Pies, Pies, Glorious Pies

I am on fire with pies at the moment
Last week a Tortilla Pie
Not as in the "wrap around food to make a sandwich" kinda of pie
But the Spanish Tortilla. The wonderful "Spanish omelet of eggs, fried potatoes
and onions" kind of Tortilla

Then today back on the Spinach and Corn flavours, just add Chicken to make a wonderful pie filling

Yum, beautiful
I have taken to make my pies, in a large muffin tin
The ones they call Texas Muffin tins, the ones on the left

Just enough for 1 person, well if you serve it with one soup, or as a dinner with some vege.

If you're feeling a little greedy, you might like 2

Over the years, I have loved to use the fan bake option in my oven…its much quicker...but I have ended up with too many soggy bottoms, so back to the old convection top and bottom option
Nice golden tops and golden crisp bottoms

So for the Tortilla Pie
to make 6 pies

Heat oven to 200C

Flaky Puff Pastry I like to use the ready rolled Square
you get 2 pies out of one sheet and very little waste

Butter to grease tins
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water to egg-wash the tops
Cut out the bottoms and lids and line the greased muffin tins

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large potato peeled and cut into small cubes
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grated Tasty Cheese
4 eggs beaten

Preparation:
Bring the potatoes to the boil in salted water
cook until just tender
Drain

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat
Add onions and sauté till soft
Remove and put to one side
Turn up the heat
Add potatoes and cook till golden brown
Strain the potatoes and keep the oil for another day

Crack eggs in a bowl, season with salt and pepper
Divide the onions and potatoes between the tins
add some grated cheese on top

Slowly pour eggs on top
Don't fill too high as the eggs will expand

With a wet finger rub over the top edge of the pastry
Cover with a lid
crimp
Brush with egg wash

Cook till golden brown
will take between 25-30 minutes

Let them cool a minute or two and transfer to a wire tray
Demolish

They freeze well, just wrap the cooled pies in some plastic wrap, label and freeze
Never one to waste any food, Irish Stew makes a good filling as well
Perfect

So onto Filling No 2
Chicken Spinach and Corn Pies

Flaky Puff Pastry as above
This filling is enough to make 10 pies
I like to use these frozen spinach portions
Already cooked, just need to thaw

The filling

1 poached chicken breast finely chopped
1 cup Hot Chicken stock
50 gms butter
50 gms flour
tsp mustard
5 little frozen spinach balls, thawed, juice squeezed out
1/2 cup frozen corn
2 spring onions  chopped
Little Grate of nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt butter in a medium sized pot
Add flour
Stir and cook for a minute or two to cook the flour out
Season with S & P and mustard
Add the spring onions, spinach and corn
Slowly add hot chicken stock stirring to make sure there are no lumps
Simmer for about 5 minutes
Add chopped chicken
Let cool and when ready fill pie cases

Look isn't that pretty?

And how about a nice sweet to end the meal

I wanted a little amount of apple juice, for a salsa I about to make
No need to splash out on buying some juice.
I had some fresh apples in the fridge
So I grated an apple and squeezed the juice out
What to do with the grated apple
Why make apple pies of course

This amounts below is enough to make 2 pies
I had one for lunch, couldn't wait
1 large apple grated
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tsp cornflour
2 tablespoons Craisins

Grate the apple and reserve the juice
Zest the orange and add the apples and Craisins
Dissolve the cornflour in the orange juice
Mix everything together

Fill the pie cases
That's the apple on the right hand side, chicken on the left

Lid on,
Crimp, egg wash and
Bake 20-25 mins till golden
Look at that Flaky Pastry and juicy apple and Craisin filling

Make some right away

Delicious, Japanese Curry Vegetable Soup - Perfect for a Winter Lunch

When our daughter Katie was a teenager, she went to Japan to stay with her friend Michiko
She came home totally enthralled with Japanese Food
She introduced me to Japanese Curry Sauce Paste
It has become a pantry essential item ever since

I like to use it to flavour soup.
With the cold weather this week.
It screams, SOUP, cook me now

So I made a very tasty root vege soup for my lunch.
Accompanied by a Spinach, Corn and Feta Muffin
Perfect

So Take
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery sliced
1 large carrot sliced
1/2 swede, peeled and chopped
1/2 parsnip peeled and chopped
1 cup of peeled and chopped butternut squash

Chicken stock
Coriander stalks and leaves

2 squares of Japanese Curry Paste
Sauté onion and celery in the butter over medium heat till soft
Add carrot, swede, parsnip and squash
And the coriander stalks chopped
Sauté a little longer so that the vegetables get coated in the butter
Add enough chicken stock to cover the verge
Bring to boil and simmer until vegetables are soft

Take some of the hot chicken stock out of the plot and dissolve the curry paste

Add to soup, simmer for about another 10 minutes
Place in blender and whip it up till smooth

Serve with a few coriander leaves on top
And a little muffin on the side

Lunch is served

Tasty Orange and Balsamic Chicken with Garlic Green Beans and Crushed Potato Bake

Thumbs up for dinner last night

I rarely cooked a lot of chicken dishes in the past. 
One member of our household wouldn’t eat it.
BUT as luck would have it our Grandchildren, love chicken, so I am always trying
to find something new.
Once again among my morning emails,  I found this recipe on a Martha Stewart site.
Chicken, Orange, Balsamic, sounds pretty good to me

To accompany it, Garlic Green Beans and Baked Crushed Potatoes
Actually this is a Gluten Free Meal, for those who are interested

So
For 4 people       
Ingredients
3-4 Chicken Breasts depending on the size of the breast
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
       
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 large peeled orange, cut into 8 wedges
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 200C 
Season chicken with sea salt and pepper.
In a large ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium-high.
Add chicken, skin side down, and cook until golden and crisp,
About 7 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate and pour off fat from skillet.
Return chicken, skin side up, to skillet and transfer to oven.
Bake until cooked through, 10 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a plate.

Return skillet to stove and over medium heat
Add vinegar and orange wedges.

Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon,
until orange begins to soften, about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in butter.
To serve, return chicken to skillet and toss with orange and sauce.
Just to heat through before serving

Veggie Ingredients
Very simple
Potatoes, Green Beans, Olive Oil, Sea Salt and Pepper
Garlic and Zest of a Lemon
 
Method
For the Crushed Potatoes
Peel and cut in chunks as many potatoes as you need
In this case 4 large ones
Cook till tender in boiling salted water
Drain
Crush with a masher
Keep it rustic
Add 1-2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some freshly ground black pepper
Mix and place in a lightly oiled gratin dish

Bake at 200C for about 15 - 20 minutes
Should be crispy on top and lightly golden

For the beans
Top and tail the beans
Blanch in salted boiling water for just 2 mins
Drain and run under cold water to cool
Put aside till you need them

In another pan add 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed with a little sea salt
Zest of 1 lemon

Heat gently over medium heat, don't brown the garlic, it will get bitter
Add cooked green beans
Toss over medium heat till they are heated through
It was so popular,
There wasn't anything left
1 adult, 2 teenagers and I 9 year old
Ate it all

Perfect Chicken Stock and What to do with It

Before Google, when I needed hints on cooking… of course, I used to spend hours, hunting through my lovely cookbooks
I’m sorry to say now… I pop onto one of my devices and put in 2-3 relevant words and up come so many choices,...Meanwhile the lovely Cookbooks just sit there on my bookshelves.
They may not get the attention they deserve but I do still love seeing them there
Good if there is a power cut?

So I wanted to make some beautiful Chicken Stock.
The grandchildren were coming over to make homemade pasta

Ravioli, I thought. Looking back through my blog, I picked up some ideas that I had posted earlier

One of the sauces I made was using chicken stock, butter and sage leaves
So not just any old chicken stock, thank you, but some clear, almost consommé… the only way to go
To do that of course, that means clarifying the stock
So off the Web I went, and I found this simple way on this Better Homes and Gardens site


First make the stock, I bought chicken nibbles, lots of bones to get some good flavour
So place the chicken nibbles or chicken carcasses, what ever you are using into a roasting pan,
1 large onion peeled and cut into quarters
1 large carrot rough chopped
Couple of stalks of celery, roughly chopped
I tossed them in a couple of tablespoons of Vegeta Chicken Stock and couple of tablespoons of olive oil

Into 180C oven and roast about 20-30 minutes till golden

Then transfer to a big pot
Cover with water and simmer for about 45 minutes
Strain through a lined sieve

After it is strained I removed the meat off those bones and it made a wonderful filling for some yummy sandwiches
Just mix with some Mayo, Season with Salt and pepper, A chopped gherkin and sometimes, celery for the crunch
A little of the Gherkin liquor for a little extra flavour

How to Clarify the Stock in 4 Easy Steps
To clarify stock, first strain stock by ladling it through a colander or sieve lined with 1 or 2 layers of 100-percent-cotton cheesecloth, (I used a chux cloth)
Discard bones, vegetables

Separate an egg (discard the yolk or save for another use).
In a small bowl, combine the egg white and 1/4 cup cold water.

Stir the mixture into the hot, strained stock. Bring to boiling.
Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
(As the egg white cooks, it will coagulate and trap fine particles from the stock.)
This is called a Raft

Place a large sieve or colander lined with damp paper towels over a large bowl.
Pour the stock through the paper towels to strain out the particles and egg white

 I wasn't totally satisfied with that, so I repeated the clarifying
Ah that looks better

If you don't want a brown stock don’t roast the chicken and vegetables,
just sauté gently in some olive oil, just to get that flavour moving.
Cover with water, season with S & P and simmer for 30-45 minutes

In fact, I needed another poached chicken breast, so I made some more stock
After the chicken was cooked, I added some bones from 2 chicken carcasses
Followed the Clarifying process as above
How about this for clear stock
All set for the freezer

 The children did a wonderful job on the Ravioli
Click here to see how to make the pasta

We made a simple filling
A gently sautéed chopped leek, in olive oil
Some soft goats cheese
A really good grate of Pecorino cheese
The zest of a lemon
Freshly ground black pepper
Taste and if you feel the need perhaps a pinch of sea salt
Don’t forget the Pecorino and goats cheese are quite salty

For the Sauce
1 cup Chicken Stock, Homemade if possible
6 sage leaves
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Bring to the boil, turn down and simmer
Add ravioli

I am so thrilled my kids have sophistcated tastes
They loved these Ravioli

Fresh and Tasty Orange and Radish Salad -Perfect Accompaniment for Lamb Tagine

Family Dinner
Katie was making a Lamb Tagine with Cous Cous,
She asked for a side dish
Orange and Radish Salad came to mind
so I did a bit of research
First I found a salad on one of my posts, which would do
Click here
Also if you have a good look at this post there is a wonderful Chocolate Orange Cake
Then I found a recipe from  Yotam Ottolenghi
Used that as a base and here is what I came up with
It was very popular
It fed 7 as a side dish

5 large oranges peels and segmented
2 bunches of Radishes topped, tailed and sliced
1 medium red onion finest sliced
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
Handful of coriander leaves torn
Handful of mint leaves torn
1 cos lettuce torn into pieces

Dressing

   2 tablespoons lemon juice
   1 garlic clove, peeled  and crushed
   1 teaspoon orange blossom water
   1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    4 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
    Sea salt
    Freshly  ground black pepper
Segment the oranges into a large bowl

Add radishes and sliced red onion
Add dressing and chopped parsley
You can make this ahead
Taste and adjust the seasoning if you think it needs it

Find a nice flat bowl
Throw in the Cos lettuce
Spread the Orange and Radish mixture
Add the other fresh herbs just before serving

Very pretty and delicious

Best Roast Butternut Soup, with Roast Chicken Pieces and Broccoli Garnish

If you are are looking for a smooth Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup. This is the one
The addition of the large pieces of Roast Chicken just add another dimension
Plus little flavourful slices of broccoli on top
This is a complete meal
I found this soup on better recipes.com a website that sends me emails each morning
It is soup time at the moment and this was a little beauty
For those interested, it is gluten free and also Paleo 

Ingredients:
4 Bone-in, skin-on breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 Medium Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 Small Yellow Onion, rough chopped
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and left whole
2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Freshly ground black pepper

5 cup Chicken Broth
⅓ tsp Ground Cumin
⅓ tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice


Optional Garnish
Kale  sliced in my case or as I find Kale a little boring
Broccoli broken into florets, just enough to use as a garnish

To prepare broccoli
Slice broccoli thinly, I used a mandolin
Blanch the broccoli in boiling salted water for about 45 seconds
Strain immediately and plunge into cold water, to stop cooking
This will keep the fabulous bright green colour

In a frying pan, on medium heat, add about 1 tablespoon olive oil
add 1 clove of garlic, finely copped with sea salt and about 1 tbs of lemon zest
Just sauté gently for about a minute be careful not to burn the garlic

Throw in blanched broccoli and cook till heated through
Use to garnish soup

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200C degrees
Place the chicken, squash, garlic, and onion on a baking sheet.
Season the chicken and vegetables with the oil, salt and pepper. 

Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the chicken and set it aside.

Place the remaining vegetables into a blender with any excess oils.
Add the remaining ingredients, and blend until smooth.
Depending on the size of your blender, you may have to do this in two batches.
Strain through a sieve, into a stock pot and bring into a boil.
There was still some fibre from the squash, I though it needed to go
So I strained it
Reduce to a simmer and return the chicken.
Simmer the soup uncovered for 20 minutes.

If you really want to use kale, stir in it for the last 5 minutes.

Or again my case, I served the soup and topped with Broccoli Slices
Very pretty and tastes fab

Of course I had leftovers
Reheat it very gently, so that the chicken heats through

A Classic Cream of Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup

I had some chicken stock sitting in the fridge, thought I would make some soup
Had a glance through my Go-To Cajun Cookbook… that I bought on our first trip to New Orleans
in 1988. Le Bouche Creole, by Leon E Soniat Jr.
I don’t think you would go wrong with any recipe in this book.
Elizabeth David
Julia Child
Jacques Pepin
Marcella Hazan
and Leon
These authors have created little bibles for me, all well worn
I will never throw them away.
My heroes!

So, what jumped out at me, was
Cream of Mushroom Soup, even though I didn't have any mushrooms…
I did have to go to the Supermarche, so I bought some

It’s a little fiddly but well worth it

Serves 8-10 people

Voila Lunch
Take
500 gms mushrooms
125 gms butter
1 litre Milk
1.5 litres of Chicken stock
1 onion
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch spring (green onions)
8 tablespoons flour
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Dried basil 
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
2-3 tablespoon good chicken stock powder, I use the Vegeta Brand

Boil the onion, bay leaves and tops of green onions in the stock for 1/2 hour
Strengthen the stock with the powdered stock
Strain

In a heavy pot, melt the butter over low heat
Add flour
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly
Warm the milk then
Add the milk very slowly
Stirring all the time, to avoid lumps

When the sauce is well mixed and creamy
Slowly pour in the strained stock

Clean the mushroom, remove the stem and chop them finely add them to the stoup
While this cooks, slice the mushroom tops
After the soup has simmered for about 10 minutes
Season with Salt and pepper to taste
Then the Tabasco and the sliced mushroom

Let cook for another 5-10 minutes
stirring occasionally

When the soup is served garnish each bowl with a little green onions 

As I am always On my "Waste Not Want Not" Crusade
This soup, also made a wonderful mushroom sauce
That evening, I made myself dinner, using some leftover vegetables
and some beautiful Filet Steak

Just popped the vegetable into the oven and roasted them
Not too long about 20 minutes
After I had cooked the steak, I removed it from the pan and
Ladled in some of the soup into the hot pan

Mixed with the yummy meat juices, it reduced down a bit and the sauce was delicious
I forgot to take the picture before I dressed the steak, but you can get the idea
It was such a tasty dinner and no Waste

You may notice with the soup above there is a little Toasted Sandwich to accompany it
Very simple, It does need to be the old plastic white bread though, sorry,
There are times this just has to be
This filling was perfect
Quantities are up to you...depending on how many people you are serving

Slices of white bread, well buttered
A little beaten egg
Sliced ham
Grated cheese 
Sea salt and Black pepper
Chopped Green onion or chives

Lay the bread, butter side down onto a chopping board
Place all the other ingredients, into a small bowl and mix well

 Spread the ingredients Over the un-buttered side

Place the lid on and cook in your toasted sandwich machine, or you can cook on a non stick skillet

 Excellent and a lovely view, to go with my lunch