Pies from Tesco

Was in the North last weekend and brought back some pies from Tesco. Steak and kidney and Steak. Heated them in the oven last night for dinner. I was delayed a bit in work (looking at cameras on the web for the last half hour if I am honest) so did not have time to make the lentil and egg curry from Delia book 1. That's at least 2 abortive attempts at that dish mid week. With a new baby in the house, that really is too ambitious for a mid week snaffle. Maybe a Friday night special, but I would not count on it.

Boiled up some potatoes - nice enough roosters, but at this time of year none of them are perfect. Certainly not Irish ones. The weather is particularly poxy. Apparently a lot of the potato crop is still in the ground and is frozen there to rot. Not a good situation for the farmers.
Few tips of asparagus steamed on top of some frozen sweetcorn and frozen peas. Minimal work when knackered.
Even some HP sauce did not liven this one up much. A pretty dismal offering, even for a Wednesday.
Must try harder.

Stir fried beef

Bit of leftover steak from yesterday's dinner. Aldi finest range, striploin. Gorgeous stuff. So tender you could eat it with a spoon.

Just had a little bit left - about half a steak. So sliced it thin.
Fried some ginger in a wok with hot veg oil. Added plenty of garlic and an onion, finely chopped. Then a carrot chopped small. Made a bit of a bags of this at first and had to fish the carotts out to chop them smaller. Hate rock hard carrots in a stir fry. Must quarter them lengthways first next time.
Threw the steak in on top of the whole lot and gave it all a good stir frying.
Put the noodles into a saucepan and tipped a kettle of boiling water on top. They were a bit mushy when I got to them. Noodles seem to be a bit delicate when it comes to cooking. Must plunge them into boiling water next time and time them. Can experiment with the cooking time then to make sure I get them right.
Added a sachet of sauce from Aldi too. Sweet and spicy this one was called. And it was vinegary crap. Kinda messed up a good start by chucking this in. It did not relieve much of the effort either. Will make my own stir fry sauce next time.
All in all not a great meal, but it did the job and was not too much work after a day at the office.
Might try something like this next time:

http://www.ivu.org/recipes/chinese/easy-peasy.html

Green lentil casserole

Very tasty and filling mid week dinner. This serves 2. No need to soak the lentils.


IngredientsOnions - 1 chopped finely
Carrots - 2 chopped chunky
Green lentils - 100g
Celery - couple of sticks
Sweet Potato - about half of one
Stock to cover
Splash of soy

Add the ingredients to the pot bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the carrots are cooked.