Cooking and Recipes

[Nuytsia]

Hehe Chrischa, ok here goes!

Beef Bourgignon:

700g 'stew beef' (I used what is labelled here as 'gravy beef'), cut into 2-inch pieces (I think I cut it into pieces about half that size)
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef stock
3 Tbsp butter
1 and 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup flour
several small slivers of orange peel (I had to leave that out as I didn't have any)
several sprigs of fresh thyme (I had to use some dried thyme, didn't really measure it!)
1/4 tsp crushed dried green peppercorns (I also didn't have, so I just used some freshly ground black pepper)
250g mushrooms (I cut into quarters)
500g onions (it doesn't say to, but I cut into quarters - if you had small onions you could probably leave whole)

Marinate beef in wine for several hours or overnight. (I did it for a few hours) Remove and dry well. Melt 1 and 1/2 Tbsp each of the butter and oil in a heavy, flameproof casserole. (I didn't really have one that I wanted to use on a stovetop so I used a regular pan). Brown meat cubes in small batches, transferring with a slotted spoon to a plate (I put them into the casserole dish) when done. When all are browned, pour out cooking fat. Add the remaining 1 and 1/2 Tbsp butter to the casserole (or pan in my case), let it melt and add flour, Cook flour in butter, stirring constantly several minutes. Add wine from the marinade and stock. Bring to boil, stirring up scrapings from bottom of pan and blend well with wire whisk (I didn't bother with a whisk! The spoon was fine). Return meat and juices that have accumulated in the plate (or in my case, I just poured the sauce from the pan over the waiting meat in the casserole). Add thyme, crushed peppercorns and orange peel. Put casserole dish into a 150 C (300F) oven and cook 3 to 4 hours or until meat is tender. Peel onions (I sliced them up too) and saute them gently in butter and oil about 20 minutes. Brown the mushrooms (the recipe is a bit vague here, I just put mushrooms and onions in together and it took a fair bit longer than 20 mins to get onions as soft as I wanted them so you could start onions first and then add mushrooms after a bit). When meat is tender, remove from oven. Season to taste (I actually forgot to add the salt and pepper!) Remove thyme (if you used fresh sprigs). Stir in onions and mushrooms and serve (I actually put the whole thing back in the warm oven for a little bit after stirring in onions and mushrooms to make sure onions were soft).

That's it!

Chrischa your vegetarian recipe sounds interesting! I never thought to use apple juice like that. I used to be a vegetarian, and I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals now, so I will have to give it a go some time! Butter and cheese definitely get the thumbs up from me. In fact I would love to get a milking cow, and hopefully we will in the not too distant future.

Farseer I can relate to those nice accidents that turn out well, and also forgetting exactly how to replicate them!

I never thought to use scone dough for pizza!!! Mmmmmm might have to try it. Although I have never been a fan of the rubbing butter into flour part of making scones... lazy me!