Weezl and friends Phase 3 - sitting pretty with Kitty

MadDogWoman_2

Hi,

So far I've made and had success with the Apple Curd and the Chicken and Onion Pie, this week I am going to try the Saag Aloo, should be interesting with a DH that doesn't eat veg.

I'm going to try some of the recipes containing olives on my DD, she loves them - I'm thinking the tomato and olive pudding would be a hit her too favourite foods in one dish.

Next week I will try the Calzone

weezl74

hello MDW!

nice to see you Does katie like the apple curd? fergie loves it Will be great to hear how you get on with the recipes. Did the chicken pie go down well?

xxx

Bigjenny

Made a single portion of Shepherdless Pie using red lentils and swede instead of green lentils and parsnips, no garlic.

Diced swede and fried with carrots and onions, then added red lentils and rest of ingredients.

Cooked for about 20 mns until lentils were soft, as I was only cooking a single portion I needed to add more water to stop it sticking.

Nice size portion, would make again.

System

On the menu tonight at Le Bistrot Avocet -- tomato and olive pudding, served with carrots. I chickened out of cooking potatoes as well, because I thought that the pudding crust would probably be sufficient in the carb line. As it turns out, this was a good decision because there are only three of us eating tonight, and the potato-eaters wouldn't have had room to polish off the fourth portion if they had filled up on potatoes as well (my husband thought that potatoes would have been a good idea, but my son thought they would be too stodgy on top of the pastry). While I think of it, a side question about the potatoes... what do you do about the absence of butter on this plan?

Back to the main event... The pastry was quite easy to make and took about 100 ml water to mix, using brown self-raising flour (because that is what is in the self-raising flour tub at the moment). It was easy to work with, and easy to line the basin.

I'm not at all sure about the instruction to "fry" the filling ingredients, because there is no oil. Is there oil missing from the recipe? Or does it mean "boil" or "heat" or "simmer"? I opted for just boiling everything together. To further complicate things, I wasn't sure how long the filling ingredients should be cooked for, so I gave it three or four minutes, then assumed that the lentils would finish cooking in the prolonged steaming session. This turned out to have been just about right, although another couple of minutes wouldn't have hurt, because the lentils in the finished dish were just cooked but still holding their shape.

Adding the filling to the basin was a bit of a panic. I had started by making the pastry 1 cm thick, as instructed, but this left room for only half of the filling. So I hastily spooned the hot filling back into the saucepan and used the back of a large serving spoon to spread the pastry thinner (and higher up the sides of the dish). The heat or moisture of the filling made the pastry easy to spread, but a little slimy looking, and I was very relieved to find that the filling fitted in when I tried again, because I was worried about spreading it any thinner when it was so wet and tomatoey. Anyhow, it all fitted in (the pastry was only about 5mm thick at most), so I attached the pastry lid, then popped the lid on the basin and steamed it.

Which brings me to the equipment I used. I used a 2-pint plastic pudding basin with a lid (the sort that Christmas puddings come in), and steamed it for 2 hours and 15 minutes in the Intellichef. Actually, I didn't use the Steam setting, because the pudding basin didn't fit into the Intellichef with the trivet in place, so I took the trivet out, poured in some water, folded some kitchen roll to act as a buffer between the basin and the non-stick cooking bowl, and set it to Stew for 2 hours 15 minutes.

The timing was spot on. The pudding turned out beautifully onto a plate, to rapturous cries of "a pudden! a pudden!" from the assembled menfolk (they're a bit deprived; I'm not a great carb fan, so puddings of this type feature on our menu about once every two years).

And the verdict? We loved it! We will make it again! If I had made more this time, the others would have eaten more. The only criticism anyone could think of (not voluntarily, but when pushed) was that they would like a bit more filling.

Variations we have considered -- Rolling the pastry thinner so that we can fit in a bit more sauce. Adding a bit of garlic to the filling (although the occasional garlicky bit in the olives was good). Adding dried herbs to the pastry crust. Using black olives instead of green, and more of them. Adding some more vegetables, like mushrooms. Intensifying the tomato flavours with a touch of sugar and a dribble of balsamic vinegar. Making a different filling altogether (cries of "treacle pudding" rend the air, but I'm thinking of trying Sussex Pond, which I've never had before). But these are just gilding the lily, because the dish was a big hit just as it was, and we liked it very much.

System

Another broken link for you, I'm afraid, Weezl.

If you go to: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/planner-option3-month1.html
and click on "onion tarte tatin" in the list on the left-hand side, you get the error message: "The requested URL /recipe-oniontartetatin.html was not found on this server."

auditbabe

Avocet wrote: »

Actually, in the cold light of day, I'm wondering whether I was wrong to have suggested cooking the parsnips along with the other ingredients rather than roasting them in the oven.

The reason that the parsnips worked in the dish was because they were sort of separate, somehow, like occasional little parsnip islands in a sea of lentil stew. That effect would be lost if they were stewed with everything else, because all the flavours would merge together (although that might also be nice). On the other hand, it does seem to be a shocking waste of electricity having to run the oven for half an hour for what amounts to a single parsnip. Hmmmm.

How about frying them? there should be enough oil coating them to be fried instead of roasting,:)

MadDogWoman_2

weezl74 wrote: »

hello MDW!

nice to see you Does katie like the apple curd? fergie loves it Will be great to hear how you get on with the recipes. Did the chicken pie go down well?

xxx

Nice to see you too - should have come earlier as I love to cook.

Chicken pie was a hit even my DH who doesn't like onions enjoyed it

Katie adores the apple curd, she licks it off then asks for more, I used bramleys and there are little bits that won't blitz down so I'll sieve it next time - I've got 2 jars in the freezer so it will last a while.

I even put it on her porridge or weetabix instead of sugar. It's nice in rice pudding too.

I'm also tempted by the scones as it's something I can involve Katie in, she beginning to like cooking as much as her mummy

ETA: I've also made the very yummy carrot cake, Katie liked it too, especially as she'd made it, DH will not eat anything that contains dried fruit so he missed out.

nopot2pin

weezl74 wrote: »

shall I say 'can be served hot or cold' on the recipe and maybe others will follow suit?

Aye... I think that would be a good suggestion
I will deffo try it hot next time...
The day I made it, I was quite cold, having spent most of the day soaking wet , so a hot meal would have been better for me ... I just didn't think of heating it up

Allegra wrote: »

375g SR flour
90g soft butter or marge (wonder if it'd work with oil ? Hmmm, I feel an experiment coming on....)
220g sugar
310 ml milk
1 egg

Blackberries

Rub butter into flour, add sugar, milk and egg, stir through

Put into muffin cases and then drop a few blackberries into each muffin (I find if I incorporate them at an earlier stage they all drop to the bottom so this is the method that works best for me). Bake on 180 C (160 fan) for 20 min - until lightly brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Ohhhhh... Ta Allegra
I might make these tomorrow, using the wild raspberries I found yesterday
Smashing

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

Another broken link for you, I'm afraid, Weezl.

If you go to: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/planner-option3-month1.html
and click on "onion tarte tatin" in the list on the left-hand side, you get the error message: "The requested URL /recipe-oniontartetatin.html was not found on this server."

very helpful to list the error message, that saved me lots of time to locate a rogue 'e'

sistercas

just thought i would de-lurk

i have been following the thread with great interest and thought i would let you know i have tried a couple of recipes.

I made the onion tart yesterday which went down an absolute storm I ended up making more pastry and onions as i dont have any scales at the moment and have to guess . it made 1 large tart (9inch dish) and a small one (5inch dish) the small one is in the freezer for another day the large onion tart was demolished as everyone had seconds ( i served it with mini jacket potatoes with a tiny scoop taken out with a knob of garlic butter sitting in - yummy) and peas

I also made the risi e bisi the other day too , again i made far to much so we ended up having it for lunch the following day too, it was lovely and very easy to make ( the only different ingredient i put in was a splash of wine as i had a little that needed using up )

thanks to all of the hard work you have all put in , its a fantastic resource :T:T