Beef casserole & roast potatoes

A hearty beef casserole to warm you up through the cold weather

Perfect with some crispy-bottomed roasties

Serves 2-3

For the casserole

- olive oil

- 1 large onion, thickly chopped

- 1 clove of garlic, chopped

- 450g casserole steak, chopped

- plain flour

- salt & pepper

- 2 carrots, chopped

- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

- 400ml beef stock

- 100g mushrooms, chopped

- sprigs of fresh thyme

For the roast potatoes

- maris piper or king edward potatoes, halved or quartered

- olive oil

- seasoning (spice & herb blend or whatever you like)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. In a large pan, fry the onion and garlic in a generous amount of olive oil for a few minutes. Then add the beef, a sprinkling of flour and seasoning and stiry to combine, cooking for a few more minutes.

3. Next add the carrots, then the best ingredient

4. And the beef stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer.

5. Add the mushrooms and fresh sprigs of thyme, then transfer to a casserole dish with a lid, and cook in the oven for about two hours (stirring halfway through). 

6. Meanwhile, while the casserole is cooking, for the roast potatoes, prepare as many as you wish (depending on your appetite) and par-boil in salted water for around 10-15 minutes.

7. Drain and place on kitchen paper, leaving to cool and dry out for 20-30 minutes.

8. Pour a generous amount of oil into a roasting tin and place in the oven, turning it up to 200 degrees, until the oil has heated up.

9. Remove the tray from the oven and transfer the potatoes into the dish, coating in the hot oil. Season well and then roast in the oven for around 40 minutes, or until crisped to your likening.

10. By the end of the two hours, your casserole should be thicker (add cornflour if not) and ready to serve, accompanied by roasties that are fluffy in the middle, and crisp on the outside.

Enjoy :)

Crispy chicken goujons

These moist chicken goujons are full of flavour and have a golden, crisp crumb - perfect for whipping up a quick, delicious meal. Making chicken goujons from scratch isn't as time-consuming or as tricky as you may think, and they taste far better than shop-bought goujons. The other good thing is that they taste just as delicious cold, for lunch the following day!

Makes 8 goujons

- 8 good quality mini chicken fillets

- handful of plain flour

- seasoning

- 1 egg, beaten

- 2 slices of wholemeal seeded bread

- handful of freshly chopped parsley

- olive oil

1. Take 3 shallow bowls and fill one with flour - season well.

2. Fill another with the beaten egg.

3. In a food processor, blitz the slices of bread until crumbed, then mix with seasoning, and the chopped parsley, and add to the third bowl.

4. Take a chicken fillet and first, dip in the bowl of flour, coating the chicken (this helps the egg to stick).

5. Next, dip and coat in the beaten egg, then into the breadcrumbs until fully coated.

6. Set aside, and continue this process with the rest of the fillets.

7. In a large pan, heat some olive oil, then fry the chicken goujons, turning when one side is crisp and golden.

8. Cook for about 20 minutes on a medium-high heat to ensure the chicken is cooked through, and to get the breadcrumbs perfectly crunchy.

Enjoy :)

Crispy chicken thighs with red pesto spaghetti

Sun-dried tomato pesto, cream, mushrooms, onions, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, parmesan - coating spaghetti on a bed of spinach leaves, with parmesan crusted chicken. Mmmmm. Chicken thighs can be quite difficult to eat since these ones had the bones still in, but I actually prefer having a chunk of meat with pasta, rather than it being chopped up inside (unless it's a pasta bake). I used chicken thighs because they still have the skin on and I love the crispy texture with the moist chicken. This is one of my perfect meals since I'm obsessed with pesto and pasta!

Serves 2
- 4 chicken thighs
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- dried italian herbs
- parmesan, grated
- 180g spaghetti
- 1 red onion, chopped
- handful of mushrooms, sliced
- handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered and some left whole
- 1/2 jar of red pesto (sun-dried tomato)
- dash of cream
- fresh basil, torn
- handful of spinach leaves


1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7. Cut slits in the layer of fat on the chicken thighs - this will help it crisp up.

2. Brush with olive oil, season, sprinkle with herbs and grated parmesan.

3. Bake in the oven for 35 - 45 minutes - cover with foil for the first half of the cooking time!

4. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions, and in a separate pan, fry the onions in some olive oil.

5. When softened, add the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, and continue to fry.

6. Place some tomatoes in with the chicken for the remaining 5 minutes of the cooking time.

7. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the pan. Stir in the onions and mushrooms, and add the pesto and cream, stirring and tossing until coated. Add some fresh basil.

8. Place the spinach leaves in two bowls/plates and serve the spaghetti on top. Top with the chicken thighs and tomatoes. Garnish with some fresh basil and parmesan.

Enjoy :)

Crunchy potato wedges

Everytime I make wedges I usually just slice the potato, add some oil and seasoning and bake in the oven. Don't get me wrong, they are delicious like that but I stepped it up a whole new yummy-level by adding breadcrumbs and fresh parsley. We had these delicious crunchy wedges with the beef burgers (see previous post for recipe). They were full of texture and flavour, perfect!

Serves 2
- 2-3 large baking potatoes, sliced into wedge shapes
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
- generous amount of paprika
- 1 wholemeal crust of bread, crumbled into crumbs
- handful of fresh parsley, chopped


1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Drizzle some of the oil into a deep baking tray and place in oven to heat up.
2. Remove the tray from the oven, and lay the wedges in the oil. Drizzle with the remaining oil. Season with salt & pepper, and sprinkle with paprika.
3. Coat the wedges in the breadcrumbs and parsley. Toss the tray until all combined.
4. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the potato is cooked through, and the breadcrumbs are crisp!

Enjoy :)

Oven-baked rosemary & bacon potato rosti

As I was grating all the potatoes I thought to myself, is this really worth it!? For some reason, I had the expectation that this would be watery and bland (even though I seasoned etc.) Boy was I mistaken! This was one of the best potato dishes I've ever had, and definitely the best one I've ever made. I don't think I've ever even had a rosti before - if I have it wasn't memorable. So I was just going to make a traditional rosti and fry them individually, but then I decided to oven-bake one big one so the potato is cooked for about an hour, meaning the result is a soft, creamy inside, and a crisp outside, mmm. I served this with balsamic, rosemary and tomato marinated lamb which complimented it perfectly. I will post the recipe for the lamb over the next couple of days. Who would have thought grated potato would taste so satisfying...

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

- 3 rashers streaky bacon

- 750g potatoes, peeled (waxy potatoes - I used Sainsburys taste the difference Vivaldi)

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1/2 onion

- butter, for greasing and topping

- dried or fresh rosemary, for sprinkling

- handful of parmesan, grated

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5. Dry-fry the bacon in a pan until golden and crispy. Cut into pieces once cooled.
2. Boil the potatoes whole for about 5 minutes. Drain and place in cold water.
3. When cool enough to handle, grate the potatoes into a large bowl, occasionally adding olive oil.
4. Finely chop the onion and add to the grated potato along with the bacon.
5. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat. Grease a loose-bottomed cake tin with butter and scatter the potato mix into it. Do not pack it down with your hands. Sprinkle with rosemary and parmesan, and scatter butter over the top. (Picture below is at this stage)

6. Place on top of the baking tray in the oven and bake for 1 to 1 and a half hours - until the potatoes are cooked through and crisp on top.

Enjoy :)