18.10.13 Nick's Mexican Chilli Beef with Rice

A nice warming one-pot chilli that's not too spicy but very tasty.



Ingredients (serves 15):

• up to 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 4kg stewing beef
• 4 white onions, sliced
• 4 tbsp chipotle paste
• 8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 50g ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 2l beef stock
• 3 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 5 x 400g cans kidney beans, drained

Cooking:

1. Heat a small drizzle of the oil in an extra-large flameproof dish. Brown the meat in batches, adding a drop more oil, remove from the dish and set aside. Add 1 tbsp oil to the dish, then the onions, and cook for 7-10 mins or until caramelised.
2. Stir the chipotle paste, garlic, ginger, cumin, cinnamon and flour in with the onions and cook for a couple of mins. Gradually add the stock, stirring all the time, so it’s fully mixed in with the other ingredients. Add the tomatoes and oregano, season and simmer for 10 mins.
3. Now tip in the beef, cover and simmer very gently for about 1 hr 45 mins until tender, removing the lid and adding the beans for the final 15 mins. If the sauce is thin, let it boil down for a further 5-10 mins with the lid off. Before serving, adjust the seasoning. Serve with rice.

Tomato Pesto Pasta Recipe by Anton

If someone has a pick add it please :-)

Ingredients (for 10 +/-):

600g of cherry tomatoes

1Kg of pasta

Salt

Garlic

Extra virgin SPANISH olive oil

Pesto (Buy it or homemade :-) )

Parmesan cheese 

Cook pasta adding salt according to package directions until al dente. Drain, reserving 4 tbsp. of cooking liquid. Return to pot along with reserved cooking liquid. Stir in pesto and reserved cooking liquid over low heat until the pasta is evenly coated.

Fry the cherry tomatoes halved in olive oil with chopped garlic and salt. Add the tomates and the Parmesan cheese to the pasta at last minute and ENJOY!

Christmas Lunch 2012

We have just come back from our christmas lunch this year and it was sooooo good that we all ate too much and can now no longer work...

Here is what we had:
-Turkey with cranberry sauce and gravy
-Becker style Brussel sprouts
-Roasted potatoes
-Onion +sage and apple + cranberry stuffing
-Roasted butternut squash
-Feta and tomato salad
-Hazelnut and chocolate cake
and not to forget: Karolina's special mulled wine

 

And here are the recipes if anyone wants to know how to make it:

 

Turkey - buy turkey and cook it according to instructions on the packet.

Sprouts - clean sprouts and cut them in half, then biol for 8 min (don't boil them too long, they get too soft and squidgy!). In a seperate saucepan, fry some small cut bacon pieces, then add cream. When the sprouts are finished add them to the bacon-cream sauce and that's it. Easy, right?

Cake - Recipe will be up soon

 

Yujie's chinese feast

The joy of having chinese PhD students in the lab is that every now and then we get a fantastic chinese feast for lunch :-) Like this last friday when Yujie made dumplings, sweet corn, beef and eggs and tomato with rice. It was delicious!

Maria's mediterranean meat pie with potatoes and caramelised pepper starter

Last friday we had an exceptional lunch prepared by Maria. For a starter we had baguette with philadelphia and caramelised peppers - I swear they looked like gummy bears! But they tasted absolutely delicious :-)

And as a main dish Maria had made mediterranean meat pie with roasted potatoes. YUMMY!

Stout and chicken pasta by Jochen

And then finally last friday, Jochen cooked very tasty and surprisingly spicy tomato-stout-chicken pasta for us.

 

STOUT AND SPICY PASTA

Guinness dishes are usually pretty heavy, but this one packs an unexpected punch. Smoked chillies (chipotles) are best, but regular jalapenos will do. Serves 4-6.

3 tbsp cooking oil
68og (1.5 lbs) chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, finely diced
8 garlic cloves, crushed
2 2 1/z tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tins chopped tomatoes, drained
1 tin (15oml) tomato paste
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme
2 fresh large red chillies, finely chopped
440ml can Guinness (or other dark stout)
375g pasta
Fresh parsley, chopped fine, for garnish

 

Cook the chicken breasts in the oil over a medium-high heat until browned and cooked all the way through. Lift them out, turn it down a bit, and cook the onions and garlic in the same pan for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, herbs and chillies, pour in the beer and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let the sauce thicken about five minutes. Cook the pasta while this is happening and when all is ready, mix the chicken back into the sauce and serve immediately.

 

Taken from: Cooking with Booze



Antón's Greek Lunch

Then about 2 weeks ago, Antón who had just come home from the greek islands cooked a greek lunch for us: stuffed tomatos with greek salad and baguette.

For the salad:
You need olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, green peppers, red onions, cappers, cucumber, olive oil and salt. Chop and mix all the ingredients and add as much olive oil and salt as you like.

Stuffed tomatoes:
Ingredients: One or two big tomatoes per person. Rice, olive oil, oregano, onions and garlic.
How to make them:
Cut the top off of the tomatoes and remove the seeds reserving them.
Saute the onions and the garlic with olive oil. Add the seeds and the oregano. Mix with the boiled rice and stuff the mixture into the tomatoes and place them in the oven (pour water and olive oil over them).

Bake them (around 1 hour).
Enjoy!