Caitriona Redmond: This beef stew recipe can be bulked up with veggies

Plus how to maximise the shelf life of fresh produce

This week I have a beef stew recipe which uses broccoli and carrots which can be bulked up to a second meal by doubling the vegetables and adding some chickpeas.

It's frustrating when you buy fresh ingredients and find that they just aren’t lasting as long as you’d expect. It’s been happening to me more often recently. If I’ve been shopping on a Monday, I don’t expect a pepper to be soggy and borderline fuzzy by Wednesday. Unfortunately, it’s been happening and it’s money wasted. While I can generally adapt recipes to allow for poor-quality ingredients, it needs a bit more mental juggling so I prefer to use the freshest I can get.

There are two main reasons why food may not be lasting a full week even though it is kept in the fridge.

Firstly, packaging; carrots for example, tend to come in a plastic bag, handy for transporting but it becomes a sweaty sauna bag for the carrots if you leave them inside. Once home, remove the carrots from the bag, a quick rinse in cold water and pat them dry before putting into the crisping drawer.

The crisping drawer in the bottom of a fridge is a lower temperature than the top shelf. Fruits and vegetables are full of water; if they get too cold then water content expands and structure disintegrates quickly, leaving soft and soggy produce. I line the crisping drawer with cotton cloth or sheets of kitchen paper to absorb extra moisture.

The second reason for a shorter shelf life at home for the fresh produce is the journey from ground to supermarket shelf.

Ideally, that journey takes a day or two but currently travel time is longer and time taken to get the fresh items on display is longer, affecting shelf life at home.

Eating Irish produce in season reduces the quality issues we are all experiencing at the moment. You can also buy fresh produce more frequently, like I am doing.

My twice-weekly trips have helped to reduce food waste significantly actually and my purse definitely feels the benefits.

This week I have a beef stew recipe which uses broccoli and carrots which can be bulked up to a second meal by doubling the vegetables and adding some chickpeas. I’ve adapted this main meal so that it can be cooked in either the slow cooker or the pressure cooker.

A glut of Weetabix led to the wheat and oat slices, ideal for the teenager who is not a fan of conventional breakfasts.

Garlic beef stew

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond 

You can stretch this stew to two family meals by doubling vegetables and adding a tin of chickpeas. I’ve included adaptions for both the pressure cooker and the slow cooker.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 18 mins

Cooking Time

 3 hours 0 mins

Total Time

 3 hours 18 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 500g stewing beef chunks

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 large onion, sliced

• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks

• 1 tsp ground white pepper

• 3 tbsp soy sauce

• 150ml water

• 1 half head of broccoli chopped

• 2 tbsp corn flour

• 20ml water

Method

1. In the slow cooker: Put the beef, garlic, onion, carrots, white pepper, and soy sauce into the slow cooker. Add 150ml of water. Put the cooker on high for 5 hours. Once you’ve reached the 5 hour mark, stir in the broccoli before covering for a further 20-30 minutes.

2. To thicken the stew make a slurry with the corn flour and remaining water, stir into the piping hot stew until it thickens. Turn off the slow cooker and serve with mash or rice.

3. In the pressure cooker: Put the beef, garlic, onion, carrots, white pepper, and soy sauce into the slow cooker. Add 150ml of water. Seal the pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes. Release the pressure, stir in the broccoli and replace the lid.

4. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes under pressure before releasing and adding the slurry made with the corn flour and remaining water, stir into the piping hot stew until it thickens. Serve with mash or rice.

5. Recipe Note: You may prefer to brown off the meat with the onions and garlic before cooking to add an extra layer of flavour but it’s not obligatory.

Wheat and oat slices

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond 

Wheat biscuits (aka Weetabix) are not just for bowls of cereal!

Servings

10

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 50 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 125g butter or margarine

• 125g soft brown sugar

• 100g honey

• 4 wheat biscuits, crumbled

• 50g oats

• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Heat the butter/margarine, sugar and honey on low-medium heat in a large saucepan until everything is dissolved.

2. Stir in the crumbled wheat biscuits and bicarbonate of soda until you get a dough. Press the dough into a lined baking tin. Bake in an oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

3. Remove the tin from the oven. While the dough is still hot, use the back of a knife to imprint the shapes of the slices. Allow the dough to cool completely inside the tin before breaking apart and enjoying.

Lemons are on special offer this week 

Food News

The price of food and food inflation has been to the forefront of the news this week. Particularly when talking about how high Irish inflation is. Having reviewed the sample shopping basket survey that I undertake every week for the Irish Examiner I have some surprising news.

The shopping baskets are not only static but thanks to a number of special offers in supermarkets they have been slightly lower the past two weeks. Here’s hoping this continues but as always I will continue to watch and record the differences.

Three lemons and a wedge of fresh ginger from Dunnes Stores will cost 98c this week thanks to special offers (49c each). Perfect for wintery warming drinks that might help with colds and flu.

1kg of fresh Irish chicken fillets from Lidl is reduced to €8.99 this week which would make you plenty of my homemade chicken tikka sandwich filler. You can find the recipe on the IE Food recipe database www.irishexaminer.ie/food. 

Money Saving Tips 

Treat your press and fridge shelves like a supermarket.

The best retailers rotate their items so that the freshest produce sits at the back of the shelf. This way they shift the older items first and rotate the newer items to the rear. If you start planning your meals around the products that are shorter in date in your stores you will have less food waste.

Remember less waste is money saved so shop your own stores before you go to the supermarket. You may be surprised at how much you can use up.