We Love Cooking! [Search results for beef stock] 

I don't eat red meat that often but when I do, I always make sure to do it right, it's so worth putting in the extra effort for a really fresh piece of meat. I made these delicious steaks for dinner the other day and they went down an absolute treat. The rich mushroom sauce adds an extra moistness that could save even the driest steak! My dad picked up the steaks while he was passing through Mitchelstown in Cork last week and it was well worth going the distance for a fine auld hunk of country meat.

Simple Steaks with Mixed Forest Mushroom Sauce
Depending on the dried mushrooms you buy, you can use the water you soak them in as part of the stock added in this recipe- Simply substitute half the beef stock with the mushroom water. If you don't have dried mushrooms, they are not essential but give a real depth to the sauce, so feel free to substitute with any fresh mushrooms available to you.

Serves 4 people
40g of dried mixed forest mushrooms.
4 steaks.
1 tablespoon of butter.
1 tablespoon of olive oil (plus a little extra for the steaks)
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped.
1 onion, thinly sliced.
250g of button mushrooms, sliced thinly.
125ml of white wine.
250ml of beef stock.
4 tablespoons of cream.
A good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Rinse the dried mushrooms with water and then submerge in a bowl with warm water and leave for 20 minutes. Prepare the steaks by drizzling them with a little olive oil, sprinkle over a generous amount of ground black pepper, cover and set aside. When the dried mushrooms have finished soaking, heat a large pan over a medium high heat and add the butter and olive oil. Fry the garlic and onion for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and continue to cook for 5 minutes or until they become soft. Add the white wine, continue to cook and reduce the liquid by half. Then add the beef stock and simmer for a further 2 minutes or until the liquid begins to thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream until combined. Season with sea salt and black pepper and set aside.
Heat a large griddle pan over a high heat and cook the steaks for 2-3 minutes either side for medium rare steak, depending on thickness. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve them with the tasty mushroom sauce and some steamed veg.

This was the piece I wrote for my feature in the Irish Independent Weekend Magazine, about the fantastic cookclub I attended recently:

Bright and bubbly Sadhbh McCarthy hosted one of her regular dinner parties as part of her cook club with a celebration of some of her favourite recipes for pals, Brid, Fiona, Karen, Peter and Colm. Sadhbh who works as a European policy advisor, chose her menu which was a hearty mix of cultures, based around a refreshing and aromatic starter of Vietnamese beef and noodle soup, Beef Pho. A dish which she fell in love with on a trip travelling from Ho Chi Minh City to Shanghai and was determined to recreate it when she came home. The soup caused a friendly heated debate as some of the more apprehensive guests were unsure about the addition of red chilli. However the debate quickly dissipated when Sadhbh helped by Peter, presented a glowing platter of hot sizzling Thai Fish Cakes straight from the pan. Originally a Rick Stein recipe, Sadhbh adapted it using her own blend of curry paste and spoke encouragingly about being flexible when cooking Asian dishes as long as you keep the base flavours.

All the ingredients used for the recipes were sourced from the indoor Honest2Goodness farmers market in Glasnevin, run by Sadhbh’s friend Brid Carter. The pair met through a combined love of good food and Brid provided the secret ingredient for a wonderfully tender pork belly and added an extra zing to the dish by using her own blend of 5 spice powder sourced from the market.

Dessert was provided by Sadhbh’s son Jamie, who is training to become a chef in DIT, he made a mouth-watering cheesecake topped with summer berries adapted from a Bill Granger recipe which was accompanied by a smooth berry coulis which cut through the creaminess to add another dimension to the dish. It was a unanimous decision around the table that the addition of Moonshine Organic Cream Cheese from artisan producers Gerry and Mary Kelly in Mullingar set the standard when it came to adding an extra creaminess to the dessert.

Wines were carefully selected by trained sommelier and wine obsessive Colm Carter who works alongside Brid at the market every Saturday. He chose Domaine de l'Amandine Cotes du Rhone 2007 for the starter, a Vina Marro, Crianza 2006 Rioja Doca for the rich pork belly and a fruity Oddero Moscato d'Asti 2007 to go with the cheesecake.

I hadn't intended on interrupting by staying the whole evening, but Sadhbh and her friends fully welcomed me with a glass of wine and in a true case of Irish hospitality I found myself polishing off dessert with a full belly! Sadhbh summed up the fantastic evening by sharing her ethos on her cook club which was to “Cook with love and a desire to share and enjoy the experience”.

Pho Bo – Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup
(from Annabel Jackson’s Street Café Vietnam)

To serve 4
450g fresh flat rice noodles or rice sticks
225g beansprouts (blanched briefly to soften slightly)
8 shallots, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
225g beef fillet, thinly sliced

For the broth
1.7 litres beef stock or canned beef consommé
115g piece fresh ginger, peeled and smashed
2 sticks cinnamon bark
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
3 pieces star anise
1 teaspoon each caster sugar, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons nuoc mam (Vietnamese equivalent of nam pla (fish sauce)

To serve:
Hoi sin sauce and chilli sauce
2 limes, cut in half
2 fresh red chillies, thinly sliced
Bunch of fresh ngo gai (if available) – this is a Vietnamese herb
Bunch of fresh Thai Basil

To make the broth: bring the stock to boiling point. Add the ginger, cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds and star anise. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the sugar, salt, pepper and fish sauce. Strain the broth and return to the pan. Keep hot over a low heat.
Bring a pan of water to the boil, and warn through fresh noodles or cook rice sticks until al dente. Drain and divide among individual bowls. Add a handful of blanched beansprouts and some shallots and coriander to each bowl and top with the beef (still raw). Ladle the hot broth over the food in the bowl (this will cook the beef slightly).
At the table, each diner can add hoi sin, chilli sauce, lime juice, fresh chilli ngo gai and basil leaves to taste.

- I will be posting the rest of the delicious recipes from the dinner party this week!

I have mentioned here before that I like to have my finger in all the pies of life, and staying true to that statement I have a really tasty steak and mushroom pie recipe to share here. Not only that but I thought it was time to tell you that, I’ll be playing Peter Pan this year in the Tivoli theatre Panto in Dublin (For international visitors, panto is like a kids Christmas show). Will I have any self respect left after donning a pair of green tights while being suspended in mid air? Time will tell! We had our first day of rehearsals today and last week we all got flying lessons, which was so much fun! Check out this video, I think I still have a bit more practice to go until this looks perfect!

If you’re in Dublin at all over the next two months make sure to come to the show, there’s a really great cast, lots of laughs, and sure the kids will love it! Tickets can be bought here.

On to more pressing issues, I recently bought a huge quantity of stew steak from the butcher, so I have been trying to come up with ways to get through it. This is a really simple recipe, which makes a really tasty winter warmer. The process is fairly easy, for convenience I use ready to roll puff pastry and just place it over the top of the pie dish, but you can easily make your own and add it here. The steak and mushroom mix is really tasty and can even be eaten by itself with rice. So if the thoughts of pastry are all too much for you, don’t count it out just yet!

Steak and Mushroom Pie

These look great served in individual little pie dishes, but if you don’t have any to hand, simply use one large pie dish. You can cook the pie mix ahead of time, freeze and defrost when you want to use it.

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.
1 ½ lb of stew steak or diced beef.
250g of mushrooms.
500ml of beef stock.
250g of puff pastry.
2 red onions, finely chopped.
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper.
2 egg yolks.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, and brown the meat on all sides. You may need to fry the meat in batches in order to get a nice colour. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the garlic and onions until soft. Add the beef stock, meat pieces, salt and pepper and combine. Lower the heat, cover and cook over gentle heat for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Make sure to give the mix a stir every now and then to prevent it sticking at the bottom. The aim is to get the meat as tender as possible, so you may need to add a longer cooking time depending on the meat you buy.
10 minutes before the mix is finished add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir through to combine. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 220˚C/ 430˚F/ Gas 7.
Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about ½ a centimetre in thickness. Empty the steak and mushroom filling into your chosen pie dish or dishes and drape over the pastry. Leave about 1cm of pastry over the side of the dish and then push the pastry in to the dish so you end up with a nice crust the whole way round. Using a pastry brush, coat the pastry with the egg yolk, this will produce a delicious golden coloured crust.
Place in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry puffs up and turns a nice golden brown.
Serve straight away with a tasty salad and enjoy!

Sofie recently turned 22 and to celebrate her mom and brother came over to visit. Since we are always treated to some tasty traditional Swedish dishes when we visit them, I thought I would try and serve something traditionally Irish for our first meal! One of the few dishes that I know well as being traditionally Irish is this Irish Stew.

We always had it growing up and I’m sure most homes across the country were the same. I used to have a serious problem with the potatoes, insisting they were picked out before I was served- much to my mom’s disgust!

There are many different takes on this recipe with many using lamb instead of beef, but this is the one we grew up with. I actually rang my mom the other day for the recipe, and she got a little bit excited and started adding all sorts of mad vegetables to it to make it more exciting, but at the end of the day Irish stew is Irish stew, so I’ve tried to keep it simple! Just like mammy used to make- without parsnips thank you very much! ;)

Irish Stew
This is a really tasty one pot dinner which is perfect for cold winter evenings. Ask your butcher for stew steak, which is normally available, but you can also use any other cheap cuts of meat. This recipe serves 6 people and you will need a large casserole.

3 tablespoons of wholemeal flour.
3 teaspoons of ground black pepper.
1 ½ pounds of stew steak.
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.
4 large carrots, chopped roughly.
2 large onions, chopped into half moon pieces.
1 ½ litres of beef stock.
A good pinch of sea salt.
2 bay leaves.
5 large potatoes peeled and sliced into 1cm discs.
A good handful of freshly chopped parsley.

Preheat the oven to 200˚C/390˚F/Gas 6.
Place the stew steak, wholemeal flour, and black pepper in a resealable plastic bag. Seal the bag and give it a good shake so that all the steak pieces have a nice coating of flour and pepper. Heat a large frying pan with a good glug of sunflower oil and brown half the steak pieces. Transfer the steak pieces to the casserole. Repeat with the rest of the meat.
Fry the onions in the meat juices on the pan for 2 minutes, adding an extra drop of oil if necessary. Transfer the onions to the casserole. Add in the carrots, beef stock, sea salt, bay leaves, and stir through. Add the potato slices on top, season with a generous amount of black pepper and cover with the lid. Transfer the casserole to the oven and cook for 1 ½ hours.
Serve straight from the casserole to some large bowls with some tasty wholemeal bread. Sprinkle the parsley on top and enjoy!

The funny thing about the food writing biz is that you end up preparing things way in advance of certain events and Christmas is one of the major ones which editors and researchers panic about and will have you cooking turkeys and hams even before Halloween has passed! However it was very refreshing yesterday to be shooting lots of leftover Christmas dinner recipes for RTÉ's 4Live in the middle of the Christmas season with snow on the ground outside. We thrashed through 6 great festive dishes including, cranberry and white chocolate muffins, leftover ham pies, and a Christmas cheesecake. A big thanks to the lads, Robin, Mark, Niall and Tony who left the house last night stuffed... or so they told me! I'll post some of the recipes from the day during the next weeks but for now just in case you have been suffering from Christmas overload, how about some real food?

Roast Garlic Shepherd's Pie
I was never really a big fan of shepherd's pie growing up, mainly because it was churned out most weeks (sorry mom!) so we became far too used to it, which realistically is a terribly ungrateful complaint, but it's only in the last few years I have fallen in love with this classic little dish all over again. I make mine with a twist by stirring mashed roast garlic through the potato, to be honest I normally make it with two bulbs of garlic because I'm a bit of a garlic fiend, but if you are pushed for time skip the garlic and just make the mash, it will taste just a good. Another handy tip to remember is that once you have assembled the shepherd's pie to the point just before you put it in the oven you can actually freeze the pie and cook from frozen if you fancy prepping a few in advance!

Serves 4
1 garlic bulb
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion , chopped
2-3 medium carrots , chopped
500g pack minced lamb
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
400ml beef stock
800g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
75g butter
50ml milk
Sea salt and ground black pepper to season

First things first, get the garlic in the oven! Preheat the oven to 200oC/Gas Mark 6.
Slice the top off the garlic bulb just enough so that each of the cloves is exposed and place on a roasting tray. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with a some sea salt. Place in the oven to roast for 40 minutes or until soft and tender. When the garlic is cooked, remove the roast cloves from their skins and mash with the back of a fork.
While garlic is roasting, add the potato chunks to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.
When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter and milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. You may want to add a little bit more or less milk and butter, it is up to you! Add in the mashed garlic and season with sea salt and ground black pepper, stirring to combine.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat and soften the onion and carrots for 5-6 minutes. Turn up the heat and allow the pan to get hot before you add the minced lamb. Using the a fork break up the meat and allow to brown and cook through for 3-4 minutes. Stir through the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce until combined and then pour over the beef stock. Bring to a steady simmer, then partially cover and cook for 45 mins.
Preheat the oven to 180oC/Gas Mark 4.
When the lamb is ready, season with sea salt and ground black pepper and transfer to an ovenproof baking dish and top with the roast garlic mash, using a fork to make a nice topping. Give the topping an extra sprinkle of ground black pepper and bake in the oven for 25 mins until the top is starting to brown and the mince is bubbling up around the edges.
Serve straight away for a delicious and comforting supper!

Another recipe from Catherine's cookbook today and it's a damn good one, you seriously can't go wrong with homemade spaghetti and meatballs, especially on a day like today! Can you believe it's already the 1st of September? This dish would make a perfect little warming supper dish so enjoy!

Meatballs in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Meatballs form the secondi or meat course at the Italian table, while pasta is the primi, so they would not traditionally be served together. That said, they work well together, so if this takes your fancy, allow 400–450g of dried spaghetti to serve four. I also sometimes add 50g freshly grated Parmesan to the meatballs and reduce the salt, yum! Have a bowl of cold water beside you when forming the meatballs to dip your hands into, as keeping your hands moist prevents the meat from sticking when forming the balls.

Serves 6
for the meatballs:
50g fresh breadcrumbs
100ml milk
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
225g minced pork
225g lean minced beef
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
extra virgin olive oil

for the spicy tomato sauce:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
175ml vegetable stock
500g tinned chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt and freshly ground black pepper
pasta, to serve
freshly grated Parmesan, to serve

To make the meatballs, first soak the breadcrumbs in the milk.
Mix the chopped onion and garlic with the pork and beef. Add the breadcrumbs, oregano, salt and pepper to the meat mixture and mix well. Add in the beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Roll the mixture into small balls.
Heat some oil in a frying pan and add in the meatballs. Fry for approximately 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the chilli and onion and cook on a low heat for 7–10 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, stock, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Add the meatballs to the sauce and leave to simmer for 10 minutes to heat through.
Serve with your favourite pasta and sprinkle grated Parmesan on top.

Well we're two rooms down on the house and surprisingly after 3 days in a row in IKEA, I'm still ready for more! We have just got in the door from sorting out the bedroom, with a bed and wardrobe set for delivery tomorrow. I have to admit that with all the rushing around, we have ended up in the cafe twice and I have to confess that I have munched my way through 30 meatballs in the last two days, with copious amounts of mashed potato, gravy and lingonberry jam! But then again when you are lugging your life around there is most definitely a need for some serious comfort food. Speaking of which today's recipe is one of my ultimate comfort foods- Slow cooked lamb shanks for many need absolutely no introduction as you will know just how delicious, slow-cooking this off-cut of meat is. If you haven't tried them before, give this recipe a go it's perfect for the cooler evenings.

Lamb Shanks with Colcannon Mash
I really am a sucker for a good lamb shank, with it's melt-in-the-mouth texture, which literally falls off the bone, it truly is a thing of beauty! The key is to slow cook it at a low temperature. This transforms the gnarly piece of meat into a rich and juicy piece of deliciousness. You can serve it on normal mash, sweet potato mash, or with lentils, but I love colcannon and seeing as it is the season, it makes perfect sense!

Serves 4
30ml/2 tbsp of olive oil
4 lamb shanks
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 onions, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely sliced
350ml/12 fl oz of red wine
A few sprigs of thyme, tied in a bunch with string
650ml/1 ½ pts of stock (vegetable or beef)
2 tablespoons of cornflour
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

In a large casserole dish, heat the olive oil and add the lamb shanks and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.
Fry the onions for two to three minutes until soft but not browned. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and fry for another couple of minutes. Pop in the thyme and stir through.
Add the red wine and bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.
Place in the browned lamb shanks and pour over the stock. Bring to a steady simmer, then cover and place in the oven at 150oC/300oF/Gas Mark 2.
Cook the lamb shanks very slowly, for three hours, turning them half way through the cooking time, until the meat is extremely tender and almost falls off the bone. Toward the end of the cooking time, taste and season.
If you want to serve the lamb shanks with its juices, I remove a few ladles of the juices and place them in a small saucepan. Then place two tablespoons of the juices in a bowl and stir through the cornflour until you have a smooth mix, pour this back into the saucepan and bring to a steady simmer, cooking down until you have a thick gravy.
Serve in large deep bowls with the colcannon.

For the colcannon:
1kg potatoes, peeled and diced
250g cabbage, finely sliced
1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
75ml of milk or cream
A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper

Add the peeled and diced potato to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.
Place a metal steamer into another pot, add a little water and bring to the boil. Place the cabbage into the steamer and steam cook until it is tender.
When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter and milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. You may want to add a little bit more or less milk and butter, it's up to you!
Add in the spring onion, steamed cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and stir through with a spoon until evenly combined.
Serve with the lamb shanks.

Some people were a little bit upset about the lovely shots of the cute, cuddly little lambs yesterday and I got asked how I could possibly think about eating them! I appreciate that it is a sensitive subject for some, but I'm not sure I'm going to help things along when I post today's recipe for roast lamb! All I can say is non meat eating lamb lovers AVERT YOUR EYES! I guess it does come back to making the choices on the types of meat you buy, I know I would prefer to know I am eating a piece of meat from an animal that has been treated well and has had an excellent standard of life.

Ethics aside, lamb is absolutely delicious and right now it is very much in season! Traditionally if my parents were ever "down the country", they would always come back with a leg of lamb for the Sunday roast, claiming it was best you could get. You know what? I think they were right, it must be something to do with the country air! There are lots of different ways to cook lamb, but this is one of the easiest and certainly in my mind the most traditional.

Simple Garlic and Rosemary Roast Lamb
Most meats really benefit from the roasting process and lamb is no different. As it is in season now, it needs very little work to bring out the really fantastic natural flavours of the meat. Roasting it with the classic combination of rosemary and garlic is simply the only way to go in my books! You get delicious, mouthwatering end results with a kitchen filled with amazing aromas! Normally I would roast lamb on the bone, so just adapt with whatever cut you can get your hands on.

Serves 6-8
1 leg of lamb, boned and rolled
A few cloves of garlic, sliced into thick studs
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
A generous sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper
250ml of lamb stock (or use beef or vegetable if you are stuck)

Preheat the oven to 180oC/ Gas Mark 4.
Place the lamb in a large roasting tray and using the point of a sharp knife make holes all over the lamb about 2-3cm apart.
Insert some rosemary and a stud of garlic in each hole. Season generously with sea salt and ground black pepper.
Place in the oven and depending on the weight of the leg, roast for approximately 25-30 minutes per pound for medium rare. Alternatively check the lamb with a meat thermometer, 145oF for medium rare.
Remove the cooked lamb from the pan and allow to rest on serving dish.
Tip the juices to one corner of the pan and spoon off the fat. Place the pan on the hob and add the stock. Bring to the boil and make sure to whisk all the caramelised meat juices from the sides of the tray. Decant to a small jug. You can add a little roux while it comes to the boil if you want a thicker sauce.
Serve slices of lamb with a little of the gravy some roast potatoes and steamed asparagus.