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STEP 5. LAZY OVEN
Oven is FANTASTIC - well as long as it works properly and you don't mind cleaning afterwards. To tell you the truth, I used to dislike oven dishes. To me, cooking with an oven simbolised "easy" cooking. Now, I still think it is a rather lazy way of dealing with the business, but it is useful. The best way to use the oven is to know its character. Some ovens are so crap and hard to use while others are much more reliable. You have to know how reliable your oven is before using it. Very important...
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Casserole
Roast Chicken & Potatoes
Almost S's Pie
Thing about Stocks
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A very generic name I put down here. This dish probably has a proper name but I'm not that bothered. Basics are all the same with these dishes. You prepare vegetable, meat and other things. Mix them up. Transfer to a casserole. Leave it in the oven for ages. Take out and eat!
I guess, since you're using an oven, you got to know how to roast a chicken. Think of other variations like er... beef or lamb.
There's a thing about this dish. My French friend told me how to make this. She told me it's French! Anyway so one dayl, I made it for dinner - then my flatmate told me it's a sheperd's pie... Well, a sheperd's pie doesn't have cheese on top, does it?
I decided to write something about stocks because I don't like OXO cubes. It's just too easy to use these powder junks. They are not real stocks anyway. I put one way of making a stock. You can either start from here and expand further to learn how to make better stocks or you can just skip this section and stick to the "easy" solution. I put down three ways of making stocks, but they are not the only ones around so look around!
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Ingredients
(for upto 3 people)
ONION
GARLIC
CARROT
PARSNIP
POTATO
LEEK
STOCK or WATER
BUTTER
CREAM
SALT
PEPPER
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1 medium size
2 cloves
2
2
2
1/2 small size
250 ml
25 g
single / double
a pinch
as much as you like
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0 min.
15 min.
20 min.
22 min.
23 min.
30 min.
180 min.
190 min. |
Turn on the oven (180 °C). Cut onions into small pieces. Crush garlic cloves. Put some oil in a sauce pan, and cook the onion and the garlic until they are soft.
Add the braising meat to the pan. Cook it until it is brown.
Add 2 spoonfuls of flour, some paprika and chilli powder to the meat. Mix them well and add the beef stock.
Put bay leaves and season the liquid with salt and black pepper.
Peel and cut potatoes and add them to the pan.
Transfer the content of the saucepan to a casserole. Put the casserole into the oven.
Cut red peppers in to half rings. Take out the casserole and adjust the seasoning. Add the red pepper into the casserole.
Serve when the red pepper is cooked.
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Ingredients
(for upto 3 people)
CHICKEN
GARLIC
POTATO
BAY LEAF
CREAM
PORT
SALT
PEPPER
SALAD
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whole chicken 1.5kg
1 whole garlic
4
2 leaves
50 ml single / double
not much
a pinch
as much as you like
e.g. rockets
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0 min.
10 min.
130 min.
135 min.
140 min.
141 min. |
Turn on the oven (180 °C). Wash a whole chicken. Crush garlic cloves. Peel potatoes and cut each of them in half.
On an oven tray, place the chicken. Put the potatoes around the chicken. Place crushed garlic cloves and bay leaves inside and on the chicken. Sprinkle salts over the chicken, and put the tray into the oven.
Take out and carve the chicken.
Get rid of the oil from the juice of the chicken as much as possible. Reduce the juice, add some port and flame the alcohol. Then pour some double cream to make a sauce.
Adjust the seasoning with black pepper and salt.
Serve the chicken with the sauce. Fresh salad - rockets and spinaches are good.
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Ingredients
(for upto 3 people)
MINCED BEEF
ONION
GARLIC
POTATO
CHOPPED TOMATO
GRATED CHEDDER
BAY LEAF
OIL
SALT
PEPPER
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200 g
1 medium size
2 cloves
4
1 tin in tomato juice
500 g
1 leaf
enough to cook
a pinch
as much as you like
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0 min.
40 min.
45 min.
60 min.
65 min.
70 min.
90 min. |
Turn on the oven (180 °C). Wash and put the potatoes into a saucepan. Cover the potatoes with water, heat the pan and cook until insides of the potatoes are soft.
Cut onions into small pieces. Crush garlic cloves. Put the onions and garlic with some oil in a frying pan.
When onions are soft, add the beef, bay leaf and a tin of chopped tomatos in tomato juice. Season with salt and pepper.
Take out the potatoes from the pan, peel and mash them using spatula.
Onto an oven-proof bowl, put the cooked minced beef about an inch deep. Then cover the beef surface with the mashed potato. Finally cover the potato layer with grated chedder.
Put the bowl into the oven.
Serve when all the cheese is melted.
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Why stocks?
Well... When you're cooking soup or something. Most of the time, a good stock is the key for success. It all depends on how well you can take stock out of some bones, root vegetables, mushrooms, fish or shellfish. Do you know a story about making a delicious soup out of a stone? There's a guy who claimed that he could make the best soup in the world from a stone. So a king called him one day and asked him to make him the soup - "I am going to chopped your head off if it tastes less than delicious", he added. So the man started with a stone. He added some water, mixed for a minute or so and said to the king "it's good, but it would be much better if you put in some meat as well." So the king told me to do so. The man continued and told the king "how about some vegetables? They will really make the soup super!" So the king said OK again. It continued for a bit and at the end of the day, the soup was served in front of the king. He tasted it and said "oh my god... He really made a fantastic soup from a stone!" What an idiot...
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Chicken Stock
Fish Stock
Seaweed Stock
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I have to skip doing beef stock because it takes a long time to make and frankly unless you have a butcher you can't get beef bones easily. (Sometimes you can use marmite as a substitute.) Anyway, chicken stock is much easier. You get a chicken carcass or chicken wings (they are cheap). Put some water to cover. Add black pepper cones, salts, bouquet garni, celery, quatered onions, garlic cloves and roughly chopped carrots. Cook for a couple of hours and strain off the solids. You can boil down to concentrate more if the taste is a bit bland.
Add water, dried small fish and dried shiitake to a sauce pan. Boil the water for about an hour. Replenish water now and then. At the end, you should have slightly light brown stock.
Add water, dried thick seaweed and dried shiitake / shellfish to a sauce pan. Boil the water for about an hour. Replenish water now and then. At the end, you should have slightly light brown stock.
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