The Chilli – the photo-guide

Lets go!

Sealed, diced steak in the slow cooker

Softened onion and garlic

The four “c”s – cumin, coriander,

cinnamon and chilli

The four “c”s cooked out with

the onion

The chilli – read to slow cook and

perform its magic!

Glistening with the beans and a

blob of sour cream

What's not to love and it's a perfect in a bowl with either of the bread recipes!

The Chilli

When I think of chilli I think of minced beef - I hate minced beef! What makes this chilli special, nay posh, is it uses diced steak and slow cooks it. The only remaining task is to add the red kidney beans and any garnishes. A word of warning – just in case you've forgotten – do not slow cook the kidney beans.

Posh Chilli

Serves 4

500g diced steak

A glug of rapeseed oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of roasted garlic paste or 2 cloves crushed

tsp = teaspoon

half tsp ground cumin

half tsp ground coriander

half tsp ground cinnamon

quarter to half tsp chilli powder (to taste, depends how much of a kick you like – I used a quarter tsp)

500g jar of passata

60ml sweet chilli sauce

390g can of red kidney beans, rinsed

optional extras :

150g small dice or sliced chorizo

sweet baby peppers, de-seeded and

finely sliced

Method …

Seal the diced steak in batches in a large frying pan using a drop of rapeseed oil then set aside in your slow cooker.

Gently fry your onion and garlic, using another drop of rapeseed oil if necessary. Add the spices and cook together so that the spices are able to release their deliciousness!

Add the passata and the chilli sauce and bring to the boil. Add to the sealed diced steak and then slow cook for 4 hours. Turn off and then leave to cool. Freeze in boxes to suit your needs – remember – you can pull out two boxes if you need to, rather than have to throw away from a larger quantity.

Defrost thoroughly in your fridge. Re-heat gently on the stove adding your kidney beans, sweet baby peppers or chorizo.

For the optional extras :

Use a large frying pan and fry the chorizo gently so that it releases its oil. Set the chorizo aside, leaving the oil in the pan.

Sauté the sliced, sweet baby peppers in the chorizo oil.

If you enjoy a spicy hit you can use mixed beans in a chilli sauce instead of ordinary red kidney beans.

Serve with rice if you like but I think it's fab in a bowl with a blob of sour cream served with some rustic bread of your choice on the side or with wraps with bowls of relish of your choice – mango would work well.

Freezing serves dishes like chilli or curry very well – the freezing process allows the spices to develop. Here's a thought – you could double the recipe and serve as a supper or as part of a larger supper buffet. Hot food seems to go down so well and it's easier to cook and serve.

Next … the photo-guide

A Hungarian rhapsody

This old favourite is great whatever time of the year.

Here's my latest thought, “zhuzhed” a little. These days goulash seems to be served with rice or, spatzle (a soft egg noodle). I'm an old fashioned kinda gal with certain dishes and goulash is one of them. I like to serve mine, as was done in the 70s, with new potatoes. The ultimate comfort food however you want to serve it – by the way don't forget the sour cream - stirring in or even a blob on top – optional of course.

Hungarian Goulash

Serves 4-6 depending on size of appetite

900g braising steak, diced

glug of rapeseed oil to seal the beef

1 large onion, chopped as finely as possible

*8 tbsp tomato ketchup

*2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

*1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

*2 tsps salt

*2 tsps Hungarian sweet paprika

*½ tsp mustard powder

300ml water

2 beef stock pots

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

small tub of sour cream - optional

Use a large frying pan and seal the steak in the rapeseed oil – in small batches – if you overfill the pan you will finish up with grey steak and it will “stew” - not nice! Set the batches aside in the slow cooker. Soften the onion for 2 minutes and then add to the steak.

In a medium sized bowl mix together the ingredients marked *.

Using the same frying pan – and therefore any residual juices, add the water and the stock pots, bring to the boil and stir until the pots have melted. Add the mixed ingredients * and pour over the beef.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

At the end of the cooking time, using a slotted spoon, remove the steak from the gravy. Mix the cornflour with water and stir into goulash and cook on high to thicken.

Add the steak back into the thickened gravy and you're good to go.

Or forget the new potatoes and serve it with either of the bread recipes – in a bowl with bread to dunk.

Perfect!

GTSB – the photo-guide

Here goes!

The dry ingredients

The jugs – Guinness and yogurt

The bowl of black treacle

Slowly add the Guinness to the treacle

to loosen

Add the yogurt to the Guinness

and treacle and whisk together

The dry combined with the wet ingredients

The bread on the baking sheet – see the dusting

of flour underneath

The loaf marked into quarters – the long

handle of a wooden spoon works beautifully

Ta dah – fresh from the oven

Sliced in half – looks good enough to eat

A quarter, ready with a pot of butter it would be rude not to!

Personally I wouldn't mess with either of these breads – apart from the butter! I would add a good strong cheddar or maybe a Lancashire cheese with some chutney – but really it's entirely up to you!

You could serve warmed with a goulash or a chilli if you preferred the bread with a hot dish.

Very rustic and the ultimate in comfort food!

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread … GTSB method

Here's the method and hints and tips.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment. Put the flours, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl and toss together. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. In a jug or second mixing bowl, stir together the Guinness, yogurt and treacle, until the treacle more or less dissolves – this will take a little while, but stir patiently and it will come together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and, with a spatula, wooden spoon or firm hand, bring everything together into a rough dough. Knead for a moment on a worktop, just until the dough has come together, then shape into a rough ball and put on the prepared baking tray. Dust the ball of dough liberally with flour, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to press a deep cross into the dough, ensuring you don't go all the way through the dough, so all 4 quarters are still connected. Bake for 50 minutes until golden, crispy and steaming.

This is the recipe taken directly from the magazine. I've a few suggestions that will make life easier.

It mentions “grease a large baking tray or line with baking parchment”. In all my bread making I've never greased or lined a baking tray. I sprinkle a non-stick baking tray with flour and “swirl” so it covers the tray. The bread doesn't stick – ever.

If you take your butter straight from the fridge as you begin, weigh and cut it into small cubes and place on a piece of cling film by the time you've weighed the remainder of your ingredients your butter will be soft enough to rub into the dry ingredients.

With regard to the “wet” ingredients you'll find life much easier if you begin by weighing the black treacle directly into a small mixing bowl. Weigh your Guinness and yogurt in separate jugs. Make sure your mixing bowl is set on a non slip mat – if you don't have one then use a dampened j cloth.

Gradually drizzle the Guinness into the treacle, stirring all the time and it will loosen, continue until combined. Use a small whisk when adding the yogurt to prevent it splitting. The process takes no time at all.

There's photos!

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread - “GTSB”

Here's the second bread recipe and it's divine!

I have always had a weakness for good bread. There's nothing like home-made bread – the only problem is that it's a bit of a faff and it takes too long … unless you're making soda bread – no yeast and little or no kneading needed – what's not to love.

Not surprising then that this caught my attention. The recipe looks easy and this is genuine research – so many recipes are a let down mainly because they are inaccurate – you're drawn in by the clever photography and the Food Stylist.

What follows is the exact recipe, then some hints and tips from me and finally a photo-guide.

“Wholesome, rustic soda bread looks and tastes like something that hours of love and care have gone into. In reality, it's wonderfully simple and with no yeast or kneading required, a warm loaf can be out of the oven in about an hour”.

Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread

400g strong white bread flour

extra for dusting

100g strong wholemeal flour

50g jumbo oats

10g fine salt

1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

40g unsalted butter, cubed

150g Guinness

175g natural yogurt

60g black treacle

You can see why I fancied this loaf!

Beautiful Beer Bread – hints and tips

Before you have a go at baking the bread here's the helpful stuff that the recipe doesn't mention.

I used mature cheddar cheese in the mix and unsalted butter, melted, to brush the crust.

The beauty of this recipe is that you don't handle the bread mix and so no need to knead – sorry, couldn't resist. Use a round bladed knife to bring it together.

Use a 2lb loaf tin 9x5½x3” (in old money) – 900g approximately 23x13x7cms (in new money). Grease and line the loaf tin, even if it is non-stick. You could use a cake or loaf liner – if you do then spray the liner with Fry Light sunflower oil. It takes away all the heavy duty washing up of your loaf tin.

Turn the loaf tin around after 20 minutes to make sure you get an even crust.

Let the loaf cool.

Most people are addicted to chocolate and all things sweet – give me a thick slice of good bread spread with quality butter and a lump of cheese any day.

The loaf is quite dense, cheesy with a slightly sweet background. It might sound strange but it's excellent. I thought the Soda Bread loaf was the easiest and quickest I'd ever made – this loaf is quicker still.

Just in case you've forgotten the raising agents are the yeast in the beer and in the self-raising flour.

Now for the Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread!