Beef pie and mash

Pie

A repeat recipe but one that always comes out again and again.

I often order our food online so sometimes you can really misjudge the size of an item you buy. Only last week I ordered some plastic lunch boxes only to find they were only a few cms wide. This particular Sunday is ordered some beef for Sunday lunch only to find it was twice the usual size. Before cooking a chopped it in half and added the second half cut into pieces to my slow cooker with a coating of flour and a little oil on the bottom. I turned them a few times so they’d caramelize and then left them to simmer whilst I made Sunday lunch on a slow heat.

In parallel I made some pastry- see my standard recipe below.

Pastry

https://wordpress.com/post/modernmrsbeeton.blog/858

You can also cook in a pan. See my Standard Recipe for Pie:

Ingredients:

Leftover bits of beef (shredded)

Spoon of cornflour

Sunflower oil for browning

Leftover vegetables (carrots; swede)

Leftover gravy

Eggs for egg washing

Instructions:

1. Grease a pie dish and add the shredded bits of piece (if cooked already)
2. If you are using fresh beef add the beef to a pan and brown in oil. Don’t cook all the way through but just enough brown each side leaving the insides raw. Coat the beef in cornflour
3. Add the leftover vegetables
4. Put your leftover gravy in pan and add 100ml of hot water and a beef stock cube to loosen it a bit as it will be cooked again
5. Add egg wash to edge of your pie dish and lay on the pastry making sure you add an air hole to allow steam to escape without making the pastry soggy
6. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes at 190 degrees c or until golden brown
7. Serve with even more gravy!

I couldn’t find a link to my exact Jamie Oliver cooking dish but here is one that is similar.

https://amzn.to/3CPAAyQ

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Slow cooker baked potatoes have

This isn’t so much a recipe but more just a simple cheat to making the simplest of foods for a none attended quick and easy lunch.

On a Saturday morning I grab a couple of baking potatoes; prick them with forks, coat in olive oil and salt/pepper.

You can cover the potatoes in foil if you want or if they are particularly big but it isn’t completely necessary. The main difference is that you get more charring on the potatoes skin of you don’t, if you really like that type of crunch.

I switch the slow cooker on low and drop in my potatoes. 3-4 hours later I take them out and add any fillings we fancy that day.

I couldn’t find a link to my exact slow cooker but this is very similar if you don’t have one:

https://amzn.to/3RRhD2R

Slow cooker baked potatoes

Halloumi sweet chili burgers

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  Halloumi Burger

  

  Halloumi Frying

Peppers

Building the burgers

Burger done

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2018/04/09/baked-spiced-wedges/

Without a doubt this is best recipe find of the month. Another hello fresh addition but probably the most surprising burger I’ve ever had. It’s so easy to make and even my other half loves it even though it’s not meat and full of veggies. I’ve put a link to the full recipe but I’ve recreated this already using shop bought ingredients as do easy to do.

Simply cut a deseeded pepper in half and roast in the oven for 20 mins coated in olive oil and seasoning.

Fry off the halloumi in relatively thin slices and set aside.

I love a charred burger bun so you can either put them in the oven or toaster oven or I prefer to smear them with a little olive oil and dry fry in a hot pan. A good tip is to toast the bottoms in parallel to the tops and then flip over so can see how brown they are getting.

Smear a little mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce (Aldi has a good one) on the top and bottom of the bun.

Add the half roasted pepper and halloumi slices.

Add lettuce and salt and pepper if you like that.

I like to serve it with my spices baked wedges- are recipe below.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2018/04/09/baked-spiced-wedges/

Just married..

A mini update for today.. we got married!! I’ve lots of blog posts to come of the food; wedding crafts and how we went about planning our wedding but for now I just wanted to share this picture of how happy we look.

Also a reminder that I have a simple wedding planning book out there if you want some practical advise on wedding organisation.

https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/embed?linkCode=kpd&ref_=k4w_oembed_E4M3Z0DtELenGu&asin=B07DBMBM9W&tag=kpembed-20&amazonDeviceType=A2CLFWBIMVSE9N&from=Bookcard&preview=newtab

HelloFresh Ragu Pasta Bake

Pasta Bake

After the wedding we decided we needed to get healthy again and stop ordering takeaway so as is the usual drill we restarted our hello fresh subscription we had on pause.

I do love a good hello fresh recipe as once you’ve had your weekly delivery of food the fridge always looks amazing stuffed with healthy vegetables.

The first item on the weekly agenda is a beef Ragu with wheat pasta and a side of tomato and cucumber salad.

The full recipe is linked below but in essence you boil your pasta in some salted water; brown off your mince and add the tomato paste and spices. When all cooked simply dump in an oven proof dish and top with torn pieces of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Baked for 20 minutes so you get those crispy bits.

The side salad was my favourite new discovery of the week. Simply chop up tomatoes, cucumber and dress in a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Really simple but a recipe I’ll keep.

Make your own wedding bouquet

When researching getting married I was definitely shocked at the price of wedding flowers especially bouquets. You can buy them fresh or from silk flowers pre-made. I’m a bit crafty and love to try new topics so I figured how difficult could it be?

Having pre-chosen my colours, I purchased a range of cheap loose flowers and greenery from Amazon. You can get this type of flowers in the UK locally in Hobbycraft stores, but they are super expensive.

I’ve included some links below to the items I bought if you are interested.

Once the flowers arrived, I worked out the metal underneath is really tough and can be sharp so be careful. I ended using metal cutters and some tweezers to shape them into a bunch. I covered the stems (where you hold the bouquet) with thick tape (duct) to give it real stability. That was a bit ugly though so I bought some green floral tape that is normally used to cover real flowers so it would look a bit more authentic.

I’m really pleased with the end result. I loved it so much in the end I didn’t throw it at the wedding and now they reside in a vase in our living room so I get to keep it forever.

Product links:

https://amzn.to/3CvNSyT

https://amzn.to/3Tl4FM9