Staying with this food theme for another day; I pleasantly pleased with a casserole I concocted on Friday night.
Time to burn.
A week earlier, I’d bought some ingredients to prepare a couple of different dishes but, as it turned out, I didn’t have enough to complete either of them. So, this casserole came together using what I happened to have available.
Loosely following a recipe from one of my books; I began by frying the sausages in a pan – with the addition of sliced bacon! I every time I attempt too fry sausages, I end up burning them in an instant and the smell then fumigates my home for the best part of 12 hours! I wish that, in recipes like this, the authors would make an extra consideration towards rookie chefs like myself, if only to state whether the hob should be set to either a ‘High’, ‘Medium’ or ‘Low’ temperature.
On Saturday, I received an attachment for my halogen oven that basically converts it in to a fat-free air fryer. I’ll probably write about that tomorrow evening.
Once the meat had been browned(!), I added a few slices of onion with some chopped parsnips, put the lid over the pan and steamed it for a good 10 minutes.
It looks like I might have also added the chopped carrots and onion at this time but then, I don’t understand how I took the photo above before emptying the contents from the chopper (below)?!
For the final ten-minute session, I was required to add the beans and chopped tomatoes to the mix, which would give the casserole all its necessary juices.
Despite having tried them several times, I’m not a huge fan of butter beans and Lidl, for whatever reason, never seem to have tins of cannelini beans on their shelves. The tiny tin of baked beans (below) was actually part of a Christmas present, would you believe!
But Lidl had caught me out when I picked up this tin of tomatoes – for where the main label on the shelf’s edge stated that they were indeed “Chopped Tomatoes“, it wasn’t until I got home and unpacked my bags that I noticed the “with Chillies” slapped clearly on one side of the label. That also explains why there were two stacks of chopped tomatoes in the store.
I’m not a fan of hot and spicy. I like to be able to taste my food and not upset my bowels. I thought it might help to first drain them in a sieve (therefore, relying on the tomato sauce of the beans) but I wasn’t prepared to hand-pick out every last chilli and so, I persevered.
It probably looks as grim as every other casserole I’ve made but I have to say, it tasted quite delicious!
Bacon is always a winner and, lying deep at the bottom of the bowl, I think it really added something special. I couldn’t taste the ‘charcoal’ that smothered the sausages and, if that something different was the taste of hot chilli then it proved to be a winning combination.
But I won’t be attempting to fry meat on my hob again anytime soon as I have once again made a mess of my saucepan.
Thanks for reading and never be afraid to deviate from the original ingredients! I must’ve been cooking for a good year now and that it by far the best lesson I’ve learned.
