Saturday 27 February 2016

Uncle Ted's recipes #5: Working man/grifter's pie


This is a recipe that is probably more hodge podge than other recipes I've made before but I think its definitely one you should have in your repertoire especially if you're a working man or a student with not too much time on your hands.  Essentially, this is a kind of derivative of a nice Shepard's pie and with a low budget and not too much time on your hands its more than easy to make as its designed just for that purpose.  Not only that but if you have several dishes, doing this bad boy and freezing any spares you made will sort you out for dinner for days on end so let's get into this thing and cook an honest-souled meal of the people.

Ingredients (serves 3-4 or 1 person for 3-4 meals)

340g tin of corned beef
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
400g baked beans
250-300g frozen peas
500g potatoes
150-200g grated extra mature cheddar cheese
1 x large brown or white onion
250-350g mushrooms
3 tablespoons tomato puree
11g thyme
a pinch of salt and pepper
semi-skimmed milk
unsalted butter or margarine
sunflower oil


Utensils
1 medium dish
1 large vegetable cutting knife
1 ladle
1 potato masher
1 cutting board
1 colander
1 saucepan or pot and steamer


Method

Step 1:  Pre-heat the oven to 250C.  Wash and cut up the potatoes into quarters and place into the sauce pan before pour water into the pan up to a couple of inches over the potatoes and put onto boil while putting a couple of squidges of oil into the frying pan and setting to a low heat. 

Side note: When the potatoes get to boiling heat, let them cook for 20 mins and 5 mins before finishing, add the peas into the steamer so that they can cook as well

Step 2: dice up the onions and wash and slice up the mushrooms before putting into the frying pan and browning until softened with a pinch of salt and then add in the corned beef into the onions and mushrooms and break up.

Step 3: add in the puree, tinned tomatoes, beans, pepper and thyme into the frying pan and stir around until all mixed together and simmer for about 10 mins while stirring now and again.

Step 4: after the peas and potatoes are cooked, remove the steamer from the top of the saucepan and drain the potatoes before putting back into the pan and placing three or four hefty knobs of butter/margarine into the potatoes and mash until softened and then add in a couple of small splashes of milk before mashing again.  To flavour up the mash potatoes, I'd recommend adding in a pinch of salt and pepper as well as a couple of teaspoons of mustard.

Step 5: place the corned beef filling into the dish along with the peas and stir and then put the mash potato on top and spread evenly before sprinkling the cheddar on top.  Then place the dish into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Step 6: take out of the oven when the cheese has melted on top and serve onto plates with the ladle and serve with spinach and rocket on the side and wash down with mild ginger ale.

Hopefully this one'll help you all out there who are a little bit light on funds at the mo and aren't too into hard-cooking as its both easy and very cheap to make so don't feel afraid to try this one as its a right banger!

Until next time, I hope you all have fun, eat well, take care, don't do anything I wouldn't do and I'll see you all next time!

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