Tuesday 19 January 2010

Beka Chef Casserole 5.0L, 24cm

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Are you fed up with your partner doing all the ‘glory’ cooking when your friends come round? Here is your chance to shine. This meal is easy to cook and yet delicious enough to make it to the dinner party table and will not fail to impress.
You might like a practice run before you try it on your guests but not necessarily. You will need about ½ hour to cook, two hours simmering and another ½ hour to bake, respectively.
Here we go...
Steak and Ale pie
300 g stewing meat cubed
6 shallots peeled
1 large glass brown ale
1 large glass red wine
100 ml stock
1 bay leaf
½ cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 tbsp tomato puree
3 tbsp butter
Sprig of fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme chopped
2 tbsp flour for thickening
I egg beaten
2 sheets of pastry roll
Heat half the butter in a deep pan. Add the meat and brown all over. Remove from pan and set aside. Add the rest of the butter and fry the shallots whole on a low heat for 5 minutes. Add tomato puree and continue to fry for another 2 minutes. Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, fresh herbs and meat. Stir to get the flavours into the meat. Add the ale, wine and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Mix the flour with about 3 tbsp of cold water into a smooth paste. Add to the stew and allow to boil until the source has thickened. You may need to mix a little more flour and water to achieve the right thickness. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Heat up oven to 190 °c.
At this point you can ask your partner to start preparing some veggies for you while you get on with the masterpiece. It’s not cheating. Baby potatoes and steamed vegetables are a good choice to serve with this dish.
Sprinkle a little flour onto a flat and dry surface. Place the pastry flat and use a rolling pin to flatten if necessary. Lift one piece and place into a greased casserole dish. Press pastry into casserole dish covering the bottom and sides. Pour in the stew and cover with the other piece of pastry, cutting off any excess pastry with a knife. Brush the beaten egg over the top layer of pastry. Place casserole dish in oven and bake for 30 min. Cook veggies and serve with steak and ale pie hot.
Please let us know how your party went by dropping us an email at: mama.carey@mama-careys-kitchen.com
We’re confident you’ll do yourself proud.
From us all at Mama Carey's

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Artisan Board Bread Plank
We're just about to publish the January 2010 Newsletter, the year's got off to a great start, although the weather's not been much help.

If you'd like a copy of our cookbook (it's free - with some great winter warmers) go to the web site and sign up for the newsletter.

All the best,
Mama Careys