Chicken and Cider Hotpot

This wonderful recipe came from my Sainsbury 2014 Calendar. There are a couple of things that I would do differently with this recipe. First, I should have browned my chicken a little longer, second I would use 2 apples instead of one and third I would use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Other than that, the recipe is pretty easy and it all goes in one pot. The 3rd section of the recipe does not say to stir the pot, but I found after about 10 minutes it was sticking so I stirred mine. I should have waited until the end to add the bacon, but I followed the recipe. I used Hornsby's Hard Cider (the dry version), but Stella would work if you can get it. Just make sure that whatever cider you do use is a dry one. Here is the recipe as printed.

Chicken, Bacon, Leek and Cider Hotpot

1 Tbsp. olive oil
8 chicken thighs
150g smoked bacon lardons
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, sliced thickly
4 Tbsp. plain flour
250ml dry cider
500ml chicken stock
1 red apple, peeled, cored and diced
600g baby potatoes, quartered
28g flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
100ml crème fraiche

Heat oil in large, shallow ovenproof casserole. Place chicken thighs seasoned with salt and pepper, skin side down into dish and cook 3-4 minutes, until sin is crisp and golden. Turn over and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove and place to the side.
Tip bacon into pan and cook for 5 minutes until crisp, remove and place to the side. Stir in onion and leek and cook 5 minutes until tender. Stir in flour, cook 1 minute then pour in cider and stock.
Bring to gentle simmer and cook 3 minutes before stirring in apple, potatoes and 1 Tbsp. parsley. Top with chicken thighs and scatter with bacon. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook 30 minutes over medium heat, until chicken is tender.
Stir through crème fraiche. Heat through 1 minute and top with remaining parsley. Serve.

Guinness Beef Soup w/ Barley, Carrots and Mushrooms

Last night I was thinking about what was in the cabinet that needed to be used before we left and barley came to mind. I did not want to reproduce the Beef, Barley and Vegetable Soup that I made back in October, I wanted something a little richer than that. I put this recipe together pairing my favorite beer, Guinness with some beef.

Guinness Beef Soup w/ Barley, Carrots and Mushrooms

Heat a couple tablespoons olive oil, on medium-high heat in large stock pot. Mix 3 Tbsp. Flour with some salt and pepper in a bowl and toss with 1 lb. Stew meat, cut into 1-inch chunks. Brown beef in batches, removing to paper towel lined plate, adding more oil if needed.
Add 1 tbsp. Olive oil to pan, then add 250g Chestnut mushrooms, quartered and 1 small Onion, diced, 2 tsp. Dry rosemary then sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes until softened.(Make sure to scrape up brown bits on the pan bottom when the veggies release their juices.)
Add 1(230g) can Chopped Italian tomatoes, 1/2 liter beef stock and 440ml can Guinness. Return Beef to pot and add 2 Tbsp. Thyme leaves, chopped and 1 tsp. Italian seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add 100g Pearl barley and 2 large Carrots, cut into 1/2-inch discs and continue to simmer for another hour.

The Best Potato Gratin

Like macaroni and cheese, I'm always on the hunt for a good potato gratin recipe. I've never had luck with them before, but I think this one is a winner. It was inspired by a recipe I found on www.jamieoliver.com . His recipe was a little large for two and I had different ingredients, so this is my version. It will serve 4 to 6 people easily. The potatoes are nice and creamy with a nice cheesy topping that does not overpower the dish.

The Best Potato Gratin


150ml (¼pt) double cream
50ml skim milk
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp. thyme leaves
 Salt and freshly ground black pepper
650g potatoes, well scrubbed, thinly sliced
Handful mozzarella, grated
77g pancetta, cubed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Lightly grease a square ovenproof dish.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix double cream, skim milk, bay leaf, garlic, thyme and salt and pepper in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf, add sliced potatoes and stir gently. Pour into square baking dish and spread evenly. In the meantime, brown pancetta in hot oil until golden brown, drain on paper towels. Top potatoes with cheese and pancetta, cover with foil, bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes more until top is golden brown.

Perfect Roast Beef w/ Tomato Gravy

This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's website, www.jamieoliver.com. I changed it up just a bit, but pretty much followed the recipe to a tee. Jamie's my favorite, so I don't mess around too much with his recipes. Anyway, I made this meal last night from ingredients that I bought at Kirkgate Market Leeds.



Perfect Roast Beef

• 1 kg quality topside of beef
• 1 medium onion        
• 2 carrots     
• 1 red chilli
• 3 bay leaves       
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 small bunch fresh thyme        
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 pint cream sherry

To prepare your beef:
Take your beef out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/ gas 9. There's no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.

Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the beef with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper and fresh thyme leaves, rubbing it all over the meat. Place the beef on top of the vegetables and add the sherry to pan.

To cook your beef:
Place the roasting tray in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook for 1 hour for medium beef. If you prefer it medium-rare, take it out 5 to 10 minutes earlier. For well done, leave it in for another 10 to 15 minutes.

When the beef is cooked to your liking, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the beef to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and put aside while you make your gravy. Slice the beef thinly for best results.

Tomato Gravy

1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup cream sherry
2 Tbsp. English mustard (I used Colemans)
Juices from beef dish

Add all the ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer 10 minutes. Pour over sliced beef.

Ham and Green Pea Soup

This is another great recipe from Delicious Magazine's November 2013 edition. I used fresh peas in the recipe because they are available here. The recipe called for frozen, defrosted ones. If that is what you use, add after you have cooked the potatoes then from the heat. This soup is so good, the mint is amazing here. Serve with a salad and a nice crusty bread for a warming winter meal.

Ham and Green Pea Soup

Fry a medium chopped onion in a little oil for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add 1 large potato, diced, 2 Tbsp. fresh chopped thyme leaves and cover with 1 liter of chicken stock.  Bring up to a boil then add 500g fresh green peas and simmer for 10 minutes. Add a good handful of chopped fresh mint, then season well. Take off the heat, cool slightly, then whizz with an immersion blender until smooth. Return to low heat and add 100g fresh green peas and 180g chopped smoked ham. Heat through and season to taste. Serve with a dollop of crème fraiche (optional).

Happy Thanksgiving

This is my go to roast turkey recipe. Enjoy the holidays!!

Since Thanksgiving is almost upon us, I thought I would post one of my favorite turkey recipes. I have been using this recipe for over ten years now, I adapted it from Bon Apitit. I'll be using a different recipe this year which I will post after preparing it, which I will not be doing until after Thanksgiving when my Mom is in town. I typically stuff this turkey with a quartered onion and some celery stalks, leaves and all, sometimes I will add a halved lemon and pour a can of chicken broth in the roasting pan.

Roast Turkey w/ Garlic-Ancho Chili Paste

3 large heads garlic
3 large ancho chilies, rinsed, stemmed, seeded, torn into pieces
1/2 olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. honey
1 17 to 18 lb. turkey, neck and giblets removed

For paste: Preheat oven to 350. Wrap garlic in foil and place in oven for 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Peel garlic and remove hard tips, place into 1/2 cup measuring cup to fill. Reserve any remaining garlic. Blend 1/2 cup in processor to form coarse puree.
Meanwhile, place chilies in small saucepan. Add enough water to cover. Simmer over medium low heat until soft and most of water evaporates, about 15 minutes. Add chili mixture, oil, cumin and honey to garlic in processor. Puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (This can be made 1 week ahead.)
For turkey: Rinse turkey and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper. Slide hand under skin of the breast to loosen. Spread 1/2 cup of paste over breast under skin. Run 2 tablespoons of paste over turkey. Reserve any remaining paste for the gravy. Tie legs to hold shape. Place turkey on rack in roasting pan.
Position rack in lowest third of preheated 325 degree oven. Roast turkey for 30 minutes, remove from oven and loosely tent with foil. Continue roasting until thermometer inserted in thickest past of thigh registers 180( about 2 hours and 20 minutes). Place turkey on platter. tent with foil and let rest for 30 minutes.

Gluhwein

Christmas is so different in the UK compared to the USA. It seems to come a little earlier, but not as commercial. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving so Christmas just seems to loom larger and quicker here. They turn on the lights earlier and they have these wonderful German markets and other types of fairs that just lend a more celebratory atmosphere to the holiday, as opposed to the rush to the mall and all. One of the great things from the German markets is Gluhwein. Gluhwein is pretty much mulled wine or as I like to say hot sangria. One of my favorites was a cherry flavored gluwein that I bought in Manchester. I came up with this recipe and I think it's pretty close. Cheers!
                
Gluwein

3/4 cup sugar    

3/4 cup orange juice                

1 cinnamon stick                      

 

1  orange, cut in 1/2, juice reserved              

10 whole cloves                      

1 (750 ml) bottle red wine   

1 cup cherry brandy                     

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer.
2. Cut the orange in half, and squeeze the juice into the simmering water. Push the cloves into the outside of the orange peel, and place peel in the simmering water. Continue simmering for 30 minutes, until thick and syrupy.
3. Pour in the wine and brandy, and heat until steaming but not simmering.
4. Serve hot in mugs or glasses that have been preheated in warm water.

Cornbread

The last time I made chili while here in in the UK, I had to forgo making cornbread because there were no little boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix or cornmeal for that matter. Yesterday, I decided to make chili again and while I was in the organic grocery store I looked across the aisle and saw polenta. Polenta is of course cornmeal, so I now could serve up some warm, home made cornbread with my chili!!


Cornbread

• Olive oil, to grease
• Plain flour, to dust
• 150g (1 cup) plain flour
• 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 170g (1 cup) polenta           
• 60g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) milk
• 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
• 1 egg, lightly whisked

 

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Brush a square baking dish with the olive oil to lightly grease. Lightly dust with flour and shake out the excess.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add cornmeal, sugar, milk, oil and egg, and use a wooden spoon to stir until well combined.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mac 'n 'Cheese

I love mac 'n 'cheese, but have never found a recipe that that I really like, until now. This recipe comes from the December 2013 BBC Good Food magazine. The recipe was meant as a way to use left over turkey, but you can really add whatever you have. I added some cooked, crumbled sausage, but it would have been good without it. Whatever meat you use, just throw in a handful and call it done. You can also use whatever cheese you like. The real reason this dish works so well is the crème fraiche. I never would have thought of using it, but it gives the mixture that creamy consistency that most recipes lack. Enjoy this one, it's quick and simple and will serve four.


Mac 'n' Cheese


Heat oven to 200 Celsius. Cook 350g macaroni or penne about 3 minutes less than package guidelines. Stir together 250g half-fat crème fraiche, 125g grated mozzarella, 125g grated English medium cheddar and a handful of leftover meat in a large baking dish. Drain the pasta and stir into the dish, stirring everything together well. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 50g of bread crumbs and drizzle with olive oil. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until crisp and golden.

Artisan Bread

Here is the bread I made from the previous post Bread Dough and Neil Young. Turned out beautifully! Thanks Alicia!!

Matt's Sherry Cake

This incredibly easy and tasty cake comes from Delicious Magazine's November 2013 edition. Of course, I do not have any of the proper tools in this flat for baking, but I have been trying. This one was done by hand since there is no mixer. If I can do it by hand as easily as I did with such great results, anyone can do it. The flavor is so rich and the sherry gives it an incredible taste. I could not find any proper vanilla extract so I used vanilla paste instead. It's a lovely little goo filled with hundreds of vanilla seeds, no more extract for me. My favorite ingredient was the bicarbonate of soda for bubbly batters. Enjoy this recipe, it's a good company cake!

Matt's Sherry Cake

125g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing cake tin
225g self-rising flour, plus extra for dusting cake tin
125g caster sugar
2 medium free-range eggs
1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp. vanilla paste
200ml sweet sherry

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius. Grease 23cm cake tin with butter, then dust with flour.
Beat together butter and sugar in a stand mixer or by hand until fluffy and pale. Beat in the eggs, one by one, then, using a metal spoon, gently fold in half of flour, the bicarbonate and vanilla. Add the sherry and fold in along with remaining flour.
Pour into cake tin and bake 35-45 minutes until risen and cooked through. Allow cake to cool in tin, then turn out onto wire rack to cool fully.

Bread Dough and Neil Young

My good friend, Alicia, sent me this cookbook and plastic tub knowing that I would have time on my hands to do some baking. Her boyfriend Jim uses this book and makes some amazingly beautiful loaves, so I am giving it a go. A little Neil Young coming through the Bose speaker, a good cookbook and a cold cloudy day are perfect for cooking. I will let this rise and use it later to start baking some different artisan breads. The great thing about the recipe is that you can refrigerate the dough and use it as needed. I’ll let it rise and see what happens.

 

Artisan Bread Dough

 

• 3 cups lukewarm water                                      
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt                                                     
• 6 1/2 cups flour, un-sifted, unbleached, all-purpose                                            

Directions:

1. Preparing Dough for Storage:.
2. Warm the water slightly. It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours. With cold water it will need 3-4 hours.
3. Add the yeast to the water in a 5 quart bowl or, preferably, in a re-sealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.
4. Mix in the flour and salt - kneading is unnecessary. Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up the flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula. Don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you'll throw off the measurement. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with the dough attachment, or a heavy duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. If you're hand mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead, it isn't necessary. You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. It takes a few minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.
5. Allow to rise. Cover with lid (not airtight or it could explode the lid off). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approx 2 hours, depending on room temperature, and initial water temperature Longer rising times, up to 5 hours, won't harm the result.
6. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated dough is less sticky and easier to work with than dough at room temperature.
7. On Baking Day:.
8. prepare your loaf tin, tray, or whatever you're baking it in/on. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with four. Pull up and cut of a grapefruit-size piece of dough (c 1 lb.), using a serrated knife.
9. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all 4 sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off - that's fine, it isn't meant to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will sort itself out during resting and baking.
10. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 - 60 seconds.
11. Rest the loaf and let it rise in the form, on the tray/pizza peel, for about 40 minutes Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period. That's fine, more rising will occur during baking.
12. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.
13. Dust and Slash. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a quarter inch deep cross, diagonal lines, or tic-tac-toe pattern on top using a serrated knife.
14. After a 20 min preheat you're ready to bake, even though the oven thermometer won't be at full temperature yet. Put your loaf in the oven. Pour about 1 cup of hot water (from the tap) into the broiler tray and close the oven to trap the steam.
15. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.
16. Store the rest of the dough in the fridge in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days. The flavor and texture improves, becoming like sourdough. Even 24 hours of storage improves the flavor.
17. This is the standard bread. There are loads of variations - both savory and sweet - in the book.

 



Chorizo, Sausage and Garbanzo Soup

This recipe is also adapted from the November 2013 issue of Delicious and like the previous posting it is as the magazine name suggests. Some of the items were subbed because of what I could find at my local grocer. The chorizo is important because it flavors the entire recipe, so make sure you use it. I bought a 225g link and sliced it because I could find nothing marked cooking chorizo. The initial recipe called for more pork sausage than I thought was needed and I loved those canned cherry tomatoes so much from the last recipe that I used those instead of fresh. Here is my version of this very tasty soup that will warm you on a chilly night.

Chorizo, Sausage and Garbanzo Soup

Fry 1 red onion, thinly sliced, in a little olive oil for 10 minutes. Add 225g chorizo, sliced and the meat from 3 pork sausages to the pan and fry for 10 minutes, breaking up the sausage meat with a wooden spoon. Add 1 TBSP. fennel seeds and fry 1 minute more. Stir in 1 400g tin of cherry tomatoes and 1 litre of chicken stock, then season well. Simmer 20 minutes, covered, then add 1 400g tin garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed and simmer 5 more minutes. Add a handful of chopped fresh flat leaf  parsley and 1/4 cup of double cream. Season to taste and serve.

Sausage and Bean Bake

 

 

I adapted this recipe from one I found in the November 2013 British magazine Delicious and it is... delicious that is. Because of the tomatoes, fennel and cannellini beans, this recipe would work well with Italian sausages. Great weeknight dish or perfect for company. Either way, this is worth trying.

Sausage and Bean Bake

1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 Pork and herb sausages, cut in half
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 small red chili, seeded and finely diced
1 large garlic clove, finely diced
1 400g can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 400g can cherry tomatoes
Salt & pepper
Handful of chopped flat leave parsley
3 Tbsp. mixed seeds (I used pumpkin and sunflower)
Handful of breadcrumbs
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius or 400 Fahrenheit. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-low, then fry sausages 15 minutes until golden brown. remove from pan and set aside. Add onion and fry for 10 minutes until soft. Add garlic and chili and fry 1 minute. Add beans, tomatoes and sausages to pan. Add salt and pepper to taste, then simmer 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and transfer to 1.5 litre oven-proof dish. Top with seeds and breadcrumbs, drizzle with olive oil. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with crusty bread and salad.

Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms and Pork & Leek Sausage

On Sunday, I asked Dan what he wanted for dinner on Monday night and he said pasta. I figured this would be an easy dish to prepare, because all of the ingredients could be found at one store, right? Wrong. Just like most other meals I prepare, I end up going to multiple stores to find all of the ingredients. This time my search was for a proper Italian sausage. I started at Kirkgate and could find none. Sainsbary's no. Tesco no. So I headed all the way up to Morrison's. This was my first trip there and I was very excited because this was a large grocery store. They actually have a frozen food section!! They had practically every kind of sausage that I could hope for , but no Italian! Come on, they had prosciutto, chorizo, hot dogs, brats and Polish, but no Italian. I ended up buying a pork and leek sausage that was okay. Next time I will just buy some pork mince (ground) and season it appropriately. My other problem was that I only have one large sauce pan, so I ended up having to make the sauce and pour it into a baking dish. I then placed that in the oven to keep warm until I cooked the pasta.

 

 

 

Tomato Sauce w/ Mushrooms and Pork & Leek Sausage

 

Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add 1 small onion chopped, about 1/2 cup and 170 grams sliced mushrooms. Saute for 10 minutes until soft. Add 4 cloves garlic, minced and cook for 1 minute. Add 1 tsp. Italian seasonings a few grinds of black pepper and salt.

 

Add 200 grams of crumbled sausages (3 removed of casings) and cook through.

 

Add 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, I bay leaf, 1 (430g) jar of Passata Tomato Sauce with basil, 1 (220g) Can of chopped Italian tomatoes with juice, 1/4 cup red wine and 2 tsp. sugar.

 

Add 1/4 cup water to the tomato jar and give it a good shake to get out all of the tomato goodness and add to sauce pan.

 

Bring to boil, reduce and simmer, stirring often for 1 hour. Adjust seasonings, remove bay leaf and serve over favorite pasta.

Pork Chops with Pomodorino Tomatoes and Mushrooms

 

This is a recipe a came up with a couple of weeks ago. I knew I was serving the Roasted Rosemary Baby New Potatoes and wanted something really good to go along with them. I saw these beautiful pomodorino tomatoes and I thought they would go great with mushrooms on top of pork chops. So here is the recipe.

 

Pork Chops w/Pomodorino Tomatoes and Mushrooms

 

Season 2 thick cut bone-in pork chops with salt, pepper and dried rosemary. Heat  1 Tbsp, olive oil in a skillet on medium heat add chops and brown on both sides. Remove from the pan, place in baking dish and bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Slice 100 grams pomodorino tomatoes in half, slice 75 grams button mushrooms in half, and slice 1 garlic clove, thinly. To same skillet add 1 Tbsp. olive oil, then  mushrooms, sauté 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper and dried rosemary. Cook for 5 minutes. Serve over cooked pork chops.

Roasted Rosemary Baby New Potatoes

This is another side that I prepared to go with my pork chops. It's a rendition of the ones I make at home, only I used duck fat as opposed to olive oil in the recipe. I had mentioned seeing goose fat at the market to Lee and Laura and they informed me that the fat makes the best roasted potatoes. They were very good, crispy and creamy.

 Roasted Rosemary Baby New Potatoes

250 grams baby new potatoes

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 Tbsp. dry rosemary

1 Tbsp. duck fat

salt and pepper

Toss all of the ingredients on a small roasting pan and place in a 400 degree oven. Bake for 40 minutes.

Sweet Chili Glazed Carrots

We don't go out to dinner every night in Leeds, nor do I rely on prepackaged meals every time I'm in the kitchen. Sometimes I just cook what comes into my head, like these carrots. I was serving pork chops and needed a side and had bought some sweet chili sauce for another recipe. So this is how I came about this recipe. It's good and it's quick.

Sweet Chili Glazed Carrots

Clean 4 carrots and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Add to 1 1/2 pints of boiling water, cook 5 to 8 minutes, drain. Add 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce, salt and pepper. Heat through.

I like my carrots with a little bite. If you prefer them softer cook longer.

Beef, Barley and Vegetable Soup

From our balcony, we can see a shopping center that has a TK Maxx, yes TK here not TJ. Anyway , I needed a large saucepan/stockpot because the apartment did not have one, so I decided to walk on over there to find one. The walk turned out to be a bit longer than I thought and later I realized there was a TK Maxx a little closer and easier to get to, but I'm still learning. I did find my saucepan, plus a bunch of off price shops, so well worth the trek.
After dropping off my purchase, I walked up to Marks & Spencer, an English department store, to do a little grocery shopping. The grocery store located on their bottom floor is much larger than the local grocer and a little overwhelming. They had so many precooked meals, pre-chopped veg and packaged veg mixes that you could pretty much come up with any recipe. I decided to go with a beef and veggie soup. After spending about 15 minutes trying to choose vegetables, I came upon a package with carrots, an onion a leek and something I was unfamiliar with. I asked a couple of ladies if they knew what it was, they knew the flavor, but not the name. I bought it and thought it was worth a try. It ended up being a rutabaga and you prepare it pretty much like a potato. The flavor was like a sweet, mild radish, potato mash up. We both liked it! I also found this cute little Scottish Sweetheart cabbage that had a wonderful mild cabbage flavor. Here's the recipe I prepared. It's mostly in grams and such, because that how the food is packaged.

Beef, Barley and Vegetable Soup


2 Tbsp Olive Oil
450 grams beef casserole steak (stew meat)
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp Italian Seasonings
Salt & Pepper
1 onion, diced
1 leek, white and light green parts only, sliced
1/2 cup red wine
4 carrots, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1/2 rutabaga, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage
140 grams baby new potatoes
1 cup barley
500 grams beef stock
1 (400 gram) can of chopped Italian tomatoes and juice
1/4 cup water

Heat oil in stock pot or large sauce pan. Sprinkle meat with flour and seasonings and mix. Add to pan, in batches, brown and remove. Add onion and leek and sauté 5 minutes. Add wine to deglaze pot. Add the veggies, stock, canned tomatoes, barley and water, bring to boil cook 15 minutes. Reduce, cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt, pepper and about 1/2 teaspoon more of Italian seasonings. Serve.