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Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 15 December 2019

• Takes a bit of time
• Chicken
• Season Vegetables
• Experiments

We had half a cooked Chicken left from Fridays roast dinner so I had another pop at Hot Water Pastry. When I worked in the butchers I used to turn out 120 Pork Pies each morning and the pasty recipe has stuck in my head. However it’s not quite the same with Gluten free flour. I’m still working on it….

Sue made the Chicken, Blue Cheese, Bacon, Mushroom and Leek filling, which was really good. No such thing as a simple pie here!

Filling Ingredients:-

Cooked Chicken, cubed
Bacon, chopped
Leek, sliced
Mushroom
1 large Onion, sliced
Garlic, grated
Blue Cheese, sliced
Milk
Salt & Pepper
Cornflour
Oil

Filling method:-

(1) Season and fry the Onion and Garlic.
(2) Add the Bacon and fry until well cooked.
(3) Add the chopping Leek and Mushrooms.
(4) Add the milk.
(5) Gently stir in the Chicken and thicken the sauce with Cornflour.
(6) Set aside to cool.

Pastry Ingredients:-

110g of lard
280g of water
500g of plain flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp Xanthan Gum

Pastry Method:-

(1) Boil the Lard and Water.
(2) In a large bowl combine the Flour, Salt and Xanthan Gum.
(3) Make a well in the middle and add the Water and Lard.
(4) Kneed well to make a very thick dough.
(5) Wrap in cling film and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Pie Method:-

(1) Oil your pie tins.
(2) Divide the pastry into two larger portions and one smaller. The larger balls are for the pie walls and the tops. The smaller portion is for a divider.
(3) Press pastry into your pie tins to form the walls about 3mm think.
(4) Brush an Egg wash around the inside and bake blind at 180c for 15 minutes.
(5) Remove from the oven and press the walls flat against the tin sides with a spoon if required, while the pastry is still hot.
(6) Allow to cool.
(7) Roll out the remaining larger portion of dough and cut the lids.
(8) Do the same with the smaller portion but roll this out very thin and cut two dividers which will fit inside the casings.
(9) Add the cooled filling so the pies are a little over 2/3 filled.
(10) Add the dividers on top of the filling and press around the edges to seal.
(11) Add the Blue Cheese above the dividers.
(12) Add the pie tops and punch a hole in the middle.
(13) with a fork press the edges together to seal the pies.
(14) Brush with a beaten Egg with a little dried Oregano added.
(15) Bake at 180c for 45 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Serve with hand cut chips and Peas and enjoy. We certainly did!

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 09 December 2019

• Quick and Easy
• Chicken
• Crispy Coated
• Gluten Free

What do you base a meal on? With us it’s often what’s in the fridge - an open half tin of Baked Beans on this occasion! As we’ve had a couple of fairly complex experimental meals over the last few days we thought we’d just have an old favourite - Crispy coated Chicken, with home made Onion Rings, chips and home made Coleslaw.

It’s not big and it’s not clever . But it was very tasty!

Here’s the latest crispy coating recipe  (We used Salt and Vinegar Crisps this time!)

Onion Rings recipe here

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 08 December 2019

• Beef Mince
• Experiments
• Gluten Free
• Ingredients Alphabet

Well it is in out ‘Ingredients Alphabet’ anyway.

This rice creation was inspired by a North African Couscous dish. Couscous is Wheat based so we modified the recipe to use Rice. Oh and added a few bits and bobs. OK - OK we didn’t follow the recipe at all! Also while we at the confessions gig, the Kebabs were made with a £1.60 pack of Beef mince as the equivalent weight of Lamb was £3.95 and would have broken our budget….

Pomegranate and Rice salad ingredients:-

Rice
A Stock cube
2 small Mushrooms
1 Onion, chopped
Cucumber, chopped
1 medium Pomegranate
1 Spring Onion, chopped
1 clove of Garlic, minced
Cumin Seeds
Fresh Mint, chopped
Oil to fry

Method:-

(1) Dry fry the Rice.
(2) Add Oil and fry the Onions, Garlic and Cumin seeds.
(3) Mix the Stock in a pint of boiling water and add to the Rice.
(4) Add the chopped Mushroom.
(5) Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer until the Rice is tender and all the liquid has been absorbed.
(6) Mix in most of the Pomegranate, Mint, Spring Onion and Cucumber.
(7) Lay the Kebab over the top and garnish with a little more Pomegranate and a sprig of Mint.

Kebabs Ingredients:-

300g Minced Beef
1 tbsp Oil
Cumin powder
Garlic Salt

Method:-

(1) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
(2) Form into Kebabs around a skewer.
(3) Fry to brown on all sides.
(4) Place in the oven at 160c for 20 minutes.

This was a really tasty and fresh meal. The mysterious bowl on the side is Tigger the cats’ Kebab!

 

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 07 December 2019

• Experiments
• Gluten Free
• Pork Ribs

We had some Pork ribs in the fridge at £2.38 yesterday. By chance I was working at the Railway Station end of town which is where there are two large Asian supermarkets. A bit of a forage on the various shelves resulted in a pack of Papadums (Technically Indian?), A Mooli (Japanese by origin?), Fresh Red Chillies (Mexican?) and a pack of Rice Noodles (Chinese?).

So this is the monster we created!

I’ll not try to give a recipe as we just cobbled it together as we you do….

I roasted the ribs with home pickled Garlic, Chilli flakes and a little Oil. Deep fried some Kale leaves and salted them to make our version of crispy Seaweed. Then fried and drained some of the Papadums.

In the meantime Sue made a hot Tomato based sauce, similar to the base for a Chilli. She fried sliced Onion, Garlic and grated Mooli , seasoned with Salt & Pepper. Then added a tin of Tomatoes and a good squeeze of Tomato Puree, Chilli flakes, sliced Red Chillies, sliced Mushrooms, Onion Salt and Garlic Salt. Once everything was cooked and concentrate Sue added sliced Mooli and mixed it in to add a bit of bite.

We then boiled some Rice Noodles and put everything together and a monster mountain of very tasty food was born.

Dressed with Sliced raw Mooli, Sliced fresh Chilli, sliced Spring Onions and a bit of home brewed Kimchi this concoction was totally authentic to nowhere on the planet…...