Category: beef

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Beef and Ale Casserole

Sainsburys have recently released a new range, called Easy To Cook Autumn Meals. They are currently 25% off.

We have tried a few and as you might expect some are better than others.

We tried the Beef & Ale Casserole and were, well, slightly disappointed.

I was pleased initially to see that they used shin for the cut of beef rather than the traditional stewing beef I would expect. The onions and mushrooms that came looked a little disappointing and tired. Rather than provide a sauce, these meals seem to be using a new paste technique to which you add water.

I followed the instructions almost to the letter, just adding some carrots and topping with some dumplings. Though the recipe didn’t call for it, I did brown the shin before placing it in a casserole dish and topping with the sauce made form boiling water and the included sauce paste. At this stage I did add the extra carrots. This was cooked for eighty minutes before adding the onions and mushrooms. This was then cooked for a further forty minutes before I added the dumplings which were cooked for a further twenty minutes.

The beef was very tender, however the whole dish lacked flavour. You certainly couldn’t taste the ale. Overall what I hoped would be a simple dish to cook, was to be honest a disappointment. So much so that if I was going to cook something like this again, I would cook it from scratch using fresh ingredients. The dumplings were great, but then I made those myself!

It cost £3.74, but will be £4.99 after the offer period has ended. I don’t think this is value for money and would rather spend more on some nice beef and a bottle of ale than buy the pack again.

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Oh dear, gone downhill somewhat…

Back in February 2008 I wrote a glowing review of the National Trust Heelis Cafe in Swindon next door to the shopping outlet.

Compared to the food offerings in the shopping outlet, if you are out Swindon way, pop over to the National Trust cafe and enjoy a delicious meal in peaceful and pleasant environment.

We visited the cafe again today and was, well let’s just say the quality has done downhill somewhat in some areas.

There were no childrens’ boxes available at the time of ordering, so rather than wait we ordered the children two sausage baps. The sausages were slightly overdone (probably under the hot lamp for too long) and the baps, well one was toasted and slightly burnt, the other wasn’t even toasted! Why? No idea.

My other half went with the Fidget Pie, well it was a pasty, that came with salad and roast potatoes, no not sure of that combination myself to he honest, it’s not as though we were given a choice. The salad was fine, but the pasty was a little short on filling so consisted mainly of pastry.

I went for a traditional roast beef dinner. At £7.50 I expected to get an excellent home cooked roast beef dinner… well I didn’t.

Yes the potatoes were home roasted, and were roasted and not deep-fried as is often the case in some restaurants, pubs and cafes. The carrots were fine, but the brocolli was limp, having spent too much time under a heat lamp. The beef was a real disappointment, wafer thin slices of cooked beef that had been re-heated in gravy. This is something that cheap catering does, and not something I expected from the  Heelis Cafe. The Yorkshire Pudding looked and tasted like it was heated up in the microwave and to be honest I did wonder if the meal was from the day before (as we did order early at midday) and had just been microwaved. I was expecting a proper carvery and proper slices of roast beef, not the equivalent of a £3.99 meal from a supermarket cafe.

Overall having spent nearly £30 at the cafe I was very very disappointed.

Maybe I should have complained, but it’s not as though anything was wrong, it was just that the quality was nowhere near what I have had in the past from the cafe. I am guessing that they have a new chef. They appeared to also have stock problems, as they had no salmon and no flan either; remember they only have a few things on the menu.

As a result I will probably not visit again, or if I do I would check the menu more carefully before ordering.

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Sirloin for Beef Wellington?




One of the things I do like looking at for this blog is the stats and particularly the referrals, most of which come from Google searches.

This one caught my eye recently:

can sirloin beef be used for beef wellington

This blog comes up quite high in the search rankings (number five at the time of writing) and a recipe I posted back in August 2008 does use sirloin steak for beef wellington.

Here is the recipe.

This is my version of the classic Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington

I used sirloin steak, which I cooked in a pan until it was cooked medium rare. You can of course cook the steak how you prefer it. Ensure it is cooked to a point before you would call it perfect, as it will cook more in the oven.

I then cut the steak into portions, about two inches square.

The steak was then spread with a mixture of chopped mushrooms and mustard. I used French whole grain mustard.

Using some puff pastry (and I will admit I do buy ready made puff pastry as I have no idea on how to make it).

I cut out some circles, about four inches in diameter. Placed one circle on the baking tray, added the steak. Using beaten egg and a pastry brush I brushed egg around the edges of the circle and placed a second circle of puff pastry on top. This top puff pastry circle was then brushed with beaten egg.

The parcels were then baked in an oven for about ten to fifteen minutes until golden brown.

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Roast Beef

Just put a joint of beef into the oven for lunch today.

I turned the oven to its highest setting, placed the beef joint onto a bed of chopped vegetables, once I placed the roasting tray in the oven, I turned the temperature down to about 180℃ .

Next stage is to start to prepare the potatoes and the veg.

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Beef and Ale Stew

This is the dish I made today for putting in the freezer. It can be a stew or the basis for a beef and ale pie.

I took some diced organic beef. This is browned in batches in a very hot pan. It is vital for the stew for flavour and colour that you brown the beef and don’t initially “stew” or “steam” the beef. So keep the temperature of the pan high and brown small batches.

Once the beef is browned I added  diced carrot, parsnip and onion. These were softened in the pan I used for the beef. Once this was slightly softened and coated in the juices from the pan I added back the beef.

I then poured in a bottle of ale, I used Old Speckled Hen and a pint of beef stock.

Add herbs and seasoning to taste.

Simmer and cook for three hours or until the beef is tender.

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Okay you can eat the pork (and the beef and drink the milk)

In an attempt to restore public confidence in Irish pork following the recent discovery of dioxin contamination, the Irish government (according to the BBC) have announced how they will do this.

The Republic of Ireland’s agriculture minister has announced how supplies of Irish pork are to be restored.

Brendan Smith said special labelling will confirm pork as having had no association with contaminated feed.

Of course the reality is that consumer confidence has been shattered and generally it takes more than a special label to reassure the majority of consumers.

Northern Ireland’s Health Minister has also attempted to reassure consumers.

It is safe to consume pork, beef and milk despite a scare over contaminated feed, Northern Ireland’s health minister had said.

It’s interesting to read the following BBC article in which it says:

The news broke on a Saturday afternoon in Dublin, but amazing as it may seem, while pork was being cleared off the shelves there in a matter of hours, it would be a full 24 hours before Northern Ireland consumers were being advised on what to do.

Of course it wasn’t just Northern Ireland consumers, in the rest of the United Kingdom.

So are you going to buy Irish pork and sausages now?

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What a load of crepe!

One of the issues I have with a lot of department store restaurants (and visitor attraction restaurants) is that they cook the food in advance and then keep it warm for hours on end… Now that is possible with some dishes, but with others it just means dried out food.

One of the dishes that you can get at my local John Lewis is freshly cooked to order crepes. They make them as and when needed, rather than make them at 9am in the morning and keep them warm till 6pm in the evening!

We had crepes the last time we were there, one with chilli beef and one with mushroom stroganoff; both were served with salad.

The beef chilli was well cooked and nice and spicy. A little too hot for my tastes, but not excessively so.

Crepes

The mushroom stroganoff was really nice and went well with the crepes.

Crepe

The salad though was disappointing, I have had much better salads before at John Lewis, this was in the main lettuce with a tiny bit of red onion and pepper.

Overall for a department store restaurant they were really nice and probably one of the better items available. The fact you can buy wine and beer to go with the crepes makes the place even more attractive as a place to go out and get a quick bite to eat whilst shopping.

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Beef Wellington

This is my version of the classic Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington

I used sirloin steak, which I cooked in a pan until it was cooked medium rare. You can of course cook the steak how you prefer it. Ensure it is cooked to a point before you would call it perfect, as it will cook more in the oven.

I then cut the steak into portions, about two inches square.

The steak was then spread with a mixture of chopped mushrooms and mustard. I used French whole grain mustard.

Using some puff pastry (and I will admit I do buy ready made puff pastry as I have no idea on how to make it).

I cut out some circles, about four inches in diameter. Placed one circle on the baking tray, added the steak. Using beaten egg and a pastry brush I brushed egg around the edges of the circle and placed a second circle of puff pastry on top. This top puff pastry circle was then brushed with beaten egg.

The parcels were then baked in an oven for about ten to fifteen minutes until golden brown.

I served mine with a mix of salads.

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Beef Casserole

This was quite a tasty dish, but wasn’t my usual recipe.

Take some braising steak or stewing steak, and in a hot pan, add a little oil (no need for olive oil as the flavour will be cooked out). The aggresively brown the beef. Only brown a little at a time, browning in batches and ensure that the pan is hot so that the beef does brown and doesn’t stew – as you don’t want it to stew at this time.

Once you have browned all the beef, remove the final batch of beef and add some chopped vegetables to the pan. I used carrot, parsnips, leeks and onions. You could also add celery (yuck) or swede or other root vegetables.

Once the vegetables have browned add some plain flour (just a spoonful) and stir.

Once it starts to stick add a splash of red wine and some beef stock, this should deglaze the pan.

Place everything into a casserole dish, lid on and cook in the oven (not too hot) for a hour or so, adding more stock if the dish starts to dry out.

In a frying pan cook some chopped bacon (I used pancetta) and cook off, then remove the bacon and add some button mushrooms and some freshly chopped parsley. Cook for a minute or two, in the main to soak up the bacon flavour.

Add the bacon and mushrooms about thirty minutes before you serve. I also addeda splash of balsamic vinegar as well.

Serve with crusty bread, mash or roasted potatoes with some fresh steamed green vegetables.

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Beef in Red Wine

In a previous post I mentioned a dish I had cooked, beef in red wine, however I did not post the recipe. This post was quite popular by people searching for a beef in red wine, so as promised here is the recipe.

Take some stewing steak, and in a hot pan, add a little oil (no need for olive oil as the flavour will be cooked out). The aggresively brown the beef. Only brown a little at a time, browning in batches and ensure that the pan is hot so that the beef does brown and doesn’t stew – as you don’t want it to stew at this time.

Once you have browned all the beef, remove the final batch of beef and add some chopped vegetables to the pan. I used carrot and onions. You could also add celery (yuck) or swede or parsnips or other root vegetables.

Once the vegetables have browned add some plain flour (just a spoonful) and stir.

Once it starts to stick add the red wine and some beef stock, this should deglaze the pan.

Place everything into a casserole dish, lid on and cook in the oven (not too hot) for a couple of hours, adding more stock if the dish starts to dry out.

In a frying pan cook some chopped bacon (I used pancetta) and cook off, then remove the bacon and add some button mushrooms and some freshly chopped parsley. Cook for a minute or two, in the main to soak up the bacon flavour.

Add the bacon and mushrooms about thirty minutes before you serve.

Serve with crusty bread, mash or roasted potatoes with some fresh steamed green vegetables.