0 Gluten Free Beef brisket, carrot and celery pie - with a delicious pastry top

I recently cooked a small brisket of beef in the slow cooker and this pie is using some of the left over meat from the joint, I actually managed to stretch the meat to 3 separate meals, along with this pie I also served the meat simply with gravy like a roast dinner and in a pan haggerty (that's a post for another day).

Brisket isn't the cheap cut it used to be but its reliable easy to cook especially if you use a slow cooker like I do and it produces delicious gravy too. I just cooked the brisket for 6 hours on high after smothering the join in a mix of Dijon mustard, BBQ spice rub, tomato ketchup and maple syrup. I didn't add an extra liquid.

This is frugal dish as it used a fairly small quantity of meat, the leftover gravy and carrots and celery to bulk up the pie filling. I then created a gluten free pastry top and if I do say so myself it tasted pretty amazing.

Fresh out of the oven 

If you don't have left over brisket or roast beef then this pie could be made with minced beef or lamb and any suitable vegetables you have to hand. The gluten free pastry was very well behaved, the secret being allowing it to rest in the fridge for about half an hour before rolling out and a liberally brushing with an egg glaze before baking so you achieve a beautiful golden top.

What you need 

For the pie filling

• Quantity of left over beef -chopped into bite sized pieces
• Carrots and celery - parboiled until just tender
• Gravy - I used thickened cooking juices

For the pastry

• 225g Gluten free flour (I mix my own)
• 110g Butter
• 20g Parmesan cheese - finely grated
• 1 free range egg - beaten (reserve a little for glazing the pie)
• A little cold water
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/4 tsp xanthum gum

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 180c
• Mix your pie filling and place in your pie dish
• Sieve the flour, xanthum gum, salt into a bowl, add the Parmesan cheese
• Rub the fat into the flour mixture until its resembles fine breadcrumbs
• Add the egg and enough water to to form a soft dough
• Once you have formed your dough, Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
• Once rested roll out on a well floured surface and top your selected pie dish, crimp and trim and then glaze with a little beaten egg. 
• Make a couple of cuts in the pastry top to allow steam to escape. With some of your spare pastry why not form some creative pastry shapes.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes or so until golden and cooked through
• Serve immediately

The pastry is deliciously savoury,short yet flaky and undetectable as gluten free. The pastry does require slightly more gentle rolling out for its well worth the effort.

With an eye to Valentine's day I decorated my pie with hearts, as its made with love. 

Detail: Gluten Free Beef brisket, carrot and celery pie - with a delicious pastry top

0 Beef and Vegetable Cottage Pie topped with Rosemary Crushed Potatoes

A perfect dish for a Sunday tea or a a busy weeknight when you can't be bothered cooking, it has the perfect combination of roast crispy potatoes and cottage pie filling and the good news is that the vegetables are in the pie. 

The topping is inspired by Casa pie from Vanessa Kimbell's "Prepped" book and is something that I use a lot instead of mash to top fish pie and also chilli and bolognaise. Its an easy no fuss dish which freezes beautifully so you can batch make and the pie filling can also be used in pastry pies as well.

Its a pretty frugal dish too as you can use frozen vegetables in the meat filling and the herbs are from the garden plus  its also gluten free as well as I have used cornflour to thicken the gravy. Its a great way of adding more vegetables to your diet without really noticing and also for upping the fibre content of cottage pie as the crushed potatoes are still in their skins.

What you need

• Small washed new potatoes boiled until just cooked - halved if large
• Rapeseed oil
• Fresh rosemary- leaves removed and chopped finely
• Minced steak
• White onion - finely chopped into half moons
• Beef stock ( I use essential cuisine)
• Cornflour
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh thyme - leaves finely chopped
• Parsley - finely chopped
• Carrots - peeled and diced, or you could use frozen
• Peas - I used a good handful of frozen petit pois
• Tomato ketchup (ensure gluten free if necessary)

What you do

• Firstly heat a little oil in a large frying pan and saute the sliced onions until translucent 
• Now add the mince to the pan and fry off golden and well coloured
• Now add the thyme, parsley and a tbsp of tomato sauce to the pan along with enough beef stock to cover the meat, stir and then add the diced carrot to the pan.
• Simmer for 20 minutes until the meat is cooked and the carrot tender through, now using a little water to slake the cornflour and use to thicken the gravy. 
• Add the frozen peas to the meat mixture and place in ovenproof dishes 
• Top the pie mixture with the small potatoes crushing them slightly using your thumbs , sprinkle with the chopped rosemary and drizzle with a little rapeseed oil
• Bake in the oven at 180c for 40 minutes until the top is golden and crispy and the filling bubbling.
• Serve immediately

I'm linking this recipe up to extra veg created by Utterly Scrummy and Fuss Free Flavours and hosted by Elizabeths Kitchen this month.

We are also linking up to Credit Crunch Munch, created by Fab Food for all and Fuss Free Flavours hosted this month over at Maison Cupcake.

                                         

Detail: Beef and Vegetable Cottage Pie topped with Rosemary Crushed Potatoes

0 Wild garlic mash topped cottage pie - a English classic

It finally seems to be Spring here in Lancashire and the ramsons (wild garlic) is popping up in the hedgerow, later this week it St Georges Day, a celebration of all things English. So here's my contribution an English classic updated with a great foraged ingredient, the wild garlic mildly fragrances the mash and adds to the intense savouriness of the dish. Its also British Beef week as well and my cottage pie uses quality British steak mince as its base.

Ingredients

• British minced steak
• Onion
• Beef stock ( I used essential cuisine)
• Brown sauce / caramelised onion chutney
• Freshly chopped parsley - fine
• Slaked cornflour or gravy thickner (bisto or similar)
• White potatoes
• Butter
• Wild Garlic - chopped finely

Method

• Firstly make your mash in the usual way by boiling your peeled potatoes until soft, for the last few minutes of cooking add your wild garlic to soften.
• Once cooked drain through a sieve so as not to loose your wild garlic, add a good quantity of butter and mash until you have no lumps. Set aside.
• Dry fry the mince in a large frying pan, until all coloured, now add the onion to the pan and cook using the fat that has come from the mince until slightly softened.
• Add the beef stock to the pan until the meat mixture is just covered and simmer for 10 -15 minutes until the onions are soft, the meat is cooked and the gravy a little reduced, now add the gravy thickener to achieve the thickness of gravy you desire.
• Pour the meat mixture into the dish you wish to bake it in, leave to cool for 10 minutes or so and then top with the wild garlic mash, leave your pie craggy so that when it bakes it has some lovely crispy bits.
• Place on an oven tray and bake for 35-45 minutes at 180c until golden and bubbling
• Serve with any side vegetable to your hungry family.

Detail: Wild garlic mash topped cottage pie - a English classic

0 Slow cooker Brisket of beef

I love beef brisket, this cheap cut of beef is awesome slow cooked so that it becomes melting tender. This recipe, if you can call it that is so simple, its actually an insult to call it a recipe to be honest.

To get a good brisket you will need to visit a butchers as most supermarkets don't stock brisket (Booths and Morrisons do normally have them however) not sure why I think they must think it a downmarket cut, more fools them as its great. Plus make sure you buy British Beef, look out for the Red Tractor mark.

Ingredients

• Rolled brisket of beef
• Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
• Demarera sugar - 1tbsp
• Wine vinegar 1 tbsp
• Salt and Pepper

Method 

• Make a paste of all the ingredients other than the brisket, rub onto the brisket, wrap in foil and place in slow cooker
• Cook for 8-10 hours, turn over half way through (not essential)
• When ready to serve, thicken juices in slow cooker with gravy granules or slaked cornflour
• Serve slices with gravy and usual accompaniments , it will be meltingly tender.

This would be a great dish to serve up in honor of St George ! its also great if you have any leftovers on a chunky sandwich with horseradish and salad, or stir fried with oyster sauce and egg fried rice.

Detail: Slow cooker Brisket of beef

0 #BoothsCheers - Beef in port wine

This weeks treats from Booths for their #BoothsCheers campaign include a delightful bottle of port. Also in the box was a letter with a "secret mission" (should I choose to accept it !), to come up with a great comfort food recipe to match one of the wines being provided.

Most people associate port with stilton cheese ( but its not from Lancashire and MR LF doesn't do Blue cheese so that's out) or rich dark fruit cake, yet its quite a versatile ingredient particularly in stews and casseroles producing a deliciously rich sweet edged sauce , its also excellent with or  in a chicken liver pate, with a rich chocolate dessert or even with a good chocolate brownie. As for cheese it works well with most, I particularly like goats cheese.

In this recipe its a great subsitute for a red wine, ale or beef stock, if you think its a bit decadent to use half a bottle of port in a stew, then mix and match depending on how frugal you feel.

Ingredients

• Beef skirt or beef shin- trimmed and cut into cubes (ask your butcher or Booths stock it if you ask)
• 1 large onion - chopped fairly finely
• 2 or 3 carrots - organic if possible as you can taste the different
• 1/2 bottle port ( or your frugal mixture - see above)
• Squirt of tomato ketchup
• 6 mushrooms - sliced
• Seasoned flour (flour , seasoned with salt and pepper)
• Oil

Method

• Preheat oven to 150c
• Tosh the cubed beef in the seasoned flour
• Heat a little oil in frying pan or if your lucky like me your cast iron casserole dish
• Fry off your beef in small quantities until well coloured, remove as cooked to a plate
• Now fry off your vegetables, soften without colouring
• Place the beef and vegetables in your casserole dish, add a squirt of tomato ketchup.
• Pour on your port / stock and put the lid on your dish
• Place in the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours , now add the mushrooms
• Continue to bake until the vegetables are soft and the beef falls apart and the sauce reduced
• Serve with mashed potatoes, chunky bread, rice and green vegetables

The port really makes a difference and the gravy was amazing, a delicious comfort food for #BoothsCheers

Detail: #BoothsCheers - Beef in port wine