Week 22 –Steak, Cheese and Guinness Pie and Mexican Chicken Risotto

The first recipe this week was one that I had been wanting to try for a few years. It was another Jamie Oliver recipe – this time from the Jamie at Home book. I hadn’t tried it in the past because it sounded far too unhealthy with all the Guinness, cheese and pastry. However, I was still in holiday mode at this point, so decided to finally give it a go!

I deviated slightly from the recipe and made this in my slow cooker. I always find slow cooking stews like this works well because the meet is always tender and the flavours all pull together really well. It also means I can pop all the ingredients into the cooker in the morning, and then forget about it! And this was exactly what I did here, with the exception of the cheese, which was stirred through at the very end once off the heat.

This was a really different steak pie to the ones I have made in the past. The Guinness and cheese combination added a velvety richness to the gravy, and made it quite a bit thicker than normal. Overall it was very nice, and another recipe I will be making again.

The second recipe this week was a Mexican Chicken Risotto. Risotto is something I’d never made in the past, as I’d been a bit scared that it would all end up mushy and horrible. However, after a delicious risotto at a friend’s house, I decided to give it a go.

In followed a basic risotto recipe I found on the internet, so that I knew how to cook the rice, but decided on my vegetable and meet combination myself (precooked Mexican chicken, red onion, leek, tomato and spring onion). I was very pleased with the results. The risotto was a lot easier to make than I expected, it felt very healthy with all the veg I’d crammed in, and it was very creamy and tasty.

Risotto has now become one of my regular recipes, and I have already made it another 3 or 4 times, each time with different veggies and different meats. My favourite flavour combination so far has been a Mediterranean inspired one with peppers, chilli and chorizo.