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Cottage pie was introduced in 1971 for the “cottage workers” which in other terms means the lower class workers of that time. However since its humble introduction it has taken hold of the population as a classic dish which is now eaten by both rich and poor.Many variances of this dish have been created throughout the years depending on regional ingredients and I have come across other people who use baked beans in this dish but also people who have never heard of using this as an ingredient. I was cooking for my housemate tonight who was also recovering from the same bug that i had so i decided to spare her from the original planned meal of fried rat with beans and treat us both to a wholesome classic meal that would surely knock days off the recovery process. After cooking the onions, mushrooms and mince i was ready to add the tin of baked beans and then fill the dish and top with mashed potato and cheese...20 minutes in the over and it was ready to eat with some gravy. The picture doesn’t show the true amount of beans as most of them are snuggled away under the main body of potato.
I really enjoyed this meal but I’m sure eating it on a nice country farm with huge log fire and big oak dinner table would have somehow made it taste better. I’ll be getting back to experimenting with beans and random ingredients very soon but needed this classic dish to help me get back to 100% health :)
This one was recommended to me on my Facebook group by a person who I don’t know but fully respect for taking the time to detail a meal that I may well have overlooked and missed out on otherwise.
Most Mexican dishes use some type of bean in the ingredients so I was sure that having a little tomato juice would not negatively affect the overall taste of this classic cinema snack that is always excessively overprices (£3 for a small box- approx) but this Tesco credit crunch buster cost a grant total of just 60p (bargain)
The simplicity of constructing this meal even surprised me. Fill the bowl with the chips, cover in beans, add some grated cheese then put under the grill for 5 minutes and its ready to be served with a few dollops of salsa dip and Tabasco sauce.
The end result was a meal that has now taken the no1 spot for the best looking bean dish which is largely due to my organisational skills of the chips around the side of the plate (very Gordon Ramsay)I can’t say a bad word about this meal, I consumed the whole lot while watching Skins and it wasn’t a struggle like the meatballs or noodles. I’m always open to any further suggestions on future meals (mouth-watering or toilet grabbing) which I’m eagerly awaiting...
Probably one of the most versatile and popular dishes in the solar system......the omelette which is not only extremely filling, tasty and easy to cook but it can be combined with almost any other ingredient on earth with minimal fuss. It was only time until the baked bean met up with its soul mate and bubbled away together in a warm oily pan.
I was craving something nice and filling tonight and this did not disappoint. I got the idea while looking on YouTube at those DIY cooking clips and thought “I can produce the masterpiece that was just shown to me”...so off I set.
Three free range eggs (I’m very strict on not getting battery farm eggs as I know what the dirty old farmers do with them late at night, at least if they are free range then they have the chance to run away thus reducing my chances of consuming anything) add a slash of milk to give it that fluffy texture, a sprinkle of grated mature cheese and a tin of beans.
I added them to a hot pan but quickly realised that the omelette was about 3 inches thick and this was far too much for the small pan to handle but it was too late and I had to solider on knowing that it would be messy and hard to cook. After much prodding and moving around I finally managed to flip it over the best I could but the finished product looked like a large salmon had been run over by a juggernaut.
Eating this road kill look-a-like was a real pleasure, tasting so so good and it was cooked to perfection. The cheese added a little tang that proved to be the finishing touch.
I will once again be going to bed feeling very satisfied and looking forward to tomorrows treat..
A refreshing meal was required after last night’s gristle filled meatballs that I’m sure have taken years off my life and were not meant for human consumption but for animal feed.
I needed something that would regenerate by body and mind like a warm wave of love spreading across the world.
This dream was realised when I noticed some nice ripe avocados in my local shop...I was not expecting to find this as it mainly only stocks processed foods that have a shelf life of at least 100 years or more, but it seems my luck was in so I put them into my basket and headed back to prepare the food.
Avocados were a perfect visual accompaniment for the Waitrose baked beans which also came in the mysterious package the other day. Once the pip was taken out of the avocado it was ready to be filled with a few beans and the remainder were tipped along the outside of the plate for added looks.
This was a meal that could be served in a high class restaurant and probably not even get any funny looks (maybe I’ve been around beans to long as I do think this is true) I was unsure how the cold and hot mixture of foods would taste but I was pleasantly surprised...I didn’t expect the textures to go this well together.
The Waitrose beans were full of flavour and tasted unusually fresh for a tinned product while the cholesterol lowering avocado gave me that lift that I was looking for and added the years that were previously taken away back onto my life.
I think this is the most visually pleasing dish I have created during this experiment and will be one that may be hard to beat!!
Tonight’s meal features a special guest appearance of some organic baked beans which were mysteriously sent to me in a package from an unknown sender....whoever this person is must be a fan of the blog so I would like to say thanks for the kind gesture....just proves that some people have a genuinely kind heart.
These organic baked beans could not have come at a better time due to my current physical condition (man flu) which by the way is far worse than most illnesses but girls still don’t understand this!!! This delivery of beans has allowed me to stay indoors and thus increase the recovery time...however I am still limited to my local shop for ingredients which has impacted on my meals severely.
The baked beans looked great and having the organic element really made me feel like I was doing my bit for the world....that is until I threw the tin direct in the bin without any thought for recycling (oh well, one step at a time) I was actually looking forward to the meatballs until I realised I had purchased them in gravy which once opened looking very much like dog-food (even the realistic tripe smell)
I decided that cooking them separately would do little but add more washing up so I combined them both in the same saucepan. Once they were ready the beans had gone a little brown colour due to the gravy in the meatballs and it unfortunately didn’t taste that great.....some of the meatballs had little bits of gristle in which instantly put me off and made me think about what went into these unnaturally round balls.
I wish I had saved the organic beans for an ingredient that was worthy of them but you learn from mistakes right so tomorrows one will be a little bit better thought out...
Today I’ve been hit by some sort of bug that has left me feeling very ill indeed, I am hoping this is not related to the high consumption of beans (or octopus) that i have had so tonight’s meal wasn’t what I had planned as getting the ingredients was out of the question given how I am feeling. While thinking what the meal could be tonight I discovered my housemates old toastie machine and hey presto....a baked bean toastie with some cheese would now be the creation I was about to make. I used some farmhouse thick break with Heinz beans and some grated cheese....but this proved too much for the small light duty toastie machine and the lid would not close....immediately I knew I was going to have problems cooking this one and while holding the lid down as best I could the bean/cheese juice started running out the side of the machine all over the work top which was making a huge mess but this did smell really nice. About 10 min later (extra cooking time needed for the cold beans) it was ready to come out.....slightly tricky getting it out in once piece but eventually it was free.
The toastie tasted great and wasn’t too much to handle with the way I’m feeling at the moment.10 out of 10 for speed of cooking and quick preparation time but 0 out of 10 for the aftermath of mess. This experiment started out as a bit of a joke and in the first few days I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but looking back even from this point I have realised that thanks to this experiment I have tried new food that I might not have otherwise which in itself has made it worthwhile and I’m also hopefully putting a smile on a few people’s faces along the way. I’m off back to bed now as starting to feel worse......I’m hoping I won’t be found dead in the morning with a bright orange face :)
Offal is a wonderful food but one that has lost its popularity in recent years due largely to the snobbishness of our society and the increase in marketing for higher prices goods but with current world situations it’s very important to waste as little as possible (like the American Indians who used everything from the animal they had killed, even the bones for hunting instruments/jewellery)
Most offal is extremely high in essential vitamins and minerals that can’t be found in other parts of the animal.
My mum always used to cook me a mean liver stew when i was younger which has been the inspiration for today’s meal which is liver and beans and one that i was looking forward to, it’s been a long time since I last had any liver so when the idea popped into my head while walking around Tesco’s I had to grab the guy who was filling the shelves and do a little dance up and down the aisle (I didn’t actually do this but it really did happen inside my head)
Once I got back to mine I started to cook immediately as I had a long day at work which left me needing to refill the petrol tank. One of my housemates was very off-put by the idea of what I was cooking but I thought to myself “I’m only just beginning” I fried an onion until caramelised and then added the chopped liver for about 10 minutes (or until it’s no longer pink in the middle) I then served up with some Tesco standard beans (39p) The meal was as good as I had anticipated it to be and the beans went very well with the liver...so much in fact that I will be having this long after the experiment has ended!!I have a few good ideas for tomorrows meal which build on tonight’s dish so stay tuned...
