Grannie's Shin of Beef Casserole

Ingredients:
Two red or white onions diced
Half pint Guiness ale, half a pint of water
2 lbs [1 kilo] shin beef
Herbs; thyme sprigs, parsley, 2 bay leaves,
Teasp. English mustard,; tablesp. Tomatoe puree; shake of salt and pepper; Tablesp honey

1. Cut beef into bite sized cubes
2. Marinade the beef in a cool place overnight in; the beer, 3 or more cloves of garlic [crushed] and a couple of sprigs of thyme.
3. Next day strain and dry the meat on kitchen paper roll. [put marinade mixture on one side]
4. Fry the cubes of meat with some oil [suggest olive oil, butter mix] until sealed, then add the marinade mixture to the frying pan to heat together with the meat, also add 400 ml of dissolved stock cube[beef]
5. Put this in a slow cooker. Ensure the meat is covered with liquid; if necessary add a little water.
6. Adjust the cooker to ‘high’ for about 30mins then ‘low’ for about 6 to 8hrs.
7. Drain the meat from the gravy
8. Mix 1 to 2 tablesps cornflower with the same volume of cold water, add to the boiling hot gravy
9. Season the gravy with some Worcester sauce and mustard to taste, add the honey and tomato puree whilst hot, pour the gravy over the meat into a hot casserole dish, ready to serve.
[serve with mashed potato and vegetables of choice]
[this is Grannie's tried and tested own recipe]

Coq au vin

the equivalent in chicken pieces of one large bird diced into chunks
2 tablesp of flour
Salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
90g butter
100g [or a bit more] best bacon chopped into gougons
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot diced
4 tablesp brandy
600ml good red cooking wine (We used Wollemi shiraz-cabernet sauvignon in ours, plenty of other grapes would do; grenache-shiraz, pinot noir, etc.)
Garlic cloves, crushed, to taste, we used 4 large cloves
large sprig of thyme and two bay leaves[tied together as a bouquet garni, to be fished out at end of cooking]
bunch of fresh parsley and coriander leaves roughly chopped (I snip them into the pot with scissors)
1 or 2 lumps of sugar
2 tablesp of good olive oil, or more if necessary
8 small shallotts peeled (or fewer large ones)
1 teasp wine vinegar
225 g mushrooms (we used shitake type)

1. Coat the chicken pieces with the flour with plenty of salt and pepper
2. Melt 25g of butter in the casserole dish [pyrex] add the bacon, onion and carrot and fry gently until bacon starts to turn colour
3. Add the chicken pieces and fry hot until they are golden brown all over
4. Pour warm brandy over the chicken and set light to it under a lower heat then pour in the wine and stir.
5. Add the sugar lumps, bouquet garni and garlic, bring to the boil then cover and simmer very gently until the chicken is tender.
6. Meanwhile melt 25g of butter in a frying pan with half a tablesp of oil
7. Add the shallots and fry till just brown, add pinch of sugar, vinegar with a tablsp or so of chicken stock, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or so, then keep warm.
8. Melt 25g of butter into a heavy saucepan with a little oil and add the lightly chopped onions, cook until brown but do not burn.
9. Add all ingredients to the saucepan and simmer until the chicken is well done and tender (about 1 and 1/2 hrs at slow simmer)
Serve with new potatoes or roast potatoes and vegetables to taste.

Grannie’s Mildly Spicy Soup

You never know in life when you may be penniless and need to make a living somehow, you could always make a living out of this recipe!
 
 
Ingredients;
1 medium sized sweet potato
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 small carrots
1 ‘long thin mild sweet red pepper’ [I will let you know the proper name when I can remember it, they are nearly 12 inches long]
1 tablesp tomato ketchup[high quality]
1 tablesp worcester sauce
1 teasp horseradish sauce
some fresh thyme
chicken stock[about 700 mls]
 
 
Peel and dice the onion, sweet potato and carrot, finely dice the sweet pepper, strip the small leaves off a few sprigs of thyme.
Fry the onion, garlic, sweet pepper and thyme together with a little olive oil until soft,add a little ground black pepper and a little sea salt, then add the ketchup and worcester sauce.
 
put the vegetables into a pot with the chicken stock and bring to the boil, add the contents of the frying pan and  simmer till tender then give them a quick whizz in a blender, return to pot and bring to desired heat, serve into pre warmed soup bowls with a side plate of best ciabbata bread and very best butter.
 
 
[Armed with that one recipe, a few crocks and a rented shack with a flashing red neon above the door and you will be in business, you need fear unemployment and the dole no more!]

Grandad's crepe suzette

One of my favourite pancake/pudding recipes is crepe suzette;

Ingredients:
Crepes
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Sauce
- 1 orange
- 75g butter
- 4 or 5 heaped dessert spoons of sugar
- A small amount of brandy (good, but not expensive will do)

1. Make some light pancake batter
2. Peel some zest from the outer surface of the orange with a zester, put it in a frying pan (a small heavy crepe pan is best)
3. Add the butter (How much depends on how many you want to make)
4. Add about 4 or 5 heaped dessert spoonfuls of white sugar
5. Heat gently, stirring the butter and sugar together with the zest. Watch for the gradual caramelisation of the sugar, it will at first start to turn pink then light brown, don’t take it past very light brown
6. Now, whilst stirring constantly, slowly squeeze in the juice of half the orange followed by a slow steady drizzle of brandy
The skill here is slowly change from a hot fat mixture to a hot water (orange+brandy) mixture without bringing the sugar out of solution and forming toffee. It is necessary to slowly increase the heat as you drizzle in the liquids to keep the sugar in a hot dissolved state,
you need just enough brandy/orange juice mix so that when the mixture cools it does not separate out.

If you only want only a small number of crepes then you can fry small pancakes in the mixture itself and serve onto a warm plate or if you want to eke out the mixture for a lot of crepes the fry them separately serve and spoon on the mix.

I do a ‘Caribbean banana dish which is very similar but use brown sugar and rum and a lot more range juice the cook batons of peeled banana into the mix and slowly cook until soft, this dish is very popular at bbq’s

Love grannie and grandad

Grannie's orange cake

Grannie says that the recipe is easy to do and I can confirm that it gives good results - Grandad

- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 3/4 teacup caster sugar
- 5oz (141g) butter
- 1 teacup mixed dried fruit
- 2 eggs
- grated rind of one orange
- juice of half an orange
- 2 dessertspoonfuls of orange marmalde

1. cream the butter and sugar together
2. add beaten eggs
3. add fruit zest and juice
4. add marmalade
5. slowly fold flour in [seive the flour first to make sure that it is an even powder]
6. stir in the fruit
7. Cook in the middle of a moderate oven; 300 degrees F (148C) for 1 hour

GOOD COOKING!

Derived from ‘Auntie’ Sylvia's recipe

Grannie's favourite cake (can be GF)

Ingredients
- 4 ounces (113g) of self raising flour [or gluten free flour of your choice][if you use GF flour then add a level teasp of baking powder]
- 6 ounces (170g) of ground almonds
- 5 ounces (141g) of butter
- 5 ounces (141g) caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 ounces (85g) of mixed dried fruit
- half a teasp of vanilla essence

1. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together.
2. Beat up the eggs, add whipped egg mixture and flour alternately, so mixture does not curdle, fold in the rest of the flour.
3. Add fruit and lightly stir together.
4. Bake for one and a quarter hours @ 150 degrees C

Thats all folks! Love Grannie and Grandpa

Grandad's spiced potatoes

Ingredients
- Potatoes
- Extra Virgin olive oil
- Fenugreek seed (ground)
- Cumin (ground)
- Seed coriander (ground)
- a few cardamoms
- a black cardamom
- a couple of star anise
- some crushed fresh garlic
- finely chopped fresh ginger
- finely chopped fresh chilli (to taste)
- a little ground black pepper
- a pinch or two of salt
- a heaped tsp of turmeric
- a combination of oils (can change depending on what is available) - groundnut, walnut, roasted sesame


1. Choose a top variety of pots. Preferably not kept in store for too long. Boil with a pinch or so of sea salt until just cooked, they need to still be firm, drain while hot and return to saucepan.

2. Sprinkle the pots with extra virgin olive oil generously and leave to stand. [use the same management for roast pots too]. Now get the spices etc ready. Mix equal parts of fenugreek seed, cumin, and seed coriander put in a grinder [like a coffee grinder that hasn't been used for coffee!] and spin roughly, a few green cardamoms, a black cardamom, a couple of star anise, some crushed fresh garlic, finely chopped fresh ginger, finely chopped fresh chilli pepper [to taste], a little ground black pepper and a pinch or two of salt, a heaped teasp of turmeric.

3. Warm the frying pan add a mixture of oils [according to what you have] eg groundnut oil, walnut oil,roasted sesame oil [only a teasp of this] etc. warm the oil then add the spices gently moving them about, when the spices are part cooked put a saucepan lid on the frying pan and turn the gas right down to cook the ginger, then add the potatoes and gently stir them into the spices, fry for a while then put under the grill until the pots are a pleasant brown but not burnt!!!!!

I like to do pots exactly like this but there is short cut: boil some pots,drain, tip into a hot frying pan with some butter, add couple of teasp of a good quality Madras curry paste and fry! Bob's your uncle! easy peasy. [but I can tell the difference]