Poor Mans Beef Wellington

I found this recipe in one of the food magazines i subscribe to, and thought it looked good, so decided to add it to my weekly menu.

Basically it is a meatloaf wrapped in pastry with a layer of mushrooms.
I served it with roasted potatoes, vegetables and a red wine and mushroom ju.

The meatloaf was moist and juicy and had a lot of flavour, the sage came through in the mushrooms and the pastry was lovely and crisp.

I would have put some chilli in the meatloaf, but i was serving it to my 2 year old son, so omitted it this time.

Pre heat oven 200c

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 1 hour

1 kg Minced beef
100g Tomato ketchup
3 Eggs
2 Onions finely chopped
1 Red chilli finely chopped - optional
Small handful of sage leaves
Small handful of parsley leaves
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped
25g Butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
200g mushrooms finely chopped
300g Puff pastry

Mix the mince beef with the ketchup, 2 of the eggs, onions, half the garlic and half the herbs and the chilli if using, season, then form into a sausage shape and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Let it cool, turning it over half way through cooling so the juices disperse through the loaf.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a pan and saute the mushrooms with the rest of the garlic and herbs for 5 minutes, drain off any excess liquid, let cool.

Roll out the pastry and brush the inside with beaten egg, spread the mushrooms over the pastry, then put the meatloaf on top.

Cut strips in the pastry and braid the pasty, brush with egg and bake for 30 minutes. Cover if it starts to brown too quickly.

I Can't Eat it Fast Enough Moussaka!!

Today i made dinner for one of the biggest critic anyone can cook for, a two year old!!

My son is a good eater and eats most foods, I have always given him a wide variety of different foods, to get his taste buds use to lots of different flavours.

Tonight i made a Moussaka, its not that i haven't made one before, but i haven't given it to my son before.

What a reaction i got, he clapped his hands and done the Makaton sign for more, if i didn't feed it to him quick enough he was grabbing it off the plate. He ate a whole plate of it and then went on to help me eat mine.

So i think to say it was good would be an understatement!!

Preperation time 20 minutes

Cooking time 2 hours

Meat Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp Olive oil

1 Onion roughly chopped
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped
1 kg Minced lamb

1 Tin of tomatoes

1 to 2 tbsp Ground cinnamon - I like to really taste the cinnamon so i use 2 tbsp.
2 tsp Ground cumin
2 tbsp Dried oregano
150ml Red wine
500ml Chicken stock

Firstly make the meat sauce.

Brown the mince in batches, don't over crowd the the pan or it will stew.
Remove from pan.
Add onions to the pan and saute for about 5 minutes till softened, add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
Add the lamb back to the pan, then stir in the cinnamon, cumin and oregano.
Stir in the tomatoes, turn up the heat and add the red wine and stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hr till the sauce is moist but not runny.

While the sauce simmers prepare the potatoes and aubergines.

3 tbsp olive oil

1 Large aubergines

4 Medium potatoes

Slice the potatoes and aubergines about 1/4 inch thick, brush with olive oil and griddle till partly cooked.

Now make the Bechemel Sauce.

50g Butter

50g Plain flour

1 pint Milk

150g Grated cheddar

1/2 tsp Grated nutmeg

2 Beaten eggs

Salt & pepper to season.

In a large saucepan make a roux with the butter, flour and milk, by melting the butter with the flour and cook out for 2 minutes, then gradually stir in the milk over a medium heat, till it thickens.

Take off the heat and stir in the cheese and nutmeg.

Quickly stir in the eggs a bit at a time, so they don't scramble. Stir until smooth.

In a large ceramic dish start to layer the potato, aubergine and meat sauce.

Start with a thin layer of meat sauce, then a layer of potato, then another layer of meat sauce, then a layer of aubergine, then more meat sauce, then a final layer of potato, finally pour over the Bechemel sauce.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, check after 30 minutes and if it starting to brown too much cover for the remaining time.