Venison Sausages & Mash

It's bloomin freezing at the moment so I am guessing I am not alone in craving comfort food. Sausage & Mash is comfort food at it's best but when you are WeightWatching, sausages are really just out of the question as pork is such a fatty meat.  I am personally not a fan of the reduced fat sausage. It's likely to be pumped full of other stuff to make up for the lack of proper pork. This is where venison sausages are just an excellent replacement. Tesco do a 300g pack of 6 sausages which have a delicious meaty taste. The smell fills my fridge and when grilled are just 9 ProPoints per serving (3 sausages). Compared to the Tesco Finest Cumberland Sausages which are a whopping 23 ProPoints for the same weight, it's worth giving Venison a go.

Creamy mash potato is an obvious accompaniment to sausages, although I am partial to a oven baked jacket potato too. With my low fat mash potato there is no need for cream or lashings of butter. Just a tiny amount of butter and a couple of tablespoons of skimmed milk are plenty. Using the right potato is also essential. I tend to buy a 2.5kg bag of baking potatoes in my weekly shop as I find it's a versatile spud resulting in really good mash, perfect roasties and a crispy jacket that's fluffy inside.

I sometimes make the red onion gravy from scratch, but more often rely on little cheats. By using a dollop of shop bought red onion marmalade with Bisto gravy, it is the perfect finale to the meal. (I did make a batch of marmalade over Christmas which was just amazing with our naughty indulgence of foie gras, and you can make your own easily using the recipe from BBC Good Food.)

You'll need for 2:

• Pack 300g venison sausages
• 600g potatoes, peeled and diced
• Savoy cabbage or green beans or other veg of your choice
• 1/2 tsp butter
• 1-2 tbsp skimmed milk
• 1 tbsp red onion marmalade / chutney
• 3-4 tsp bisto original
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Seasoning

First job is to make the mash. I usually make this much earlier in the day as it nicely re-heats later in the microwave.  Place the diced potato in a saucepan with cold salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potato is tender which is approximately 20-25 minutes. Drain and allow to dry in the colander for a few minutes. Meanwhile, put the saucepan back on the hob and melt the butter and warm the skimmed milk.  Add the potatoes back to the pan and using a masher to mash the potato. Season and add the nutmeg and stir through. If you have a ricer then push the potato through this, but it is not necessary.

Grill the sausages according to the instructions and cook your vegetables by steaming or boiling.

At the same time as the sausages and vegetables are cooking, make your gravy. Heat through the marmalade in a saucepan. Mix the bisto with some cold water and add it to the pan stirring all the time. Top up with boiling water from the kettle until you have the right consistency.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12

Beef & Kidney Pie

Eating healthy wise, I have had the worst week for a long time.  Of course, none of it was my fault, I was just led astray...

It was half term and it started off badly on Wednesday where, under duress, (you know who you are) I took my 5yo to Burger King for the first time after water fun at the leisure lagoon.  Using my iPhone I scanned the WeightWatchers app and decided I was going to be 'good' with a chicken salad at just 2 points with some small fries for another 5. Not too bad for lunch, I thought.  Well of course it is a completely different story when you get there and the smell overwhelms you, not to mention you feel like a complete idiot ordering a salad! So a cheeseburger and small fries later oh and half of my boy's burger (as he didn't like it!)  I knew it was going downhill from there.

Rather than kid myself I was going to be good for the rest of the week, I thought sod it and just indulged, rather wholeheartedly. I feasted on chocolate, cheese, kids leftovers (we all do it sometimes!) naughty Halloween choccie cakes, takeaway pizza at a Halloween/fireworks party, finishing on Sunday in this wonderfully indulgent steak and kidney pie. It didn't end there either as to top it off we had an apple & blueberry crumble for pudding!

I blame the large consumption of red wine for the week on the nursery parents evening where they kindly offer you a glass of wine.  Of course this led to hubby & I polishing off a nice bottle of red with dinner and the week generally progressed to wine with dinner every night.  I didn't even make it to Zumba on Thursday.

The last person to blame in my week of eating hell is my lovely husband. We were on our way home after a lovely morning with the boys, walking through Alice Holt forest. I'd planned to make my healthy cottage pie but on the way home DH put out there that he really fancied a warming steak & kidney pie. A detour to Waitrose and a few ingredients later I was in the kitchen, ale in hand, cooking away.

Now a word on our choice of ale.  Admittedly we are not ale drinkers, although I reckon trying this has persuaded me otherwise, so in choosing an ale we selected Badgers Poachers Choice, a Hall & Woodhouse ale and H&W being one of our customers (Sendster) we thought this fitting. We were not disappointed by our choice as it was rich in flavour and certainly not just for making a good pie!

You'll notice there is no ProPoint calculation at the end of this recipe simply because I couldn't bring myself to work it out!  I should say that the stew I made for the pie was truly delicious, and consumed on it's own with some mash potato or even some crusty bread would actually not be too bad ProPoints wise, but the All Butter Puff Pastry topping just kills your diet.  But you know what? Life is too short to hold back EVERY DAY, so occassionally a bit of puff pastry is really not going to hurt. We are having the leftovers for dinner tonight but I have already binned the pastry and it will be served with brown rice as I am soooo back on WeightWatchers plan today!

You'll need for 4:

• 1 small to medium sized onion, finely diced
• 6 rashers of pancetta or streaky bacon
• 500g topside of beef, cut into small ish chunks
• 200g lambs kidneys, cut into button mushroom size
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 200g button mushrooms
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or a few fresh sprigs if you have
• 3 heaped tbsp plain flour
• Seasoning
• 1 beef stock pot
• Few dashes Worcester sauce
• 2 heaped tsp redcurrant jelly
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• Half a bottle (250ml) of Badger Poachers Choice Ale
• 1 x 37g pack All butter puff pastry
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• Olive oil

What to do:

In a heavy bottomed casserole dish, sweat the onions slowly with 1 – 2 tsp olive oil and a knob of butter.  Add the chopped pancetta and sweat for 5 – 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Prepare the kidneys by slicing off the ends and working towards the centre bit, cutting away into large bite sized pieces.

Cut the beef into chunks.  In a food bag, place the flour and a good pinch of salt and ground black or white pepper.  Put the beef into the bag and toss carefully ensuring the beef chunks are all coated.  Then add the beef to the onions & pancetta and stir continuously to ensure the beef does not stick.  Once browned, slowly add the ale and stir continuously scraping the bottom on the pan to a get a smooth gravy like consistency.  Add the carrots followed by the beef stock pot and 750ml of boiling water to the pan.  Add the tomato puree, Worcester sauce, thyme and seasoning.  Bring to the boil and then reduced to a simmer allowing to cook for 1 and half hours.  Half hour before the end add the mushrooms.  If it looks a little dry add some more water.

10 minutes before the end of cooking, heat a frying pan and add a drizzle of olive oil.  Add the kidneys and fry for a couple of minutes on each side on a high heat.  Remove from the frying pan whilst they are still pink inside.  Add the kidneys to the pan.

You can prepare the stew to this point 24-48 hours in advance.  In fact this is a perfect entertaining dish as all this hard work is better done in advance and tastes better the next day!  Bring to room temperature for the next stage or if you have just cooked the stew, allow to cool until it is at room temperature.

In a pie dish or roasting dish, butter the sides and bottom lightly. Place the stew into the dish. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to approx 4mm thick or to slightly large then your pie dish.  Using a sharp knife, cut slices off and press along the rim of the dish all the way round.  Brush with a beaten egg.  Then use the remaining pastry to press down on top of the dish.  Using your fingers press the lid part to the pastry around the rim.  Seal using a fork to press together. Brush all over with the beaten egg and finish by using a sharp knife to make a couple of slits in the pastry lid to allow steam to escape.

Bake in a moderate oven (fan 180-190c) for about 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Serve with your choice of green veg - we had green beans and spinach and some new potatoes.

True comfort food and home-cooking at it's best!

Chips. That's All.

I've been a bit unwell recently, stomach bug, generally run-down, tired from running around after 2 boys, blah blah blah.  What do we crave when we are like this?  CARBS!  Nothing else will do.  So for me it's been, pasta, toast, sandwiches, more toast, potatoes, more toast. Oh and some good mature cheddar too.

My homemade potato wedges have been knocking around for years and are always a welcome accompaniment to my homemade burgers or fish.  But my new favourite comfort food accompaniment is chips.  I have found a simple way to cook the perfect oven baked chip with minimum fat.  It's not rocket science, you just need to follow some very simple instructions!

You'll need for 2 as a side dish:

• 500g baking potato, peeled
• 1 tsp sunflower or vegetable oil
• Table salt
• Pepper if you fancy

What to do:

• Pre-heat your oven to a hot setting - 220 fan is ideal
• Slice your potato lengthways into 1cm slices
• Then cut them into 1cm-ish size chips
• Place them in a saucepan with COLD salted water and bring to the boil.  You can cover the pan to help it reach boiling quicker.
• Meanwhile place your best non-stick roasting tray in the oven to pre-heat
• Once the potatoes have reached boiling, simmer for just 2-3 minutes
• Drain and leave to steam dry for a couple of minutes.  Let the saucepan dry and place the tsp of oil into the pan
• Tip the chips into the pan, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and toss everything carefully
• Open  the oven and keeping the hot tray in the oven (as best as possible!) tip the coated chips into the tray.  They should sizzle slightly.  Ensure they are nicely spaced out.
• Bake for 20 - 25 minutes turning after 10 minutes and then checking on them every 4-5 minutes until they are crisp and golden brown.

Serve up with your chosen main and lashings of mayo and ketchup!!! Guaranteed comfort food!

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 6

Cottage Pie

What another miserably wet evening.  It's June!!  What's going on!??  The afternoon looked promising but with more rain as the day wore on I was rather in the mood for a comfort dish for dinner.  You can’t get more comfort than Cottage Pie. It's actually really easy to make this true classic dish healthy without compromising on the taste or comfort! 

My version has (surprise, surprise) lots of vegetables making it very Slimming World friendly.  I also substitute over half of the mashed potato topping for Swede, which is has 0 ProPoints on the WeightWatchers plan, or if you are not following any set diet you can be glad of the fact you are packing 2-3 portions of your 5-a day in this meal alone.  So it’s gotta be good for you!

I always make a 4 portion serving of this which tastes great the next day for leftovers or it freezes really well too.

You’ll need for 4:

• 1 medium onion
• 3-4 medium sized carrots, peeled and diced
• Half a punnet chestnut mushrooms
• 500g lean minced beef 12% fat
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves or 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 beef stock cube or 1 stock pot
• Few glugs of Worcester sauce
• 400g potatoes, peeled and diced
• 600g swede, peeled diced smaller than the potato
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 leek, washed and diced
• 2 tbsp skimmed milk

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and sauté until soft on a medium heat.  Add the carrots and mushrooms and continue to sauté for another few minutes. 

Turn the heat up and add the minced beef and stir until browned.  Add the stock and a cup of water until mince and veg is just covered.  Add the tomato puree, Worcester sauce, herbs and black pepper.  I find shop bought stock quite salty therefore I don’t feel the need to add any more, but season to your liking.  Continue to cook for 15 minutes until reduced slightly and the carrots cooked through.

Meanwhile place the potatoes and swede in a large saucepan and cover with cold salted water.  Bring to the boil and continue to simmer until both the potato and swede are soft and suitable for mashing.  The swede takes a little longer so when you are peeling and chopping prepare the swede first and get that in the pan and it helps to have it cut into smaller chunks than the potato.  Once cooked through, drain in a colander and leave to steam dry for a few minutes.

While the potatoes and swede are draining, heat the butter in the same pan and sauté the leek until soft.  Add a little water if it is too dry.  Add the milk and allow to heat slightly.  Remove from the heat and tip in the drained potatoes and swede.  Mash with a masher until smooth and season.

Allow the meat mixture and mash to cool before layering in a dish.  The meat mixture on the bottom and then the mash on top.  Bake in a hot oven (200 -210) for 20 – 25 minutes until bubbling.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 10