Spiced Warming Beef Wraps

As mentioned in my precious post I've suddenly developed some pretty severe food intolerances. All kinds of ingredients are now off the menu and it's meant adjusting my normal diet quite dramatically. As it gets colder I crave winter warmers - stews, soups and spice. Anything large, rustic and warming. I've recently found that Knorr Stock Pots are pretty much what you'd put in stock you would make yourself. No MSG which is a change as most have this nasty chemical in. They do contain maltodextrin which I don't know much about so I need to check that out. I also added a Bovril for additional depth of flavour. 

This is my healthier, allergy friendly take on spiced beef wraps wraps. I love using iceberg lettuce leaves instead of bread wraps or flat breads. I also made a mint yoghurt for the other people eating. 

Recipe 

500g of lean beef mince

1 onion, finely diced 

1 garlic clove, crushed 

Oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tin of tomatoes

1/2 tbsp tomato purée 

1 tsp Bovril
1 Stock Pot 

1/2 tin lentils 

Iceberg lettuce, leaves whole. 

1/2 cucumber, diced

100ml natural yoghurt (if you can have dairy)

A sprig of mint

A squeeze of lemon

Salt and pepper

Serves 4

1. In a little oil sauté the lamb until browned and sealed, add the onion and continue to cook

2. Once the onions are golden add the garlic and spices and cook for a few minutes

3. Add the tomatoes, purée, Bovril, Stock Pot, lentils and seasoning and cook for about 30 minutes until the flavours have all melded together and the sauce has thickened 

4. Whilst it cooks select the best, large iceberg leaves and make a mint yoghurt (I just had the mint as dairy is off the menu for me) mix the yoghurt with fine,y chopped mint, a squeeze of lemon and seasoning. 

Too Tip: You can add a little crushed garlic if you wish but I find raw garlic a bit overpowering. A drizzle of garlic oil would be a good compromise. 

5. Allow people to make their own wraps up. Adding a spoonful of the beef mixture and a few cubes of cucumber to a lettuce leave and top with a little mint yoghurt. 

Enjoy! 

Jubilee BBQ

What could be more British than planning a BBQ on a slightly rainy bank holiday? BBQs remind me of my childhood. Come rain or shine we would BBQ at every opportunity. I particularly remember the rainy ones. My Grandad getting out the hair dryer to encourage slightly damp coals to burn hotter and my dad holding a golf umbrella over the BBQ whilst I cooked wearing a waterproof particularly stick in my mind.

Fortunately this Saturday the sun broke through the clouds shortly before the fire was lit. I wanted to keep things simple so I made some burgers and chicken and chorizo kebabs. People often think of BBQs are unhealthy but with a little thought they can be healthy and clean.






For the kebabs I took cubes of chicken breast, slices of chorizo and a mixture of vegetables. I threaded them onto skewers and marinated in a simple marinade for about 3 hours. For the marinade I chopped a mixture of parsley, basil and mint, added a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, a crushed garlic clove, seasoning and a good glug of olive oil.

The burgers were made by mixing beef mince with an egg, seasoning, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, chopped rosemary and a crushed garlic clove. I then formed them into patties. I added a bit too much egg which made the mixture sticky so I dusted each with flour before cooking.

The trick to a good BBQ, for me, is to constantly turn the meat. Far more often than people normally do and also make sure the grill is not too low. This ensures that the meat doesn't burn before it is cooled.

Here are the cooked kebabs and burgers.


Serve with a green salad and a jug of Pimms to wash it all down! Obviously the Pimms isn't healthy so keep this as a treat!

Alternative Christmas Dinner

For the first year (I think ever) we didn't have turkey for our christmas dinner. We bought a beautiful joint of sirloin fore-rib of beef to have with a parsnip, shallot and sausage mixture, roast potatoes, green veg and red cabbage.

For the beef we placed a few roughly chopped carrots, onions, celery and garlic in the bottom of a roasting tin and then placed the seasoned beef on top with a good slug of olive oil. To roast it we put it in the oven at 230C for 20 mins before turning it down to 180C for 18 mins for every 500g. This resulted in roast beef which was medium rare. Once it was down we took it out of the roasting tin and wrapped it in foil and covered it in tea towels to rest.




To make the gravy take the roasting tin with the veg and the meat juices in and carefully spoon off most of the fat and discard or put to one side for beef dripping. Put the whole tin on the hob, stir in a couple of spoonfuls of flour and get it nice and hot before pouring in a large glass of red wine. Now use a potato masher to mush all of the veg up scraping all of the yummy goodness from the bottom of the pan as you do. Add some boiling water to thin the stock to the right consistency and simmer for about 5 mins. To finish sieve out all of the vegetables and other lumps and you'll be left with a yummy gravy. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. This is probably vaguely a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Whilst the meat is cooking thinly slice half a red cabbage and half an onion. Place it in a pan with a grated apple, two teaspoons of sugar a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, seasoning and a stick of cinnamon. Cook on a medium to low heat for about an hour until it is nice and soft. This is a recipe I have been given by my mum, which we have been making for years (it originally used malt vinegar but I tend to use balsamic vinegar now).



For the potatoes we used Jamie Oliver's perfect roast potatoes and had garlic, rosemary and red wine vinegar as our chosen flavour combination. They really are great roast potatoes.



For the shallot, parsnip and sausage mix we took 8 good quality sausages (ours were from a local farm) and twisted each in the middle and cut to make 2 mini sausages. We placed these in the bottom of a roasting tin along with halved parsnips, shallots and sprigs of rosemary and then poured over a mixture of 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of sweet chilli jam and 2 tbsps of maple syrup and then roasted at 180C for 45 mins, turning every so often. This was adapted from Waitrose Kitchen magazine.



We served all of this with a bowl of mixed greens including some tendersteam broccoli and sugar snap peas. Overall it was a great dinner even if there was no turkey!