Frugal food Archives - frugalfeeding

Charitable Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

For some reason I’ve been finding it really hard to get motivated to blog on working days. I don’t know why this is, but I’m sure it will pass. The other negative effect of my new job is that I have less time and energy to cook lots of new things. As such, over the coming days I shall attempt to counter this blog-rot and start bringing you new and exciting savoury meals to try. However, baking is so therapeutic and relaxing it can be done whatever the situation, no matter how lacking in inspiration one finds oneself. Perhaps this is because with baking one generally follows a recipe so there is no real expectation of ingenuity where the base recipe is concerned.

As we all know, summer is about eating light, fresh food like my Caprese salad. However, I really like to continue devouring slow cooked wintry meals during the summer. Having said that, this dish isn’t as wintery or as rich as a steak and ale pie and I personally think it worked rather well considering the time of year – especially on a Sunday, in lieu of a roast. This is so delicious I’ve had it a couple of times in the past few weeks; it has such a good depth of flavour and is incredibly satisfying to eat when it has been cooked for at least 3 hours. Indeed, the most important thing to remember when preparing this casserole, or any meal that includes the cheaper cuts of meat, is to cook it for a long time. After 3 hours the fat should have melted away from the meat, enriching the dish, and the meat will have become incredibly tender. This casserole would also work very well with on-the-bone cuts such as oxtail – meat on the bone is incredibly sweet and when cooked the marrow in the bones will melt into the gravy, enriching it further.