Beef Pie

As I say up at the top near the title of this blog, mostly I wing food. I winged it last night and it was quite edible! I made beef pie and dessert. All round it was a hit with Himself and J&C.

Basic ingredients :

About a kilo of Angus beef steaks, cubed

2 onions, diced
3 stalks celery, peeled and diced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rings
3 marrows, sliced into thin rings
1 tbs finely diced ginger

half a punnet of mushrooms, washed and thickly sliced
2 tbs sour cream
2 tbs crushed garlic
cumin
salt and pepper
paprika
bay leaves
parsley
crushed mustard seeds


1 cup rice
half a carrot and marrow, grated
4 mushrooms, grated
about 2 tablespoons cream of mushroom soup powder
2 cups water

Start out by sweating down the onions and celery in some olive oil, then add the ginger and garlic and braise until the onions start going brown. Add the bay leaves and cubed meat, browning nicely. Add some stock or water, bring to a boil then turn down and simmer until the meat is tender. Add the sliced marrow, carrots and mushrooms and cook until the vegetables are tender and there isn't too much liquid. Add the cream at this point and if there is too much liquid, thicken with a bit of cornstarch. Season and pour meat mixture into an ovenproof dish, topping with puff pastry brushed with some melted butter. Bake in a preheated oven until the puff pastry is golden and fluffy.

Meanwhile, pour one cup of rice, two cups of water, 2 tbs soup and some salt into a pot, bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer. Cook until the rice is done then add the grated vegetables and mix through.

Dessert consisted of filling 4 meringues with some strawberries. Earlier in the afternoon I diced some strawberries and mixed in some castor sugar and some lemon juice and then left it to marinade in the fridge. After supper, I mixed some more castor sugar with some smooth creamed cheese, put a spoonful into each meringue and topped that up with 1/4 of the strawberries and a dollop of the sweetened creamed cheese.