Showing posts with label Comfort Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comfort Food. Show all posts
There is no more comforting a supper on a cold winter's than a traditional cottage pie. I wanted to share this cottage pie recipe with you today that I have downsized from my original recipe for a simple cottage pie which serves 4-6 people. This version is half that size.
This English classic need not be reserved just for the large family. Why should the smaller family suffer for lack of numbers? I am here to say that you can eat just as well when you are only one or two as you can when you are more.
You can make it with either leftover roast beef, as I have here today, or fresh ground beef, which is also the custom in many homes. It is very similar to its close cousin, the Shepherd's Pie.
You may find yourself asking the question, what is the difference between a cottage pie and a shepherd's pie? Great question.
They are very similar casseroles, but in a cottage pie beef is traditionally used as the meat and in a shepherd's pie the meat is usually lamb. You can use either leftover meat from your Sunday roast or fresh meat, depending on what you have in your kitchen.
This is one of the things I like to make whenever I have leftover roast beef in my refrigerator. It makes a great change from making hash or a pot pie, which are my usual go-to's.
You don't even need to have leftover gravy to make it. I tell you how to make a delicious beef sauce without any gravy, By all means, however, do use gravy if you are lucky enough to have some!
Not only is it very easy to make, but it is also incredibly economical. Something we are all aware of these days.
We all want the food we eat to fit within our budgets. That is especially important when you are a smaller family.
You might think that it is much cheaper for two people to eat than it is for four. Simply not true. In fact in many cases it may even cost more, especially if you tend to buy smaller packages of things.
Typically smaller packages cost more than the larger sized versions of the same per ounce/gram. I am not sure why that is.
A good steward of the family budget needs to be able to make wise choices when it comes to the purchase of food. I have found that it is much more budget-savvy to buy the larger sizes, break them down and freeze the excess for a later date.
Being budget-savvy also means making the best use of what you have. Our fore-bearers knew exactly how to do that and dishes like Cottage Pie helped them to do just that.
As I said, you can use either cooked leftover roast in this or fresh hamburger. If you are using fresh minced beef you need to brown it. I find it is easiest to do this when you are sautéing the onions and other aromatics.
An aromatic is a vegetable used in cooking that develop deep and well rounded flavors to a dish when chopped or crushed and then heated and cooked. Aromatics most commonly used tend to be onions, carrots and celery.
Typically these are added at the beginning when you are cooking a dish. This helps them to add as much flavor and aroma as possible.
These are the things which bring others into the kitchen begging and answer to the question, "What's cooking?" These things typically set our tastebuds to tingling in overtime!
For this recipe I have minced leftover cooked roast beef and added it to onions, carrots, swede/rutabaga and celery. This is browned gently in butter, which adds much to the flavors.
Once browned a quantity of flour is added which will thicken the gravy. Make sure you cook it for a few minutes to cook out the flavor of the flour. This is a really important step to take as there is nothing worse than the flavor of raw flour in a sauce.
Once that is done a bit of beef stock is added along with some tomato paste, brown/HP sauce and herbs. You don't need to add the brown sauce, but I find it really adds a special something to the depth of flavor in this gravy.
You can add Worcestershire sauce in its place if that is all you have. It also works beautifully here.
I sometimes like to add a bit of creamed horseradish as well. Not a lot, only a dab. You want just the merest hint of it. Horseradish goes very well with beef.
Meat sauce made, it goes into the bottom of the dish and a layer of vegetables go on top. Typically I use frozen peas and I add them frozen, which not only helps to preserve the color of them somewhat, but also helps to keep them fresher tasting during the longer bake time.
You don't have to use peas. Some people use corn. Some people use both. Some people use a frozen mix of vegetables such as peas, corn, beans, etc. All work well.
The star of the show is the potato thatch which blankets the top of the dish. Creamy, fluffy and delicious, it seals in all the goodness of that rich and meaty base perfectly.
Our typical vision of the ideal English Cottage is one which is covered with a thatched roof of straw. That is why this covering of mashed potatoes is called the "thatch." I love the quaint reasoning behind these English recipes, along with their simplicity.
I like to score a pattern in the thatch which adds to the attractiveness I think. Its not really necessary. You can just pile it on and swirl it, or not. Just make sure it covers the filling all the way to the edges. Typically some of the juices will bubble up through anyways.
I cannot tell a lie, those rich corners where the juices of the gravy bubble through are my favorite bits. I love all of this comfort food casserole really. That rich and meaty filling, the crisp buttery potato thatch, those meaty juiced edges.
Its all pretty good if you ask me! Somehow, no matter what your day has handed you, even the worst day gets tangibly better when a Cottage Pie is on the menu! Today I served it with some coleslaw, but any salad will do, or even a simple slice of buttered brown bread. Enjoy!!
Cottage Pie for Two
Yield: 2
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 15 Mintotal time: 1 H & 15 M
Simple, delicious, and a family pleasing comfort food. Downsized for two people.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (200g) leftover roast beef, roughly chopped, or browned ground beef
- 1/2 TBS butter
- 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 stick celery, trimmed and chopped
- 1/2 small carrot, peeled and grated
- a 2-inch cube of swede (rutabaga) peeled and grated
- 1/2 TBS tomato paste ( tomato puree)
- 1/2 TBS plain flour
- 1 tsp brown sauce (HP sauce)
- 3/4 cup (200ml) well flavoured beef stock
- 1/4 tsp summer savoury
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup (50g) frozen peas
For the potato thatch:
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- warm milk
- a knob of butter
- salt and pepper
- 1 TBS grated cheese (Parmesan or cheddar)
- melted butter to brush (optional
Instructions
- First make the potatoes for the thatch topping.
- Put the potatoes in a pot of lightly salted water and
- bring to the boil. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes until soft. Drain well
- and then return the potatoes to the pan. Shake the pan over the residual heat of the burner to dry them out a bit and then mash the potatoes well until smooth with some warm milk, and a knob of butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the cheese. Set aside and keep warm.
- To make the filling, melt the butter in a skillet. Add the
- onion, celery, carrot and sweet. Cook, stirring frequently over medium low heat until softened and the onion is translucent. Stir in the flour. Slowly stir in the beef stock and bring to the boil.
- Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the tomato puree, brown sauce, and summer savoury. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and then stir in the chopped beef.
- Pour this mixture into the bottom of a buttered 1/2 litre (3 cup) shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the frozen peas over top evenly.
- Spread the mashed potatoes on top tocover. Rough up the potato a bit with a fork. Brush with melted butter.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Bake the casserole in the heated oven for 45 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let stand 15 minutes prior to serving. Serve hot with your favourite sides.
notes:
If you are using ground beef brown it in the skillet along with the onion, carrot, celery and swede. Proceed with the remaining recipe as directed.
I sometimes like to add a bit of creamed horseradish to either the topping or the filling depending on how I feel.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
One thing I really love about the Winter months is that it is comfort food season. You cannot get much more comforting than a delicious plate of Toad in the Hole with plenty of mash, veg and gravy!
Toad in the Hole is a very British dish, and very much beloved by one and all. It consists of sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with onion gravy
and vegetables. You can dress it by adding herbs to the batter or
onions, etc. but basically it is just sausages and a pudding batter
baked together.
Simple. Today I have added to the appeal by wrapping strips of streaky bacon around the sausages before baking.
One thing I always loved about British Cuisine was their inventiveness in giving fun names to favorite dishes. Bubble and Squeak. Spotted Dick. Jam Roly Poly. Toenail Pudding. Sometimes they can sound a bit unappealing, but that is all a part of the fun of these names.
As unappealing as they sound, they are all incredibly delicious. They are a part and parcel and woven tightly into the fabric of British cuisine, being much beloved by its people. You cannot help but love them also.
This British family staple has been served on British Tables since the 18th century. It began as a delicious and inventive way of stretching and getting the most of what was a very precious commodity in that day. Meat.
During the Industrial revolution, which began mid-century, the working class worked incredibly hard jobs for a very meagre amount of pay. While their bosses became richer and richer off of the backs of the poor, the working poor needed to be incredibly inventive in making their resources stretch.
And nobody was truly exempt from having to work. Everyone in the family was expected to chip in and work for a wage, contributing their earnings to the wage pot to help and keep the family going.
Necessities such as shelter, clothing and food were the most important things, even more important than play and pleasure. Providing even these simple necessities of life often involved long and back breaking hours of labor.
And even then it was barely enough, all pooled together in the pot, to help to keep the family going. Pennies were pinched, and pinched and pinched some more.
It was often a necessity for families to stretch any bits of meat acquired by combining them with cheaper and more filling ingredients. In other words bulking them out with starches and such to help to fill the bellies for less.
Recipes such as this and other batter pudding dishes were very popular ways to do just that. When served with some potatoes and a cheap and tasty gravy on the side, these dishes were destined to become family favorites, to be handed down through the generations.
Dishes which we still love today. One thing is for certain, despite its very humble origins, this is a dish which has withstood the test of time. You cannot beat dishes like this. Humble, filling and delicious all rolled into one.
I doubt very much they could have afforded to splurge on two different meats such as bacon and sausage being served together, but you never know. In any case, it is a most delicious combination and a real favorite.
I like to use a good butcher's sausage. I don't like the really thick ones for this, although you certainly can use them if that's what you have. I prefer thinner ones. I get the best quality sausages my money can buy.
I like my sausages richly flavored and meaty. I don't like sausages which contain a lot of nasty fillers and preservatives. They have a really pasty texture which I find quite unpalatable. You really go get what you pay for and I highly recommend using good sausages.
Likewise bacon. I prefer the dry cure bacon. It just cooks up nicer with a much lower water content. If you can get nitrate free, do buy that! Its much healthier for you.
These are simply wrapped and placed in an oiled baking dish. You can bake them while you are making up the batter.
There is nothing out of the ordinary about the batter. It is simply flour, salt, eggs, milk and water. Beaten together and then poured around the partially baked sausages in the baking dish. I also like to add a goodly amount of pepper for seasoning.
Baked in the oven until the pudding is well risen and crisp and the sausages are perfectly golden brown and done through. You can't get much better than this.
We enjoy it with a huge pile of fluffy mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are the quintessential comfort food side. Light and fluffy, they are perfect for creating a little bowl to hold some of the delicious gravy that is also a must with this dish.
You can use gravy powder of course, or an envelope of gravy mix and most British do. But, making your own homemade gravy is also a very simple thing to do.
To make a lush onion gravy, you need to peel and thinly slice several large onions. Melt some butter, about 2 TBS in a skillet and then as soon as it begins to foam add the onions. I like to add some seasoning and a touch of sugar.
This helps the onions to brown very nicely. You do not really need a lot. Just a pinch will do, or you can leave it out altogether if you wish.
Once your onions have softened and are golden brown you need to sprinkle them with some flour. This depends on the amount of gravy you want. For two cups of gravy I add 2 TBS of flour.
You can use stock reconstituted from stock cubes or a good quality of broth from containers. Either will work well. For 2 cups of gravy you will need 2 cups or 480 ml of stock.
A bit of salt and pepper to season and you have a very nice gravy, which is delicious. Ready to spoon over your mashed potatoes and your Toad in the Hole.
And that is it! All you need now is some vegetables on the side. As you can see here today I cooked peas and carrots, but any vegetable will go well. I sometimes like to serve this with greens such cabbage or Brussels Sprouts.
You just serve this with whatever vegetable your family fancies. I guarantee you will receive no complaints from the peanut gallery. This is sure to become a firm favorite with the family or I will eat my hat!
Bacon & Sausage Toad in the Hole
Yield: 4
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 50 Mintotal time: 1 Hour
A delicious family favourite. Bacon wrapped sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter until crisp and delicious. Fabulous served with mashed potatoes and hot gravy.
Ingredients
- 12 well flavoured sausages
- 12 slices of smoked streaky dry cure bacon
- 1 cup (140g) plain all-purpose flour, sifted
- pinch salt
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten
- 2/3 cup (160ml) semi skimmed milk
- 2/3 cup (160ml) water
- coarsely ground black pepper
To serve:
- Hot onion gravy
- Fluffy mashed potatoes
- Cooked vegetables
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Have ready a 9 by 13 inch casserole dish which you have sprayed with low fat cooking spray.
- Wrap each sausage tightly in a slice of bacon and arrange in the prepared dish. Place in the oven and roast for 15 minutes, until just beginning to brown.
- While the sausages are cooking, sift the flour into a bowl along with a pinch of salt. Make a well in the center. mix the milk and water together. Drop the beaten eggs into the center of the flour and then gradually beat in half of the milk/water mixture with a wooden spoon.
- Beat for 2 minutes until smooth, then gradually whisk in the remaining milk/water mixture until you have a smooth batter which has the consistency of cream. Season with coarsely ground black pepper.
- Remove the sausages from the oven and quickly pour the batter around them. Return to the oven and bake for a further 30 to 35 minutes until the batter is well risen and golden brown.
- Serve hot straight from the oven as above with your favorite accompaniments. Yum!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
London Particular is a delicious Split Pea Soup! The name comes from the famous fogs of London back in Dickensian times, which came to be known as London Particulars or Pea Soup Fogs.
Fogs which were so thick that you could scarce see your hand in front of your face. They would be blinding and very heard to breathe in.
This recipe which I am sharing with you today for Goulash, is an old, old, old recipe. It is something which I have been making for my family for many, many years. When my children were growing up I used to call it Monkey in the Middle.
There was a method to my madness. I knew they would probably balk at something called Goulash, but give them a meal with a cute name, and it changes everything. I would put some rice on the plate, fill it with goulash, surround it with corn and it became Monkey in the Middle, infinitely more desireable than . . . Goulash!
This was always my middle son Doug's favourite meal. He has always loved it and through the years he always was telling me that no matter what, he could never get it to taste as good as the one I made for him.
He came over to visit me from PEI yesterday and we made it together. We discovered that all these years he has been making Swiss Steak, not Monkey in the Middle. No wonder it never tasted the same! DUH!
So yesterday, for the first time in many, many years . . . we cooked together. Actually Doug did all the cooking. I just told him how to do it.
Its actually his Birthday today so this is a very fitting recipe to share today in honor of my now 39 year old son! We almost lost him last year to a heart attack. I am so grateful that we didn't and that he is still around for me to hug. And many hugs were given yesterday. It had been 8 years since we had seen each other.
He did all the cutting and cooking, and with a not so very good knife. My mom's knives are so old and falling apart and somewhat dangerous to use. I need to get some more.
I pretty much left my knives behind. That's okay. New page now. Moving forward.
Brown food. Brown food never photographs well. I think you pretty much need to be a professional photographer to be able to take good photos of brown food.
Don't let these photos turn you off of this very delicious recipe. This recipe is fabulously tasty and really simple to make. It uses simple ingredients as well.
This is a recipe with a real history Back when I was a very young bride I moved far away across the broad expanse of Canada to live on the wild Western frontier.
Ok, so it was really a vast urban centre . . . Calgary. But it might as well have been the wild Western frontier, because I was young and away from my mom and dad for pretty much the first time in my life. I had nobody to call on for advice or help or company.
That is until I met Lil. Lil was the mother of one of my ex husband's best mates. She lived in a small town in the northern part of Alberta called Olds. She was the salt of the earth.
She was rather robust and had no teeth. Her heart was filled with the milk of charity and she
gathered me into her home and her family. She became my mom away from mom.
I loved to go and spend the weekend at their place. They had an old
British Bulldog that used to pull our daughter Eileen around in her walker by
holding gently on to her hand with his mouth . . . and Mr McNevin,
Lil's husband, was very much a grandfatherly figure to my son Anthony.
He had
flown helicopters for heli-skiing and was just loaded with interesting
and colourful stories! They had a houseful of girls, each one more
colourful than the last . . . it was there that I learned how to play
Canasta and it was there that I ate pistachio nuts for the very first
time. To a young mum and wife, away from her parents for the first
time, their home was a wonderful haven.
Lil was a fabulous cook, a very unpretentious cook. Her food was lumberjack food . . . as robust and loveable as she was, filling, uncomplicated and quite, quite delicious!
This is one of her recipes. I have been cooking it for and pleasing my family with this recipe for over 40 years now.
It may look a little bit like brown slop. But I can promise you it is anything but brown slop.
It is a delicious gravy, filled with flavour and with tender chunks of beef. I don't eat red meat very often actually. This is one of the few ways I enjoy it. Mrs McNevin's Goulash.
It is simple and unpretentious. Just like her. It is the kind of food that screams Home Sweet Home.
That is the best kind of food you know, Home Sweet Home food. The kind of food that builds taste memories.
Family food and family recipes. This is the kind of dish that family carries in their hearts down through the generations. The kind of dish that children long to come home to, because of that one secret ingredient.
Love. Family recipes always contain that beautiful ingredient called Love. Its not elusive. Its real. And it automatically adds a special something to everything you cook.
It doesn't come in a jar or a package. It isn't something you can touch, but boy oh boy, it sure makes things, even brown things . . . taste spectacularly delicious.
If you are wanting to cook your family something hearty which is simple to make and oh so tasty, you really need to cook them this. Fabulous with rice or mashed potatoes. It also freezes very well in single portions for you to thaw out and reheat at a future date. I think you will love it as much as we do! It might even become a family taste memory for your family as well!
Mrs McNevin's Goulash
Yield: 4 - 6
prep time: 30 Mincook time: 2 Hourtotal time: 2 H & 30 M
I have an old blue binder that holds recipes that I have collected from friends and family and magazines throughout the many years. This one is a real treasure and I never make it but what I don’t think of Mrs. McNevin. The mother of a friend of ours, she was so kind to me, a young bride living far away from the bosom of my own family. She took me under her wing and treated me just like one of her own. This deliciously spicy stewed meat goes very well with rice or noodles.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of stewing beef, trimmed of any fat and cut into cubes
- 2 TBS cooking oil
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
- ½ cup tomato catsup
- 2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- ½ tsp dry mustard powder
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Season the meat lightly and coat it in the flour.
- Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet and add the meat. Brown it very well on all sides. Add the onion and garlic, Cook for a few minutes longer until the vegetables are softened and quite fragrant.
- Add the catsup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, paprika and dry mustard. Stir it all together well. Stir in the water.
- Tip it all into a casserole with a lid and then put it into the oven to cook for 2 hours or so, until the meat is very tender and the sauce is thickened. Delicious!
This is an older photograph of it from a much earlier post. Before I knew how to take better photographs. Brown food is alway only ever going to be brown food I guess!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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