Culinary Creations: Easy Beef Bourguignon Cottage Pie with Leek Topped Herbed Watercress Mash

We had a lot of the Red Watercress left over from Valentine's Day. I hate to let anything go to waste, so tried to come up with an idea of how to use the remaining cress. As I had the makings for Cottage Pie, I decided to do some research. Loads of recipes came up on Google for Watercress Mash, which consisted of mashed potatoes using watercress butter. Now I'm sure this does make it taste divine, and the extra step probably does add an element of flavor, but I honestly couldn't be bothered to make a butter, so decided to add directly to my mash. While the potatoes were cooking, I finely chopped the remaining watercress.

I used my standard recipe for Easy Leek and Cheese Topped Cottage Pie, only using Coleman's of Norwich Beef Bourguignon sauce mix instead of the Shepherd's Pie mix (with only 2/3 of the required liquid) and adding the cress to the mash, using Kerrygold Garlic & Herb butter.

After baking for 15-20 minutes or until bubbling, it was ready to come out of the oven.
You want your cheese to melt and the leeks to slightly brown, but not to be too charred.

The flavors of the red wine, beef, mushrooms, carrots, mashed potatoes and leeks went so well with the peppery flavor of the watercress.

I'm a bit of a vegetable fanatic, but had spent enough time preparing this dish (even though it was easy), it was a Sunday and I wanted to relax a bit. This is where the big Green Guy came in handy. By the time I had popped the pie in the oven and cleaned my mess up, preparing another veggie dish didn't rank high on my list of priorities.

All in all, I was very pleased with this dish. The only thing I would do differently would be to add more watercress. The other recipes had called for 2 bunches. While I'm not convinced I'm make the watercress butter, I am convinced I'd use double the cress.

Culinary Creations: Oven Roasted Pork Chops with Mushrooms, Leeks, and Garlic Tomatoes

This recipe is the a prime example of why I created this blog: whenever I come up with a new recipe, and we really like it, I never remember what I did or how long I cooked it. Many a conversation in my house consist of: "It doesn't taste like it did last time" or "This isn't how I remember it at all". In addition, when I'm following a recipe from a book or magazine, I always add or change things around, and like to make notes on what I'd do differently next time. I've got an extensive collection of Sainsbury's Magazines, so remembering which issue what recipe came from can be a bit of a problem. One night after I made something we really like (which no doubtedly didn't get recorded and will never be remembered), I had the epiphany that if it were all in one place, on-line, I will never have to strain my brain/search/forget again!

This an idea that has been going around in my mind for a week: the ingredients were chosen, it was going to be something cooked on the stove, but 1/2 hour before cooking, I decided that bunging it all in the over would leave me free to do other things. This is what I came up with. Serves 4.

* 4 boneless pork chops
* Dijon mustard
* breadcrumbs
* 1 large tomato, cut into large chunks
* 1 clove of garlic, more if you want to roast whole cloves in dish
* 2 thin leeks (not links) (inside joke), thickly sliced
* 8oz Portobello mushrooms, halved
* 4 slices of smoked bacon, roughly chopped
* olive oil for drizzling
* 1/4 wine for drizzling, red or white
* salt, pepper, herbs to taste

1) Half hour before cooking, put a dollop of mustard on each chop, spread to cover, set aside. Then chop 1 clove of garlic, sprinkle over chopped tomato along with a good pinch of salt. Also set aside, both out of the refrigerator. You could use this half hour to clean and prepare the rest of your veg and any side you might serve with it. Duh, I didn't have to tell you that.
2) When half hour is up, pre-heat oven to 350F. While oven is pre-heating, place pork in a large oven safe dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, any type will do, I like to season mine with Herbs de Provence and a little Parmesan cheese. Next add mushrooms, leeks, tomatoes, and bacon. Drizzle with olive oil, wine, season with salt, pepper, and herbs - to your liking.
3) Bake for 30-35 minutes, stirring the veggies after 15 minutes.
I served it with some bow-tie pasta that was tossed in a garlic and herb butter and some white beans with yellow carrots, spinach, also in a garlic butter (compliments to Mr. Green Giant). Keeping the sides simple made it a really easy dish to make, I was glad that I decided to let the oven do all the work. This was all washed down by a lovely sparkling rosé that really complimented the meal. James gave it a 9 out of 10 and said it was restaurant quality. I'm just hoping he didn't mean Denny's. He once rated something I made a 10 out of 10, now if only I could remember what that was...

Culinary Creations: Easy Leek & Cheese Topped Cottage Pie

This is my "cheat" version of cottage pie. Cottage pie is the correct name for this dish when using beef. Even though it is commonly know as "shepherd's pie", shepherd's pie is actually the name of this dish when using lamb. Which ever you call it, it is a very comforting dish. While I try not to use packets too often, there are just some nights when it's inevitable. Most of the ingredients for this dish are staples in my cupboard, with the mince in my freezer, making it an impromptu dish. Some time in the next few months I will post my "100% from scratch recipe".

I first start by browning 1 pound of mince beef or buffalo, with a good pinch of dried thyme. Once most of the pink is gone, I add in some chopped onion and carrot.

Next comes the packet of Coleman's Shepherd's Pie mix. I'm not only partial to Coleman's because I used to live in Norwich, I really do think their mixes are top notch. My local supermarket even carries it so I don't have to rely on stocking up in the UK or scouting out an import shop. Once you mix in packet, add 100ml of red wine, 200 ml of water, and if you are so inclined, two chopped slices of cooked bacon. This is also when I rely on my cupboard staples where I keep a small supply of dried vegetables. From that I added some dried celery, corn, and peas. Gently simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Once simmered, put into baking dish and top with mashed potato. Now, I did say this was impromptu. Instead of running to the supermarket for potatoes, I also have organic dried potato flakes in my cupboard. While I wouldn't serve this to company, it's a good solution for when its just us. I will say that I use a good quality butter (mostly Kerrygold Garlic & Herb Butter) and I always add fresh herbs. In this photo I used chives, rosemary, and thyme. Bake for 15 minutes at 350F.


This step was inspired by another Norwich legend: Delia Smith. After baking for 15 minutes, take out and top with 1 leek, sliced, then top with shredded cheddar cheese. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until bubbling.

Here is what it should look like when finished.

Enjoy! Some may turn their nose up at the use of packets and dried ingredients, but i think it beats the heck out of over processed frozen meals!

Variations:

• If you can't find Coleman's mix, any sort of beef, mushroom, onion, or brown gravy will do.
• For a vegetarian version, use meat free gravy and lentils and mushrooms instead of mince. Or even vegetarian crumbles.
• If you make this in advance, I would wait until the day of serving to add the potatoes, then follow instructions from that point on.