A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

mardatha

So how do you make a good stew then? I tried the pressure cooker and thought it wasnt perfect. Maybe its just me who isnt perfect!

Mrs_Chip

Get RV to do something useful and build you a hay box Mar - no leccy required, that should shut him up!

[Deleted User]

DD1 has gone off to a christening today, one of her friends little girl, and guess what she got as a present - A copy of 'Swallows and Amazons', they have just re-published it in the original dust jacket . She also got a beautiful swedish mobile of flying swallows to go in the nursery too. Hope the littlie enjoys it when she's big enough.

Mrs_Chip

As usual, I don't use a recipe, but my method is:

Whatever veg you are using, fry them off in a pan until they start to brown (brings out natural sweetness and adds flavour), put them in your stewpot.

Coat the meat in seasoned flour, fry off in the same pan with a bit more oil until nice and brown, add to stewpot.

If you are using wine,use it now to get all the nice tasty bits off the bottom of the pan, add to stewpot. Make some stock up with cubes (or proper stock if you have it), and add just enough to cover the meat and veg.

Put in a couple of bay leaves, some thyme if you have it, and any things like barley or beans can go in now.

Put to simmer gently with a lid on for an hour or so, take off lid and simmer for another hour or until meat it tender and the gravy is nice and thick (if it is too thick you can add some water).

That's how I do it, but I bet we come up with loads of different methods, we all have our favourite ways!

meme30

fuddle wrote: »

This is the first night in about 6 that I have woken and can't get back to sleep. I thought it was too good to be true. Anyway, there's reward enough for letting lil pup out of his bed in kitchen to come curl up beside me.

We have finally finished the living room decoration :j We have looked at bare plaster and ripped paper for so long I feel like I live in a home now and not a squat. I's a great feeling...good for the soul.

I have an inch of stocking stitch on my knitting needles :j I finally sussed it and I'm loving the process of knitting. Going to search for some smaller circular needles so I can do my leg warmers after the snood. That will have to wait till next pay though, and the pattern and fabric for the poncho type jacket I have in mind to sew.

My mum is here and is staying overnight. I actually thoroughly enjoyed her company yesterday - I'm thinking that it is the anti-d's helping me to not take things so seriously or personal. It's nice to be able to laugh things off and not stew over pointless words.

Steamed pudding in the slow cooker is simple and delicious by the way. Mine was sat on high for hour and a half.

I'm about to browse the net to see if I can make some nice curtains for the bay window cheaper than it would be to buy. I'd like to line them too as it's freezing in here come the autumn. I just don't know if my sewing machine skills are up to the job. :cool:

Fuddle:- I know you are somewhere in the North-East. If you can get to Chester-le-Street on Friday mornings there is a small market on with about three material stalls. At least two of them have lots of material for £1 a metre. Really good quality and lots of choice. Lining is always £1 a metre too.

Mardy:- Thicken it with cornflour, sounds like a perfect meal for such a damp day!

I am a lover of EB, Ransome and Nesbbit too. And yes I also reread them now. There is a feel good about not only an bygone era, but a harking back to an earlier time in our own lives. There are many fine children's authors now too, I enjoy reading Philip Pullman. His 'Dark Materials' books invoke the same atmosphere as my old favourites.

I have to attack the ironing today, will do it this morning. DH and I are F1 fans so today has to revolve around the race! Thankfully DH hates football and I can honestly say we have not watched a single game. :j HM Shepherds Pie and Plum Crumble being liberated from freezer. We are another family who are still eating our winter menu, too wet and miserable for salad!

meme30

Beef Casserole:- Coat meat with flour, fry in pan to seal. This is the time you use the wine..Slosh it in, use it to scrape sticky bits out of pan. Put in dish with carrots and what ever else you have in. (pots celery turnip all good) Lots of S+P. Mix two stock cubes with a pint of water and pour on. If using potatoes make sure they are covered. Add herbs if you want. I like lemon thyme! Cover, put dish in oven and cook 150 degrees for 2-3 hours. I like to uncover for last half hour...Turn temp up to 200 and add dumplings!. Ok! starving now! :rotfl:

Possession

It's lovely reading about people's favourite children's books. I work in publishing and the really good ones are still being published as classics today - as well as most Enid Blyton titles as she has a very good, proactive estate working on her behalf! Every few years they get a re-jacket.
My favourites were the Joan Aiken books Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Night Birds in Nantucket and Black Hearts in Battersea - now incorporated into the newly named Wolves Chronicles since children's books aren't commissioned these days unless there is a series. As a whole though, children's writing is far far better now, simply because in recent years sales have allowed publishers to put the money into it that was needed. I adored reading and I would have so loved all the fantastic books there are now. Luckily after 15 years or so of free books I've collected enough of the best for my kids to have the kind of library I would have killed for. Needless to say they don't appreciate it.
Kidcat - good luck to your DH going back to work. I hope he can overcome his obvious fears about it, and fingers crossed DS will get the help he needs at school.
Unixgirl hang in there with the job hunting.
We managed to mostly avoid rain at Alton Towers so I'm glad we went. The £9 Travelodge room wasn't as dire as TripAdvisor had led me to expect either. Got home at about 9pm totally exhausted and am still in jimjams now, v naughty.
DD (7) has just asked for her nails to be painted (fine, it's an inset day tomorrow) and told me some of her friends have nail art. Seriously?! They are 6 & 7!

mardatha

Well its not been wet here in the last few days, very odd. It has rained but during the nights. Been sunny and muggy days and still is today. I just wanted to start using the butcher and having filling meals for tea. Porridge breakfast and I dont have anything for dinner, so teatime is the biggie.
I havent got salady stuff at all this year, not since I read a book about the growing conditions in Spain, and mine didnt grow. I love reading about French cooking it sounds yummy, but such a faff
EDITED- I sloshed the wine in at the wrong time then, put it right into the crockpot

Evie74_2

Good morning all

Another grey and windy day Chez Evie - it feels very autumnal so I'm not surprised everyone's switching to stews and wintry menus! Thanks for the tip about cooking stews in the SC - mine always turn out too watery and I wasn't sure how to put it right. My mum makes delicious stew but it takes about 4 hours in the conventional oven and with fuel prices the way they are, it's not an option for us.

We've just had a very scary bill from Eon - they want to put our DD up by £50/month! It's down to gas consumption rather than electricity, so we are going to have to cut back even further, and walk round like Michelin men with lots of jumpers on come the winter.

I think I need to spend some quality time on the "Prep for Winter" thread to see what else I can do to cut back. My big worry is that DH will be out of work from the end of July and if he is still "home alone" during the day as the weather gets even colder I strongly suspect he will put the heating on rather than a couple of extra layers. :mad:

We have a wood burner, so with a bit of luck he'll use that (we are lucky to get some of our wood for free from his current employers: they have a warehouse and actually pay to have pallets taken away for destruction - so they are happy for DH to fill the boot with pallets for fuel from time to time. I hope that will continue even after DH is made redundant because he is mates with the warehouse manager, but we shall see). It's not great wood (it sparks and splinters a heck of a lot and burns very quickly) but frankly it's free, so I'm not complaining.

Evie xx

Mrs_Chip

If you just pour the wine in the alcohol does not get cooked out and it can make the stew taste weird (whenever I cook with beer or wine I think it tastes very odd for the first hour or so anyway). Best to use it to 'deglaze' the pan after frying off the meat - keep the heat on high, slosh in the wine and reduce it down a bit, scraping of the brown gunge from the bottom of the pan - lots of flavour in there! That's a bit of French cooking for you!