Calling all cooks.
Between Christmas and New Year I’m having a gathering. All in all there will be over 30 of us.
My usual way of dealing with this sized gathering is to cook three different casseroles and freeze them in advance, then on the day heat them up and serve from my hostess trolley with spuds and or rice and lots of vegetables.
Then I ask guests to bring a drink and a pudding or a cheese board.
All well and good, but I have used all my tried and tested casserole recipes and I’m looking for new original ideas… they must be freezable.
My tried and trusted recipes list includes:
Gingered beef
675 g (1.5 lbs) braising steak cut into 1” cubes
50 g (2 oz) flour
s & p
1.5 tsp powdered ginger
oil
1 tablespoons grated root ginger (or more according to taste)
1 clove garlic crushed
2 onions peeled and sliced
1 x 225 g (8 oz) can tomatoes
300 mls stock
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Worcester sauce
1 can red kidney beans
This freezes well without the beans.
Pre-heat oven to 180c
- Coat the meat with flour and ground ginger, s & p.
- Fry the meat to seal. Transfer to casserole
- Fry the root ginger garlic and onions till soft then add the rest of the flour and cook 1 minute.
- Gradually add the stock, toms, vinegar, honey, Worcs sauce. Season and bring to boil.
- Add this mixture to meat in casserole.
- Cook in preheated oven 1 hour 45 mins (Cool and freeze at this point if required)
- Add beans and stir in. adjust seasoning replace lid and return to oven for 20-25 mins.
(Also very good with venison.)
I’ve shown you mine. Now show me yours…..
Boadicea's Chariot 
I’m told by my daughters that I would win the prize for the worse stews in the world – I wish I could get them to reproduce their way of say ‘Disgusting’ here! So I gave up trying to cook them many years ago.
I have no idea what the difference is between a casserole and a stew – so no good looking at me for a recipe… 🙂
Cooking in advance is a really good way of entertaining large numbers but I’m afraid I have the same problem as Boadicea.
My daughters will not eat anything casseroled or stewed; I’ve given up. I certainly wouldn’t dare give any of my efforts to guests.
Actually your recipe sounds quite tasty, but I’m bound to ruin it. 🙂
Evening, Nym
I used to cook a nice creamy pork and mushroom recipe with red wine, and a Greek beef casserole with a cinnamon stick (very simple), but they are in the books I dragged over from OZ, so I’d have to find them and type them if you are interested.
Boeuf Bourginonne in a slow cooker used to be one of my easy winners. Main ingredients beef, button onions, red wine – plus the usual bits and pieces. 24 hours to cook, and the smell is heavenly. 🙂
Aha, just noticed the “hostess trolley” reference, Nym.
I’ve owned one for about twenty five years or maybe longer and I wouldn’t be without it. It is not the most wonderful piece of “furniture” I own, but aren’t they really really useful?
The gingered beef sounds good; I adore anything with ginger.
Evening all,
yes please, Bilby!
Ara, my second trolley…. the first was a hand me down from Milly – replaced with a newer version. Couldn’t do without it, even though a trifle poh-poohed these days!
Bearsy, recipe please?
The gingered beef is better than you’d expect from the recipe.
Will do, Nym. Tomorrow OK>
That was supposed to be a question mark. 🙂
Pseu.
Bearsy has been promising to cook this for me for ages – I even bought him a slow cooker about a year ago. Hopefully he’ll dig up the recipe for you and cook it for me next time it’s his turn to cook!
Evenin’ Pseu – A hostess trolley is one of the better things to come out of the seventies and is atill an absolute godsend when you’re doing a formal dinner for six, but it ain’t got the capacity to cope with thirty.
OK, here’s the deal, but don’t tell anyone else or I may have to kill you. 🙂
Buy a smallish pig (in your case about 20 kg and dead, if preferred) and roast it over an oil drum barbie or a classic hole-in-the-ground pit until crispy on the outside and juicy within. One hour before the pig is ready put several kilos of unskinned potato wedges covered in olive oil, rock salt and rosemary into the oven. While the potatoes are cooking make salads of tomato and onion drizzled with olive oil and wine vinegar and a lettuce, onion, oregano and red pepper jobbie with stoned olives and diced goat cheese. Season well with freshly ground black pepper and olive oil. 30 minutes before serving, throw lots of unpeeled garlic cloves into the roasting potatoes.
Oh, which reminds me, don’t forget the home-made garlic bread.
All will come together at the appointed hour-ish (make lots of beer and wine available just in case), sit back and enjoy the plaudits. This recipe will work in summer and in snow and ice on a chillingly clear winter day. On a cold, wet, grey day in November it could be a bit of a bummer.
Think about it – what could possibly go wrong?
Seemples!
OZ
What sort of vinegar in the gingered beef?
If I got a live one, OZ, I’d keep it as a pet.
This is something I tasted in Serbia and liked so much that it’s a winter staple for me now. This is the recipe I first found, though I cook it by the ‘that’ll be about right’ method now 🙂 ‘Pasulj’ means ‘beans’ in Serbo-Croat* and although the official name of this dish is Serbian Bean Soup, it is actually a thick, hearty, filling and very tasty dish. If you’re interested, the ‘J’ at the end of the word is pronounced lik the ‘Y’ in English ‘you.’ The ‘lj’ combination is quite common in the language – practice by saying my friend’s name – Ljuljevich 🙂
Kielbasa is a Balkan/Greek(kolvasa)/Turkish sausage, quite greasy. I usually use a mix of good English sausage and streaky bacon instead of the kielbasa. Brown the sausages lightly before cutting them in halves and adding them to the pot.
Pasulj ingredients
1 lb Dried white beans (navy or cannellini)
2 Onion, chopped
3 Cloves garlic, minced
3 Bay leaves
2 T Chopped parsley
2 T Tomato paste
1 large Carrot, scraped and sliced
5 To 6 whole peppercorns
1 lb Kielbasa, thickly sliced
1⁄2 T Salt
2 T olive oil
1 t Paprika
2 T flour
Cooking Pasulj (Serbian Bean Soup)
1. You will need a large saucepan.
2. Pick over the beans for bits of grit and chaff, and rinse them twice in cold water.
3. Put the beans in a large saucepan and cover them with water to a depth of 1 to 2 inches.
4. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the heat.
5. Leave to simmer gently for half an hour.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in enough cold water to cover the beans to a depth of 3 inches.
7. The beans will settle on the bottom.
8. Leave them for a minute or two; then pour off the water and replace with fresh water.
9. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the heat to simmer.
10. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, tomato paste, carrot, and peppercorns to the beans.
11. Cook gently over very low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are soft.
12. After 45 minutes of the cooking, add the kielbasa.
13. Fifteen minutes before you are ready to serve, add the salt and prepare a liaison for the soup.
14. Heat the oil until it is smoking lightly; then quickly stir in the paprika, followed by the flour.
15. Mixi to a thin paste.
16. Add this to the soup, stirring well.
17. Simmeri for 5 minutes, until the soup is thick and rich.
18. Serve with plenty of bread and good red wine.
19. Serves 5 to 6.
* ‘Pasulj’ is also one of those Turkish-derived words across the Middle East and teh Balkans. Turkish – fasulye; Most of the Balkans, (and Russia) – some slight variant of pasul, Greek – fassouli. 🙂
Pork in Mushroom Sauce (serves 4)
60 g (2oz) butter
2 tblspns oil
1 kg (2 lb) pork fillet, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
Salt and pepper
1 ¼ cups dry red wine
250 g (8 oz) mushrooms, sliced
1 tblspn plain flour
1 ¼ cups cream
Chopped chives to garnish
Melt butter with oil in frying pan. Add pork slices, brown on both sides, remove and place in flame proof casserole.
Add onion to frying plan, fry until softened. Drain and arrange over pork. Add salt/pepper to taste and the wine.
Cover and cook in mod oven (180C/350F) for 1 ¼ hours. Stir in mushrooms and cook for 15 mins or until pork is tender.
Mix together flour and cream and stir into casserole. Cook gently on top of stove, stirring until thickened. Don’t boil.
Rather an expensive recipe for a crowd, Nym!
A Greek Recipe
Braised Veal or Lamb (serves 4)
60 g butter
1 kg veal or lamb cut into serving pieces
1 ½ kg (3 lbs) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 teaspns tomato puree dissolved in a little hot water
3 medium onions, sliced
½ teaspn sugar
Salt and pepper
½ cup red wine
1 stick cinnamon
Place all ingredients in saucepan and mix well. Cover, bring to the boil reduce heat and simmer very slowly until meat is tender. Serve with boiled rice or pasta.
I used beef (probably because that’s all there was in the freezer at the time) and cooked it in the oven. I chose this recipe because it was so simple, but in the end I wasn’t convinced about chucking everything in raw and cooked the meat and onion (although other recipes from this book were brilliant and it’s written by a Greek lady).
Bilby, sweetie, “serves 4” is not going to cut the mustard. Pseu is catering on an industrial scale and needs your putative pet on a spit. 🙂
OZ
The price of lamb and veal are prohibitive for 30!
Chicken, white wine and asparagus casserole should do the trick and cheaper! With a beef bourgignonne for the other.
Chicken, fry off onions and celery, remove,
Brown skinless thighs add white wine and put onions and celery back in.
Chicken stock cubes, very little water.
Make separate white sauce, very thin, probably for 20 portions about two pints, add to meat when simmered stir well, the resultant gravy should start on the thinnish side and come thicker when baked. More of a velouty than a bechemel.
Add thyme and bay leaves, salt and pepper. bake off a while, add cut asparagus and mushrooms, bake again.
Use an aromatic white such as a cheap Riesling.
Jimmy the whole recipe according to the meat, pile it up and you will soon see how much other ingredients you will need.
Personally I would be inclined to cook this in a water bath in the oven so it does not crust the sauce at the edge of the casserole.
PS This is also the recipe for the stuffing of chicken pies, just more meat and less juice. A quick skin of puff paste and eh viola!
OZ, Possum, I realise that a recipe for 4 won’t cut the mustard, but I don’t do industrial and Nym would have to adjust quantities. 🙂
“The price of lamb and veal are prohibitive for 30!”
Quite so, Christina, that’s why I suggested beef at #3.
… and actually used beef in my recipe, not lamb or veal, as I stated at the end of my #15 comment.
No, no, no! Pork is quite inexpensive, free when you hunt your own. Put Bilby’s pet porker on the spit. Ethel is still with me.
OZ
Everything’s expensive here, OZ!
Oh, dear, poor piggy (RIP). 😉
Sooooo, the return of your erstwhile ward or even the putative piggy remains a problem. Despite your obvious issues with the repatriation of Ethel to Henley, you may be relieved to know I was gentle with O porcinho and it never felt a thing. Crackling tonorrow, anyone?
OZ
Jolly good, OZ, I can’t abide cruelty. “Crackling tomorrow, anyone?”. Yes, please! 🙂
Never mind the crackling displacement activity, Bilby, WOT ABOUT ETHEL, who is curently out of earshot again, planning something diabolical with Das Fuerballen ??
OZ
Ethel has always loved cats, OZ, it’s one of her endearing qualities … or possibly the only one.
I’m feeling rather faint, so if you’ll excuse me …
Yeah, right. I get the message. Don’t hire out the spare bedroom any time soon. Wot? Sorry, Eff, I was just…….aaargh!
OZ
Thank you all so much for contributions.
I will have to try a few of these out.
Oz I find the oven and the hostess trolley combination works well for such numbers. Somewhere to keep things warm… the plates and the veggies for example. I also have a rice cooker, so that problem is solved too. I think I’ll save the pig roast until a summer event.
I shall print out the recipes and have a good look at them.
Christina, I’m not sure I can get fresh asparagus at the mo….
The party was yesterday and I in the end there were nearly 30. I made chicken with chorizo and chick peas, a boeuf bourguignon and to satisfy a request – a lamb curry from the South African cook book.
Thank you for all your suggestions which I have cut and pasted to my recipes collection and will be tried on a small scale before a big party!
White or red wine vinegar both work. (Sorry Bilby missed this before)