Jan

28

Shortcrust Pastry

January 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Looking for a pastry recipe to use for making tarts, pies etc. then this should do the trick. However, making good pastry requires accurate measuring of the ingredients and keeping everything cool; the room, work surface, utensils and your hands! Generally the proportions of flour to fat is 2:1. Use a mixture of margarine and lard and put the pastry dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill its then ready to use.

Ingredients for 8 ounces of pastry:

Plain Flour 225g 8 oz
Margarine 50g 2 oz
Lard 50g 2 oz
Pinch of Salt
Water 25ml

Method:

Add the fat to the flour and add a pinch of salt. Cut the fat into small cubes and, using a knife, mix the fat into the flour. This avoids warming the mixture initially with your hands. Then with finger tips quickly rub the fat into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Add water a little at a time and stir in. Collect the mixture together in a ball and knead lightly for a few seconds. 

The pastry can be put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill and is then ready to use in your recipe and can be rolled out and cut for tarts, pies etc. 

  

Jan

28

Beef Stew - PlateSearching for a beef stew that is more basic than some of the cookery book offerings then this recipe for beef stew with Guiness gravy really to makes the most of the flavour of the beef. Serves 4 or 5 but its really easy to double up the quantities when needed.

The picture shows the beef stew served with carrots, peas and mashed potato. 

Ingredients:

Stewing Steak 1kg (2 lb)
Onions 2
Plain Flour 50g 2oz
Back Bacon 4 Rashers
Guiness 1 Can
Sugar 2 tsp
Butter 15g 1½ oz
Button Mushrooms 250g 9 oz

Beef Stew - DishI recently made double quantities when my sister and her family came to dinner. It went down very well.   

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, gas mark 2). 

Peel the onions and roughly chop. Cut up the steak into bite size cubes. Cut the bacon into strips. Halve the button mushrooms.

Put the flour into a mixing bowl and season it with salt and pepper. Toss half of the steak cubes in the flour making sure they are well coated and set aside. Add more seasoned flour to the bowl if needed and toss the remainder of the steak cubes and set these aside also.

Add cooking oil to a large frying pan and heat it up on the hob. Fry some of the steak cubes until they are brown on all sides. Turn these out into a suitable oven proof dish or casserole. Continue to fry the steak cubes in small batches until brown, adding more cooking oil to the pan if necessary.

If necessary add more cooking oil to the frying pan and fry the onion and bacon gently until the onions are tender and the bacon cooked and crispy, stirring and scraping off the cooked flour from the bottom of the pan. Tip everything into the dish on top of the meat.

Put the frying pan back on the heat and add the Guiness and sugar. Bring to the boil scraping up any remaining residue from the pan and adding the sugar. Pour all the contents of the pan over the meat. Add enough boiling water so the liquid covers the meat.  

Cover the dish with a lid or foil and place in the oven to cook for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. At the end of this if there is any surface grease skim it off. Fry the mushrooms in butter and add to the casserole about 15 minutes before serving.

It also adds more flavour if cooked in advance. For this leave to cool and store in refridgerator for up to 24 hours. Remove any surface fat before reheating well on the hob. Fry the mushrooms and add to the casserole 15 minutes before serving.  


TheRecipeCorner Search

 

TheRecipeCorner Pages

Recipe Archives

Adverts

Don't Shop For it. Argos it For Healthy Skin, Hair & Nail try Evening Primrose Too much Cholesterol? Try Garlic Hi-Strenght NOW! Autumn Transition Special Offers Just-Eat.co.uk - Order food online ! Laithwaites - Specialists in great value wine.

TheRecipeCorner Friends