Steak and Guinness Pie, Beer Bread and Snickerdoodle Blondies

Today is a grey, wet and dreary day. Or, as they say here in Scotland, it's dreich, pronounced dreek but with a very wet k sound from the back of your throat, like loch. So, we are having some lovely comfort food for tea.  Steak and Guinness Pie, Steamed Carrots and Beer Bread.  Dessert for the boys is Snickerdoodle Blondies with ice cream.  

Steak and Guinness Pie

Steak and Guinness Pie

Oil or butter for browning the steak and onions

750 grams (1.5 lbs) steak cut in chunks, cut off any large bits of fat

1/4 cup seasoned flour I used garlic and chilli seasoning in a grinder which has salt in it too.

2 medium onions, diced

3 beef Oxo (bouillon) cubes

500 ml boiling water

1 can Guinness or any strong flavoured beer

2 teaspoons thyme

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 package all ready rolled puff pastry or your own recipe

corn starch and water or Bisto granules if desired to thicken gravy

egg wash for pastry

Dredge meat in the seasoned flour and brown in the oil or butter in a hot pan. Don't over crowd the pan or you will steam the meat instead of brown it.  I did mine in three batches.  Remove browned meat to slow cooker/crock pot. Brown the onions, adding more butter or oil if needed, then add to the meat. Pour the boiling water into the pan and add the Oxo cubes. Using a spoon or a scraper to get up all the lovely crispy brown bits, dissolve the Oxo in the water.  Pour over the meat and onions in the crock pot.  Add the beer and seasonings.  I added more chilli and garlic seasoning as well but you could add plain black pepper if that is more to your taste.  We like spicy.  Cook on high heat until the meat is fork tender, about five hours.  I start mine on high for about two hours and then put it on low to continue cooking for the rest of the day. When the meat is tender, thicken the gravy with cornstarch and water, or Bisto granules, if needed. 

There are two ways to finish off your pie.  I pour the hot beef and gravy into a baking dish and cover with pastry.  You can either put one big top on, cutting vents to release steam, or individual rounds of pastry, one for each person. Following the directions on the pastry package, brush with the egg wash and bake the pie in the oven until the pastry is done.  Or, if you want an easier way, cut the pastry into serving size pieces, brush with the egg wash and, again following the directions on the package, bake on a tray until done. Portion the beef and gravy onto plates and top with the baked pastry.  You may wonder why I used small rounds of pastry instead of covering the whole top of the pie. as most would.  Well, there are millions of calories in puff pastry and that is my way of cutting the calories down while still enjoying the pie.

Beer Bread

Beer Bread

375 grams (13 ounces) self-raising flour

3 tablespoons sugar

330 ml (12 ounces) strong flavoured beer of choice 

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Generously butter bottom and sides of a bread pan.

Mix flour and sugar together, add beer and mix until combined. I used a honey ale this time but often I use Guinness.   Pour into buttered pan and let rest for about 30 minutes.  Bake in preheated oven (375f/180c) until browned on top and tester comes out clean. About 50 minutes.  Once you have taken the bread out of the oven, brush with the melted butter while still in the pan. Leave in the pan on the cooling rack for about 10 minutes then remove from the pan and allow to finish cooling. Serve warm with honey butter for a real treat.

Snickerdoodles are just sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon and sugar before baking. I'm all for bars over cookies however and decided to try making Snickerdoodle Blondies.  The recipe and photo come from Lisa at My Own Sweet Thyme. They turned out great and we all loved them.  Very sweet though so if/when I make them again I might cut the brown sugar down just a bit.

Fast day 8 and catch up from yesterday

Sunday was, by special request, meat loaf night.  So that made yesterday spaghetti bolognese night.  My sister is married to an Italian and that is a tradition she  has given to me, making spaghetti bolognese with chopped up leftover meat loaf.  I make my sauce in the crock pot/slow cooker and I let it go all day so the flat smelled delicious!  I also made some meat balls to go in the sauce and some French bread that I turned into garlic bread.  Of course, since life is never easy I had to make a white Alfredo type sauce for the boy who eats nothing that looks like it grew from the ground.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to put up, sorry about that.

Italian Style Meat Loaf

500 grams of bulk Italian sausage, hot or sweet, your choice, we use hot
500 grams lean ground beef mince
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon basil
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion or 1 small chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and press into loaf pan.  Bake at 350/170 until internal temperature reaches 165f.  I almost always use a digital meat thermometer rather than time when cooking meat, but you can expect it to take about an hour.  I usually bake potatoes at the same time to go with this and we had corn, which is one of the few "vegetables" picky boy will eat.  I made peach cobbler for dessert and that made enough for the boys to have dessert every night they eat with us this week.

I can't find Italian sausage here so I make my own.  We really like it and I use it to make patties for sandwiches as well.

500 grams or 1 pound ground/minced pork
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seed
1 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
14 - 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

I put all the seasoning ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and mix them together well.  Then I put the pork in and seal it up and squeeze the bag around until the seasonings are evenly distributed through the meat.  I usually make this up a couple of days before needing it to make sure the flavours are well blended.  If pork is on sale you can make this in any quantity you want and freeze it in appropriate sized portions. 

I don't know if any one actually needs a recipe for meat balls but just in case . . . here is a basic recipe you can tweak to suit your family.

Italian style Meat Balls (six large meatballs at 184 calories each)

1.5 pounds/750 grams extra lean minced beef

1 egg

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 teaspoon basil

1 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Mix gently, not too much, and then form into six large meatballs, fry in a little bit of olive oil to brown and finish cooking them off in your sauce.  I put them in the crock pot/slow cooker with my meat loaf bolognese sauce to cook all day.  

"Alfredo Sauce"  is in quotes because it tastes like Alfredo but uses much less butter and has a lot less calories.  We really like it and you can use low fat/calorie ingredients to suit your taste/diet.  Since serving size is so individual, I just use a couple of tablespoons but my son probably uses 1/2 cup I have figured the calorie count for the whole recipe.

Alfredo style sauce (1031 calories for the recipe)

3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons plain flour
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) semi skimmed (2%) milk, more as needed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup (50 grams) grated parmesan cheese (or more to taste)
100 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (about 3.5 ounces or so)
freshly grated black pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg

In a sauce pan, melt butter and add flour to make a roux.   Slowly add the milk, whisking the entire time, stir until thick.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.  Add more milk if you decide it is too thick for your tastes.

The French Bread recipe, and the photo, came from here.  I haven't had time to search this blog properly but it looks like there are lots of great recipes.  The bread turned out wonderful and, after I cut the end off so I could make sure it wasn't poisonous  I made it into garlic bread to go with the spaghetti last night.  Every one loved it.

This post is already full of recipes so I won't post my bolognese sauce recipe.  I figure every body probably already has one they love to make or buy.  If you do want a recipe that is full of fresh veg and made in the slow cooker, let me know in the comments and I will do a later post on it.

Today is fasting day eight, and I am making a classic British dish called Toad in the Hole.  Don't ask me why it's called that, I have absolutely no idea, maybe one of my readers can enlighten us.  My recipe makes six servings, one each for Larry and I and two for each of the boys.  I will serve it up with green beans for all and left over peach cobbler for the boys.

Toad in the Hole  (six servings at 283 calories per serving)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 sausages, I used Morrison's Best Pork, Smoked Bacon and Cheddar

170 grams/6 ounces plain flour

3 eggs

185 ml/6 ounces semi-skimmed (2%) milk

Brown sausages under the grill or on top of the stove.  Place oil in a (9x13) baking dish and put into a cold oven.  Turn oven on to 400f/200c.  While the oven and dish is pre-heating, make the batter.  Either use a blender or a stick blender to mix flour, milk and egg until smooth.  Remove the hot pan from the oven, put the sausages in the bottom and pour the batter over them.  Bake about 35 minutes or until the centre is puffy and browned.  Don't be worried if the batter falls a bit after you take it out of the oven, it is supposed to do that.

Toad in the Hole