Everybody loves lasagne

Well, I love it anyway, and my other half does too. This time, I tried it with pork mince instead of beef and it worked really well, was much lighter somehow, and lovely and tasty. So here's my way....

Start with the meat mix. Finely chop a red onion and fry gently in a little oil - lid on works best as it makes the onion sweat. Add some salt too as it helps to draw the water out of the onion. While it's cooking squash in a couple of cloves of garlic, grind in some pepper, and sprinkle in some dried herbs. When all soft, add the mince - as I said I used pork, but you can use, beef or a mix of the two works really well. Stir it around and mash it up until it is well combined with the onions, garlic and herbs. Let it cook through, stirring frequently to stop meatballs forming. When all cooked through, add diced pepper and courgette - not too much as you don't want it to becomes a ratatouille - but I think a few spots of veg colour are always nice. Can omit them completely if you like. Again, mix them up together and pop the lid on, giving the veg and mince a chance to really get cooking.

After 10 minutes add chopped tomatoes, and puree. Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper and sugar and once again mix well so that it is all combined. Give the mixture a 10-20 minutes to cook - the longer it has the better, but remember it is going to get some more time in the oven.

Make a white sauce. I use the roux method, but you could use cornflour, it is completely up to you. For a roux, melt a knob of butter until it's bubbling and add a table spoon of flour. Mix it into paste and let it cook - leaving it for a little then stirring it round and leaving again. Repeat until you start to notice a slight change in colour, it should be getting lighter. Then add cold milk a little at a time - literally a splash at time, mixing well to avoid lumps, until you have a creamy mixture, and then you can add milk in larger quantities. I'm sure there are other, and probably better ways of making this, so use whichever suits.

When the sauce is ready you can build up the lasagne layers, go sparingly as I always seem to runout... Meat, white sauce, pasta, meat, white sauce pasta, white sauce, grated cheese - is the order I go for. If you can get another layer in there, great!

 It will need about 30-40 minutes in a hot oven, and you can take it out when the cheese is hot, golden and bubbling.

Smokey Sausage Chowder

This smokey, chunky, milky broth is perfect for chilly autumn lunchtimes.

Start with the sausage. I found a packet in my local cornershop of Polish Small Silesian sausages, I hvaen't bought these before so they were a bit of a gamble. They are small light brown sausages, similar to the Kabanos I've bought before, but half the length and width, and a bit smokier. I used 5 from the pack of 10 and chopped them into small rounds, before frying them gently in a little oil. When the flavour was coming out I added a chopped white onion, some  black pepper and a couple of bay leaves. The temptation is to make things very chunky in a chowder, but I don't think it's ever pleasant to have massive chunks of onion - so I stick to a meduim-small rough chop (if that means anything!).

Fry the onion and sausage together gently, you don't want any colour on the onion. When the onion is soft and translucent add some chopped potatoes. I used charlottes - mainly because that's what I had, but being a waxy spud, they do retain their shape rather than turning to mush and graininess. So, mix them well and give them a few minutes with lid on to get them started before adding enough chicken stock to cover. I've avoided putting salt in as the stock and sausage are already quite salty.

I let the mixture bubble away until the potato is nearly cooked and then add a tin of sweetcorn (I use a tin because I have them, but you could use fresh, or frozen - though I would defrost frozen first so that it doesn't cool the whole mix).

Give the soup another 10 minutes with the occsional stir-about. Then add a good glug of milk and let it heat through again. The milk might not be essential but I like the creaminess it gives the soup.

So, I suppose either serve in great steaming ladlefulls, or like me, allow to cool and dolop into various tupperware vessels for lovely lunches through the week.

 I didn't manage to take a good picture of the soup - you'll have to trust me on its yumminess!

Basic Chilli

Ok, this is my chilli recipe. I made this on Monday, it is simple and tasty. I'm not claiming to be a chilli expert and I am sure there are better versions out there, but this is so simple and so useful, that I am going to tell you about it!

Start with a couple of finely chopped onions, in a pan with some oil and salt. Add flavours here; a couple of cloves of garlic, pepper, dried herbs, and of course, chilli (how much is of course up to you). Once these are all cooking happily together, and when the onion is soft, you can add the meat. Keep stirring it around and mashing it up until it is all brown and in small pieces (not chunks and lumps or worms!). Cook it for a little while with the lid on so that the juices start coming out of the meat.

After 5 minutes, take the lid off and give it a stirr. Hopefully, you have some juices. Move the meat to make a small well, either in the middle or to one side, and crumble in a beef stock cube. Stir this in the liquid, until it dissolves, and then into the rest of the mix. Then add a diced courgette and a diced pepper - you can leave either of these out but I always like to get a bit of veg in somewhere. Put the lid on and let it have some time for the courgette and pepper to get cooking, about 5-10 minutes.

Then add tomatoes, chopped fresh, or a tin of chopped, or a mix of the two, and also add a good squirt of puree. Remember when you use tinned tomatoes that they can tase 'tinny' so always add some sugar when you add these - a table spoon per tin is quite a good amount. Stir the tomatoes and also add some kidney beans. Let the mixture plop and bubble away happily for half and hour, to fourty minutes (the longer it has the better).

This is great with rice, and a dolop of creme fresh. And I've been taking it to work this week and it does make a lovely lunch.

Sunday night: Steak & Ale Pie followed by Crumble

Gah, thanks to internet failure this is the second time I've written this, but it's worth it. Steak and Ale Pie is a classic, as is crumble, and it is so easy to put together at home. I'm not going to argue that this will surpass a pub pie, but I think you'll be surprised just how good it is, and it is a fantastic alternative to a sunday roast, and doesn't take any more time. So here goes,

As with any meal, this takes some forward planning. The pie is essentially a beef stew covered by pastry, and the stew will need 2-3 hours cooking to make sure it is really lovely and tender. As is cooks, you can get on with the other bits and pieces. To start the stew, shake some flour into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Toss the beef in the flour until it is all covered and then, in the pan you are going to cook the whole thing in, brown the beef. Just cook it quickly to change the colour, you can do this a little at a time becuase you don't want beef to sweat and start giving out juices. Once all the beef is done, put to one side and, in the same pan, fry off two chopped onions - leave them nice and chunky or they'll get lost. When the onions are starting to turn translucent you can add the meat back in, and pour over the beer. I used a bottle of ale, but you could use a can - giuness works very well here. Stir it all up, bring to the boil and then pop it in a medium oven to simmer away sowly. You can leave it on the hob, but turn the heat right down.

The beef will take a while so this is a good time to prepare any veggies that you are going to have, ready to be cooked later. We had roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

While the beef is cooking you can make the pastry. The rule is half fat to flour, so I used 8oz flour and 4oz butter. Rub them together until the mixture resebles breadcrumbs, I use a pastry blender just to try and stop the mixture getting too warm. Add a couple of table spoons of butter and stir with one hand to bring the mixture together. Work it just enough to bring it into a dough, wrap it in cling and leave it to cool in the fridge.

I think a crumble is best if you start the fruit off first. So, peel, core and chop the apples into chunks. I used bramleys because they dissolve to leave a lovely sauce, but braeburn are also nice and tend to stay chunkier. Put  them in the dish and sprinkle over some sugar and cinnamon, and also add some nobs of butter. Cover with foil on the top and pop them into the oven for about 40 minutes.

I don't have a cast-iron recipe for the topping and tend to make it up as I go. At a guess, I'd use 4oz butter with 6oz dry (flour on it's own, or mixed with oats), mix until like breadcrumbs but don't be too fussy this - I think a rough mix with a few larges lumps is best. Then stir through with a fork, cinnamon or mixed spice, sugar (demarara or caster), and you can always add a bit of coconut. Put this to one side.

When the beef has been in for about 2 hours take it out and turn the oven up, it needs to be nice and hot to cook the pastry. Tip the beef into the pie dish and just wiggle the dish so that the stew flattens out.

Roll the pastry on a floured surface making sure that it is big enough to cover the dish. Pick it up, using the rolling pin to help and drape it over the stew, resing it on the edges of the dish. Trim the pastry around the edges of the dish, but make sure there is enough there, so that when it shrinks with cooking, it's not going to uncover the beef. Make some small slits in the top with the knife and pop it back into the oven for about 40 minues - till golden brown.

While this is in, take the apples out, and shake over the crumble mixture. This can cook while you eat the main course, and will be ready by the time you've finished, cleared, and whipped up some custard.

Delish.