Homemade Bread & Dipping Gravy

~  Menu  ~

A Bowl of Gravy!

Homemade Seedy Bread

Some Chocolate

Today I have been playing with bread – I have made all sorts of things for an article I am writing for that excellent magazine, Vegetarian Living and then, having finished that I just felt like making a little more bread!  So I did!

Easy Homemade Bread Recipe ...

500g strong flour of your choice

2 tsp sugar

a heaped tsp salt

1 sachet easy blend yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

300ml warm water

~  Mix together all the dry ingredients.

~  Mix in the wet ingredients and knead together for a few minutes till smooth and elastic.

~  Set aside in a warm place to rise till double its size - about an hour. 

~  Knead again, add whatever you feel like (I added some seeds) and form into loaves or buns or similar.

~  Rise again till doubled again and at the same time pre-heat your oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.

~  Bake till risen and golden and sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom.

I also portioned and froze the Steak and Red Wine Casserole I made yesterday – setting stores away to feed my father in law (common law!) while we’re away.  I was very generous with the gravy but still had too much.  My lunch became obvious to me.

You might as well pin this!!!

The casserole recipe is very basic but  I might as well give you the recipe  …

Steak & Red Wine Casserole

1 kg diced stewing steak (or lamb shanks are good instead!)

salt & pepper

a few tbsp flour

3 tbsp or so olive oil

2 large onions – coarsely chopped

1 large carrot – sliced

1 garlic clove – finely chopped 

1 tbsp tomato paste

200ml red wine

beef stock or water to cover

~   Season the steak and toss with flour to coat.  Shake off excess flour.

~   Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan and, when hot, add the steak in several batches, turning the meat in the oil till brown on all sides and setting aside* before adding the next batch.

~   When all the meat is brown and set aside add the last tablespoon of oil and the vegetables to the pan and cook, stirring from time to time, till softening and beginning to go brown.

~   Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two.

~   Add the red wine and stir in, scraping any meaty or vegetabley residues on the bottom of the pan. 

~   Bring to a boil, stirring, then return the meat and all their juices and stir in.

~ A  dd enough stock of water to just come to the top of the meat and return to a boil.

~   Turn the heat down low, low, low, cover tightly and simmer for agest (2-3 hours or more) till fall apart tender.

~   Taste and season.

*  I always set my browned meats aside on the upturned lid of the pot I am using; saves juices and washing up.

With some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, warm bread fresh from the oven and glass of something of the red persuasion lunch was grand.

Sadly for my diet (so much for a cunning plan) not only did I have to cook and eat a load of bread today which was not my fault but I also received a prize that I won on Twitter.  Sadly it is chocolate and it would have been rude not to have at least given it a try!

Scott's Soup plus a Trouser Joke!

Yesterday we visited friends and their son, Scott (actually he’s one of our friends too!) aged 9, had cooked a most wonderful Butternut Squash and Leek Soup.  It was about 4 in the afternoon and we only popped in for a coffee but I just had to eat a whole bowl full of the stuff.  It was seriously good, the sort of thing I would be happy to have on a restaurant menu.  Chaps like Scott surely gives hope for the future of eating in Britain – perhaps it won’t all be bought in stuff after all.

I didn’t take a picture but it was this colour!

So, today's lunch …

~  Menu  ~

Smoked Haddock and Leek Fishcake

Honey Mustard Drizzle

White Wine Spritzer

A few strawberries, surprisingly enough

We have bought our tickets and in about 10 days are off on the next stage of our seasonal wandering – to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands (we lived there for 16 years and still have our old live-aboard boat anchored in Trellis Bay) for a couple of months of sorting out said boat, catching up with friends and maybe taking in a few rays (and rum).

Before we go I am stocking up my father-in-law's freezer for him and today I have made Chicken Casserole, Red Wine Braised Beef and Smoked Haddock in Creamy Leek Sauce. Whilst doing it I had a few bits and pieces over and made myself a well deserved lunch using up a modicum of mashed potato I had in the fridge. 

I munged together a good spoonful of buttery tender cooked leeks, a handful of mashed potato and all the little pieces and flakes of smoked haddock that fell off, or were encouraged to leave, the main pieces of fish.  Formed into a cake, coated in seasoned flour, shallow fried till crispy and drizzled with bought in Honey Mustard Dressing from my store cupboard and with lots of freshly ground black pepper it was delicious. 

We bought some very cheap strawberries in Tesco yesterday  (we're not always in there - honest!); 59p a punnet.  They are a little different from British strawberries, pointy and on the firm side.  I halved and sugared them for dinner tonight and ate just a few whilst I was doing it.

I have to say that my Up a Day, Down a Day Diet is not going as well as expected.  This is through no fault of the diet but seems to be some strange failing in myself!

As an excuse I am using the fact that I am testing a lot of dishes for a couple of articles I am writing and am naturally greedy thorough and have to try everything.
  
Oh - before I go I just want to pass on a joke I saw on Twitter ... 

MEN. Show your wife that YOU wear the trousers by wearing trousers and shouting "Look at my trousers!"

... it was posted by Twop Twips so now I'm following them in case they are often this funny.