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!

Sweet chilli chicken by David

Again, I'm a little behind in posting our yummy meals, so here's an update of the most recent friday lunches.

A few fridays ago, our summer student David made lovely sweet chilli chicken.

Unfortunately we don't have a recipe, but it seemed quite easy to make. Just buy lots of sweet chilli sauce!!!

Nick’s Beef with red wine and carrots recipe

Ingredients needed (for 8 portions):

vegetable or sunflower oil , for frying
1½ kg shin of beef or stewing beef, cut into cubes
3 tbsp flour
2 large onions , sliced
600g carrots , cut into batons
4 garlic cloves , crushed
glass red wine (about 175ml/6fl oz)
850ml beef stock
3 bay leaves
few thyme sprigs
jacket potatoes or mash, to serve

Cooking:

·         Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan. Put the beef in a bowl, sprinkle with the flour and seasoning, then mix until well coated. Fry in batches, adding more oil if necessary, until everything is well browned. Transfer to a casserole dish.

·         Add another tbsp oil to the pan and stir in the onion and carrots. Cover and gently cook for 10-12 mins until softened, then remove the lid and cook until just beginning to brown. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 min more. Pour in the wine and stir well, letting it boil up for 1 min, then pour the whole mixture over the meat. Add the stock, bay leaves and thyme, bring to a simmer, then cover and gently simmer for 2½ hrs until the meat is very tender. If the sauce looks a bit thin, remove the lid and continue to cook until it thickens.

Polish Golabki by Karolina

Last friday Karolina made a polish speciality for us: GOLABKI; basically mince wrapped in cabbage. It was delicious as always and apparently also very easy to make.

Here is the recipe:



·  Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves.

·  When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.

·  Chop the remaining cabbage and place it in the bottom of a large pot.

·  Saute the chopped onion in butter in a large frying pan until tender, and let it cool.

·  Mix cooled onions with beef, rice, garlic, salt and black pepper until well combined. Don't overmix or the meat will become tough.

·  Place about 1/2 cup of meat on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.

·  Place the cabbage rolls on top of the chopped cabbage in the pan, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper. Pour beef stock over rolls, cover and simmer for 1 hour or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked.

·  To make the sauce, remove the rolls and thicken the remaining stock with sauce flour, crème fraiche, tomato concentrate and spices.

Alex's "Meaty leek soup for cold days" (it's July in Edinburgh haha)

As the summer is so cold this year, Alex has decided to cook a winter dish from Germany for us - Leek soup with mince meat.

Okay, so this will look shamefully short in comparison to all the othere recipes on here.
I will give you a version of the recipe, that produces less volume, than what I made for
Lab Lunch, to reproduce that volume basicly just double everything except for Leek and stock, here
you should use 3kg/3L respectively, should you ever want to cook for ~13 people.
Here goes:

You will need:
500g Steak Mince
2kgs of Leek
Garlic
Stock cubes, beef is best, if you use minced beef for the meat
100g Creme Fraiche
100g cheese, I used ground cheddar,
Salt
Pepper

Optional:
Starch


Protocol:

Clean the leek and cut it into rings
Take a big pot and put some oil in, heat it up
Fry the steak mince, till its kind of granular, the smaller the granules, the better your
meat/volume ratio will be
Add the leek rings, sweat them for some time
Add a few garlic cloves (2+ depending on taste)
Deglaze with 2 litres of stock
Lightly cook for ~10mins
Season with salt and pepper

Optional (I didn't do this):
Mix 1 tablespoon of starch with cold water and add it, to thicken the soup

Add Creme Fraiche, mix in
Add Cheese, mix in, it melts

Let it cook, for as long as you like, the longer the better, or at least I think so, the
leek will become softer

Eat with Baguette or any other bread you like.

Anton's "Patatas a la riojana":

(If someone has a pic from that day, please post it :-) --> Done)
Ingredients:
(for 6 to 8 people)
1 to 1.5 Kg of potatoes
100 mL of extra virgin olive oil
150 g of bacon
200 g of Spanish chorizo
4 red peppers
2 big onions
100 mL of white wine + one glass for the cook
A little bit of paprika
5 drops of Tabasco (optional)
Salt


How to make it:
Peel the potatoes, wash them and break them in small pieces (just start with a small cut with the knife and then break the piece).

Put the olive oil in the saucepan and sauté the chopped onions and peppers with the potatoes.
Then, add the chorizo, the bacon and the tabasco drops. Next, add the paprika and quickly add the wine to not burn the paprika. Cover with water and when it is boiling put the heat down and cook it very slowly. Gently move the sauce pan from time to time to get a thicker sauce without smashing the potatoes.

Hope you liked it :-)
Antón.

Black current cake for Thomas' birthday

Ingredients:

300g flour
150g butter
150g sugar
2 egg yolk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Pk vanilla sugar/ Few drops vanilla aroma
possibly a little milk

For the filling:
500g black/red currents
4 egg white
100g sugar
1 table spoon corn flour
some chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts...)

Whipped cream

How to make it: Make a dough out of the ingredients, add some milk if it is too dry, then put into fridge for 1 hour to rest.
Whip up the 4 egg whites, add the sugar and corn flour.
When the dough has rested enough, grease a baking tray, press the dough into it and make sure it is high enough at the edges. Carefully add the currents to the egg white foam and mix. Now pour this mixture onto the cake, top with some chopped nuts if you like, or you can also mix the nuts in with the wgg whites and currents.
Bake at 160°C aproximately 50 min.
Serve with whipped cream.

That's it! It's easy, right? Enjoy :-)

Michell's (now) famous Cream Schitzel

Again, today's lab lunch was a fantastic feast.
Recipe please :-)

Fajitas by Thomas

Last friday's Fajitas were absolutely delicious!
Thomas, we need the recipe!

Mediterranean Chicken with Salads by Jolanda

Let's have another try at posting recipes :-)

So I made some mediterranean chicken stuffed with feta, herbs and olives in a tomato sauce with couscous salad, oven potatoes and green leave salad.

And here are the recipes:

FETA AND OLIVE STUFFED CHICKEN:

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Feta
• Fresh basil
• Pitted olives
• Optional: sundried tomatoes
• Tomato sauce
• Dried herbs
• Fresh tomatoes
• Dried tarragon
• Wooden skewers
• Olive oil

In a bowl, mix crumbled feta with small pieces of olives, fresh basil, pepper and some olive oil (and some sundried tomatoes if you fancy). Cut open the uncooked chicken breasts, stuff them with this filling mix and pin them closed with the wodden skewers. In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil, sprinkle the chicken breasts with dried tarragon and fry carefully until cooked all the way through. Place the cooked stuffed chicken breasts in a baking tray, sprinkle with fresh diced tomatoes, herbs and a tomatoe sauce (any sauce in a jar, that has some taste ie tomatoe and chilli or tomatoe and basil etc.) and cook in the oven for about 30-45 min at 160°C. You can also add some parmesan cheese on top if you like.

COUSCOUS SALAD:
Ingredients:

• Couscous
• Sweet potatoe
• Chicken stock
• Fresh coriander
• Pumpkin seeds
• Green Pepper
• Lemon
• Salt
• Pepper

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into little pieces, the boil in water until tender. In a bowl, place uncooked couscous and add boiling hot chicken stock until the couscous is just covered. Cover the bowl with a plate ot tea towel and wait until the couscous has soaked up all the liquid and is ready. Cut green peppers into small pieces. When the couscous is ready, stir it with a fork so it becomes nice and fluffy, add the cooked sweet potatoe, green pepper pieces, some fresh coriander leaves and salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

OVEN POTATOES:
Parboil some potatoes. Cut into pieces, place on an oven tray, sprinkle with olive oil, fresh rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and roast in the oven or under the grill until brown and crispy.

GREEN SALAD:
I don't think I need to tell you how to make green salad :-) But for those who are unsure, it is very easy: Buy some salad leaves, wash them and make a dressing of oil and vinegar, herbs, mustard, or whatever you would like in your dressing. And voilà, that's it!

Christmas lunch by Jochen and Jolanda

We had a fantastic christmas lunch with secret santa delivering presents for everyone.
On the menu was: Turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce, pommes dauphinoise, blanched vegetables, stuffing and mince pies for dessert.

Pommes dauphinoise (potatoe gratin)

Ingredients: Potatoes, Milk, Onions, Garlic, Butter, Cheese, Thyme, Rosemary, Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg. 
Cut the potatoes in thin slices, dice half a onion, and fry until glassy. Add spices and garlic, salt and pepper, then add potatoes, cover with milk, add a tablespoon of butter and bring to boil. Let it simmer until potatoes are soft and almost done.
Put everything into a dish and cover with cheese.
Put into oven at around 200 °C and bake until the cheese is golden brown and the potatoes are soft.

Vegetables:

Carrots, Brocoli, Cauwliflower (whatever vegies are handy really), Small onion, Sugar, Honey, Thyme.
Bring water to boil, add some sugar and cook the vegetables for 10 minutes.
Drain the vegetables and let them dry off.
Chop the onion and add to some olive oil in a pot, fry with thyme until slightly brown, add a tablespoon of honey and mix, let the sugar caramelize a little, add vegetables and stir well.

Turkey:
Buy large pieces of turkey  ready to roast from the supermarket (Sainsburys, M&S, Tescos) and cook according to the instructions (sorry, it is a lot less fancy than you expected probably. I'll attempt to make a proper turkey next time)

Cranberry Sauce:
I cup sugar (200g), 1 cup water (250ml), 4 cups frozen or fresh cranberries (12oz). Put everything in a saucepan together, bring to boil, then simmer on low heat for 10 minutes until cranberries get soft. Simmer a little more. Then add spices or raisins or blueberries, whatever strikes your fancy. I put orange peel, cinnamon and nutmeg in mine.

Onion and sage stuffing:
4 large onions, 10 sage  leaves (or more if you want more taste), 300g breadcrumbs, 40g butter, salt and pepper to taste, 1 egg.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Peel the onions and boil whole for about 10-15 minutes. The less you boil them, the stonger your stuffing will be in "onion taste". Just before you take them out, add the sage leaves to blanche them quickly.  Take out the onions and sage leaves, cool down with cold water and cut into fine pieces. In a bowl, combine the cut onion and sage leaves, breadcrumbs, butter (melted) and egg. This should give you a "stuffing-like" texture. Now fill into a oven dish and bake at 180°C until you think it smells and looks good.

Mince pies:
225g cold butter (diced) , 350g plain flour, 100g golden caster sugar, 280g mincemeat, 1 small egg (beaten), pecan nuts (coarsly chopped), icing sugar to dust.
In a bowl, combine butter, flour and sugar and work into a smooth dough. Roll out onto a floured surface and cut out circles in a size that line your mince pie tray (use a glass or so). Grease the tray, line the inside of the moulds with your dough circles. Fill these with the mincemeat combined with pecan nuts. Either add another smaller dough circle to close the top of the mince pies, or cut out stars and put them on top, or just leave them open. Beat the egg and brush the top of the mince pie with it. Bake for at 180°C for 10-15 min or until golden brown.

Looking forward to our Christmas lunch

putting chairs in a circle:

Catherina: Großmuttis Hühnerfrikassee (Grandma's chicken fricassee)

This is the ideal combination of winter comfort food and family history. My grandmother used to make this chicken dish and served in a ring of rice (I found that really intriguing), so now I made it for the group - to serve 6 or 8:

Boil a large chicken (1800 to 2200g) with chopped carrots, leek, celery root and a "garnished onion":

(gesteckte Zwiebel - eyes and nose are cloves, the mouth is a couple of bayleaves).

While this is boiling, roll meatballs (500gr mince, pork works well, 1 egg, some finely chopped onion, some breadcrumbs, spice to taste - curry is my favorite) and set them aside. Cut 250 gr of mushrooms in half, cut 4 cm pieces of 250 gr of asparagus (usually green, white when it is in season use it!). By the time you have done that, your chicken broth should take shape - scoop some out and boil the veggies and meatballs for about 5 minutes - fish them out and set them aside. Take the chicken out of the broth (after about 1.5 hours), let it cool off. Prepare a roux (melt about 50 gr butter, whisk in flour until you have a paste, start adding small amounts of broth (including the broth that you boiled the meatballs and vaggies in), keep whisking, repeat until you have the amount/consistency you want). Add meatballs, veggies, chicken meat and a couple of spoonfuls of capers - season to taste and serve with rice.

I don't have the picture of the finished thing - anyone?

Jambalaya by Aric

Last friday, Aric made traditional Jambalaya for us, which apparently is closely related to the spanish paella.

Aric, where is the recipe? It looks delicious!