Scouse

Introduction

Scouse.

Staple of Liverpool and surrounding areas. Great way of cooking cheap cuts of meat and using leftover vegetables. Great for tricking children into eating hidden veg. Filling and warming in winter, yet make it thinner and it can be a delightful summer dish too.

Every place has their own version of Scouse. The Welsh have Cawl, there's Irish Stew, Lancashire Hotpot all made to similar (yet different) recipes. Within Merseyside, everyone claims their scouse is the best. Every family will have their own recipe with slight differences

This is mine...

Ingredients (serves 4 for two days)

200g or so of lamb neck

200g or so of a cheap cut of beef such as shin

half a bury black pudding

1 large onion

1 stick celery

2 or 3 carrots

200g or so of spuds. Whatever your fancy

Whatever other leftover veg you have. I had:

half a celeriac

4 or 5 runner beans

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp paprika

2 tsp thyme

3 bay leaves

1 tbsp worcester sauce

2 tbsp of tomato puree

1 tsp marmite

1 tsp cranberry jelly

Method

For this, I've used my slow cooker where you just bung everything in, mix up and let sit for 5 to 6 hours, however you can easily do this in the oven or on the hob by putting the ingredients in the order shown and cooking for a few mins before moving on to the next

• Chop the onion, celery and carrot and put in the pan
  
  
  
• Mix the flour, paprika, thyme, some salt and pepper with the chopped meat. Add to the pan
  
  
  
• Add chopped leftover veg until the cooker/oven pan is almost full
  
  
  
• Finish the top with sliced taters. I like mine to go soft and mushy but still retain shape so about half centimetre slices will do this.  Here I used baby new potatoes but use which ever you prefer
  
  
  
• Add the bay leaves and the liquid ingredients. Now mix well.
• If you have some, a good slug of red wine or dark beer will only make this nicer
  
  
  
• Slow cook for about 5 hours. In the oven you should cook at no higher than 140º for at least 4 hours. On the hob, a low heat for at least 2 hours will probably do
• Serve with some nice crust bread and pickled cabbage (never NEVER beetroot – it's just wrong)

Enjoy :-)

Lamb Tagine

Introduction

Looking at the veg we got in the last delivery, there were a few interesting things we thought we'd like to do. I've always wanted a proper tagine, but there was no reason why we still couldn't make one. A recent addition to the cookerybookshelf was the Hairy Dieters which contained an interesting and easy looking Moroccan tagine. Adapting it slightly based on our ingredients gives us the following, delicious recipe.

Ingredients

500g or so of lamb

1 medium onion

1 stick celery

1 chilli

3 cloves garlic

1 aubergine

1 carrot

5 mini peppers (1 normal pepper would also work)

500g tin of tomatoes

about 10 sundried tomatoes – the recipe calls for dried apricots but the kids are not a fan so I've substituted toms instead

1 tin chickpeas

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coriander

Method

• Mix the the cumin, coriander and cinnamon together and rub into the chopped lamb pieces. Put aside
  
  
  
• In an ovenproof pan, heat some olive oil and stir in the chopped onion, celery, garlic and chilli. Cook on a medium heat until it all softens slightly
• Now stir in the meat an cook until browned
  
  
  
• Stir in the chopped aubergine and carrot and fry for a minute or two
• Mix in the tin of tomatoes and fill the tin with water twice and add to the mix.
• Stir in the chickpeas and bring to a simmer
• Put in a preheated oven. I used about 160 degrees and cooked for about two hours – you know me, long and slow ;-)
  
• About 10 mins before serving, add the chopped sundried toms and the chopped peppers
• Garnish with fresh coriander

Enjoy :-)