Tag Archives: worcestershire

Hardcore Hobbit: Mince and Taters

Posted on May 24, 2013 | 1 comment

What a lovely Scottish dish this one is, some of you might know this better as mince and tatties. In LOTRO you make this comforting food using leek stock, carrot, taters, herbs, and beef. Like the description says this is a simple and extremely satisfying meal. A traditional approach to this tends to be a bit of a…well…rustic presentation. I’m going to pretty it up a little but I feel it’s still rustic and so tasty. I played around a bit with my usual gravy recipe too, instead of flour I worked with potato starch. A very successful experiment, I have to say as a thickener, potato starch is pretty awesome and of course, gluten free for those who worry about that.

1 lb extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup grated carrot
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 small onion, diced
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp mustard powder
salt and pepper
4 red potato
2 cups leek or beef stock
2 tbl potato starch
2 tbl light butter

In a bowl combine beef, carrot, onion,worcestershire sauce, cloves, mustard powder, salt and pepper. Form into small, slider sized patties about 2-3 oz each.
In a med-high heat pan sear each patty for 2 minutes on each side. Set aside.
In a sauce pan melt the butter.
Add the potato starch and stir to create a roux.
Whisk continuously as you pour the stock slowly in.
Allow the gravy to come to a boil for 2 minutes then lower the heat to a simmer. Season gravy to taste. Add the patties and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile wash and cube potatoes. Bring water to a boil in another pot. Add potatoes, cook until fork tender (about 10-15 minutes). Drain, add a bit of stock and mash.
Serve your mince patties, with a mountain of tatties (having a close encounters moment like I did is not required), and gravy. Enjoy!

Makes 6 patties, a whole bunch of potatoes, and more gravy than you actually need…I’m a gravy eating monster and I couldn’t finish it. Each patty contains 142 calories, 9.7 grams fat, .4 gram carbohydrate, 0 fibre, and 10.6 grams protein. Each 1/2 cup of potato contains 117 calories, .1 gram fat, 26.7 grams carbs, 4.1 grams fibre, and 2.9 grams protein. Each tbl of gravy contains 12.5 calories, .8 gram fat, 1.4 grams carb, 0 fibre, and .1 gram protein. *phew* That was a lot of math today. You know what would finish this dish even better? An english pea puree. That is another story though.

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Posted in Comfort Foods, Dinner, The Hardcore Hobbit

Tagged Beef, carrot, mustard, Onion, Potato, potato starch, worcestershire

Hardcore Hobbit: Rarebit Muffins

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

For those not in the know, Welsh rarebit is a tasty dish of a melted cheese sauce (usually cheddar and mustard) poured over toast and devoured with gusto. In LOTRO rarebit muffins are made with black barley flour, goat cheese, milk and an egg. All fabulous starting points as usual but this time I decided to use some extreme guidance from Nigella Lawson. Her recipe is simply delicious, I lightened it up, changed a few things around and it still came out delish…my husband, the Surly Dwarf, ate about 6 of them. I call that a win! Want to make some too and not feel the guilt? Let’s go!

275g flour (I used the nutrigrain flour, hurray whole grains!)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard powder
100g rathtrevor cheese (this is a great local cheese made by Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, if you can get it go for it! If not a nice sharp cheddar is good too)
1/4 cup melted light cooking margarine
150g 0% fat greek yogurt (use the kind with no gelatin)
1 egg
2 tbl worcestershire sauce (keep the bottle on hand for sprinkling)
1/2 cup milk (I use unsweetened almond milk)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mustard powder. I don’t always sift but for these I always do. They work out best this way, totally worth the effort. Here I will prove it, I actually sifted.See? Told ya.
Add the cheese, reserving a couple tbl worth for topping later. Toss to coat the cheese.
In a measuring cup combine the remaining ingredients.
Add the yogurt mixture to the flour, stir until moistened. Don’t over stir, the lumps help make this airy when you bake it instead of dense.
Scoop into a greased 12 muffin tin. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven top with remaining cheese and a sprinkle of worcestershire sauce. Back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Serve while warm but not piping hot. Cheese burns are lethal.

Makes 12 servings. Each serving contains 142 calories, 5.3g fat, 17g carbs, 2.3g fibre, and 7.2g protein. Pretty great for a super tasty savoury muffin. I paired this with a salad topped with my garlic dressing for dinner. Good times. Enjoy!

Hardcore Hobbit: Roast Beef

Posted on November 14, 2011 | 2 comments

As LOTRO says, “nothing can beat this savory pot roast”. So delicious! I don’t make roast very often because of the expense of buying one, what I keep forgetting though is each time I buy one it makes a few meals, not just one. With that consideration it’s actually a bargain when you pick one up on sale and oh so tasty. In the game roast beef is made with salt, cauliflower, and marinated beef (beef, green onion, salt). I highly recommend doing a roast in the crockpot, I find I get the most tender meat this way with very little fuss. I also always cook my roast from frozen, again omg tender! It will also make it’s own gravy this way. My mouth is watering just thinking about this roast again. Time to get to pictures and recipes before I raid the fridge.

1 roast of choice, frozen
2 tbl cornstarch
2 pouches beef low salt oxo
1 tsp herbs de provence
4 tbl white wine
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp dry mustard powder
pinch salt and pepper
2 cup cauliflower
2 tbl margarine
1 tsp steak spice
green onion, sliced

Place the roast in a crockpot, top and surrounding with the next nine ingredients on the list.
Cover and cook for 6 hours on high or 10 hours on low.
Before serving, boil a pot of water. Add the cauliflower and cook until fork tender, about 10 minutes or less. Drain. Add the margarine and steak spice. Mash. Season to taste.
Serve and top with gravy from the crockpot and green onions.

There are so many variables in this recipe, cut of meat, size of cut, etc. So sadly I cannot give nutritional values for this one. The picture above is from my husband’s plate, it is a surly dwarf portion for sure. A hobbit trying to watch their figure should probably aim for a portion that looks more like this:and go easy on the gravy…I know…it’s hard. So nummy!