I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen, indulging in one of my favourite occupations .....cooking! The weather has turned a bit chilly, so it was the ideal time to try out my new slow cooker with a hearty beef in red wine. First I prepared the veggies - red onion, celery, mushrooms, garlic and carrots
Then the most important ingredient - wonderful braising steak
I am really pleased with the slow cooker - I can put the inner pot on the cooker to start off the cooking (with my old one, I had to do that in a saucepan then transfer it). First I browned the meat in batches
Then I put in the veggies (except for the carrots) to soften
Next, the meat went back in, along with the carrots, salt and pepper, water .... and of course some red wine
Into the outer pot, then it just sat there gently cooking away
I served it with cauliflower, broccoli and plain boiled potatoes - delicious!
While the beef was cooking, I made some plum chutney (no matter how many I use, there are still lots of plums left - I think they are breeding!!)
I made the recipe up, with bits from several different ones ....... as you can see from where I jotted it down in my (very old) cookery notebook, my handwriting has deteriorated somewhat (and the fact that the other recipe is in imperial measurements shows the age of the notebook as well!)
Fortunately Malcolm was busy doing something crafty, as I haven't knitted or sewn a stitch all day! He has almost finished another cracket
As well as being good at practical crafts like woodwork, Malcolm is also artistic. I get very annoyed when he doesn't use his talents ... I would love to be able to draw (you've seen some of my efforts!). However, he has just finished this painting - inspired by a card from a set we bought last year on holiday.
Oops - the painting isn't hanging squint - it's my photo ... I was trying to avoid having my rather large yucca in the corner of the photo!!
