Steak and wholegrain mustard pasta sauce

• 2 sirloin or rump steaks cut into thin strips less than 5mm thick 
• 1 onion chopped
• 250g mushrooms, each cap cut in half then sliced
• (fresh peas)
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 large dessert spoons wholegrain mustard
• 1 tsp english mustard
• 150ml low fat creme fraiche
• 140ml double cream
• 2 tbsp brandy
• salt and pepper to taste

Use a large flatbottomed pan for this one, a big frying pan or a chefs pan is good.

Heat the olive oil on a medium heat and add the onions and garlic and saute slowly until soft and golden brown.

Then add the steak and cook until just still pink in the middle.  Add the sliced mushrooms and fresh peas if using (I didn't use when the picture was taken, but think they would make a nice addition).

Saute until mushrooms are lightly cooked.

Add the brandy and then add the two types of mustard and stir in well.

Then mix in the creme fraiche and the double cream.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Steak & Kidney pie

• 750g steak cut into small chunks (I buy whatever is on offer or reduced at ASDA, today was rump and casserole)
• 1 pack lambs kidney, cut into pieces and nasty white bits thrown out
• 8 good sized mushrooms cut into chunks
• 2 large onions, chunked ;)
• 200ml guiness
• 2 Knorr beef stock pot
• 300ml hot water
• 2 oxo cubes, gravy granules
• Few splashes of worcester sauce
• Sheet of puff pastry cut into triangles or circles, brushed with milk
• pinch dried thyme, salt and pepper

Heat oven to 160-170 degrees C.

Put the raw steak, kidney, mushrooms and onions in a casserole dish (that has a lid) and mix together, add 200ml guinness (or about half the pot) and the mix the beef stock and hot water and add to pot as well.

Season with worcester sauce, thyme and salt and pepper.

Put in oven for as long as possible, I try and do it for about 2.5-3hrs.  Half way through I take out and add the two oxo cubes and stir, then 15mins before serving take out of oven and put puff pastry in (turn oven up to 200), put casserole on hob and boil to thicken the gravy and use gravy granules if still not thick enough.

Serve with rustic chips and green veg.

Beef Carpaccio

Don't be put off by the fact that this is raw steak, if you like you steak medium rare you will love this, it is very very thinly sliced and the acidic quality of the dressing helps as well! It looks very impressive for a dinner party and is really easy to make.

• 1 very good quality fillet steak per 4 people (remember you are eating it raw, so the leaner the meat the better)
• 1 tsp dried rosemary or oregano
• pinch dried chilli
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• 1 tsp rock salt
• 1 bag rocket leaves or spinach, watercress and rocket
• fresh parmesan block
• salad dressing of choice (see later in instructions)

Crush in a pestle and mortar the rosemary/oregano, chilli, salt and pepper. Sprinkle it onto a plate and roll the sides of the fillet steak in it so it is encrusted and the top and bottom.

Heat up a heavy based frying pan so it is smoking, and very carefully press the encrusted sides of the steak onto the pan for 30 seconds each until it is seared all round. You just need to quickly colour the outside, do not cook the steak for long.

Wrap the steak tightly in cling film and place in freezer for 30 mins to an hour until it is firm (makes it easier to slice thinly) but not frozen.

Spread the salad leaves onto a plate and prepare your dressing. On the pic above we made a dressing by boiling 2 parts red wine vinegar and shaking it up with 1 part oil and 1 part lemon juice. But other dressing which go well are mustard or horseradish based e.g. 2 egg yolks in a blender or with a hand whisk, slowly add 100ml olive oil, then juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 tsp english mustard.

Take the steak out of the freezer, sit it on a chopping board and starting at one end and using a long very sharp knife, cut slices as thinly as possible (like parma ham).

Mum tip :) Once sliced, lay the steak on a piece of cling film and cover with another piece and then roll over the top with a rolling pin to make the slices even thinner.

Peel back the cling film and lay them on top of the salad leaves.

Drizzle with dressing and shave parmesan over the top to serve.

Suet Puddings - Venison and Wild Mushroom, Steak & Kidney, Liver & Bacon

Each type of pudding I made, I managed to make 9 individual puddings in moulds. I only had 9 moulds and by sheer luck each recipe made just enough to fill them, genius :) You could just make one large one in a pudding basin but I like the individual ones, the idea of being able to cut into each one!

For the suet pastry

• 225g suet
• 450g self-raising flour (I choose to use wholemeal as it doesn't settle so heavy on the stomach but tastes the same)
• 300ml water

Mix together the suet and flour then add the water, combining together until it forms a dough. If it seems too sticky and wet add more flour, too dry add a little more water. Once all combined and smooth and stretchy, wrap in cling film and put in fridge whilst making fillings. I did cheat, I used my Kenwood for the pastry with the dough hook on, did I mention how much I love my Kenwood Chef ;)

For the fillings (remember, each one makes 9 puddings)

Venison and Wild Mushroom

• 2 onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• spoon of butter
• 250g chestnut mushrooms (or other wild mushrooms e.g. Cep, ASDA only had chestnut)
• 8 chestnuts
• 500g venison
• seasoned flour
• Fresh thyme
• beef stock (I used 2 knorr jelly packets)
• 200ml red wine
• 2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
• Gravy powder
• water

Put the chestnuts in a roast tin in the oven at 170 degrees.

Add the onions and garlic to a pan with the butter and cook on a low heat until soft. Once done, remove from pan and place in a bowl.

Next fry the mushrooms slowly in butter, again once cooked remove from pan and place in bowl.

Chop the venison up into small pieces (remember how small the pies are). Put flour into a shallow bowl and add salt and pepper and mix. Then add the venison and toss in the flour until it is all lightly coated. Add some olive oil to the onion pan from early and cook the venison until it is brown on all sides. Add this to the bowl.

Once the chestnuts have been cooking for around 30mins, take out of oven, peel, chop and add to the bowl with 4 sprigs of thyme leaves. Mix everything together well.

In a pan melt down the stock and add the redcurrant jelly and the red wine. Then add water and gravy powder until a nice thck gravy is made up.

Steak and Kidney

• 2 onions
• butter
• 300g braising steak
• 200g kidney
• 200g mushrooms
• Flour
• Salt & Pepper
• Beef stock (again 2 Knorr stock cubes)
• 200ml Guinness
• Gravy powder
• Water

Add onoins to pan with butter and cook on a low heat until soft. Add to a bowl.

Cook off mushrooms slowly in pan with butter. Add to bowl.

Chop up steak and kidney into small pieces. Put the flour in a shallow bowl and add salt and pepper and mix. Toss the steak and kidney in the flour until well coated and then cook off in onion pan until lightly browned. Add to bowl.

In a pan melt down the stock, add the Guniness and then make up a thick gravy with the water and gravy powder.

Liver & Bacon

Follow the instructions for the steak and kidney, but subsitute 400g liver for steak, 200g bacon (chopped and thick if possible) for the kidney and remove the mushrooms entirely (yes I'm bored of typing.......).

Making the pies/puddings

Right, next get the suet dough out of the fridge, leave out on side to get back to room temperature.

Grease the inside of each of the moulds with butter or just the one big pudding basin.

Find a biscuit or cookie cutter that is round and is about 1cm bigger than the moulds.

Cut a quarter off the dough. Roll this out on a floured surface and cut out 9 circles (or however many puddings you are making). Put these to one side.

Cut the rest of the dough into 9 equal piece and roll each one out to around 3-5mm thick circles (obviously larger than the moulds). Line the mould with the pastry, squishing it together where overlaps occur (suet dough is really forgiving). Scoop in one of your fillings so it reaches just below the top of the mould, do not press down or compact. Ladel in some gravy and shake the mould so the gravy sinks to the bottom and repeat until the pudding seems full. Then place one of the dough circles over the top and press round the edges to seal the top on. either cut round the edges with a knife or press hard when sealing and the excess pastry should fall off.

Cover the top of the pudding with cling film to protect the pastry. Repeat this for all the filling and moulds.

Once done either cook in an electric steamer or a steamer on the hob for 1hr.

Once cooked, remove from steamer, peel off cling film and upturn onto a plate, serve with fresh veg, mash and leftover gravy from the filling.

To freeze - if you want to freeze the excess puddings to use later then upturn them out onto a baking sheet, leave in kitchen to cool then put into fridge (cooling them makes them go more solid), leave for a couple of hours then wrap each pie individually in clingfilm and freeze.

To reheat - place in a shallow bowl (still in clingfilm) with some water in the bottom, cover whole bowl with clingfilm and put in microwave for around 5-6 minutes until hot.