food dishes: Classic and new recipes

Hello 

An nyoung 

Konnichiwa

Ni hao 

I really need to start cooking more now that I have a few earlier shifts at work, I honestly can't remember the last time I did some home cooking and definitely need to do it a lot more.

The first dish I'm going to share with you is: Cottage Pie, I love doing this dish.

Cottage Pie

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1&1/4kg beef mince

2 onions, finely chopped 

3 carrots, chopped 

2 Celery sticks, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp tomato purée 

850ml beef stock 

4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 

4 bay leaves 

1.8kg potatoes, peeled and chopped

Butter

Milk

Strong cheddar, grated

Nutmeg

Onions, carrots & garlic peeled.

celery sticks rinsed

To begin with I prepared my onions, carrots, celery sticks and garlic ready to cook after the beef.

Carrots, celery, onions & garlic chopped.

Next I started on the beef mince I added olive oil to a deep pan and then added the beef mince to brown.

Once the mince had browned I popped it into a separate pan, added a bit more olive oil and then put the onions, carrots and celery to soften, the recipe I followed stated for 20 minutes but I did it for about 10 minutes as the onions started to burn.

While the veg cooked I started peeling and chopping my potatoes ready to pop in a pan to soften for the mash topping.

Once I finished the potatoes I added the garlic, flour and tomato purée and cooked for a few minutes before re adding the beef mince.

Next I made the stock and added it to the pan along with the Worcestershire sauce and 4 bay leaves I also added some mixed herbs at the last minute.

I then left it to simmer for 45 minutes and then added boiling water to the pan with the potatoes and covered them with a lid and left them to cook with the beef mixture.

While it all cooked I prepared my dishes ready to add the mixture and mash potatoes. I also pre heated the oven to 200°c.

Once both the beef mixture and potatoes were ready I started on the mash, I added milk and butter to the potatoes and mashed them, once mashed I added cheese, salt, pepper and Nutmeg and mixed it all together.

Once the mash was ready I added the beef mixture to the 4 dishes and added mash to the top and used a fork to spread it out, once I was happy with the mash I sprinkled more cheese onto the mash and stuck them in the oven for 30 minutes. Once finished I let them cool for 5 minutes and then transferred the dish onto a plate and served.

The next dish I made was a Prawn and veg stir fry.

Prawn & veg stir fry 

Ingredients:

Garlic

Ginger

Chilli 

300g prawns 

300g stir fry veg 

Soy sauce 

Brown rice 

I started by weighing out 75g brown rice per person  (I cooked for 2) rinsed the rice in cold water and added it to boiling water and then covered and left for 12 minutes.

In a frying pan I added olive oil, the prawns, garlic granules and chilli powder and heated and have it a quick stir.

I then added the stir fry Veg and soy sauce.

When the rice was ready I added it to a colander and rinsed with boiling water and then added it to the rest of the ingredients.

I let it cook for a few more minutes and then served it into bowls.

Well that concludes my food blog for the time being, hopefully I will get more chance and time to cook and try other dishes maybe even attempt a curry from scratch.

See you soon! 

An nyoung 

Sayonara 

Zai Jian 

Bye