This is one of my "hit and run" style of blog posts, that covers something I've made for myself - either breakfast, or lunch - that was too good not to share.
This quick cheesy scrambled egg in a toasted pitta bread breakfast is one such. I didn't have my "proper" camera to hand, so snapped a picture with my camera phone. This is why it's not a great picture - but it's enough to give you the idea.
It's a simple enough concept - an egg, scrambled, with grated cheese melted in and put into a pitta bread. However, it's not a stovetop job, it's a microwave job.
Super-easy, super-quick and you're left with a mug, a fork and a knife to wash up. As you can see, I didn't even bother to dirty a plate. Perfect.
QUICK CHEESY SCRAMBLED EGGS (serves 1)
Ingredients :
1 large or very large egg
a small handful of grated cheese (I used Red Leicester, but any hard cheese is good)
a small knob of butter
1 tsp cream, if you've got it (not essential)
small pinch of sea salt and black pepper
Plus :
whatever you're serving it with - pitta bread, toast, bacon, whatever you like.
Method :
Crack the egg into a robust and microwave safe coffee mug.
Add the seasoning and cream (if you're using cream) and whisk them together with your fork.
Add the butter and grated cheese and stir lightly.
Place into the microwave and give it 30 seconds on full power. Remove and give the contents a good old whisk with your fork again.
Replace and give it 15 seconds on full power. Remove and whisk again. Now, depending upon the power of your microwave, your egg will either be ready, or you'll need to give it small increments (say 5-10 seconds) further cooking until it reaches the consistency you like.
I recommend you remove it from the microwave when the egg is still a little bit underdone, as it will continue to cook even once it's on the plate!
In the meantime, you can have toasted a pitta bread, or made some toast, or if you're going very a la carte, even made some bacon earlier. Serve up the egg with an extra sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper if you like that - and dig in!
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Are you, like I was, looking at the concept of a soup containing beef, ale (beer) and cheese and thinking "erm .. well how does that work, then?". If so, then it works very well, surprisingly well in fact.
I'd seen various incarnations of this idea appearing on recipe sharing websites for a while and have to admit that I'd thought it was just one of those fads that occurs from time to time. Like cheese stuffed meatloaf, prosciutto wrapped chicken breasts and cakes decorated with maltesers. You know the sort of thing - not something that's going to last, a bit of a fashion thing - a flash in the proverbial pan.
However, I'm not sure if it was familiarity with seeing it turn up so regularly or just sheer curiosity that did it, but whatever it was - I succumbed, tried it out and it works.
Now you'll know that I'm rarely keen on a recipe that involves lots of procedures, lots of ingredients (well, except maybe for curries) and lots of faffing about. You'll also know that my hubby isn't keen on "bouncy meat" and any type of beef requires a long, relaxing bath in the slow cooker in order for it to gain the thumbs up.
So when I began seriously considering how to make this warming wintery gem, I started from those two standpoints - simple and slow cooker.
Now it's soup we're talking about here - not stew. So I had to choose a liquid base that would be interesting enough in flavour to be there in quantity plus also able to withstand a long cooking time. Now obviously, beef stock would have done the job on at least one of those counts. However, I didn't want the soup to be too weighted to one ingredient or the other. I was after an amalgous whole. An affinity between ingredients. I also didn't want it to be too "gravy" flavoured. Too much of a "gravy" flavour would be too stew-like.
Tomato passata was out, as it took everything down too much of an Italian route. Creaminess was out, too. Nobody wants a beef soup that is creamed.
Inevitably, the ole grey cells turned to alcohol. After all, I'd done a fair few "in cider" dishes and knew that they worked. I'd also cooked with ale a few times and knew what a lovely savoury end result you wind up with. Yes, that was the thing - a light ale. After all, beer and cheese were made to go together. Light enough to still be there in the flavour profile, but without dominating either the beef or the cheese.
I knew that building up the flavour in layers is often the way to go - so what vegetable matter to put in there. Some for flavour, some for texture, some for thickening. Onion was a given and it would have to be fried so as to avoid that horrible raw onion flavour overpowering everything. Celery is a good one, but no carrots, not this time. I didn't want it to be a stew, remember? Garlic always helps savouriness along, so that was a definite. As for herbage, I was torn between parsley, thyme and oregano. Son and heir had complained recently about everything having parsley in it, so I restrained myself to providing a mere sprinkling of parsley as garnish and decided to go with thyme. Well, oregano was going too far down the Italian/pizza flavour route again. I had declared myself done with thyme just recently, as it seemed to go in everything and I had got distinctly fed up with it. However, there was just no alternative - and it went very well.
I was a little bit worried that a lot of these flavours were "top end" and there was nothing really backing up the garlic and beef at the "lower end" of the flavour spectrum, until I remembered I had a few mushrooms. Perfect.
Now potato was a given as it tends to disintegrate and act as a thickener. I needed something else though, something that had inherent sweetness that would counteract the bitter, hoppy flavour of the ale. There in my veggie drawer of the fridge, was sat a half a butternut squash. Again, perfect. I peeled it, cut it into cubes and in it went, providing colour, beta carotene and the desired amount of sweetness.
With the combination of mature Cheddar's tangy, salty flavours and the Red Leicester's softer tones, the cheese was relatively easy to pin down. I felt they both worked very well, although perhaps a medium matured Cheddar might have been better for my palate. If you can cope with the big flavours of a tangy, salty, matured cheddar then go ahead with it, if you're a bit wobbly about cheese, I'd recommend a medium matured Cheddar. Just don't reduce the quantity, as it makes a huge difference to the texture of the soup.
Now, what Cook's Tips can I offer you? Well, apart from the type of Cheddar used (as above), I really don't think the type of beef that you use matters all that much. Quite obviously, you wouldn't want to be using rump steak, nor a sirloin roast. However any of your stewing, casserole, braising types from brisket right down to good old shin, would work. Just adjust the cooking time to suit. I used a stewing type of beef that had already been diced - not my favourite type of beef to use, but we were fortunate in that it turned out to be just perfect for the job. I suspect it was probably a combination of shin with a bit of braising steak mixed in, as there were two very different textures of meat in there. However, I'd use it again as it was really good. It had around 8 or 9 hours in total on high and was absolutely as soft as butter and completely delicious.
I served the soup with some lovely sourdough, rustic bread from our local Patisserie Mark Bennett bakery. You need bread with some "oomph" alongside the soup, but if you haven't got it don't worry. The soup is the star!
BEEF, ALE & CHEESE SOUP (serves 4)
Ingredients :
3 tbsp plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
750g braising or stewing beef - I used shin - trimmed of fat and cut into chunks
1 onion, chopped small
2 stalks of celery, chopped small
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
1 large garlic clove, crushed and chopped finely
1 medium potato, peeled and cut into cubes
half a butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into cubes
half a teaspoonful of dried thyme
500ml bottle of light ale beer
500ml cold water
a teaspoonful of low salt veal or beef stock powder (or a low salt stock cube)
100ml single cream
200g grated cheese - I used 50/50 Cheddar and Red Leicester
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley, for garnish.
Method :
1. Place the flour and a pinch of sea salt and half a teaspoonful of black pepper into a large plastic bag and toss to combine.
2. Add the cubes of beef and toss well to coat the meat.
3. Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan on a high heat, then place in handfuls of the beef to sear. Take care to not overcrowd the pan, which will lower the temperature and so cause the beef to stew instead of sear.
4. As the beef sears, remove it with a slotted spoon to the slow cooker and continue to sear the next batch until all the beef is done.
5. Add the onion, celery, mushrooms and garlic to the pan - you may need a little more oil - and reduce the temperature. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened and coloured a little. Decant into the slow cooker and turn it on to Low.
6. Add the potato, butternut squash and thyme to the slow cooker, stir to combine and replace the lid.
7. Pour the light ale into the frying pan and add the stock powder, plus 500ml of water. Stir to combine, making sure to deglaze the pan and heat until simmering point, whereupon you can add the contents of the pan to the slow cooker, turn the heat to High and replacing the lid.
8. Cook for a minimum of 6 hours on High and a maximum of 8 on Low - or until the beef is tender and the vegetables are cooked.
9. Remove the slow cooker's lid and stir in the cream and the grated cheese until the cheese has melted. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
10. Serve into warmed bowls, adding a sprinkle of fresh parsley to garnish and crusty bread for dipping.
Printable version
As part of my continued attempts to foil the demon gout, I've been following a largely vegetarian menu.
Well, I reckoned that it wouldn't do any of us any harm to lay off the meat for a bit. So for the last few weeks, I've had my eye open for likely-sounding vegetarian recipes.
I came across a recipe for a Potato & Cheese slice which the writer had prepared for her Wedding buffet. However, what to use instead of potato to make it more attractive to him indoors?
For some reason, celeriac immediately popped into my head. Well, celery certainly goes with cheese sauce, celeriac is capable of being mashed like potato - I reckoned it'd be worth a go. I am very glad I went with that celeriac thought, as the end result - we had it for dinner last night - was not only delicious, but a bit of a celeriac revelation. Needless to say, I wasn't content with just changing potato for celeriac, but I tweaked the recipe a bit further and added a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, just to help those cheesy flavours along.
Served as a slice - as pictured - or even as individual Cheesy Celeriac Rolls (like sausage rolls), it went perfectly with baked beans for an easy dinner. It is just as nice cold (I'm using up the leftovers for my lunch today) with salad.
Oh - and there wasn't a peep of protest from the boys. Well, not once they had a forkful in their mouths. ~Satisfaction~
20 October 2016 : I can't believe it's been so long since I made this last! Still, it's worth the wait and this version of it was no exception. I tweaked the recipe a tiny bit by adding grated nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper to the original celeriac mash, which meant I could leave out the cayenne pepper which doesn't agree with us these days. It definitely doesn't seem to have noticed the change, as it was just as delicious as always. For me, the recipe is entirely dependent upon choosing a good, super flavoursome Cheddar cheese. Coupling that with the celeriac is absolutely the base of a good end result.
CHEESY CELERIAC SLICE (serves 4 - makes one slice)
Ingredients :
500g celeriac, peeled and cubed
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp Dijon or wholegrain mustard
150g grated strong cheddar
150g red leicester, cut into tiny cubes
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced finely
375g ready made puff pastry
1 egg, whisked.
Method :
Pre-heat oven to 200degC/400degF/gas 6.
Boil celeriac until tender along with a pinch of sea salt, then drain well, allow to steam dry and mash with a pinch of pepper and nutmeg - ensuring some texture is left in the mash. Allow to cool.
Add the cheese, Dijon mustard and onions to the celeriac and stir to combine. Taste to check for seasoning.
Lay out one of the sheets of puff pastry and roll lightly to reduce the thickness, taking care to keep the rectangular shape.
Take half of the cheese mixture and press into a sausage shape along one of the long sides.
Egg wash the opposite side, and roll into a long cylinder, pressing down along the egg washed side to seal. Place on a baking tray.
Repeat with the other sheet of pastry, then paint all the rolls liberally with egg wash. Taking a fork, prick along the top of each roll to allow steam to escape easily.
Place into the oven to bake for around 30 minutes.
Slice and serve.
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