g light brown sugar

Heat the oven to 140C/gas mark 1 and butter a deep ovenproof dish. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and add the rice, stirring until coated with butter (it shouldn't fry or even sizzle).
Mix the milk and cream together and add to the saucepan. Stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Transfer to the ovenproof dish, grate a little nutmeg over the surface (if using) and cook for 3-3½ hours. Every 30 minutes, stir gently from bottom to top to separate the grains and work the surface skin back into the pudding, until the rice has expanded to fill the dish and is quite tender (2½-3 hours should do it). For the last 30 minutes, leave to cook without stirring so a golden-brown skin forms, turning the oven up to 170C/gas mark 3 for the last 10 minutes.
Peel and core the apples and cut them into 1-2cm dice. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry the apples very gently. After 2 minutes, sprinkle with the sugar then gently toss and fry for 12-15 minutes, until tender and glazed. Serve immediately with a  generous dollop of the hot rice pudding.

 I'm sure my regular readers will not be surprised to learn that I made a few changes!  I buttered the dish, put all the rice pudding ingredients into the dish including the knob of butter  and baked the pudding in the oven for the required time.  I also used a little more milk and a bit less cream.  

This was undoubtedly a treat, the butterscotch apples were gorgeous and a perfect foil to the rich creamy rice.

I am also entering this recipe for Tea Time Treats as the theme for Feburary is 'pudding' and it's being hosted this month by Kate at What Kate Baked as I think Karen at Lavender & Lovage is lying down in a darkened room to recover from the massive round up of Tea Time Treats from January!

Labels: Belleau Kitchen, Lavender and Lovage, Random Recipes, Rice Pudding with Butterscotch Apples, River Cottage Year, Tea Time Treats, What Kate Baked

posted by Janice @ 08:30 14 Comments

Bean Bake with Cornmeal Topping - Retro Random Recipe

First let me apologise for the quality of the photographs.  My DSLR camera has had to go for a minor repair so I had to resort to my ancient compact camera which does not take good photos in low light  and at this time of year, there are only a few hours of decent light. 



And so the Retro Random Recipe, that's not the theme for the monthly challenge, run by Dom at Belleau Kitchen , just my interpretation.  No, this month Dom has taken himself off to California (lucky so and so!) and is borrowing his Random book from his step-mum's kitchen.   He has asked us to join in and borrow a book from someone else's kitchen,.a good friend or a neighbour,  parents or grandparents anyone who has an interesting collection of books.

I asked my friend, Avril, if she would choose a book for me. She brought two books into work and put them behind her back, she asked me to choose left or right and  my random book choice was...

In case you are wondering, the other book was a Robert Carrier one, full of rich creamy dishes, so I was really quite pleased to get the Sarah Brown book.

For those of you not old enough to remember, Sarah was TVs Vegetarian Cook in the 1980s.  Her recipes were healthy, wholefood dishes and introduced veggie cooking to many people who had no idea how to go about cooking healthy meals without meat.  I used to own a different book by Sarah Brown, but gave it away as it wasn't being used, however it was good to revisit and there are some really tasty dishes in this book.  I used the random number generator to find my recipe and came up with Savoury Cornmeal Topping for Vegetables.

I'm on a bit of a mission to eat up all the food that seems to have accumulated in my larder, fridge and freezer and did a big 'audit' at the weekend.  So  instead of using the recipe as a topping for vegetables I decided I would  use it to top a Bean Bake with roasted carrots and parsnip.

Savoury Cornmeal Topping For Vegetables

This is a very quick and tasty batter topping that can be used to cover most mixtures of vegetables.  Remember to make the vegetable base quite moist so that it complements the sponge-like topping.  When making the topping, don't forget that the amount of liquid you need may vary according to the type of flour you  use and how long you have had them. Simply add more liquid gradually until the mixture reaches a pouring consistency.  Once made the batter should be cooked immediately.



The Bean Bake is based, very loosely, on a recipe for 'Butter Beans in brown onion sauce' from another old favourite Gail Duff's Vegetarian Cooking, this one has survived all book shelf culls and is well worn and much loved.  Gail's recipe doesn't have vegetables in it, just beans and a miso and onion sauce but it gave me the inspiration and the wrinkly carrots and parsnips in my vegetable rack and half used packets of dried beans, nearing their use by date, gave me the motivation!

Bean Bake with Roasted Carrots and Parsnips (serves 8)

500g beans (I used about 300g black eyed beans and 200g Butter Beans) soaked overnight in cold water, drained and cooked until just soft. 
6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
5 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 tbsp oil
1 large onion
1 1/2 tbsp wholemeal flour
1 pint vegetable stock

1. Heat the oven to 200C
2. Blanch the carrots for 4 minutes,  either in a pan of simmering water on the stove or in a suitable container in the microwave with a tablespoon of water.
3.  Put the oil in a roasting tin and add the parsnips and blanched carrots and stir them around to cover with oil.
4. Roast for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and slightly crispy round the edges.



5. Put the beans, parsnips and carrots into a baking dish, I used my Mermaid Roasting tin which is ideal for this type of bake, and set aside while you make the sauce and topping.


6. Use the oil from the roasting tin or use another tablespoon of oil and place in a sauce pan. 
7. Peel and finely chop the onion and saute gently in the oil until it is soft and slightly coloured.
8. Add the flour and cook it with the onion for a minute or so until it starts to change to a golden colour.
9. Take the pan off the heat and add the stock slowly mixing well.
10. Put the pan back on the heat and heat gently, stirring until the sauce has thickened, cook for another 5 minutes, season to taste, then pour over the beans and vegetables.

For the Savoury Cornmeal topping

6oz (150g) wholemeal self-raising flour
3oz (75g) fine cornmeal
pinch of salt
3 eggs
4oz (100g) butter or margarine
8floz (200ml) milk
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds (or mixed seeds)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6, 400F (200C)
Mix the flours and salt together.  Using a food processor or blender, blend in the eggs and fat, then add enough milk to make a thick batter-type dough. 


Spoon the batter over any prepared vegetable mixture, or your Bean Bake, and sprinkle with seeds, then bake for 20-25 minutes.

Another Random Recipe, both the bake and the topping were really tasty and filling.  The roasted vegetables added texture and sweetness to the beans and the topping was crispy on the top and soft underneath.  I would probably cut the quantities back by half if I hadn't been 'using up' the ingredients but we had some reheated tonight and I think the beany part was even better and the cornmeal topping stood up well to being reheated in the oven with a bit of foil over the top.  I'd definitely make this topping again, it would go well with many dishes and makes a nice change from a cobbler or mashed potato topping.

Labels: Black eyed beans, Butter Beans, cornmeal, Gail Duff, Random Recipes, roasted carrots and parsnips, Sarah Brown, storecupboard empty, vegetarian

posted by Janice @ 20:32 4 Comments