Chunky Beef Stew (with Roasted Veg)

We had this on Tuesday night, when it was horribly windy/icy/snowy outside. It's a good winter/random cold snap in early spring warmer-upper.

(Serves 2)

For the stew:

Large handful of Mince

2 mushrooms, diced

6 baby plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), halved

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/3 courgette, diced

A handful of Peas

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Chilli powder

Coriander

Thyme

Ketchup

Gravy granules

Roast

1 carrot, finely sliced

1 parsnip, finely sliced

5 or so new potatoes, halved or quartered depending on size

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Chop up the veg to be roasted, stick them on a baking tray with a couple of small knobs of butter and a sprinkle of the other ingredients, and bake on 180º for about half an hour.

In a big pan, add a knob of butter and a squirt of olive oil, then add the onions and garlic and the herbs and spices. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add all the veg (except the mince and peas - we used these from frozen but even if yours are fresh they shouldn't need as long). Cook these for another couple of mins, THEN add the mince and peas and cook until the mince is browned.

Add a squirt of ketchup and a sprinkle of gravy granules, then a small glass of water. Turn the heat down to simmer for around 15 minutes. Ours was at the perfect consistency at the same time the roasts were done - good timing!

Serve up - as presented above is well recommended, so it's like a bowl of soup with the roasts to dip in the tomato-y gravy. We also crumbled some cheshire cheese on top.

I missed good cheese. I love Cheshire cheese. Germany likes a waxy cheese. I detest waxy cheeses. We did not see eye-to-eye in the cheese aisle.

Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Parcels.

Ana here!

These little parcels are something I conjured up today when I was staring into the fridge. Also the fact that the smoked salmon was going out of date tomorrow really helped me what to decide what to have for lunch! you'll need some form of ramekin or small bowl around 3 inches deep and 5 inches wide, cling film and the following ingredients:

smoked salmon (around 8 slices per ramekin)
2 tbsps cream cheese
2 tbsps diced red pepper
a handful of raw baby spinach
lemon juice
salt and pepper

(I apologise for the lack of measurements, I forget to weigh everything!)

firstly, line the ramekins with cling film, then line with the salmon, covering the sides and the bottom. leave a couple of cms hanging over the edge. But leave a couple of slices free for the top!

in a bowl, mix the cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper. start layering the cheese and fillings, starting with the cheese on the bottom of the ramekin. layer on the red pepper and squish them down. Spread on more cheese, the layer on the spinach. Finish off with the remainder of the cheese. Cover the cheese with the remaining salmon. Fold over the excess bits of salmon, press down and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. To turn out the parcel, simply lift them out using the cling film and whack onto a plate!. These are a really good starter, served with a small mixed salad however I was eating mine for lunch so had a pretty big salad!

An Update.

Jenn here.

I'm back from Berlin, as of a week ago.

As you may recall, I spent a lot of time cooking veggie in Germany - I know, veggie and Germany don't usually go hand in hand - and it's really upped my game.

If ever you find yourself in a food rut, I suggest cutting something that you normally eat out - meat, or dairy, or wheat - and cooking becomes a challenge again. I'm back to being more adventurous and trying out new dishes, new recipes. And I've found a load of veg that I'd never liked or possibly even eaten before that I now enjoy (sprouts, fresh beetroot, cabbage. CABBAGE.) and those that I'm still not really a fan of (chicory. *shrug*).

I got a recipe book as a leaving gift, except it's not a cookbook, it's more a notebook where each page has space for a photo, and an ingredients list, and instructions for me to fill in as I go. And I intend to instagram my way through the book. And this blog.

Layout and blog frequency overhaul imminent!

The Kitchen Cabinet

A quick note, to alert you to the new BBC Radio 4 programme, The Kitchen Cabinet, in which food personality Jay Rayner and a team of experts answer audience's foodie questions.

It's like Gardener's Question Time but for food - Episode 2 (in which they discuss Indian fusion cooking and 'the perfect tomato sauce' - never put tomatoes in the fridge) is on iPlayer right now (which, I am happy to add, is available to everyone. BBC Radio is internationally available, unlike the TV/TV iPlayer, which I miss every damn day.)

A Sprout Is Not Just For Christmas.

In case you're not up to date, let me explain:

I moved to Berlin, like, three weeks ago.

Cooking at home has been unadventurous thus far (combo of lack of space to store/make things and lack of money, plus need to meet new people and therefore going for food to socialise...), but cooking at work has been challenging and interesting.

I work at a small high-end fashion label here, and we take turns to cook (though I tend to volunteer most days!) and then we all eat lunch together. Lovely!

But also, on a Tuesday, we get a big box of veg for the week, and we eat veggie meals. We've bought things to go with the veg (rice, pasta, eggs, yoghurt, curry paste, etc) but sometimes we get things we don't know what to do with - we roasted fennel last week (my first fennel experience).

Last week we got brussel sprouts (or Rosenkohl, as they call them here) - what does one do with brussel sprouts, other than eat them with Christmas dinner?!

We finally ate them today, and added them to the (masses of) leftover spinach and feta pasta from Friday.

I've got a lo-ve-ly bunch of brussel sprouts, di-di di-di

Wash 'em and chop 'em up small, and heat up a frying pan with plenty of butter in it.

Add salt and pepper and add more butter if necessary...they should be soft but with a bit of crunch on the outside.

Serve 'em as a side dish or chuck 'em in some pasta or something... (I reckon they'd be great in a stir fry and will endeavour to try this at some point in the near future.)