Ingredients

1.3 kg well trimmed stewing beef 

4 Tbls vegetable oil
1 rounded Tbls Plain flour 

1 500 ml can Guinness

150 mls chicken stock (half a Knorr Stock Pot)

50 mls Cream Sherry (Lidls finest)
2 med onions halved and sliced lengthways (350 g)

5 carrots peeled and sliced (350 - 380 g)

3  Celery sticks chopped (150 g)
1  Tsp thyme
1 bay leaf – 2 if small
4 large garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons tomato puree 

1 Tbls wholegrain mustard

1 Tbls Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbls light Soy Sauce –  

1 Tsp sugar (optional)

A sprinkle of white pepper (optional)

Options/Notes

The sugar is optional but if leaving out the sherry I would advise using it.

For the onions, celery and carrots - I’m giving guide amounts but if you are short on something add a bit of the other.

I use Chicken Stock - you will see recipes call for beef stock or worse … no stock … but chicken stock brings a flavour without overpowering the dish.

Cream Sherry - This is as cheap as can be in Lidl and its permanently by my cooker. It adds to almost everything and saves you wasting good wine!!

Method

Beef and Guinness Stew is easy … but sadly easy can be bland if not done correctly. I have had some lacklustre results with even well known recipes for this. But the good news it only takes basic store cupboard ingredients to make sure this stew is truly rich and flavoursome.

Heat oven to 140

Fry the beef in half the oil with salt and pepper to brown it. Then set aside keeping the juices.

Chop your onions in half from top to bottom, then slice through each half lengthways 3 or 4 times (small petals) and add them to the pan with some oil and slowly sweat over a low heat. After about 4 mins, add your garlic either chopped or crushed and continue to sweat. Leave the lid on between stirring and make sure the heat is low and nothing burns. 

Give that about another 4 minutes and add a rounded tablespoon of flour and cook it in with your onions and garlic. If it starts to stick to the pot you can add some oil and some of the juice from the meat to make sure it doesn’t burn. 

Add your carrots and celery and sweat for a bit … you want to get a slight aroma of cooked carrots as opposed to raw carrot before you move to the next step. Waiting for the veg to smell appealing is the key to getting a great flavour – if you add the stock too early you are just boiling raw veg. 

Add your meat and juice to the pot and stir giving it about 2 minutes while you add your Mustard, Tomato Puree, Thyme, Light Soy Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Sugar, Sherry and plenty of Black pepper. Then add your Guinness, half a Knorr Chicken Stock Pot and 150 mls warm water.

I always add a little sprinkle of white pepper - it just brings something to soups and stews!

Bring everything to a good simmer and put the lid on the pot and place it in the oven at 140 for 2 hours

See below for serving suggestions.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoon oil

•  1 kg Minced Beef

• 2 large or 3 medium onions Diced

• 2 Red Peppers Sliced

• 2 or 3 Celery sticks finely sliced (optional)

• 4 or 5 large cloves Garlic - crushed

• 2 tsp cumin

• 4 tsp Hot Paprika (this has cayenne in it)

• 1/2 Teaspoon Oregano

• 5 long dried red chillis * chopped or cut with a scissors

• 200 mls Red Wine

• 500 G passata

• 1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes

• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

• 25 g Dark Chocolate

• 2 Bay Leaves

• Salt, Black Pepper, White Pepper

• 1 Can of Cannellini Beans or Kidney Beans

• I jar Sliced Jalapeños

• Corriander leaves to serve (optional)

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* Long dried red chillies are available in every Asian Market. They are essential in chilli con carne for the type of spicy flavour needed. They are less spicy than fresh red or green chillies and taste totally different.

Jalapeños are usually available in jars in most supermarkets.

Method

This is very easy to make and worth making this amount - it will be lovely the next day and can be used on rice or for nachos or in pitta pockets or on a baked potato!

I find a large wok like pan is the best for cooking this in - just make sure you have a lid that you can use for parts of the cooking - even if it just sits into the wok.

This recipe was devised to use dried red chillies and jalapeños - I don’t recommend trying this and subbing in other chillies. However if you like it mild then just use 2 teaspoons of Hot Paprika and 2 teaspoons of regular (not smoked) Paprika)

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Sweat the red pepper low on a low heat in a tablespoon of oil while chopping the onion. Keep a lid over the pepper while sweating and let it get soft and start to smell pleasant. Add your onion and garlic and a bit of salt after you see it softening. If using the celery add it now too.

Keep the heat low as you don’t want the garlic to burn and after a few minutes add your paprika, cumin, dried chilli along with some black pepper. Mix it all together and give it a minute or two for the flavour to bloom and infuse.

Now set this mixture aside on a plate and add another tablespoon of oil to the wok or pan and turn up the heat - once the pan is hot add the mince and keep turning and stirring it - breaking it up as you go. You can add a bit of salt and more black pepper.

Add your wine, tomato paste, chocolate, bay leaves and oregano once the meat is browned.

Now add your passata, and the tin of tomatoes and bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 10 mins with the lid on.

Now add back in your pre cooked veg and let it gently simmer for another 20minutes with the lid on but giving it the odd stir.

Drain and rinse the tinned beans and add to the mixture with a pinch of white pepper if you have it.

You will now be able to see if you need to reduce the sauce by much - simmer for at least 10 mins with the lid off as required and 5 minutes before you finish add the drained Jalapeños - I’d suggest using the whole jar for this amount.

Ingredients

• 600 g quality minced beef, pork, or a mixture of the two (my preference is a mix with slightly more pork)

• 2 heaped teaspoons Dijon mustard 

• 1 heaped tablespoon dried oregano 

• 1 large free-range egg – lightly beaten

• 3 cloves Garlic – crushed not chopped

• 1 small to medium onion – slightly softened in oil (you could sub in shallots)

• 50 g bread crumbs 

• 40g parmesan cheese, finely grated

• Salt and Black Pepper - a few twists

Options

Obviously you can make lots of tweaks to this recipe.

Oregano can be omitted in favour of thyme or mixed herbs.

Use 500 g mix of Beef and Pork and 100g of pancetta.

Add a bit of chilli, cayenne or some chilli flakes if you want a bit of spice.

For a Mexican feel add chopped jalapeños

For a Hungarian Meatball use some paprika or hot paprika.

See BELOW for a different recipe based on this one!

Method

This is your basic Meatball recipe that will steer you right. As you can see - below the recipe I have added other little tweaks and versions for you to try and of course you can always try an idea of your own. Let me know - links to my accounts are here.

Take your ingredients and use a fork to mix them all up in a bowl.

Make and shape the meatballs in to golf ball size.

When you have shaped them all put them on a plate and leave to rest in the fridge.

To cook - I gently fry them on all sides for just a few minutes to seal them and then bake for around 40 mins.

See below for serving suggestions.

Ingredients

• 500 g quality minced beef/lamb or a mixture

• 1 teaspoons Dijon mustard 

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 

• ½ teaspoon cumin

• 1 large free-range egg – lightly beaten

• 2 cloves Garlic – crushed not chopped

• 1 small  onion finely chopped

• 40 g bread crumbs 

• Salt and Black Pepper - a few twists

Method

This recipe is part of a dish that I wanted to make to prove that we don’t need to be buying Aleppo pepper, rose harissa and god knows what else to get a different twist on our table this summer. Cooked with the sauce I recommend you have the making of a delicious supper, lunch or meze grazing board.

Take your ingredients and use a fork to mix them all up in a bowl.

You should be able to get about 12 Meatballs from this recipe

When you have shaped them all put them on a plate and leave to rest in the fridge.

To cook - I gently fry them on all sides for just a few minutes to seal them and then bake for around 40 mins.

See below for serving suggestions.

Ingredients

•  500 g chicken cubed

•  3 large Cloves Garlic

• 2 Peppers preferably 1 green and 1 of any other colour.

•  2 onions Cut in half top to bottom, then cut into wedges.

•  2 tablespoons oil  -

•  2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Half a jar of Doritos Salsa or similar. This is around 150 g salsa.

• 1 Sachet Fajita Mix * see note

• 4 Stalks Celery

• 1 Heaped Tablespoon Old El Paso** Jalapeños. If using hot salsa this may be enough but if its cool salsa you may want more.

• 1 teaspoon thyme (or your preferred herbs)

• Plenty of Black Pepper

• Corriander Leaves. If you like corriander sprinkle it over the dish when serving or if serving with rice mix it into the rice.

* I recommend Lidls Newgate Fajita Mix or Discovery if you can find it. I do know a lot of people love Old El Paso though I find it a bit ‘beefy’. The Jar of Schwartz is to be avoided.

**I like the Old El Paso Jalapeños because they are in water not vinegar. But a jar by another brand will be fine too. These are really handy to keep in the fridge for pizzas or chilli con carne too.

Check out a great dessert to go with this dish. Lemon Sorbet with Tequila Drizzle

Method

This dish is an experiment that just happened to work out well and I will be updating the recipe and versions the more I make it.

Video of dish in Chicken Highlights on my Instagram page. Its called Contents of the Fridge Traybake

The Experiment was to take all the contents of my fridge out and use them up. I was going to make a paprika chicken traybake but then I spotted the half jar of Salsa and I had a rethink. I love fajitas but sometimes Im slow to make them as frying all the stuff can create a lingering smell and when I make them .. 2 is too few and 3 is too much!

But the idea of cooking this in the oven appealed to me - so on finding a sachet of Fajita Mix at the back of the cupboard - we were up and running.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180

Cut the onions into wedges, roughly chop the garlic, peppers and Celery. Dice the chicken into decent sized chunks. put it all into an oven proof dish and stir in your oil, lemon juice, fajita mix and black pepper. Add a little sea salt but not much.

- so far that’s just ‘Honors Chopping’ in fact “Pass Chopping will still taste great. Cover the dish with a lid or tinfoil and bung it in the oven for 20 minutes. You will be cooking without a lid for the last bit.

Spice Level

Now you need to decide what level of spice you want in this dish. I love spice and even though I used the Hot Salsa I still loaded up on the Jalapeños. I’ve indicated a heaped tablespoon but I did use a bit more. The ones I used this time were red although I generally have Green in the cupboard. They were delicious. I think you really want the proper jalapeños in this dish but if you just want Mexican and not spicy then by all means leave it out.

Pop the jalapeños into the dish and give it a good stir. Put it back into the oven with NO lid for another 30 - 35 mins. It will probably need a stir during this time to make sure it doesn’t burn.

See below for serving suggestions.