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Date: 22/11/06
Recipe Corner
I'm not going to make a habit of this: I hardly ever cook 'from
scratch', as it were. I simply don't have the time or the patience
nowadays.
Still and all, you might find this recipe useful. I make it most
Sundays during the winter months. As there's just me to eat it, one big
panful can be split between my main meal on Sunday and when I get home
from work on a Monday. This means I don't have to wait long to eat: I
just re-heat what's left from the day before. It's filling and warming
on a winter's evening.
Disclaimer! The Judge accepts no responsibility for any
debility or destruction caused by this recipe!
OK. Here we go...
Lobscouse Au Juge
(Serves one person twice, serves two persons once, and serves
anyone else right)
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized potatoes
1 large carrot
¼ a large onion
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 medium-sized tin of corned beef
Mixed herbs
Worcestershire sauce
Gravy browning
Suet dumplings (optional)
Method:
Peel the potatoes, and cut them into medium sized chunks (about 4
cms is a good size).
Slice the carrot, trying as much as possible to make the slices at
the narrow end a bit thicker than the ones at the broad end (this will
equalise the cooking time a bit).
Slice or dice the quarter onion according to preference.
Carefully (because you don't want unnamed meat in
this dish) extract the corned beef from the tin, and cut into cubes.
Don't make the cubes too small, as the corned beef will tend to
'disintegrate' during cooking anyway, and if you cut it too small
you'll make this worse. About 1½ - 2 cms is a good size.
(You can use other meat if you wish, cut similarly into smallish
cubes. If you're vegetarian, you can leave the meat out altogether. The
result, however, is then called 'blind scouse', and I deny all
responsibility for it)
Put all of the above into a large saucepan. Put the lid on, hold
it firmly in place, and shake the saucepan vigorously. This will
make sure that all the ingredients are well mixed together.
Take the lid off. This is important for what comes next...
Dissolve two vegetable stock cubes in ½ a pint of boiling
water. Pour this over the contents of the pan. If necessary, top the
liquid level up with cold water until the level reaches about 2 cms
from the top of the other ingredients.
(You can use meat stock if you wish - but I find that beef stock
is too strong in taste and colour. If you do decide to use it, you can
probably leave out the gravy browning)
Sprinkle the mixed herbs over the top.
Pour about one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce into this. This
is to pep it up a little.
(I have used soy sauce in the past, just because I had it in the
cupboard and didn't know what the hell else to do with it. You could
use chilli or tabasco sauce if you're really daring, but on your own
head be it)
Add about 1 teaspoonful of gravy browning. Don't add too
much! This is only there to deepen the colour. Too much = too
dark, and it also means that you can taste the stuff, which isn't the
point of its being there.
Stir all of this with a large spoon to distribute the colour evenly.
Cook over a very low light. The idea is for it to cook slowly so
that the vegetables can soften up, and the flavours can mingle into the
stock properly. Depending on the amount you have in there, this can
take between 50 and 75 minutes to cook. Give it a little stir every 15
minutes or so during this time.
If you're adding suet dumplings to the recipe, put these into the
pan after about 35-40 minutes.
You'll be able to tell when it's ready by seeing if you can cut one
of the potato chunks with the edge of a soup spoon. If you can, it's
ready. The fact that the thing is bubbling like a jacuzzi is a clue,
too.
Serve in bowls.
Bon appetit!
