Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

just popping in to report on a chicken and sweetcorn pie I did again yesterday.

for any of us following the plan in our own fashion, it might be of interest

I used
200g cooked chicken (calculated the cost as a sixth of a chicken, 50p)
100g onion
160g sweetcorn
50g flour
300ml water
tsp mustard
s+p

pastry
300g flour
150g veg oil
150ml water
tsp baking powder (or use sr flour)

Saute the onion until soft. Add the chopped chicken, sweetcorn and mustard. Mix the flour with the water, add to the pan and cook a couple of minutes to cook off the flour. Taste and adjust seasoning

meanwhile make the pastry. Mix all the pastry ingredients together, adding the water bit by bit until you have a fairly loose dough

I have found that if I add about the same amount of water as oil to the oil pastry, it behaves itself and is fairly easy to roll out. It is a little looser than a solid fat pastry, where you have to add the minimum of liquid to get a short pastry. This version is still a lovely short pastry, and much cheaper, so I'm converted

Line the flan dish, tip on the filling and top with the remaining pastry.Bake in a med oven for 30 mins. I moisten the top and grind over some s+p

DP and I have a qtr of this pie with 150g mash and 80g of peas and 80g carrots each

I have been making pies in a 9.5"/24cm flan dish as I broke the middle sized one of a set of 3 many years ago. Sometimes the filling is a tiny bit flat, but mostly it works out fine. We are tall, big people and enjoy substantial meals. This works out to 45p per portion incl the veg

But I think those with smaller appetites than ours (not hard!) could easily cut a pie this size into 6 portions, when it would be just 37p per portion incl the veg

Happy Easter!

We have a bit of a spanner in the works here. A friend has arrived today with a whole lamb for us, we have been given a sack of onions from another.

I am definitely not complaining, quite delighted in fact, but I may have difficulty persuading my DH and DSs to stick to the planner when they know we have all the lamb. I will do my utmost to stick to it.

Also, I can't find the most recent carrot cake recipe. Can someone point me in the right direction please?

I have started printing up the recipes so that if/when my internet goes off I can still access them. They are all in plastic wallets too:)

ETA Just spotted the above post mentions the carrot cake. No hurry to do it I just thought I had missed it somewhere.

Ok just made the above as promised

1 egg yolk
1 scant teasp mustard (mine was shop bought ready made)
1 teasp lemon juice
1 teasp vinegar (I've always used malt even though most recipes say not to)
125ml oil
S&P

Mix together all the ingreds except oil. Add a drop of oil and carrying on mixing adding another drop after about 10 secs. After doing this for about 1min then SLOWLY add the oil in a steady stream dont be tempted to do this quickly continue til all oil has been used up.(This will take about 4-5mins) The more oil you add in the thicker your mayo will be. Taste and transfer into suitable container and keep in fridge for 3-4 days.
Ps its better if your eggs are at room temp if they come straight from fridge the mayo sometimes wont thicken (still tastes ok but very runny)
HTH
PS nice friend Poohbear i need to change friends or borrow some of yours. That will be really nice to know you have that stored away hope you enjoy