RoboJ1M
Friday 19 July 2024
The Room at the End of Time.
Saturday 12 August 2023
AI Pizza
Sunday 18 September 2022
Slow Cooker Beef Bolognese
- A 6.5 Litre (6.9 US Quarts) Slow Cooker
- A Hand Blender
- A Lidded Saute Plan
- 8 to 10 plastic freezer tubs
- An automatic timer plug
- Oil for frying (I use Rape, any good high temprature oil will do)
- 4 x 400g (14oz) Cans of Peeled Italian Plum Tomatoes
- 140g Double Concentrate Italian Tomato Puree
- 2 Beef Stock Cubes
- 1/2 Bottle of GOOD red wine (Merlot or Rioja are best, certainly something full bodied)
- 1/2 tsp Oregano
- 1/2 tsp Rosemary
- 1/2 tsp Basil
- 4 Medium Onions
- 4 Large Carrots
- A Head of Celery
- A Half or a Whole Bulb of Garlic (your choice)
- 1kg (just over 2lb) 12% fat Beef Mince
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 1 or 2 Jars or Cans of crushed tomatoes (optional, adds to the texture)
- 2 Punnets of Mushrooms (optional)
Into the slow cooker put the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, beef stock cubes, red wine, oregano, rosemary, basil. Now blend very smooth with the stick blender. Switch the slow cooker on, set it to high and close the lid.
Peel, roughly chop and fry the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Once they have softened and browned a bit, tip into the slow cooker and again blenmd it smooth.
Fry the mince, breaking up all the lumps, turn it down and reduce some of the liquid. Tip the mince AND the juice (never throw this away) into the slow cooker and stir
Add the bay and crushed tomatoes and stir
Quarter the mushrooms and fry, put the lid on the saute pan. Wait 5 minutes for the water to come out of the mushrooms. Remove the lid and continue to fry gently until the water is reduced down to a dark liquer. Tip the mushrooms AND the liquer (never throw this away) into the slow cooker and stir.
Clap the lid on the slow cooker and leave it on high. Check every hour, once it's good and hot and bubbling, turn it down to low. At this point I conenct the timer plug and set it to run for 4 hours on low and go to bed. The next morning I unplug the slow cooker and move it to one side. This is the important bit. Leave it to cool until the evening. At this point it should be about 24 hours since you started. Now you ladle it into my plastic tubs for the freezer. I make labels with the contents and the date (month/year) using masking tape and freeze, switching the freezer to quick freeze.
Thats it, defrost and then reheat on a stove, serve with spaghetti (I prefer linguine) and garlic bread.
Wednesday 1 September 2021
Curry Pie (Serves 4)
Friday 26 March 2021
Really Dumb But Really Good Chicken Fajitas
Sunday 17 January 2021
Slow Cooked Beef Bolognese with Hidden Veg
Saturday 20 May 2017
Perfect Rice
Ingredients
200ml of Basmati Rice (always measure rice by volume)
A half teaspoon of salt.
1 to 2 tablespoon of Ground Nut Oil or Rapeseed Oil
400ml of boiling water
Equipment
1 large glass lidded saute pan
Method
1) Boil kettle
2) Measure 400ml boiling water in jug, add salt to water, stir and dissolve. The amount of salt you need will vary, on rice species and water hardness and preference. You'll need to practice to get it right for you.
3) Heat oil in pan until smoking hot (Max ring temperature)
4) Quickly tip dry rice into oil. First grains will turn white and opaque instantly. Gently mix oil into rice. Keep stirring every 5 to 10 seconds until translucent grains turn white and opaque. Be patient, they will turn opaque. This is the in most important step, be patient and brave, all grains must be white and opaque. Any grains that darken in colour just make it taste better and look fantastic.
5) Quickly poor water over rice, stir briskly 3 to 4 times.
6) Clap lid on, move on to small ring, turn to low (I use power 2 of 6 on mine). Maybe just turn it down if you're on a gas cooker instead of electric
7) Set timer for 14 minutes.
8) After time is up, lift and tip pan to see through glass lid if water has been absorbed. If not, repeat steps 7 & 8 but with 5 minutes instead of 14 minutes
9) Move rice off the heat, fluff up the rice with a plastic fork or spork, wrap lid in a clean tea towel and place on pan for 15 minutes.
10) Fluff every 15 minutes until everything else is ready and then eat, if this takes too long, adjust amount of water down next time, the exact amount of water varies depending on the brand of rice you use.
Extra) Fantastic used for fried rice the next day.