The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Sid

I found some Tesco Finest British 28 day matured beef rump steak at the weekend. It was half price in the condemned food counter. I was shopping with Seraphina and she goggled when I filled my basket with loads of root vegetables to pad it out and make a stew. However this didn’t really appeal when I returned home. The good thing about root vegetables is if they are stored at a low temperature they keep very well. Our lean to barn is perfect.

So I hung the bags of vegetables in the barn as I’d decided to cook something completely different to our normal repertoire. I had spotted Sid’s Meat and Oatmeal Stew a couple of weeks ago and was intrigued by the idea of using oatmeal and also the idea of a stew that can use most types of meat. I spotted that the recipe included Tabasco, and soy sauce – new stew flavours for me. Sid described this dish as a “deliciously different stew that can be made with any kind of meat you like, in any form. I’m not sure which cuisine to categorise this under, since as it is a little American and a bit Asian.”

Perfect.

“How about this beef and oatmeal stew tonight?”
Danny’s mother used to roll rabbit in oatmeal before cooking it slowly with vegetables so he knew what to expect. The oatmeal gives this dish a deep, subtle softness and that I wasn’t expecting.

It was absolutely gorgeous. A surprising dish that could easily feed four (in my version). It worked very well with steak but I think that it would be even better with chicken.

There was just one small problem. The ingredients were listed but no amounts. The timings were very fluid too. I also wanted to add carrots for sweetness and added them on a whim well after the poatoes. I imagined Sid in his kitchen tossing in ingredients, ino a hot pan. My heart skipped a beat – Danny was expecting to reurn to this dish.

In the end it turned out fine. But, depending on the vegetables, allow 20-45 minutes for the simmering. This wasn’t a problem as Danny was on the motorway as it bubbled away and it kept warm well and tasted good the next day.

These are the quantities of ingredients that I used for Sid’s Meat and Oatmeal Stew:

• 450g of rump steak (or two chicken breasts)
• 450 g of diced potatoes (remember that I live with someone who is in love with good potatoes)
• 175g of carrots diced small
• 150g of onions chopped
• 1 fat clove of garlic chopped fine
• 100g of oatmeal
• 700ml-900ml of beef stock (made with 2 cubes)
• I tablespoon of soy sauce
• 20 drops of Tabasco (at least). I initially added about six as D doesn’t like food that’s too spicy but we both added more at the table. This was great as the Min Pins could taste the original dish (mini spice) for breakfast. They loved it too.

So thank you Sid, for your inspirational recipe. From two humans and three MinPins. 

This recipe also qualifies for our 2009 challenge of Great Budget recipes for 50% or less:

450g Rump steak £2.25 (half price)
450g of potatoes (£0.08) 2.5 kilos reduced from £1.69 to £0.40p
We also added half a head of broccoli (38p Tesco CFC)
All of which counter balances the price of the other ingredients – oatmeal stock cubes, soy sauce, Tabasco (total well under 39p.)
Approx £3.00 for four hungry adults – 75p a head.

We keep on looking out for offers and CFC offers for deluxe eating at 50% cost. Hopefully over the year we will eat our way through loads of ways to transform those marked down packs into something delicious.