From Chinese New Year to Chilli - we travel the globe in this week's menu plan!

I certainly didn't put it together with that in mind, but as it turns out, we are very definitely doing some nation-hopping in this week's menu plan.

Hubby is very nearly recovered from his tummy malaise, so the field has opened up again on types of recipe to choose from.  Two meals were already fairly mapped out by the calendar - Chinese New Year and Burns Night.  The rest?  Well, just call us culinary globe trotters.

Apart from Friday's trip to the Golden Arches, every dish has been planned with a very definite eye towards it being low fat.  I think I'm going to have to get better at planning in some low sugar/low GI meals, though.  To be honest, in between my low fat & carbohydrate/anti-inflammatory requirements, hubby's low sugar/low GI and son & heir's high vitamins & minerals/low fat requirements, it's a wonder I can ever think of anything to eat in the first place!  Mind you, chilli-con-water, or coq au H2O, or Ice Pie don't really sound terribly appetising (although the Ice Pie has potential!).


So what did I come up with for this week, then?  Here's how it's looking :

Tues : Broccoli Chicken with rice

Weds : Haggis, clapshot, carrots & green beans

Thurs : Pasta Amatriciana

Fri : Macdonalds

Sat : Chicken in Almond Sauce, rice and green salad

Sun : Slow cooker beef stew

Mon : Chilli con carne with rice.

Yes, I do know that Chinese New Year was on the Monday, not the Tuesday, but our financial situation, shopping days and the menu plan meant that we just had to celebrate it a day late.  Better late than never, that's what I say!

I made Ken Hom's Broccoli Chicken and unfortunately it was more than a little disappointing, which was odd when you consider that we liked it so much the first time.  I have to admit that I stayed fairly close to the original recipe this time, only deviating from it to add some bean sprouts and water chestnuts.

I do think, however, that the biggest problem with it was the Oyster Sauce that I used.  In the past, I'd had a lovely big bottle of some Chinese make of Oyster Sauce, but that had run out so I got the only one available to me when I did the online ordering, which was an own-brand.  Well, I won't be doing that again as it was a pale travesty of the original.

Quite apart from remembering how the dish tasted when I made it the first time, I could tell that this version had got potential - it was just watery-tasting and insubstantial.  Ah well, I'll make sure to get another bottle of the Chinese version of Oyster Sauce when next I'm in that shop!

Burns Night struck last night - and very happy I was about it, too.

A couple of days beforehand, we'd been out and held a great Haggis hunt which had netted us a dinky little Lancashire Haggis, made by Brown Bros Butchers.  Now I recall last year's Haggis - which I liked, but it did have a very strong flavour of clove, which I hate.  It is testament to the flavour of the remainder of the ingredients that I managed to like the Haggis overall.  This Lancashire Haggis, however, was streets apart from that.   With no particularly dominant flavour - other than "Haggis" - it was able to take on that highly seasoned, intensely savoury characteristic that says "Haggis" as soon as you catch a whiff of it.  In texture, the oatmeal component was really quite obvious but I liked that as it gave you something to bite upon.  The most pleasantly surprising part about the Haggis was its creaminess.  Now don't ask me how the Butchers managed to get that creamy flavour in there, but it was completely delicious and I defy anyone (who isn't a teenager, anyway) to dislike it.  Son and heir did eat part of his portion of Haggis, but was far keener on the backup sausages that I'd also prepared.  Hubby agreed with me that the Haggis was very good - the best he'd tried in years - but did say that it "needed whisky".  Ah well, I've got until next year to invest in some.

The Clapshot (mashed potato with swede, chives & butter) was spoiled rather by the swede's resistance to being cooked.  I had put the potatoes and swede together in the same pan and the potatoes were tender long before the swede - which resulted in the potatoes being rather overcooked.  I often find with swede that it either cooks in a trice, or takes for EVER to cook.  I suspect it has something to do with how old the swede is in the first place.  Ours had been hanging around since last week's shopping delivery when Asda left me twice the amount I asked for, so it had had a chance to dry out a little.  I was beginning to consider its use as bulletproofing for official cars, when it finally decided to cook - but not before I'd reduced the size of the pieces considerably.

With lashings of lovely gravy, I thoroughly enjoyed our Burns Night dinner.

Tonight, we're off to Italy for some Pasta Alla Amatriciana.  I was looking for something that didn't involve a side dish of vegetables or the use of rice, when I remembered this one.  Fingers crossed it won't go the same way as the Broccoli Chicken, in that the first go at it was considerably better than the second!

On Friday, son & heir's school has decided to take his year to the Science Museum in London for the day.  Talk about lucky!  Wish I was going!  It's been decades since I went and I can still remember how great it was - so hopefully he'll have a brilliant time.  He loves anything to do with Science or Physics, so I'm sure it'll be right up his street.

Because we are never sure what time the coaches will be getting back from trips like these, we've decided to round of his day with a trip to Macdonalds.  Well, it's on our way home, he'll enjoy it and it saves me cooking.  Can't argue with that.

Hotel Los Berchules - doesn't it look glorious, there?

I'll be able to use Friday as time in which to gird my loins before making Pollo en Salsa de Alemendras - or Chicken in Almond Sauce, to you.  This is a recipe that was recommended to me by the lovely person behind the Twitter name @LosBerchules - which is a Hotel in Spain.

They recommended it following my posting about the Coq au vin and, having had a look at the recipe, it looks just exactly the kind of interesting recipe that always has me curious.

I love almonds and have always got some in the house for healthy snacking purposes, not to mention for baking use.  In this recipe, you fry the almonds with a little bread and then blitz them along with garlic and white wine to form the sauce.  That appeals to me, even though I can't quite envisage how it's going to turn out.

But then, that's part of the magic of cooking - finding out how these flavours can go together and how well they do it!

Not sure about the dumplings, this time.

I've put the Slow Cooker Beef Stew back on the menu for Sunday, so we're back to England where that one's concerned.  I really love a gorgeous, glossy, shin of beef stew with loads of veggies and a gloriously deep flavoured gravy.  It's the ultimate in comfort food and I can think of little nicer than a big bowl of stew, a spoon, a comfy chair and a warm radiator (if not a crackling fire) on a cold night.  It'll also be lovely to not have to be so taken up with that night's dinner all day, as often happens on a Sunday.

Arriba!

We're off to Mexico on Monday, for Chilli con carne - or "Chilli con healthy", as the recipe is billed.

Having read the recipe, it doesn't differ very much at all from our usual chilli recipe's method, it just contains a slightly different spicing than our normal.  So it will be interesting to have a chilli that is flavoured a little differently.

So there we are.

I dare say a few extra bits of cooking will appear throughout the week.  Hubby is still yearning to create a Sourdough starter, although "The Fabulous Baker Boys" on t.v. last night has slightly put him off, as we can't think where the heck we could put the eventual dough to rise for 8-12 hours, that'd be warm all that time!  Unfortunately, we don't have anything useful like an airing cupboard, which would be perfect.

Oh, and a quick word for all of us here in the U.K. - it's the "Big Garden Birdwatch" this weekend, so if you have bird feeders in your garden or just enjoy watching the birds, why not go and download the bird identification checksheet and set aside an hour in which to join in.  I'm crossing my fingers that my little flock of 11 goldfinches turn up on the day!

.

Slow cooker beef stew & dumplings with Tenderstem broccoli

As the days have suddenly become decidedly autumnal, so my thoughts have turned to beautiful dark stews, studded with fluffy dumplings.

Inevitably, much in the same way as word association, (stew : slow cooker), these thoughts are swiftly followed by the hope that maybe this year, I'll be able to use the Slow Cooker successfully.

I've owned a slow cooker, in one incarnation or another, for what seems like donkeys' years now.  My first one was a tiny slow cooker which would feed one person.  I believe it used to be my Nanna's and was put away to await a new owner when she passed away.  I was only too pleased to inherit it when my Mum suggested it, as at that time, I was working a 9-6pm job five days a week, plus walking two lurchers and taking care of two horses outside of work time.  I would generally find myself looking hopefully in the fridge at around 9pm each day and resorting to horrid ready-made microwave dinners.  My slow cooker changed all that.  I would feel sorry for the dogs, having to sit in the flat while I was at work and smell the dinner slowly chuckling away in it.  They always got the leftover gravy at the end, so even the dogs knew that the slow cooker was A Very Good Thing.


However, when my medium-sized slow cooker finally died, I replaced it with an enormous version that would easily take an entire chicken, plus all the veg.  Quite apart from anything else, it took up a prodigious amount of space on the worktop, which was a bit of a pain.  Being able to cook lovely stews and roast entire chickens in it offset these difficulties.  Then, for some strange reason, I lost my slow cooker muse and instead of turning out great meals, I went through a phase of everything either turning to water or everything tasted of "slow cooker", i.e. boiled and pallid.


Looking back, I suspect what happened was that I got over-confident with it.  I began cutting corners and instead of (for instance) browning the meat before the slow cooking began, I would just throw everything in, switch it on and expect it to be lovely.  Not surprisingly, it wasn't.  Another aspect was that with a sudden reduction in the amount of money we were bringing in each month (another story entirely), I couldn't afford to buy the cuts of meat that were suited to slow cooking.  Those horrid frozen chicken breasts that are more water than meat immediately come to mind.  Nothing could make those things taste good.

Makes your mouth water!

As a result, my lovely slow cooker has resided at the back of the pan cupboard for nearly two years now.  However, in the meantime, I've begun taking cooking a whole lot more seriously and have achieved a certain level of self-education with it.  As a result, I've forgotten the horrid short cuts that I used to take and now understand how to achieve flavour in food.


I was hugely intrigued to give the slow cooker another go.  I was more than a little trepidacious that the lovely, dark, rich-gravied beef stew that I had in my mind's eye would turn out to taste not of Beef Shin, but of slow cooker.  It had to be done, though.  After all, I had the biggest slow cooker in the world not only taking up space in my cupboards, but it was a cheaper method of cooking than using the stove.  It should have been a no-brainer, as they say.


So, at around 10am, I sat down with knife and chopping board, hubby stood ready with peeler - and we commenced the cutting-and-a-peeling that is necessary to produce a beautiful beef stew.


It isn't a five-minute job, assembling a really good stew, it takes some time.  However, once you've got everything trimmed, peeled, diced, chopped and out of the cupboards, it's a simple matter of processing it through the browning, sweating, par-cooking and composing (that'll be the gravy) and on into the slow cooker.

Thereafter, all you need do is waft past on occasion, casting a sidelong glance at the contents through the glass lid, and sigh wistfully - right up until that moment when you've got an hour to go and you can safely lift the lid, stir the contents, drop in the dumplings and really begin to anticipate dinnertime.


My slow cooker Muse has returned - and very glad I am too.


SLOW COOKER BEEF STEW WITH DUMPLINGS  (feeds 4)


Ingredients :


800g beef shin, trimmed (start with 800g, to allow for wastage through trimming)
3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced finely
9 small round shallots, topped & tailed and peeled, but left whole
1 fat clove of garlic, chopped finely
9 chestnut mushrooms, wiped clean, but left whole
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunky pieces
2-3 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunky pieces
2 celery sticks, de-stringed and chopped finely
enough swede for your own preference, peeled and cut into chunky pieces
1 medium potato, cut into fine dice
6-8 baby new potatoes, washed and left whole
3 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp vegetable bouillion powder
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
150ml red or white wine (I used white, as it was what I had available)
500ml beef stock (from a cube is fine)
1 tsp wholegrain Mustard
1 tsp Bovril
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 large gherkins, chopped
a large handful of curly parsley - including stalks - chopped fine.


For the dumplings :


100g self raising flour
50g vegetable suet
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
water, to combine.


Method :


1.  In a non-stick frying pan, heat up 2 tbsp of the oil and, when up to temperature, brown the pieces of beef.  Once they have taken on a good dark colour, decant them into the slow cooker, taking care to replace the lid and turn it on to low.


2.  Add the onion and shallots to the frying pan and cook until the onion has begun to take on colour and is softened.  Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan and cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Decant into the slow cooker.


3.  Add the remainder of the vegetables to the frying pan (I did it in two batches) and fry until beginning to take on colour.  Again, decant into the slow cooker.  When all the vegetables are in, stir to combine.


4.  Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the frying pan and heat.  Sprinkle in the flour and bouillion powder and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.


5.  Add the wine and allow it to frizzle, while you stir like crazy, trying to avoid huge lumps.  It is inevitable that some lumps will occur - but don't fret, as these will disperse once in the slow cooker.  Add the beef stock and continue stirring.


6.  Once up to a simmer, reduce the heat and add the mustard, bovril, tomato puree and worcestershire sauce and stir to combine.  Season to taste and once thickened to your satisfaction, decant it into the slow cooker.  It is best to go for a really quite thick gravy at this stage, as the juices from the meat and vegetables will serve to dilute it as they cook.


7.  Finally, add the gherkins and parsley and give everything a good stir.  Replace the lid, turn it up to high and leave it for a minimum of 4 hours.


8.  At this stage, mix up the dumplings by placing the flour, suet and a pinch of salt & pepper into a bowl and add sufficient water to mix up the dough.  I always opt for a sticky mix, as we like rustic looking dumplings, as opposed to shaped, smooth dumplings.


9.  Remove the lid from the slow cooker and stir the contents.  Then, spoon small amounts of the dumpling mixture onto the surface of the stew and leave them where they fall.  Replace the lid and turn the slow cooker down to medium.  Leave to cook for another hour.


10.  Serve with some tenderstem broccoli, for a lovely splash of green on the plate.


.