AD When I last wrote about traditional Geordie home cooking and foods it took me back to the good old days of Comptons gravy salt and Atora beef suet but there’s no reason why the same traditional dishes can’t have a bit of a modern twist thrown at them with a brand new recipe mix and still keep it authentically Geordie. This Beef Casserole recipe mix, pictured below, seemed like the perfect hearty addition of paprika and parsley try out on some of the traditional meals I wrote about previously. The Mince and Dumplings and Panackelty dishes were the ideal contenders for this so I got to work. Schwartz sent me this Beef Casserole recipe mix for review, but all views are my own.
Mince and Dumplings
I did this in the slow cooker with 5% reduced fat mince and chunkily (is that a word?) chopped onion. The recipe mix advised 400ml of water so I chucked it all in for 8 hours and let it do its stuff. Thirty minutes before the end I did a little cheat and added in some Aunt Bessie dumplings. Well I did say I was bringing the recipe up to date! The mince was tender and flavoursome and the sauce was absolutely heavenly. The paprika was just enough to add a little sweetness to the mince and complimented the fresh taste of the parsley.
Panackelty
Another easy dish, I simply added the recipe mix to cold water and stirred it into a shallow pan with onions, a little garlic and the sausages. Once the sauce was bubbling and thickening, I put it all in an oven proof dish, placed my part-boiled thinly sliced potatoes over the top to steam and soak up the herbs. The end result was a smoky thick sausage casserole bordering-on-ghoulash-dish, topped with crispy potatoes. Very delicious and judging by the fact there was absolutely none left, very popular in our house!
The Schwartz Beef Casserole recipe mix proved to be pretty versatile and it completely suited the two meals I wanted to fast forward into this century. Apparently these recipe mixes are also 1 of your 5 a day! Win-win I’d say!
Recipe Mix Fun!
As a last minute experiment I decided to sprinkle a few teaspoons over some roast potatoes I was cooking for a Sunday lunch, before I popped them in the oven. Mild and tasty, it added just enough to make them interesting.
It’s fun to put a twist on a food you grew up with and see where you can take it. Now I need to think about what modern twists I can add to saveloys and stottie cakes!! Ideas on a postcard, please!