Shepherds ( Cottage ) Pie

 Growing up we always called this shepherds pie - I don't ever recall it being made with lamb although my grandmother always used minced up left over roast meat ( lamb or beef ) from the Sunday roast rather than minced meat from the butchers. Nowadays it's shepherds pie ( lamb  ) or cottage pie ( beef ) but as I say it will always be shepherds pie to me.

Probably favoured by older generations as it's quite an old fashioned meal, this is still very well received each time I make it. It's a winter type dish as it's pretty heavy and warming - delicious...

Serves 4 ( maybe 6 )

Ingredients

500g Lean Minced Beef Steak

1 1/2 k Good Red Potatoes

2 Large Onions roughly chopped

4 Cloves Garlic finely chopped

3 Large Carrots chopped into large rounds

3 Sticks Celery medium chopped

1 Red Chilli finely chopped

Cup Frozen Peas

Good Shake Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 Cup Mushroom Ketchup

2 Beef stock pots

2 Bayleaves

1 Dessertspoon dried mixed herbs

1 Tablespoon Tomato paste

Thickening cornflour or granules, whatever you use

Olive oil

Butter and milk for mash

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large flameproof pot ( with lid if possible ) and gently fry onion and garlic until slightly golden but not brown ... about 10 minutes...add chilli and beef and keep stirring until beef is no longer pink.

This takes about 10 minutes, once the beef is no longer pink everything else apart from the peas can just go in, no need to be precious here as its all going to cook for another 2 hours anyway, cover with water, bring up to the boil, take the temperature right down to a slow bubble and pop the lid on. Give it a nice stir every half an hour and add any water if it gets too dry, you want it to have plenty of gravy to serve with the finished dish so don't skimp on the stock here.

After a couple of hours bubbling gently away, add the peas and thicken , adjust seasoning to taste and then leave to cool a little.

Once it is a little cooler, using a slotted spoon, spoon all the meat and a little of the gravy into a nice big pie dish saving the gravy for heating up to serve with the pie.

Top with mashed potato and bake in a hot oven for about half an hour or until the top is nice and golden anywhere between half and hour and 45 minutes should do it depending on your oven.

Serve with veg of choice, I always like green veg in season and a good splosh of gravy.

Spicy Spanish Fish Stew

 This recipe originated from a Rick Stein  recipe from years ago when he visited Galicia and made a delicious fish stew. Now, this is a good recipe..... it still tastes amazing after all these years but I really like it a lot spicier with a greater depth of flavour.  Since then it has been chopped and changed around substantially until it fits our requirements perfectly.... I have found however that over the years its getting hotter and hotter!

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 Nice Pieces Cod or Hake patted dry and seasoned

300g Large Raw Prawns ( de veined and cleaned)

1 Whole Ring Spicy Chorizo Chopped into bitesize chunks( I have found Marks and Spencer the nicest so far for this )

2 Large Onions Roughly Chopped

2/3 Large Green/Yellow peppers roughly chopped

6 Large Cloves Garlic finely chopped

5 Hot Green Chillies finely chopped

750g/1kg Little New Potatoes chopped into bitesize chunks

2 Teaspoons Hot paprika

2 Teaspoons Sweet Paprika

2 Fish Stock Pots

Slaked cornflour if you want a thicker sauce

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Enough water to cover

Heat a good glug of olive oil in a flame proof pot ( with a lid if possible ) and fry onions and garlic gently for about 10 minutes, add chopped chorizo and fry for about 5 minutes until all the lovely oil is released.

Add the paprika and cook for a couple of minutes until all the onions are coated then add the peppers and chillies and again just cook for a couple of minutes until all coated

Add potatoes and stir for a few seconds to coat.

Add stock pots and enough water to cover, bring up to the boil then turn down to simmer with the lid on for approx 15 minutes or until the potatoes are just cooked.

Add the prawns and place the fish carefully on the top, cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Test to see if salt and pepper is needed .

At this point I always stir in a little slaked cornflour to give it a more silky finish, it's not needed necessarily but we like the thicker sauce.

Spoon into warmed dishes.

This reheats ( without the fish ) really well so I always make enough for two days and then reheat well on the second day. 

Onions and Garlic

 Well, my last allotment post photo was taken around mid March 2025 and under the cloches were onions and behind them a whole bed of garlic. Honestly, I planted the garlic and other than a good water during a prolonged dry spell they have thrived on neglect - sorry garlic.

Anyhoo, it's all looking pretty good now ( mid June ) and I'm going to start harvesting and drying, this is the very first harvest and I'm beyond happy with this years progress. We eat loads of onions and garlic and if I can just keep us from buying shop bought with these I'll be happy.

Just have to learn how to string together now.....

Allotment ........ A Journey

 Sam and I spend as much time as we can ( difficult for Sam now as he's so busy with new baby girl and business ) tending to our allotment. We took on our allotment almost three years ago and its been a labour of love. So much hard work goes into turning what was effectively a piece of wasteland into a productive produce site, I can't believe how much rubbish was taken away from our little piece of council land. Many MANY  trips to the recycling centre and lots of deep digging to get rid of plastic material buried under the soil.

After a few really strenuous days ( weeks ) it started to look a little more organised...

Covering a large piece that we knew we couldn't get round to until a later date, it gave us a working area that we could cultivate. We still spent a lot of time digging out plastic and glass but underneath all the rubbish the soil seemed to be really good with lots of worms.

Just a few short months later and it really started to look like a great place to grow all our future veg

Of course, we actually had no idea what we were doing so that first year we had so many runner beans we didn't know what to do with them, however our first crop of lovely little new potatoes made all the hard work worthwhile.

I absolutely love it, it's really hard work ( especially in the early days ) but it's also very good for your physical and mental health. I always feel way more positive after a good bit of time weeding and tending to the plants. 

And so with a new greenhouse ( Thanks Sam ) we started 2025 in a good place, raring to go and see what a new season would bring us....

Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

 I was given a lovely bunch of allotment grown rhubarb this week and wanting to try something other than the ever tasty crumble I scoured the internet for ideas. I found a great recipe for cherry frangipane and figured that it was most likely a simple swap - it was! 

Other than catching the pastry a little on the blind bake this turned out absolutely delicious, served with a generous spoon of natural yogurt I would recommend serving this slightly warm as it really brings out the flavour of the almonds.

Ingredients

1 pack ready made and rolled shortcrust pastry

110g Softened Butter

110g Caster Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 Medium Eggs ( Whisked )

110g Ground Almonds

40g Plain Flour

400g Roasted Rhubarb ( or fruit of choice )

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6 / 170c Fan

Line a 9" flan dish, pie dish/tin - whatever you are using with your pastry , let the pastry flop over the edges, its easy to trim up when the pastry is cold, wrinkle up some baking paper and pour over baking beans or whatever you use to bake blind, place in the oven for 20 minutes,

Be careful here, this is where I caught my pastry, don't forget that you are going to cook the flan for a further 40 minutes with the filling. I want a nice crispy flan base but not at the cost of burnt pastry!

After 20 or so minutes , take out the beans and paper and pop back into the over for a further 5 minutes. Let the pastry go cold before the next step.

Heat oven to Gas mark 5 ( hmm maybe 4 would do here ) 160 fan.

Trim up the pastry and prepare the filling.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and gradually add the eggs until all combined.

Mix in everything else carefully and pour /spoon into you ready pastry . Top with fruit and place in the oven for 40 minutes. Keep an eye on this, I don't mind it a little golden but it catches easily.

I had some rhubarb left over so served it warm with rhubarb and yogurt but cream or custard ( or Creme Anglais ) would have been amazing too. 

Crumpets

 I tend to make these on a Sunday morning as that is when we get a bit of a yearning for a simple brunch. They are so easy to make and way better than shop bought, I like mine with a teeny bit of butter and Marmite ..... we're all different :) 

Ingredients

175g Strong White Flour

1/4 Teaspoon salt

Small Pinch Caster Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

1 Teaspoon Dried Yeast

125mls Warm Milk

150mls Warm Water

Nice Quality Butter

1. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Make a small well in the centre and add the yeast. Gently pour in the warm milk and water, ensure it is not too hot or you'll kill the yeast.
2. Bring the flour from the outside of the bowl into the liquid and mix until you have a batter. It is quite thick  but if too thick you can add up to another 100ml of warm water. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour - it will have almost doubled in size.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan  over a medium heat and add a little butter. Stir the batter and then pour into circles in the pan  - I have little crumpet rings for this - . Turn down the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes
4. Once the batter is dry on top place a little butter around the edges of the crumpets and then flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Thats it, turn out and serve with whatever takes your fancy, honestly.

Now this recipe is the same that I use for my enormous crumpet ( thank you Gordon Ramsey ), it works equally well for normal sized crumpets and is absolutely foolproof. 

Rick Stein Beef Pho

 

This lovely recipe is taken from this book, I've only ever made pho from this recipe but ( having travelled to Vietnam ) it does seem pretty authentic, of course there are many many recipes as there are many interpretations of this dish. It seems complicated but once you get to grips with the two step side to making this its dead easy. 

The very first part of this delicious recipe is to make the beef broth, I always make this the day before as it takes all day to cook in the slow cooker, a lot of recipes call for stock cubes to be used but I haven't found one yet and actually the broth itself is really worth the effort.

Serves 4 

Ingredients for the Beef Broth ( makes 2.75 litres ) 

40g Peeled fresh ginger cut into 6 pieces

350g Peeled sliced shallots

4 Star Anise

2 x 7.5cm Cinnamon sticks

1/2 Teaspoon Fennel Seeds

900g Shin Beef ( very hard to find around here so I always use a large brisket joint ) 

1kg Beef marrow bones

2 celery sticks roughly sliced

2 Carrots roughly sliced

2 Onions roughly sliced

8 Cloves

1 Teaspoon black peppercorns

1 Tablespoon Salt

Ingredients for the finished dish

300gms Dried1cm - wide flat rice noodles  ( banh pho )

200g Piece Fillet Steak

10g each Thai sweet basil, mint and coriander leaves

5 Red birds eye chillies thinly sliced

2 limes cut into wedges

8 Spring onions, trimmed and sliced, green and white parts separated

4 Tablespoons Fish Sauce

100gms Beansprouts

The day before

Heat a large fry pan and toast the spices until they start to smell lovely, add to the slow cooker, fry all the veg in the fry pan to absorb all the lovely flavours of the spices and then add these to the slow cooker, add all the other ingredients into the slow cooker. ( Now it's worth mentioning at this stage that I have made this a few times now and the broth tastes exactly the same for not browning the veg first ) .Bring to the boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top in the process, add salt , lower the temperature to a simmer and leave all day cooking really gently.

Turn off the heat and when a little cooler, drain all the broth into a clean bowl and leave in the fridge overnight. Don't throw away the beef as this makes lovely sandwiches.

In the morning, any fat can be taken off the surface.

To make up the finished dish, bring the lovely broth to the boil, drop the noodles into a pan of boiling salted water, turn of the heat and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely slice the beef, put the basil, mint, coriander, lime wedges and chilles into separate bowls to serve.

Add the white part of the spring onions and the fish sauce to the broth, , drain the noodles and divide between 4 soup bowls. Top with the sliced beef the green part of the spring onions and the beansprouts. Ladle over the very hot broth and serve. 

Now this recipe ( for me ) is a little skimpy on the herbage so I always serve lots more herbs and have extra fish sauce and chilli oil  ( hot sauce ) on the table as we like it HOT.