Tag: Meat (Page 1 of 3)

Stir Fry – Easy Version

24/10/2023 / Neville

You can make many different versions of this based on different meats as available. For four people:

Mix together

4 tbsp black bean sauce (or Hoisin sauce)
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
½ tsp chilli flakes
Pinch of Chinese five-spice powder

Set aside. Meat can be raw or cooked leftover sliced beef, pork or chicken. Now heat your wok or large frying pan with

2–4 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
20g root ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Cook in hot oil for 30 seconds. Add

400g meat, cut on the diagonal into slices about 5mm thick

Stir fry until golden, then scoop out onto a plate and keep warm. Now add a mixture of all or some of the following:

onion, sliced
red pepper, deseeded and sliced
tenderstem broccoli, cut into short pieces
Baby corn, halved lengthwise
Sugarsnap peas

Stir fry until still firm but not soggy

4 nests dried egg noodles, cooked according to the packet or 400g Straight to Wok noodles
2 tsp cornflour, mixed with 60ml water

Add to the wok with the reserved meat and sauce mixture and stir around to coat and thicken. Add a splash more water if needed. Serve into four bowls and garnish with

spring onions, sliced
fresh coriander, roughly chopped
sesame seeds

Instant Pot Lamb Tagine

27/08/2023 / Neville

Quick and easy, serves 2-3 people

1 small onion, chopped
3 small new potatoes, cubed
1 large carrot, cubed
a dash of rapeseed oil

Use the Saute setting in your Instant pot, and soften the vegetables. Add

600g cubed lamb

Stir about until coloured. Add

1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbs Ras-al-Hanout (or Moroccan curry powder mix)
2 garlic cloves, chopped

Stir about until fragrant, about one minute. Then add

1 tin chopped tomatoes
250ml stock
100g dried apricot
0.5 preserved lemon, skin only, chopped

Put on the Meat setting fo 40 minutes, and seal the lid. After 40 miutes, allow to depressurise for 10 minutes. If the tagine is too watery, put on Saute for 5-10 minutes but keep an eye on it and keep stirring from time o time so it doesn’t burn. Excellent with couscous and a Moroccan vegetable side.

Easy Pulled Pork

12/03/2018 / Neville / 0 Comments

…with the One Pot!

Pork (leg or shoulder joint), cut into 2 inch cubes
Splash of oil

Brown on Saute setting. Add

1 cup chicken stock
1 cup Kansas BBQ sauce

Cook on Normal for 60 minutes. Let it de-pressurise naturally. Remove pork and shred. Put the liquid in a pan (remove any fat first) and reduce by half. Mix back into the pork and heat through. Serve on buns with sides (jacket potato, slaw, corn) and more Kansas BBQ Sauce.

Lamb Flatbread

22/01/2018 / Neville / 1 Comment

Adapted from a Waitrose card…

For two people: First make your flatbread dough.

250g strong white flour
15g butter
5g dried yeast
5g salt

Whizz in the food processor

150ml warm water

Whizz for 45 seconds. Take out, cover in an oiled piece of clingfilm and leave to rise for an hour in a warm place.

Now get on with the meat part.

Half an onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped

Fry gently in oil until until translucent

250g lamb mince

Fry in the onion pan until brown all over

1 tsp of North African/Lebanese/Israeli spice mix (your choice) Try Baharat

Fry one minute

1 tbs tomato paste
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 tbs pine nuts
2 tbs raisins
50g cubed halloumi

Mix together.

Heat the oven to 200C. Divide the dough into two, roll out to a pitta shape and put on an oiled oven tray. Spread the meat mixture over like a pizza. Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle over chopped parsley. Enjoy.

We served this with a North African veg stew on the side.

Half an onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped

Fry gently in oil

3 new potatoes, cubed
1 tsp North African spices

Fry for one minute

1 tin chickpeas
Half a tin of tomatoes
Half a cup of water
Half tsp salt

Cook gently for 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender

2 large handfuls of fresh spinach

Cook away until the spinach wilts – about 3-4 minutes. Stir in and serve.

Daddy Burgers

22/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

So called because Aedy and Josh loved these from an early age. I like making my own because you can make nice thick juicy burgers and know what is in them. Here’s what you do.

Buy mince to make enough 150g burgers for your needs (i.e. 600g makes 4 large burgers). Preferably buy fatty mince (10-18%) because lean steak mince (5%) will be a bit dry. Put the mince in a bowl with a tablespoon of tomato ketchup per burger, plus salt and pepper. Mush up with your hands and when mixed, form burger shaped burgers. You don’t need anything more special than your hands to do that. Lakeland keep your burger presses! What makes a true Daddy Burger is hidden cheese. Take a chunk of cheese and hide it completely inside each burger – best do that before you flatten it out. Now fry or grill each side until the burger is cooked through. The cheese will melt and ooze out spectacularly when cut.

Serve with all the trimmings – in a burger bun with your choice of tomato relish, iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, mayo, sliced gherkin, grilled bacon, large flat grilled mushroom, more cheese or all of the above. If you do that spear it with a kebab skewer to look cool. Skin on fries, sweet potato fries or wedges are all legitimate accompaniments.

Ultimate Lasagne

20/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

After many years of trialling difference recipes, the method I use from memory seems to work reliably so here it is, committed to posterity. This makes four huge portions or six sensible ones.

750g lean beef mince
1 onion
1 stick of celery
2 carrots
3 rashers of bacon
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 Oxo cube
1 tbs tomato paste
8 basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
1 wineglass of red wine
450ml milk
lump of butter or equivalent
30-40g plain flour
1 bay leaf
another carrot and stick of celery left whole
200g cheddar cheese grated
9 sheets dried lasagne
oil, salt, pepper

First chop the onion, celery, carrots and bacon finely. Heat the oil in a large pan and stir-fry until soft but not coloured. Add the mince and garlic, and continue stir frying until all pink has gone from the mince. Add the tinned tomatoes. Crumble the oxo cube into the tin and fill the tin with boiling water. Tip into the pan. Add the basil, red wine and tomato paste. Simmer covered for one hour.

Meanwhile start the white sauce by putting the milk, bay leaf, extra carrot and celery stick into the milk with four whole peppercorns. It helps to chop the carrot and celery very roughly into big chunks. Bring the milk to the boil then switch off and leave until you make the cheese sauce.

After the meat has been simmering 40 minutes, make the sauce. Strain the flavoured milk and discard the vegetable bits. Heat the butter gently in another pad until melted, add the flour and cook away until it bubbles. Add the strained milk and stir like crazy to mix, then heat the sauce, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be a thick creamy consistency. You might need to adjust the amount of flour used with practice. Add three quarters of the cheese and melt it in to make a smooth creamy sauce.

When your meat is ready, assemble the lasagne thus: take a lasagne dish and put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom. Put three sheets of lasagne over to cover. Repeat three times. Pour the cheese sauce over the top and spread it out. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake at 190C for 30 minutes. Awesome.

Lamb with Peppers and Aubergine

15/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

My favourite way with lamb – shoulder or leg.

Lamb joint
50g butter
1tbs wholegrain mustard
1 tbs fresh chopped marjoram
500g red peppers approx, chopped into chunks
500g aubergine approx, chopped into chunks
Olive oil

Mix the butter, mustard and marjoram. Cut slits in the lamb fat and smear the surface of the joint with butter rubbing into the slits. Put the vegetables in the bottom of your roasting tray and swill about to coat in olive oil. Put the lamb on top on a rack or tuck in if you don’t have a rack. Roast according to weight ( probably 190C for 20 minutes plus 25 mins/500g ). Watch the veg don’t burn. Stir around from time to time so they don’t char too badly. When the meat is cooked let it rest for 15 minutes before serving. The taste will be amazing and the veg will make a fabulous accompaniment. New potatoes and green beans would be perfect.

Sausage and Lentil Stew

14/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

A Quick Version and Longer Version. The quick version uses a tin of lentils but if you are making this for a bunch of people it is a lot cheaper to use dried green or Puy lentils and cook them. This takes another 30 minutes or so but it is no bother.

Ingredients (For One) – easily multiplied up for more people.

Tin of lentils (for quick version)or…
75g dried green lentils (for slow cheaper version)
150ml vegetable stock (for slow cheaper version)
2 or 3 sausages
One small carrot
One stick of celery
A quarter of an onion
Sunflower oil for frying

Put oil in a frying pan and brown the sausages. When cooked take them out and put to one side. Chop the vegetables fairly small and add to the pan. Fry gently until soft and golden.

Quick version: add the tin of lentils and cooked sausages. Heat through for five minutes, if it is a little dry add a splash of water. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Longer version: add 75g dried green or Puy lentils per person and 150ml stock per person. Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes according to the instructions on the lentils packet. Keep an eye on it from time to time, if it is drying out add a bit more water. Adjust seasoning and serve. Very good with fresh French bread.

Chilli by Hairy Bikers

10/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

There are many, many different variations on this. True Texans would not want chilli adulterated with what we regularly put in it but this is a good version for every-day. You can make a big mix of chilli and keep the leftovers to make a tortilla grill or toppings for jacket potatoes. The following is for four hungry people.

2 onions
500g mince beef
3 cloves garlic
splash of oil

Fry these up in a pan until all the pink has gone. Add

1 or 2 tsp chilli powder. Olwyn likes it at level 1. I like it at level 2. You can always add but you can’t take away
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbs plain flour

Fry another minute. Then add

450 ml beef stock (Oxo cube is fine). You could use part red wine and part stock.
3 tbs tomato puree
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin red kidney beans
1 bay leaf
1 tsp caster sugar
salt and pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Bubble up and simmer 45 minutes, covered. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Add a bit more water if it looks too dry. Serve with cornbread, rice, and if you need to ramp up the heat, some chopped jalopenos.

Merguez Sausages

10/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

Spice Mix (makes 10 tbs or 14tbs – it will keep in a jar):

4 tbs paprika
2 tbs fennel (ground)
1 tbs ground coriander
2 tbs salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
Optional: 4tbs sugar

To make the sausages:

500g minced lamb or beef
120 g fat
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped 9or paste)
2 tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves
2 or 3 tsp harissa paste
2 tbs spice mix above

Mix all the above. Make sausages in your sausage machine, with or without casings. If you don’t have a sausage machine, you can hand-roll sausage shapes, mould them around skewers or make little patties like mini burgers. Fry or grill and use with North African sides like couscous, roast vegetables, hummus, olives, flatbread.