Sausage and bean casserole

Recently I've been on something of a budget kick so I've been limiting my food shopping to an absolute minimum. This has meant no big food shop this month, attempting to only use the food I have in my cupboards and rediscovering food I hadn't event realised I owned. I haven't done very well - I have gone shopping occasionally but my shopping bill this month has been well over half what it normally is.

It helps that I own a slow cooker but I have to ask, why kidney beans? I hate kidney beans, in fact I dislike most legumes. I struggle to eat them because as I chew them my brain is yelling "this isn't edible, it's not food, why are you giving me this?!" ( I know, my brain is overly dramatic). In my kick to be more money conscious I've been attempting to battle this irrational dislike and have been able to get as far as liking black beans (when done correctly - they can't be grainy) and I've been able to stomach butter beans, just. Yet for some reason I have owned a tin of kidney beans for longer than I can remember, they have even moved house with me. So today I have cooked with them in a vain hope to defeat my dislike of them.

This dish was made with every I had in the cupboard with no need to go shopping and it's a dish that will serve 6 and can be frozen. It is a good dish to be made on the weekend in a large batch, frozen in individual portions and then eaten slowly through the week.

Serves 6
Ingredients
450g sausages
1/4 cup water
2tbsp olive oil
2 bell peppers (not green), seeded and sliced lengthways
2 medium carrots, 1 sliced, 1 grated
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
200g butter beans (pre-cooked)(drained if from a tin)
1 tin kidney beans/ aprox. 200g pre-cooked kidney beans (drained if from a tin)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
2 bay leaves
1 tsp rosemary
1/2tsp fennel seeds
Salt & pepper

Directions
Put half the oil in a frying pan and brown the sausages on all sides on a medium heat. Then add the water, cover and cook until completely cooked through - this should take about 10-12 minutes. Uncover and cook for about a minute more then let cool and slice.

If needed, the rest of the oil to the pan, then warm over a medium heat. Add the peppers, onions, garlic and sliced carrots. Cook over the heat, stirring occasionally until just tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker and add all other ingredients. Check the water level, it should be only just covering the sausages, if it feels a little low then add a 1/4 cup of water and gently stir in. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. Near the end of the cooking time, check and cook with the lid off to thicken if needed. Season and serve with some fresh chunky granary bread.


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Lamb Goulash (with some tweeks)

I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe, the mix of Lamb and lemon worked really very well although due to the cost of lamb at the moment i must admit that its not something I'd do frequently. To get good quality diced lamb, i like to buy a whole shoulder and then bone and dice the meat myself.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
45g Butter
1 Large Onion, chopped
900g Lamb, preferably a stew cut such as shoulder
1 Lemon, seeded & very thinly sliced
1 tsp Caraway seeds
2tsp Rosemary
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp nutmeg
1tsp Oregano
1tsp fresh Greek basil
3cloves of garlic
1 Cup Veg Stock
Salt & Pepper
1 tin of tomatoes, drained and roughly diced
1 Large carrot, grated

Directions
Smear the bottom of the slow cooker with the butter and sprinkle with the onion. Put the Lamb in the cooker and arrange the lemon slices over it.

In a mortar, mash together all herb (except the basil), spices and garlic with a pestle before stirring into the stock. Add the stock mix to the slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until the lamb is tender.

Add the tomatoes and carrot then turn up the heat to high for 30 mins. Just before serving add the basil and season to taste.