Recipe 64: Chicken Pot Pie

Working on making meals now that have very limited leftovers, due to the fact that 1) we do not have money for a whole heap of food and 2) we are starting to run out of freezer space with left overs!

As my husband constantly tells me, "I am not feeding an army". So to combat this, I have employed the use of the 'ramekin' and so far, so good. This recipe only used 250g of chickent breast, leaving me with another 250g to be used at a later date. Considering the 500g parcel cost me about $9.00, this pie, hypothetically cost me less than that for 2! All the ingredients I have already in the house and its nice to know that we can still eat nice food on a small wage.

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes three ramekin pies

250g chicken breast, shredded

1 cup chicken stock

1 carrot peeled and diced

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 small onion, diced finely
1 sheet of puff pastry

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1  cup milk

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

2 tbsp dry sherry

1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 egg (for egg wash on the pastry)

 

3 ramekins


METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200c. In a largepan, melt butter on medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook until the onions are translucent (about 10 minutes). Add the flour and cook, stirring, one minute more. Whisk in the cup of chicken stock. Whisk in the milk. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. 
2. In another pan, lightly cook the chicken meat and then add the chicken meat, thyme, sherry, peas, parsley, salt and pepper into the largepan and stir well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Divide the warm filling among the three ramekins.
3. Prepare the crust. cut the puff pastry sheet into quarters, place one quarter on each ramekin and roll the excess pastry around the top of the ramekin, pressing down with a fork to form a crust. (If you do not have enough pastry for a ramekin - this is where the extra quarter comes in handy).Fold the excess dough under itself and use the tines of a fork to press the dough against the edge of the ramekins. Cut a 1-inch vent into each individual pie. Use a pastry brush to apply an egg wash (beat the egg with 1 tbsp of water and then brush on to the pie- this will give the pastry a nice brown colour when cooked) to each pie.  
4. Bake at 200c for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.

One step forward ten steps back

What gets me about this blog, is my total incapability to keep on top! I am not joking, this week I must have tried at least 5-6 different recipes, yet have run out of time to post them up here. Now I am only up to Recipe 44 and if I am to be "tracking along nicely" I should be up to Recipe 52. Oh dear!

Luckily enough, I have found some of the recipes I have done in the last couple of weeks and managed even to find some of the photo's I have taken of them- so YAY me! Recipes with pictures.

This recipe is from last night, as I had neighbours over for dinner. I may add the actual roast lamb itself as another recipe at another time (as I have always grown up with roasts and stupidly think that everyone knows how to make one), but today its Roasted Baby Beets as I had tonnes in my vege patch and had no idea how to cook them!

 

Recipe 44: Roasted Baby Beets

Baby Beets (or normal Beetroot)
1 tsp crushed garlic
4 sprigs of rosemary
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220c. Whilst this is heating Clean the beets washing off excess soil. 
2. Put the beets into a large pot and add enough water to cover them. Season with salt and bring to the boil. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until just tender, then drain and place in a bowl of cooler water.
3. Using a potato peeler or knife, peel the outer skin off the beets when cool enough to handle- however you do want them warm to the touch for the next step.
4. In a bowl add garlic, rosemary, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Place your beets and gently stir them around so all beets get a covering of the marinade. Leave for 5 minutes in the marinade so they absorb the sweetness.
5. After 5 minutes, place the beets on a greased roasting tray and roast for half an hour, or until the beets have a glazed dark look about them.
6. Serve with other roasted vegetables

Recipe 27: Sweet Runner Bean Stew

This stew goes fabulous with grilled fish or by itself. I use it as a lunch as a main and for dinners as a side dish with grilled fish resting on top. If you don't have fresh rosemary, just use a couple of teaspoons of dried rosemary instead.

Sweet Runner Bean Stew

600g runner beans, trimmed
olive oil
1x 100g jar of anchovy fillets, in oil
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 dried red chilli, crumbled
2 x 400g tins of crushed tomatoes
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon


METHOD

1. Heat a large saucepa, big enough to hold all the ingredients, and add 2 tbsp of olive oil plus the oil from the jar of anchovies.
2. Chop four of the garlic cloves and fry them gently with the anchovies and dried chilli until it all goes soft and the anchovies break down into a mush. 
3. Pour  in the crushed tomatoes and add the beans and rosemary.
4. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. 
5. Place a lid on the pan and simmer gently for 12 to 15 minutes or until the beans are nicely cooked. (If the sauce gets a little dry, add a splash of water and give the beans a stir)

Recipe 25: Marinated Bean Salad

As funds are getting tighter- I have now had to start digging into the freezer to find whatever I have to make a dinner. For a few weeks in December Aussie Farmers Direct provided me with at least a kilo of string beans/ Climber beans- something that as a family we do not eat a lot of, as basically, I only know how to boil them and then put them on a plate beside a piece of meat.
Thank goodness for Jamie Oliver's "Jamie at home". Everything is basic ingredients but fabulous taste and this one was no exception!

Marinated Bean Salad

Marinade:
2 small shallots or 1/2 a small red onion, peeled and very finely chopped.
Handful of fresh soft herbs - recommend chervil, parsley, tarragon, the yellow inner celery leaves are nice as well
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil


Approximately 250g Green Beans or Mixed Beans topped but not tailed


METHOD

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in the beans and cook for about 5 minutes. When perfectly done, drain them in a colander.
2. To make the marinade, mix the shallot or onion in a bowl with the herbs, mustard, vinegar and approx of 4 tbsp of Olive oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add the hot cooked beans and toss. Put to one side to allow the beans to cool down and take on all the fantastic flavours - then eat!

Recipe 10: Cream of Broccoli Soup

In my days of trying to lose weight I relied heavily on carb-free meals or more correctly light carb meals to get me through. In trying to avoid as much potato, pasta and bread as possible I fell in love with a number of recipes from the SureSlim collection. I particularly love this one, as my husband never eats broccoli and so whenever we get it in my "vege surprise box" I know exactly what I am going to do with it and I know that it freezes and thaws brilliantly, meaning I can make a huge batch and freeze it out when I need it. Sometimes as well, I also add cauliflower for a different taste.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

500g blanched broccoli
4 cups vegetable stock

pinch nutmeg

300g cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Place all ingredients into blender, process until smooth.
2. Pour soup into large saucepan and heat before serving. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper

Serve with toasted mountain bread for a low-carb option.

Recipe 6: Zucchini Provencal

As per one of my previous posts, I am completely stock piled up on Zucchinis. Worse off, my husband hates eating them and so the challenge is to try and make it into something yummy that he will eat. I found this recipe in the Edmonds Cookbook (my lifeline) but for courgettes. So another adaptation...

Zucchini Provencal

1 tblsp Oil

1 Onion
2 tsp of crushed Garlic
1 Zucchini, thinly sliced
1 tin of crushed Tomato (approx 400g)


METHOD

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, Add onion and cook until the onion is clear. 
2. Add Zucchini witha pinch of salt and a grind of pepper
3. Add tin of tomato and crushed garlic (If using freshly crushed garlic- not one from a jar, add at the beginning with the onion), Stir, Cover and cook over a low heat until tender (approx 15-20 minutes)

So many Carrots... Recipe 3&4

Every week, due to my inability to leave the house and go grocery shopping with a 3 month old, I get the local milkman from Aussie Farmers Direct to deliver fresh veges, milk, bread and sometimes meat to my house. Aussie Farmers Direct is a free home delivery service providing fresh products that are 100% Australian owned and produced. Their main goal is to help the Australian farmer win the battle against the large multinationals by delivering a broad range of products direct to the consumer, cutting out the middle man like Coles and Woolworths, means products are delivered faster, fresher and straight to me making the humble farmer win in the long run.

It's the best decision I have ever made and now there is absolutely no excuse now not to cook food everyday.

Every Thursday and Friday I receive my deliveries. Friday is generally milk, cheese and meat, but Thursday, well, I am always excited for Thursday deliveries as I get a box of seasonal vegetables.

Carrots and Zucchini's apparently must be in season at the moment! As the last few weeks I have received so many of both that literally its the first thing I see when I open my fridge door, leading to inspiration for my first recipe for 2011 - Carrot Cake.

The below recipe is adapted from the Edmonds Cook Book - a Classic New Zealand recipe book that has been around for 90 years. There are some quantities I have changed and ingredients I have added and omitted after a bit of research. The original recipe stated you needed pineapple as well, but I did not have it in the house.

Jossy's Carrot Cake

3 Eggs
1 cup of Oil (I used virgin olive oil- nothing too pungent)
2 cups of Flour (NOT self-raising)
1 cup Sugar
3 tsps Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
3 cups of Carrots
1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
1 tblsp grated Orange rind

I used more than 3 cups of carrots- as I had so many... grated 6 big carrots- which would have been most probably been 5 cups, so I had to add more oil into the mixture (the original recipe states only 1/2 a cup).

METHOD
First of all, peel and grate the carrots so you have them on hand, Grease and/or line a tin approximately 23cm round AND Pre-heat oven to 160 C (They say 180 C in the recipe, but my oven seems to run a bit hotter as its fanforced)

1. Beat eggs until thick, stir in half a cup of the oil.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the egg mixture and combine.
   
3. Fold in carrots, walnuts and orange rind. Add the rest of the oil if the batter is really stiff, the batter shouldn't be runny, but shouldn't be so dry that its powdery either.
4. Spoon mixture into tin
5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10-15 minutes (take it OUT of the oven!) before turning out into a wire rack .

The recipe recommends to ice with cream cheese icing... so already I am off to a flying start for the week! 2 recipes in one day.

Cream Cheese Icing

Direct from the Edmonds Cook Book

2 Tblsp butter, softened
1/4 cup Cream cheese
1 cup Icing sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind

METHOD

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Mix in icing sugar and lemon ring, beating well to combine.

I'm a huge fan of citrus and so is my family, so I also added a bit of lemon juice into the icing mixture and then added a bit more icing sugar. I worked out that you can't have it too runny otherwise it falls off the cake!

So the final result

- Jossy's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing -

The cream cheese icing is a bit yellow due to the amount of lemon rind and juice I put in!