Here is a proper recipe for chilli con carne: ‘proper’ not necessarily because it’s authentic but because it takes time, uses good quality ingredients and avoids the convenient shortcuts (tinned beans, minced meat) that make chilli such a popular meal with students. You need to plan ahead, soaking the beans overnight and setting aside enoughContinue reading “Chilli con carne”
Category Archives: Beef
Thai beef salad
This meets the qualification for inclusion because it has gone down a storm on the three occasions I’ve made it: first at The Ridge one Boxing Day (maybe 15 years ago); then last year, mid-pandemic, at Granny’s flat in Putney; and, most recently, to celebrate the February birthdays in 2021. My go-to recipe comes fromContinue reading “Thai beef salad”
Beef & almond curry
Madhur Jaffrey (yes, her again) traces the ancestry of this dish to the Persian shahi korma, lamb cubes smothered in a rich almond and cream sauce. We enjoy Jaffrey’s version with beef, although you can use lamb if you prefer – but you have a lamb dhansak recipe already in the archive. This can beContinue reading “Beef & almond curry”
Spaghetti & meatballs
As a cash-and-time-poor working mother I have always been on the hunt for quick, cheap supper dishes to sling together after a busy day at school. This recipe entered the repertoire when we were living in South Croxted Road – I think it was inspired originally by a two-minute TV ad. You can make theContinue reading “Spaghetti & meatballs”
Beef stew & dumplings
Although it’s trending for all the wrong reasons this week, stew evokes comfortable childhood memories for me. I only started cooking it myself after happening upon an advert in a magazine, when we lived at South Croxted Road: ok, the ad was for Waitrose, but the ingredients are basic and cheap (even cheaper if youContinue reading “Beef stew & dumplings”
Lasagne
Like bolognese sauce, Lasagne is ‘a dish which, if not exactly lost in translation, has, in the grand British tradition, been considerably mangled’ (Felicity Cloake), so again I am making no claims about authenticity here. Some traditional meat lasagne recipes, for example, contain a ricotta and egg mixture rather than béchamel sauce. The version weContinue reading “Lasagne”
Bolognese sauce
As Felicity Cloake has written (in her excellent series ‘How to make a perfect…’): “To write on spag bol is to wade into a mire of controversy thicker and darker than any ragu that ever came out of nonna’s kitchen.” There is no definitive recipe for bolognese sauce and many of the ‘authentic’ elements (pork,Continue reading “Bolognese sauce”
Bográcsgulyás
As we limp into our second month of Lockdown, communal outdoor cooking has become the stuff of nostalgia, but you can re-create this (albeit without the smoky flavour) over your kitchen stove and in the oven. Goulash is really a soup: what non-Hungarians call a goulash is actually a braise, comprising just beef and potatoes.Continue reading “Bográcsgulyás”
Years of Practice 