May 17, 2011

Chop Casserole: Super Slack Dinner

Farmer's wives are used to cooking meals using chops.  Being on a farm usually means access to lots of meat.  And that meat is almost always hogget or even mutton (and beef, but only if you have cows, which we don't) . For the uninitiated amongst you, hogget is half way between lamb and mutton.  A bit like me really.

Anyway here is a ridiculously easy recipe made out of hogget chops. Now, a quick word of warning.  Please don't waste good lamb on this. The flavours will be too strong and lamb is worth a fortune these days.  Use mutton if you want, but turn the cooking temp down so it takes longer or it will be very tough.

This recipe uses lots of tins and things.  As I have said before we love a good tin recipe here on The Farm. And this is not super gourmet but it is yummy and everyone will eat it... (If you are looking for super gourmet, this is probably not the blog for you.)

Ingredients:


  • 10-12 hogget chops
  • a green capsicum
  • a tin of champignons (fresh mushrooms are OK but champignons make it very retro- I am a child of the 70s so love a bit of retro in my food)
  • two cloves of garlic, crushed
  • a 400g tin of tomato soup
  • half a cup of milk
  • a pinch of dried basil or half a cup of chopped fresh basil
  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of Worcestshire sauce

Ingredients

Cut as much fat off the chops as you can.  Any extra fat has nowhere to go but into the sauce and this recipe will be horribly greasy if you don't get rid of the fat first.

Place the chops in a flat baking dish.  Roughly chop the green capsicum and the drained champignons.  Sprinkle them over the top of the chops like this.

So artistic

In a jug mix the other ingredients together.  Pour this mixture over the chops and vegies.

See.
Looking Even More Artistic Now

Then pop the whole thing in a moderate oven for about 20-30 mins or until the chops are cooked.

Look - the finished product.

Done

Serve the chops and sauce with pasta, rice, couscous or mashed potatoes.  Whatever is handy really.

So there you go.  We are very excited as we have now had about 25mm of rain with more on the way.  Very glad to finally be dustless.

12 comments:

deux chiens et un garcon said...

Being a sixties child I could still go this one. Good farm tucker. I'm sure the chops would be so full of flavour and yummy gravy that a good suck on the chop bone at the end of the meal would be in order.

Glad more rain drops ahead.

jill x

A Farmer's Wife said...

Thanks Jill - definitely good mens food! I can actually cook quite complicated gourmet stuff but rarely do anymore. Every now and then I surprise myself though. My plan in years to come, is to go on one of those week long cooking courses somewhere glamourous (like the south of France or Umbria...!) In the meantime...

Emma said...

First off: well done on the rain, must be all that rain dancing I did ;)
And secondly, love a good tin + chop recipe myself, I have quite often found myself with literally a freezer full of weird assortments of meat from animals my farmer has slaughtered on farm. One poor calf we lost became veal eeeeeverrryyything for awhile there (needless to say I've had enough veal to last me the next five years thank you very much). This looks lovely and easy, might get some chops out of the bottom of my freezer now actually!

emma @ frog, goose and bear said...

You had me at the title! Love an easy meal! I love your farmy posts - brings back so many memories of growing up on a farm.

I'm So Fancy said...

Thank you for the recipe. And for the knowledge that I wish I were still a hogget and now I know what I'm called.

G said...

Love a good retro/chop/casserole/tin mix. Am slowly realising tins and whole or half beasts are the way to go. Need a bigger freezer first. gxo

Gemma @ My Big Nutshell said...

I love a hearty choppity-chop-chop. Yum!

Lindsay @ Delighted Momma said...

Yummmm! This looks like something my husband would LOVE...I live in California and I have never heard of Hoggot or Mutton haha...but I am going to google it right now.

Delighted Momma

Unknown said...

One of our family favourites is Jumbuck Stew. Very simple and yummy.

Semi Expat said...

Glad to hear you are dustless now AFW and this is a super good recipe - many thanks, YUM! X

Pauline said...

Popped over from Jessie at the Farmer Has a Wife - she's a friend of my daughter. After 10 years of mutton (anything younger was worth too much to kill) I'm glad beef is now our staple food - more cuts to choose from to start with.

Love your blog!

A Farmer's Wife said...

Thank you everyone - so glad I am not the only one who appreciates a good chop.