Main: Slow Cooker Beef Ragu
Woolies Fresh Mag – June 2020
Dessert: Banbury Apple Pie
Delicious Mag June 2020
The Banbury Pie is linked to a town in Oxfordshire and is from a recipe found in a 1928 newspaper. You will find this and many of these wonderful British recipes in Oats in the North, Wheat from the South: The History of British Baking, Sweet and Savoury by Regula Ysewijn
Hi Everyone!
Hope you’re all keeping well and enjoying your cooking. I love to bake but the only thing that holds me back is the fact that I also like to eat the baking. Get my drift? Hmmmm….. I am sure I’m not alone in that. The recipe for the apple pie this week was from Delicious Mag, however, that in turn was from the book I mention above. The English really DO baking and this book is one I’m very keen to buy. I did make a couple of my own adjustments but I will talk about that later.
Firstly the wonder of the slow cooker for creating an easy and heart warming meal with very little effort never ceases to amaze me. We can use cheaper cuts of meat thereby keeping the weekly budget in check as well. This recipe calls for the searing of the meat and the veg. Now, I prefer this when slow cooking even though there is no argument that a recipe where you throw it all in and turn on the timer are super quick and easy. By sealing the meat and browning off the veg it adds another layer of flavour and colour to the dish.
Get creative with this one and look in the crisper for any left over vegies you may have. Anything goes really. Just keep in mind that if you are going to add softer veg like mushrooms, it’s best to add them towards the end of the 8 hour cooking cycle. Maybe at the 6 hour mark. If you add them earlier because you are going to work or whatever, that’s fine too, absolutely. They will just be a little mushy and who doesn’t love mushy, juicy vegies and meat served with fettuccine. The meat falls apart very easily so shred it a little and put it back into the gravy before adding your pasta. Whilst I was shredding the meat, I added a small amount of cornflour to the sauce to thicken it up. Finish with a liberal grating of parmesan and chopped parsley to make this your family’s go to recipe for those busy days. 9/10 was the score tonight. The great thing about the recipes from the Woolies mags is that the ingredients are easily accessible and never very complicated.
The Banbury Apple Pie was so scrumptious. It felt like old fashioned childhood comfort. This apple pie has all the hallmarks of tradition with currants and candied citrus peel added. I deviated here and used Angas Park super blend which supports gut health.
This contains apricots, figs, pepitas, apples and pears all dried and chopped finely. It added a real kick to the pie along with the spices of ginger and cinnamon. Please don’t be put off when you start to roll out the pastry. Sometimes pastry can be temperamental and fiddly but persist because it beats shop bought frozen pastry hands down. Many years ago my dear mother-in-law taught me to make custard from scratch and her recipe, to my way of thinking anyway, is the best. So I ended up using that one to serve with the apple pie.
BUT, I have a confession. I did try the custard in this recipe (I will include that one) but I flunked out. It’s expensive with 5 egg yolks too. I knew I was sunk when I read “make sure the mixture doesn’t get too hot or you will end up with scrambled eggs”. Yep! scrambled eggs it was. I don’t have induction cooking and I think that it was needed to get the heat low enough. At least I gave it a try right? And that’s what this blog is about. Maybe you will have better luck. If you don’t want any custard at all that’s ok too because the pie works wonderfully with ice cream. This scored 9/10 also. Seconds all round. Everyone was happy. The MAV even ate the pasta.
Until next week…..
From my table to yours with love x
