Cooking with Mary Berry - Review and a Recipe

From the very first time I watched The Great British Bake Off (or The Great British Baking Show as American PBS seems to call it) I adored Mary Berry.   She seems so nice and she says things like "scrummy" and always seems to be delighted when people do well and so sad and sympathetic when they do poorly.  Her creations always look delicious and gorgeous and I'd been dying to try one of her recipes but hadn't had much luck finding any of her cookbooks over here in the US.  That is until Cooking with Mary Berry popped up on my Amazon feed and I knew I just had to own it.

Published in 2016 for an American audience this cookbook is crammed full of delicious looking recipes ranging from Breakfast to Main Dishes to Sides to Breads to Desserts.  Almost every recipe has a gorgeous photo as well as a calorie count per serving and occasional tips for how to prepare specific ingredients.  Since I only know Mary Berry for baking I was curious to see what a standard cookbook from her would contain and I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous variety.  There are a number of dessert and baked good recipes but there are just as many main dish and savory recipes like French Onion Soup, Coq au Vin, Turkey and Lemon Stir-Fry, Teriyaki Beef, Pork Chops with Mixed Peppercorns, Penne with Spinach and Stilton, and Calzones.  The recipes are clear and easy to follow and the ingredient list contain ingredients that you could find at just about any good grocery store. My primary problem is that why she includes oven temperatures she doesn't list stove top temperatures.  I'm a reasonably experienced cook so I know what heat level to brown beef at but if you don't I imagine it would be frustrating. Since Mary Berry is a well known British cook I figured the obvious choice for a recipe test would be her classic lasagna.  Actually what happened is I hadn't made lasagna in awhile and the picture accompanying this recipe was cheesy and gooey and looked absolutely amazing and I just couldn't resist!

Classic Lasagna

Meat Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
2lb ground beef
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups beef stock
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
6 celery stalks, sliced
2 onions, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
salt and black pepper

For the white sauce
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp nutmeg

For the lasagna
4oz Cheddar cheese, grated
10 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
6 oz no boil lasagna noodles
chopped parsley to garnish

Preheat the oven to 375.  Make the meat sauce: heat the oil in a saucepan, add the beef, and cook, stirring until browned.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute, then add the stock, tomatoes, celery, onions, garlic tomato paste, and sugar.  Season with salt and pepper adn bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour.  (I only used 1lb good quality ground chuck and it was really good.  I also left out the celery)

Meanwhile, make the white sauce; melt the butter in a saucepan, sprinkle in the flour, and cook stirring for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and gradually blend in the milk.  Bring to a boil, stirring until the mixture thicnes.  Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.  Stir in in the mustard and nutmeg, and season with salt pepper.

Spoon one third of the meat sauce into a large shallow ovenproof dish (I used a basic 9x13 dish) and cover with one third of the white sauce and one third of the cheddar and Parmesan cheeses (I used Mozzarella instead of cheddar because my family is picky but I expect cheddar would be tasty too).  Arange half of the lasagna in a single layer.  Repeat the layers, finishing with the Cheddar and Parmesan (I added some extra mozzarella on top).

Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes until the pasta is tender and the topping is a golden brown color.  Serve at once, sprinkled with parsley.

My Results:  Despite the title this wasn't exactly what I would consider classic lasagna.  Most lasagnas I've made have a heavier ricotta/egg layer and a much saucier meat sauce.  However, I found this absolutely delicious.  The white sauce gave it almost a creamy element and it was hearty and cheesy as well.  I liked that it was super tomato-y but my husband did request more of a tomato flavor next time and I think I will replace the tomato paste with double the amount of tomato sauce.  While it isn't the simplest meal to prepare I found it very logical.  I could make the the meat sauce and while it was simmering make the white sauce and then assemble the whole thing.  While this isn't what I would consider classic I think it will be come a new classic for us!

I'm linking up with Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads