Maybe it was just me?

As promised this week I cooked up a batch of piping hot "Good Old Steak and Guinness Pie"! For those following along recipe is on Page 26 of Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days with the Naked Chef" book. I was really looking forward to this as a friend of mine is famous for making these and they sure are a winner! The thought alone of feasting on one of these babies as the temperature begins to drop had me salivating, so I defrosted my meat and started cooking.

I followed the recipe very closely and browned my floured and seasoned meat; added my finely diced celery, carrot, onion, parsnip and herbs stirring for 4 minutes before pouring in the key element, Guinness, along with some tinned tomatoes. This concoction was then allowed to simmer and flavours to meld for 2 hours on a low heat.

Sadly 2 hours later as promised in my recipe the sauce would be intensely flavoured, nope, so added more Guinness and let to cook a little longer to thicken. Hmm still not a winner. Ok well the recipe did say that this mixture would be safe to keep in the fridge for 5 days to improve the flavour, so that is what I did, I left it for 3 days in the fridge to help improve this bland stew. On Thursday night I gave it a whirl, instead of the pie another suggestion Jamie offered was to have it with mashed potatoes as a stew, so again tried it once more. It was ok, nothing to rave about, if anything I think my creamy garlic mash saved the night.

Round 2, I had the rest of the mixture still in the fridge and thought I'd give it a try 5 days on. I made up the pie using puff pastry and blind baked the base to help it crisp, warmed the filling on the stove, tasted...yep still bland! Arhhh what am I to do? I rummage through the cupboard and stumble across the smoky flavoured barbeque sauce, ok squirt a whole lot in, taste... a thousand times better... so squirt more and more! I fill up the pie with my amended recipe, pop on the top and fold in the edges, slap on the egg mixture and add some artwork.

Roughly 20 minutes later, I unleash my creation gathering the family around to see my Master Chef efforts, hope it tastes good! The judges agree it was a winner! Hooray, but hubby certainly commented that I must have added something to improve it, thank goodness for that sauce!

So all in all, I really was disappointed with this recipe. I will give it another go sometime down the track, but it certainly won't be Jamie guiding me with the Guinness. Not sure if it was just me cooking that made it fail dismally, so give it a try and let me know how you went!

Cheese and fish, who would've known!

It's time for another recipe review!

I actually cooked this last week, but didn't get around to writing up the review. So without further delay today we will look at page 56 of "Happy Days with the Naked Chef" by Jamie Oliver, entitled "Roasted Cod with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Mozzarella." Now I didn't recreate this recipe to the tee, however I will in the future so I will comment any change in my review once I am done.

This little dish came to mind when I had purchased a nice large piece of Nile Perch from the supermarket that day. I also love all in one dishes, gives you a chance to clean up whilst it's cooking and super handy for those yummy mummies out there! It's very simple, basically you get a large piece of white fish, Jamie used cod however as mentioned I used Nile Perch. Place into a lightly oiled roasting dish, season, drizzle small amount of olive oil, then sprinkle over halved cherry tomatoes, basil leaves (I didn't have basil so used my basil in a tube and placed small blobs randomly around and placed a cherry tomato half on top), finely sliced buffalo mozzarella (I replaced with grated mozzarella) and grated parmesan. Bake in the oven at 220 degrees Celcius for 20 minutes until golden. Then voila, done!

To tell the truth I was really worried about fish with cheese, just seemed a little strange, but it was fabulous! The fish was light and delicate and the cheese helped to balance out the rich flavours of the basil and tomato. We mopped up the juices with some slices of fresh baguette, just perfect! My only change would be to use less oil, hence why I wrote a small amount above. With all the cheeses generously melted on top, the extra oil is just too much.

So give it a try folks! Coming up next is Guinness Pie, yummo!