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.

Sucker for a taste of Spain

There are so many places in the world where I would settle down to live but if it was just based on food- the top 4 places: France, Italy, Mexico and of course, Spain.

Two days ago I happened to stumble upon the General Trader in sale mode (well, that's what I tell my husband anyway!) and found a $20 paella pan. No excuse now, Paella for dinner!

The interesting thing about a Paella pan is that you have to "break it in", by doing this you basically have to get a steelo, scrub the bejebus out of it and then heat it up on the stove, letting the pan go black. Cool it down a bit and then using a paper towel with some oil on it you then rub it into the pan. Heat it up again, with a new paper towel wipe it and repeat the oiling and wiping until there is no more black residue showing on your paper towels. Your paella pan is now ready!
(NB: once you have completed your cooking, wash up the pan, then to dry, heat the paella pan, oil and wipe again. If you just dry it with a tea towel, the paella pan will rust)

Recipe 51: Chicken Paella

Serves 4 – 6
Variety of colourful fresh vegetables of your choice; broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, red capsicum, mushrooms, sweet potato, corn
¼ cup olive oil
500g chicken thighs (or breast meat), cut into strips
50g mild Salami, cut into strips *optional*
1 large onion, chopped
1 capsicum, cut into strips
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can tomatoes, diced
2 teaspoons smoked paprika 
1½ cups short grain rice
3 – 4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp saffron threads, (soak for 10 minutes in 1 tbs hot water)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 – 3 chillies 

Method 

1. Heat oil and fry chicken until cooked, put cooked chicken in a bowl and set aside. 
2. Add slightly more oil to the paella pan and aauté onion, capsicum & garlic until tender
3. Add tomatoes & paprika, cook until tomato is pulpy.
4. Add rice; stir until well combined with tomato mixture.
5. Add stock a little at a time and allow to absorb
6. Stir in saffron, pepper, tomato paste, chillies, chicken and salami strips (if using), if needed add more stock so its nice and moist
7. Arrange vegetables decoratively on top
8. Heat at 180c until rice is light and fluffy & vegetables are cooked through. (around 20 mins)
9. Serve with green or tossed salad.

The great thing about this was just as I was taking it out of the oven, two of our friends popped around for a couple of beers. The paella went down a treat and my husband enjoyed the leftovers the next day with a bit of toasted bread and a smattering of cheese.

Leftover magic

Yesterday we were lucky enough to catch up with family who we haven't see in 5 months. Roast chicken buns for lunch and so much leftover, that again hubby had chicken sandwiches for dinner and lunch today!

Already due to this challenge I have discovered with a few key ingredients in the house a yummy meal is not far away. This particular meal goes to show that a creamy pasta does not need to go to your ass and you don't need to add chicken either for this pasta to be nice. It is also a 10 minute meal - which is brilliant.

Lefties Creamy Carbonara

300g fettuccine
4 rashers of bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 cup carnation light and creamy evaporated milk
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp parmesan
Leftover chicken

METHOD

1. Cook pasta according to directions on the packet.
2. Heat fry pan, add bacon ad oio, cook 3 minutes, then add mushrooms and left over chicken, cook for a further minute.
3. Add combined carnation light and creamy evaporated milk and cornflour (using the above trick of the trade), bring to boil, stirring, add pasta, remove from heat.
4. Sprinkle with cheese and serve immediately. Serves 4

Recipe 18: Maple-glazed chicken

I am so gutted I gave the Donna Hay recipe book to my mates husband for Christmas, there were so many awesome recipes to try out! I am starting to feel bad as when I am over there I end up just sitting in the kitchen going through their recipe books! This serves two as well, so there is no waste- something that is now become so important as finances are getting tighter.

Maple-Glazed Chicken

1/4 cup Maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp seasalt flakes
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 x 200g skinless chicken breast fillets
roasted parsnips and steamed sugar-snap peas, to serve.

METHOD

1. Place the maple syrup, water, chilli, salt and pepper in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
2. Bring to a simmer and add the chicken.
3. Cook for 4-5 minutes each side or until chicken is cooked through. 
4. Serve the chicken with the pan sauce, roasted parsnips and sugar snap peas.

Friday night- pizza night

Before our son was born, Friday night was pizza night... Dominoes, Pizza Hut even local pizza stores, all on speed dial and menu's on the fridge ready for ordering.
For the last few weeks, we have been doing well with our one "takeout" meal a month.  Although tonight all I wanted was to call my friend Mr Dominoes- however, there was no chance of him taking an 'IOU'.

Recently after cleaning out our cupboard I found a packet of yeast, so what better way but to recreate our Friday night treats but with homemade pizza. I made this base in the bread maker, but I am sure you can also do it by hand.

Cranberry, Chicken and Mozzarella Pizza

Base

200ml Water
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups Bread flour
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Topping

Chopped roast chicken (I used left overs from the previous night)
3 cups grated Mozzarella
4 tbsp Cranberry jelly (I used Ocean Spray- Jellied Cranberry)

METHOD:

1. To make the base, add all items in the order stated above, water, oil, salt, flour and yeast into the breadpan and using the dough setting on your bread maker press start
2. I took my dough out 30 minutes prior to it being finished to make it more pliable (an hour in the bread maker) and on a floured board, rolled out/kneaded the dough into the pizza shape.
3. Preheat oven to 200c
4. On a lightly oiled tray place the pizza base. lightly oil the top of the base, then spread the cranberry jelly, 2 cups of mozzarella, the chicken and then sprinkle the remaining cheese.
5. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the base and crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Amazingly enough, finally a main dish that my husband and I loved! Next week I will try a different flavour, it was also good to have used leftovers instead of spending money. Starting to feel a bit more confident on this challenge -Grassroots all the way!