Using up your leftovers - Chicken & Ham Pie

We bought a whopping great big piece of Gammon to do as a pot roast last Sunday - and it was scrummy.  I served it with gnocchi in a Carbonara sauce plus some veggies and it was very acceptable indeed as a different sort of Sunday dinner.

However, we were left with rather a lot of Gammon that needed to be found a job to do.  As I didn't think that using it as a door stop would be much good - not with the dogs around, anyway (joke!) I set my mind to what we could do with it.

Immediately, I found myself liking the idea of a pie.  It would need to be a pot pie sort of pie, with a white sauce holding it all together rather than gravy (didn't fancy a gravy pie) and it occurred to me that I had a perfectly sized piece of pastry left over from the Rhubarb & Ginger Pie (oh dear, I really must blog that!) to make a lid for a pot pie.  It also occurred to me that I had one chicken breast in the freezer, also waiting for a job to do.  Perfect!  There was certainly enough gammon there that the addition of a chicken breast would turn it very much into sufficient for a pie, so long as some veggies came along for the ride.


I knew I had a selection of veggies in the fridge that would do the trick, so there I was rummaging through the vegetable drawer, thinking "what can I use?".

The original use for the gammon - with gnocchi in Carbonara sauce

Onion was a definite, that will start off the flavour base - with some garlic to lend depth.  Then carrot for sweetness - some finely diced with will lend flavour to the sauce and some rather bigger to add interest to each bite.  Celery was a definite - again finely diced to add flavour to the sauce and some sliced bigger to add interest to the pie.  Aha!  Mushrooms - perfect, but I'd have to make sure they were well cooked before putting the pie lid on, or they'd release a heap of water into the pie which would make the sauce thin and watery.

Hmmmn ... it needed something else.  Peas?  Well yes, but I had thought to serve peas alongside and too many peas isn't good (even though I love 'em and can eat dozens of the little green lovelies).  What else is small and sweet?  Aha!  Sweetcorn.  Perfect.

Now then, what herbs to use.  I had fresh parsley and dill.  I pondered long and hard over the dill because I know it goes well with chicken - but I just wasn't convinced about how well it would go with the gammon.  I decided upon just the parsley and the dill went back into the fridge.

Now, to make a white sauce or to "cheat" and use a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup?  Well, the way my knees have been, just lately, the simple act of making the pie will be enough to upset my knees severely.  So perhaps the length of time it takes to make a white sauce would be rather more than my knees could handle, so opted for the condensed cream of chicken soup.

I have no qualms in using ingredients like a tin of soup in recipes, as I am quite sure that there are more people out there who - like me - have reasons to not spend the entire afternoon in the kitchen (nice as that may be) than there are devoted cooks who do!  Things like gravy granules - these days - are perfectly nice ingredients that have a place in everyday home cooking, in my opinion.

To reduce the strain on my knees, I made the filling for the pie during the afternoon - which gave it plenty of time to cool (and for my knees to recover) before putting the lid on and baking it.  The 35 minutes it was baking were perfect timing for preparing and steaming some vegetables and making some mash, too.

Oh and I must have a quick word about the mash!  I peeled a roughly 50/50 combination of potatoes and parsnips and simmered them until they were tender.  After draining and leaving to dry for a moment or two, I put them back into the hot pan along with a good (and I'm talking "good to big") knob of butter and a tablespoon of Creme Fraiche D'Isigny - my favourite creme fraiche.  The D'Isigny type has a lovely savouriness about it that comes from a slight hint of cheesiness - which goes so, so well with savoury dishes.  It was just beautiful in this mash, as once the potatoes were seasoned and mashed together, everyone declared it to be really tasty.  So that was a success!

As a cook's note, once baked the juices from the vegetables and meat had reduced the soup base very slightly - so do be careful to not overdo the water in the first place.  It is far, far better to have your filling - pre-baking -  be on the thicker, more gloopy side than to be a perfect degree of sauciness.  Once baked, you'll find it comes out perfectly.

I made some additional chicken gravy, as we are all gravy hounds and I knew that the sauce in the pie would be insufficient for mopping up with mashed potato - but it is entirely up to you.  If you aren't a gravy hound, then don't make additional gravy!

A note for the more health-conscious amongst us, is that Campbells have brought out a range of low fat condensed "cream of" soups.  Now I've had a peek at the ingredients list and they don't appear to contain anything terrible (such as Aspartame), so they might be worth a look for you.

I can't let the opportunity pass to make another little mention of the fabulous Essential Cuisine stocks.  I'm not joking in that obtaining these stocks has made the thorny question of "is there too much salt" in a recipe, incredibly easy to deal with.  I used the fantastic chicken stock in this recipe and the flexibility of being able to add just a little bit of water, but a lot of stock powder which ups the chicken flavour beautifully without making it too salty, is worth so much to me as a cook.  I couldn't do that with a stock cube - even the low salt stock cubes would be way too much.  The Essential Cuisine range of stock powders are so reasonably priced at £3.95 a tub (which lasts longer than its equivalent in stock cubes, as you can be so much more flexible in how much you use) and delivery is amazingly quick - I can't sing their praises enough. 

My hubby - who is notoriously particular about his pie fillings - really liked this pie.  Now I consider that a total win, without anyone else having given their approval!  However, as it was, son & heir also thoroughly enjoyed his dinner and would happily have it again.  I really liked how no two forkfuls were the same - and you ate all the way to the end of your dinner without getting fed up with eating the same old thing.  A pie that holds your interest, is a thing of beauty!  Another good point is that I ate the last piece of pie for lunch the following day and it had lost none of its flavour or its appeal.  Having been warmed up via microwave, that's quite an accolade for a leftover piece of leftovers pie!

CHICKEN & HAM PIE   (Serves 4)

Ingredients :

1-2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, halved and sliced finely
1 fat donkey carrot, half diced finely, half sliced
2 sticks celery, one diced finely, one sliced small
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
1-200g sweetcorn niblets (defrosted, if frozen)
295g tin of Campbells condensed cream of chicken soup
100ml water
a low salt chicken stock cube or 1 tsp chicken stock powder
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
300-400g cooked gammon ham, broken into random bite sized pieces
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
300g (approx) short crust pastry
2 tbsp milk.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil on a moderate heat and add the onion.  Cook, without browning, until transparent.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

2.  Add the carrot, celery and mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms have softened and given up a certain amount of their moisture.

3.  Add the chicken pieces and cook - still on a moderate heat - until the chicken has turned a uniform white.

4.  Add the sweetcorn, soup, water and chicken stock and stir to mix well.

5.  Once well combined, add the parsley and the gammon.  Stir gently, so as not to break the gammon up.

6.  Taste for seasoning and adjust.  The very least you should need, will be a good shake of pepper.

7.  Set aside to cool.

8.  Once cool, decant into your pie dish and roll out the pastry to fit over the top of the dish.  You are aiming to keep the pastry fairly thick.

9.  Brush some milk onto the edge of the pie dish and place the pastry over the top.  Press down lightly onto the edges to make a seal and then cut off the extra with a sharp knife.

10.  Cut a small hole in the centre of the pastry to allow the steam to escape without blowing the pastry lid off, then crimp around the edges to finally seal the pastry.

11.  Paint the pastry lid with milk and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 35-40 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes & parsnips and a selection of in season vegetables.

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Frittering away - Gordon Ramsay's Sweetcorn Fritters

I don’t know about you, but I find I am becoming increasingly susceptible to suggestion.  No don’t go raising your eyebrows like that – not THAT kind of suggestion – I’m thinking more along the lines of suggestions regarding food.

For instance.  There we were, the other day, sat in the car outside the supermarket discussing whether to go for tiger prawns or chicken for our meal that evening.   Suddenly there’s a great waft of seaside fish & chips smell from some fast food joint or another.  There and then, we gave up all ideas of a healthy meal and were lusting after a piece of cod in golden crispy batter, chunky chips and lots of salt and vinegar.

In fact, common sense prevailed and we opted for tiger prawns and had a very acceptable home made curry – but that quiet yearning for crispy fish & chips is still there in the background.  Sooner or later it’s going to rear its ugly head in a moment of weakness.

I suppose a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’m continually working with food – be it looking for recipes, thinking about what flavours will go with what and considering what alternatives I can substitute in recipes I like but that have elements that I know wouldn’t suit our palates.  I can bring to mind what a flavour is like very easily once I’ve sampled it – so whenever a delicious aroma occurs, I am instantly analysing it for the component parts.

It’s the same with cooking shows on the t.v.  There are times when I can totally imagine how a finished dish would taste.  Now this is sometimes  very useful, as I can “tuck the recipe behind my ear” and bring it back out again when assembling the menu plan for the week.

Take this week, for example.  I had a little bank of five recipes that I’d accumulated for consideration.  Ultimately, I only went with two of them (a Chicken Buttermilk Stew and a Cumberland Pie), but we were also required to devise something yummy to go with a couple of interesting sauces that I’d managed to pick up en route.  Add that to a couple of dishes that had fallen over from last week – and bingo, the menu plan is done.

However, there are some occasions when something so apparently delicious and wonderful attracts my attention in a way that says “Eat me! Eat me now!” – and such was the case with Gordon Ramsay’s Sweetcorn Fritters – as demonstrated on his Ultimate Cookery Course show (Ch.4) a couple of weeks ago.

I paid attention to what he was using by way of ingredients, because I’m perpetually interested in what goes with what by way of flavours.  However, I didn’t exactly pay attention to the quantities.  So, when I eventually buckled and thought “I’m having those for lunch today”, I was a little bit stuck as there was no evidence of a recipe on the internet.

The recipe isn’t difficult – which might explain my being able to remember it.

You quite simply take a small amount of flour (around 100g) and add a small amount of baking powder (which I couldn’t be bothered to hunt for, so I used self-raising flour), an egg and a small amount of milk.  Whisk them together to form a fairly thick batter, then add a couple of sliced spring onions, a tin of drained sweetcorn, a chopped chilli and a small amount of freshly chopped coriander.  Add a little seasoning and fry gently in small spoon-sized dollops.

Fix yourself up with a pot of sweet chilli dipping sauce (or just tomato ketchup would do, in a pinch) and hey presto – lunch is served.

Now here’s your test.  Are you as susceptible to foodie suggestions as me?  Because those fritters are just To.Die.For.  So simple, so easy to make, relatively good for you too (especially if you use rapeseed oil to cook them in, as I did) – and they kept the hungry wolf away right up until dinner time.

I have a feeling that the fritter is going to become the new flan.  You may well be seeing many, many different versions appearing over the ensuing months!  After all, how’s about a griddled courgette, cherry tomato & feta cheese fritter?  Or a chorizo, potato & pea fritter?  Maybe even a curried chick pea and prawn fritter?

Uh oh!  That’s done it - where’s that frying pan?

(Previously published at Bournemouth Echo's Taste Section : "Jenny's Week" blog)

GORDON'S SWEETCORN FRITTERS   (makes approx 10)

Ingredients :

100g self raising flour
1 egg
2-3 tbsp milk
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced diagonally
1 chilli (red or green) seeds removed and chopped finely
a small handful of coriander, chopped roughly
326g tin of sweetcorn, drained
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed oil.

Method :

1.  Into a bowl, place the flour, egg and milk.  Using a balloon whisk, mix them well until combined into a sticky, thick batter.

2.  Add the spring onions, chilli, coriander and sweetcorn, plus a little seasoning.  Stir until all the vegetables and herbs are covered with a light coating of the batter.

3.  Pour the rapeseed oil into a frying pan on a medium heat.  Once the oil is heated through, add tablespoonfuls of the fritter mixture - four usually makes a good number without cooling the frying pan and stopping the cooking process.

4.  Once the underside of the mixture has set slightly, spread the blob out a little and continue to cook until golden brown.

5.  Turn the fritter and press down with the back of the spatula, just for a moment or two.  Continue to fry until this second side is also golden brown.

6.  Place the fritters onto kitchen paper and keep in a warm place until they are all cooked, then serve with some sweet chilli dipping sauce - or whichever type of sauce you fancy!

Printable version

Chicken & bean enchiladas : the best enchiladas ever!

Which was how these enchiladas were described by both hubby and son.  In fact, hubby was even heard to mutter "eat your heart out, Thomasina Miers!" - which I take to be quite a compliment.

I can't take full credit for the recipe though, as the original version came from a BBC Good Food magazine - and you can see the original recipe online here.  For all that my version of the recipe is very similar, I did opt to develop my own spicing for them and, instead of using roast chicken legs, I cooked off two raw chicken breasts that had been lurking in my freezer, looking for something to do.

In fact, I am jolly pleased with this recipe. To explain, our butcher sells chicken breasts as 5 for £5. Ordinarily, I'm preparing a breast for each of us, which leaves the odd number of two. Invariably, these get added to the freezer and we buy another 5. So, to have a recipe that uses just two chicken breasts across a meal that satisfies 3 people, is marvellous.

As for the spicing, well, I object to having to pay 85p and upwards for a sachet of spice mix when I've invariably got exactly those spices - but individually - in my cupboard.  So, I had a good old look at the ingredients list on three different sachets and discovered that there was nothing involved in the pre-prepared spice mix that I didn't have.  I knew I had to provide a tablespoonful of fajita seasoning and I have had fajitas previously so I knew the sort of balance of flavours I was after.  My spice mix consisted of a flat teaspoonful of smoked paprika, three quarters of a teaspoonful of hot chilli powder, a rounded teaspoonful of ground cumin, a third of a teaspoonful of thyme and the same again of ground black pepper.  Having mixed all those in, the chilli effect wasn't quite as pronounced as I wanted, so I added a pinch of dried chilli flakes, plus some salt.  Perfect!

Ready for the oven

This really is simplicity itself to make.  I whipped up the enchilada filling before collecting son & heir from school, then when we returned, I filled the enchiladas, covered them with grated cheddar - and by the time I'd opened the sour cream, the salsa and made a little salad, the enchiladas had ten minutes left in the oven.  It really couldn't have gone any better.

If you're planning on cooking these for younger children who can manage a knife and fork but who don't have the track record of being able to cope with chilli, you can easily leave out the chilli flakes (which makes them mediumly spicy) and/or the chilli powder (which renders them mildly chillified).  The beans come in a chilli sauce which is very mildly spiced - so the enchiladas can be adjusted up or down, according to taste.

I enjoyed this dish very much.  For us, the spicing was perfectly balanced and could be adjusted up or down as you ate them by the addition of the spicy salsa or alternatively the sour cream.  I was initially sceptical about the inclusion of the kidney beans in spicy sauce, but I will admit that this ingredient made the dish.  Something else that made the enchiladas both interesting and added a slight crunch, was the addition of the sweetcorn.  I really liked the textural changes it brought and the additional little shots of sweetness.

Both hubby and son & heir were quite upset when they'd finished their two and half enchiladas - and were begging me to make them again, and soon.  The next time I have two chicken breasts looking for a home to go to, I think I will!

This blog post has been submitted to Ren Behan's "Family Friendly Fridays" competition :)

CHICKEN & BEAN ENCHILADAS  (makes 7-8)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
a red onion, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, grated

a flat tsp smoked paprika
three quarters of a tsp hot chilli powder
a rounded tsp ground cumin
a third of a tsp thyme
a third of a tsp ground black pepper
a pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional, for chilli heat)
a pinch of sea salt
2 skinless chicken breasts, diced finely
2 x 350g tins of red kidney beans in chilli sauce
198g tin of sweetcorn
corn wraps
100-150g grated mature cheddar

To serve :
200ml hot tomato salsa
150ml soured cream
some mixed salad.  

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

2.  Pour the oil into a frying pan and add the onions.  Cook on a low-medium heat for around 5 minutes, or until softened and beginning to caramelise.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute or so.

3.  Add the spices and salt and stir to combine.  Cook them, stirring all the time, for a another couple of minutes or until they begin to become fragrant.


4.  Add the chicken breast pieces and increase the heat slightly to prevent them from poaching.   Keep stirring and turning the chicken until it has all coloured.


5.  Add the kidney beans and sweetcorn and stir to combine.  Allow to simmer for 5 minutes or so, to reduce the sauce slightly and allow the flavours to mingle correctly.


6.  Place a corn wrap flat onto a chopping board and add the chicken mixture horizontally along the centre line.  Take the side closest to you and wrap it over the filling, tucking it under the other side of the filling and so creating a filled tube.  Roll the wrap away from you, then lift it carefully into a baking dish, placing it with the join as the underside.  Continue until all the filling is used up.  Don't be worried about squashing them in!


7.  Sprinkle the top surface of the rolled wraps with cheese and place into the oven for 25-30 minutes.  Test that the centre wrap is hot enough, by piercing with the tip of a knife, then (carefully) hold the knife against your top lip.  You should not be able to leave the knife in contact with your lip for very long at all, if the Enchiladas are heated through properly.


8.  Serve with a hot tomato salsa, some soured cream as a coolant and some fresh salad.


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Sweetcorn & Chilli Soup - making soup for teenagers!

In the latest Good Food Magazine, I spotted a particularly scrummy looking bowl of soup.

Now I completely love sweetcorn in all its incarnations - from corn on the cob through to polenta.  I have also recently discovered how well sweetcorn goes with chilli - and this soup looked to be just perfectly put together.

You know how you read some recipes and you've got a vague idea how it's going to taste, but you're not quite sure?  This recipe was one that you could almost taste the soup as you read down the list of ingredients - basically, because it is little more than onion, chilli and sweetcorn in vegetable stock.

I knew I'd have two teenagers to feed on Saturday lunchtime and this seemed to me to provide perfect teenager-filling ammunition.  I know that son & heir loves sweetcorn, but wasn't sure about his friend, D.  One thing I did know about D though, was that he has eaten absolutely everything I've ever put in front of him in the past - so I was fairly hopeful.

I purposely didn't tell them that I was making the soup for them.  I've found that if you tell them you're expecting them to eat what you're making, it's tantamount to saying "diss my soup, why don't you?" and they'd have banana sandwiches or some such.

I was hoping that the smell of it cooking would be sufficient to get their taste buds interested - and so it proved.

I opted for extra parsley, instead of double cream

I was tucking into my bowl of soup when they emerged from son & heir's recording studio (a.k.a. his bedroom) on the prowl for lunch.  "There's soup in the saucepan, if you want some", says I.  The sound of the lid being taken from the top of the saucepan is testament to a certain degree of interest, then the question "what is it?".  Having told them, the next sound was that of soup bowls being marshalled.  Success.

I can't begin to tell you, how completely and utterly chuffed I was, to have provided them both with a home-cooked lunch.  Quite ridiculously so.  After all, the soup really took no time at all to make, it's only a wonder I haven't managed it previously.

Anyway, getting back to the soup itself, the flavour (even though I used frozen corn, instead of fresh) was sweet and richly corny, with the fruity hot flavour of the red chilli warming the back of your tongue and the parsley providing that tiny sense of freshness that kept the taste buds interested.  I'll definitely be making this one again.

One note to bear in mind, is that when feeding teenagers, the estimated number of servings needs to be downgraded.  The recipe said "serves 6".  In fact, it served four and a bit - but then they are growing boys!

A second thing to bear in mind is the salt contained in whatever stock you choose to use.  I always opt for a low salt version and add salt to taste, however, you might want to hold off on any additional salt until you can taste to check, in the case of a standard stock cube.

ADDENDUM!  :  It is now April 2014 and I have come to make the soup again.  This time, I included a finely chopped leek instead of the other onion (simply because I had one looking for a home to go to) - and I do believe it improved the depth of flavour of the soup.  Hence, I have changed the recipe to reflect this.

One other change I made to this evening's soup (we ate it as a main course, with cheese scones for dipping) was to add a teaspoonful of Essential Cuisine's cheese stock powder.  Now I do appreciate that not everyone will have access to cheese stock powder, but if you do - it is very well worth including it.  Simply mix it in with the stock when you make it up, but don't change the liquid quantity.  I think this also served to create another dimension to the flavours of the soup.

It's just getting better and better!

October 2014 : Yet another change to the soup recipe - and for the better, we all think.  I included some chopped bacon and a small sweet potato, cut into chunks - just to bulk up the recipe and make it more filling as a dinner, main course soup.  Guess what?  I've included the changes in the recipe.  ;)

SWEETCORN & CHILLI SOUP   (feeds 4-6)

Ingredients :

4 rashers smoked back bacon, diced small
25g butter (I used goat butter, which I recommend!)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced small
½ red chilli, finely chopped

800g sweetcorn niblets (frozen, fresh or a combination of both)

1 litre vegetable stock (I used Essential Cuisine's vegetable stock powder with 1 tsp cheese stock powder mixed in, however the cheese stock is optional)

1 tbsp lemon juice

a handful of fresh parsley, chopped

2 tbsp double cream.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the bacon.  Fry until the fat has rendered and the bacon is beginning to caramelise around the edges.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve.  Sweat the onion off in the bacon oil for 5 minutes or so, then add the butter and leek and cook for around 5-10 minutes - until nice and golden but not caramelised at all - stirring occasionally.

2.  Add the chilli to the pan and continue frying for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally.

3.  Add the corn, sweet potato, the reserved bacon, stock and some salt and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the corn is tender but still crisp.

4.  Transfer two-thirds of the soup to a blender and whizz to a coarse puree.  Add this back to the pan and stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
  

5.  Bring back up to temperature, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

6.  Serve with a swoosh of double cream and a sprinkle of parsley.

Printable version

Corn Chowder main-course soup style!

I think that sweetcorn (or corn-on-the-cob) has to be right up there on my list of favourite vegetables.  I love it in all its forms, even as polenta.  I used to make cornbread, up until it dawned on me how fattening it was, but a home-made chilli with cornbread was one of life's little pleasures for a while there.

One of our regular family favourite soups is the Smoked Haddock Chowder, which contains sweetcorn.  From there, it was a short step to finding a great recipe for corn chowder.  I found just the thing, by accident, on www.fresh365online.com.  The recipe contained potatoes, sour cream and most interestingly, a cupful of cheddar cheese.  I liked the idea of how that sounded as a recipe, but felt in order to turn it into a main course soup, it needed the addition of some meat - smoked bacon, to be specific.  I felt the bacon would "butch" up the soup, plus add a lovely smokey flavour.

Well, I wasn't wrong as although the sour cream and cheese help provide depth, the bacon just makes all the difference to how hearty the soup feels.

Do be careful though, not to use corn at the end of the season.  I have had corn cobs that have absolutely refused to cook so, if you decide to make this recipe out of corn season, my advice is to go for frozen corn.  It takes a twinkling to cook and the flavour really isn't that different.

CORN CHOWDER  (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 pack (250g) streaky bacon, diced small
1 garlic clove, grated
1 onion, chopped
half a tsp of cayenne pepper
2 medium potatoes, diced small
500ml vegetable stock
5 cobs (kernels removed) of fresh corn or 800g of frozen corn
150g sour cream
a large handful of cheddar cheese, grated
black pepper to taste
2 spring onions, chopped fine for garnish
red chilli infused oil, for garnish.

Method :

In a large saucepan and over a moderate heat, add the oil and once hot add the onions and garlic.  Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the onions have softened but not gained any colour.

Add the chopped bacon and fry until the bacon is opaque and some of the fat has rendered.

Stir in the cayenne and potatoes and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often.

Add the vegetable stock and taste for seasoning.  Add salt if necessary - I didn't need to, as the bacon and stock meant the mix was quite salty enough.  Add the corn and bring to a lively simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the corn is tender.

Stir in the sour cream and cheddar cheese and cook for another few minutes, to ensure it has all melted and been combined.

Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, adding some black pepper if you like.

Serve in warmed bowls with a sprinkle of spring onions and a swoosh or two of chilli oil over the top.

Printable version

Smoked Haddock & Sweetcorn Tart - superb picnic food!

If you don't make anything else over the course of the next two weeks, do try and make this tart - you won't regret it!

I'd reached the point where I had decided on meals for 6 out of the 7 days for the week, when it occurred to me that I was trying to find something for Tuesday - shopping day.  The point here is that shopping day is a perfect choice for something fishy.  I hate having to freeze fresh fish, and would by far prefer to use fresh over pre-frozen, you see.

So I pondered on the recipes I already know that involve fish and nothing filled me with enthusiasm.  So, I looked on the web for "Haddock Recipes" - and turned up HaddockRecipes.co.uk, a simply brilliant choice for all kinds of recipes involving haddock.  Several were skipped over, until I found the tart recipe from Laura Young.

Isn't it funny, how some recipes just say "Yes!", whereas others don't light up your imagination at all?  The minute I saw the name, I thought "oh, now, this one looks likely!" and upon first read-through I could almost taste how it was going to turn out.

Of course, I didn't count on Asda having a superlative piece of smoked haddock that, I am sure, turned this from a nice recipe into a gorgeous recipe.

On the way to do the shopping, it dawned on me that I didn't have a tart tin big enough to accommodate this tart.  As it turned out, neither did Asda - but they did have a glass Quiche dish that was the perfect size and by happy coincidence, made the perfect receptacle.  Serving was something of a delicate exercise, but achievable.

This photograph is so evocative, it makes me hungry!

I give my version of the recipe below, because I've altered four things in it.  Firstly, I've included a lot more fish, as the amount given just wasn't enough to cover what was quite a large tart tin.  Secondly, I've changed the wholegrain mustard to Dijon mustard, as I found the whole grains sank to the bottom of the egg mixture.  When you poured it into the tart tin, the whole grains all fell out in one place instead of being spread across the tart.  I can't help but think that Dijon will stay evenly spread.  Next, is that I recommend poaching the fish via the microwave, rather than on top of the cooker.  I find it a lot quicker and easier.  Lastly, I have dropped the temperature for cooking, from 220deg C to 190deg C.  I found the higher heat too aggressive for the pastry, which was very nearly burned by the time the tart was done.  The tart will need longer cooking, but that's fine so long as the pastry doesn't burn!

Apart from the lovely fish, I also used three Burford Brown eggs.  Burford Browns are just so gorgeously rich and I felt a tart like this could cope with a richer egg.  The ensuing flavour was beautifully savoury, yet light, without being at all sickly - even with 150ml of Double Cream in the mix!

So, do yourself and your family a favour - and make this recipe.  You won't regret it!

SMOKED HADDOCK & SWEETCORN TART  (Feeds 5)

Ingredients:

Pack of shortcrust pastry
500g smoked haddock
100ml milk
3 eggs
150ml cream
150g sweetcorn, drained
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Handful of parsley
Salt and pepper

Method :

1.  Place the fish into a microwavable dish with the milk and some seasoning. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, to poach the fish until just shy of being done.  Remove it from the microwave and take each piece of fish out onto a plate to be flaked.  Reserve the milk.

2. Roll the pastry out to around 1cm thick and place it into a 23cm (9in) diameter loose-bottomed tart tin without trimming the sides. Line the pastry with baking parchment, and then tip some baking beans onto the paper. Blind bake the pastry for 15-20 minutes at 190deg C and then remove it from the oven and set it to one side.

3. Beat the eggs and mix them with the reserved milk and the cream. Finely chop the parsley and add to the mixture, along with the Dijon mustard. Season well.

4. Remove the baking beans and parchment from the pastry and then sprinkle the bottom of the tart with the sweetcorn and the flaked fish.

5. Pour the egg mixture over the fish and sweetcorn and then place the tart into the oven at 190deg C for 35-45 minutes, or until the surface no longer feels as though there is wet egg underneath it.

6. Once cooked, trim the excess pastry and then allow the tart to cool before cutting it into slices. 


For a main course, serve with new potatoes and a side salad.  Perfect also for picnics.

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Exciting menu list for Father's Day week! Meal Plan 14/6/11 - 20/6/11

Just lately, I seem to go through the week wondering vaguely what we'll be eating next week and keeping an eye open for interesting recipes - yet not finding any.  Then, when I sit down on a Sunday to trawl the cookbooks and internet for inspiration, suddenly there appears all those interesting recipes that had been hiding previously!  Now, I'm not complaining, but it's  a bit weird how it happens.

Anyhow, before we get into this week, let's deal with the end of last week.

We had a couple of meals that we won't be repeating.  Firstly, and most regrettably, was the Caribbean Chicken Curry.  When the curry was almost ready, I got Hubby to taste it with a view to whether it needed sweetening or not.  Bear in mind that he's mildly diabetic, so we're quite wary of the sugar content of ingredients.  However, after putting in ginger, pineapple, tomato, banana and a whole lemon's-worth of zest and juice (and it was a BIG lemon), I was understandably concerned that it was too acidic.  He declared it was okay for sugar, but terribly wishy-washy and weak and "didn't taste of curry".  Now I'd been tasting it as we went along and it tasted fine to me, I agree it didn't taste of curry - but I didn't really think that it would taste of curry.  Not the Indian Takeaway kind of curry, anyway!  After all, it was supposed to be Caribbean, not Indian.  I think I may have lost the plot at that stage, as I dumped a heaped teaspoon full of Garam Masala into it - which of course didn't help matters at all.  It then became a thoroughly confused curry, which we won't be repeating.


So that idea needs some refining, to put it mildly!


The other meal that we won't be repeating was the Venison sausages that we bought to have on Monday evening.  For all that they were quite nice and the venison flavour was good, there was also an odd stale flavour going on in there.  Like cheap stale pork sausagemeat that tastes really "piggy".  Do you know what I mean?  I don't think we'll be investing in the amount it cost to buy venison sausages, when their good old Cumberland are ten times nicer!


So, apart from those two, a dish that bit the dust was the Asparagus & Gorgonzola Risotto.  Hubby just wasn't in a happy place that evening and was having serious misgivings about this risotto.  He was highly relieved when I suggested that we have fish & chips instead.

However, the biscuits I baked to accompany the Gooseberry Creams were light, crisp and delicious - and the dessert itself was just beyond gorgeous.  So it wasn't all bad.


Now then, let's turn our attention to this week.  I'm a little bit late in posting this, as with one thing and another I've not had the opportunity.  As a consequence, this week has begun without you - but it does enable me to tell you that a) Tuesday's dinner was amazingly gorgeous and Wednesday's dinner didn't happen and became something else!


So here's how this week is looking :

Tuesday : Smoked Haddock & Sweetcorn Tart, Jersey Royals & salad

Wednesday : Sweet Potato Gnocchi with spring vegetables

(which became Spring Vegetable Chowder)

Thursday : Thai meatball curry with rice

Friday : Chicken ala Jao (or Chicken in liver sauce) with rice & stir fry veggies

c/o Adora's Box

Saturday : Beef stew & horseradish dumplings, but has since been changed to :

Beef Red Dragon & Aduki Bean Pie, veggies (yet to be decided).

Sunday : Father's Day takeaway

Monday : Chicken noodles.

So you can see how things have changed - and not all of them intentional.

Tuesday's Smoked Haddock & Sweetcorn tart turned out to be beautiful.  Largely, I think, because of a piece of top quality smoked haddock from Asda.  Kudos to Asda, because it really isn't often that the words "top quality" and "Asda" are uttered in the same sentence.

Anyway, I won't witter on about this here, as it will just spoil the next blog entry - which will detail the tart in all its loveliness.

Poor old Wednesday.  Oh dear, what a disaster the home-made gnocchi became.  It was a great idea, to make gnocchi with the three sweet potatoes and two huge baking potatoes I had left over, but I'd say that a) there's a reason why you can't find recipes detailing that mixture for gnocchi and b) there's also a reason why it is recommended you make your first two or three goes at gnocchi with just plain old potato.

The sweet potato mixture was just too wet, even though I oven-baked the potatoes to attempt to dry them out a little.  We put enough flour in the mix to have made several batches of scones - and the resultant gnocchi were just sweet potato flavoured plasticine.  Not nice.

Definitely Gnot Gnocchi!

All the dough went in the bin and I made a Spring Vegetable Chowder with the milk I was going to make the sauce with and the celeriac, fennel, carrot and asparagus.  I also added an onion, sweetcorn and potato just to bulk it up a bit.  As a last-minute addition, I remembered we had some ham in the fridge and some strips of that went in.  As it happened, it turned out to be a really lovely combination that we had with bread and butter, so I think it was a disaster averted.

It was a shame, because it was Hubby's brainchild and it will have knocked his confidence right at a moment when he could do without it, as he's up on Thursday cooking a Thai Meatball Curry, with rice.  This is another of his brainchildren and I suspect he won't be following a recipe other than the one that is in his head, so fingers crossed that he is happy with the results!

Friday brings a variation on a recipe (Chicken Adobo), that I've cooked in the past.  I found this recipe on the mouthwatering Adora's Box blogsite.  There are just so many interesting dishes on that site, I suspect it'll keep me busy for a while!  The one I'll be trying on Friday is Chicken ala Jao - or Chicken in liver sauce.

If Hubby is reading this, please don't panic over the "liver" bit.  The sauce comprises a hugely interesting combination of ingredients such as fish sauce, soy sauce, sherry (which we bought yesterday and which has been subject to some serious quality control.  I think I'll just need to check it once or twice again, before the day!), onion, liver pate and curry powder.  I'm imagining a rich, savoury mildly spicy and tangy sauce.  We'll see what it turns out to be!  Can't be worse than the Gnocchi.

Saturday - and the menu here has been subject to change thanks to my lovely Twitter friend @Martink10, who tweeted me the suggestion of Beef Red Dragon & Aduki Bean Pie.  It sounds so interesting - and uses the same brisket that I was contemplating using for the stew, that I did a bit of a swap around.  It involves finely sliced brisket with an assortment of spices, the Aduki beans, then covered over with potato slices and baked.  I think I can see where it is going, and am just hoping that it doesn't turn out to be a glorified cottage pie of sorts.  Once again, time will tell!

Father's Day is on Sunday and Hubby's one desire is not to have to do the washing up, all day.  :)  I'm sure we can accommodate that - and a lovely Indian Takeaway will do nothing but help that become a reality.

The prawn version!

Which leaves us with Chicken Noodles on Monday.  Again it's one of Hubby's recipes that is going to resemble the Chilli Prawn Noodles, except with chicken.  As I love the prawn version, I see absolutely no reason why I shouldn't love the chicken version and I'm quite looking forward to it.

So there we are.  Apart from a Strawberry Shortcake idea that's formulating in my mind for dessert on Saturday and maybe some muffins of some denomination, I suspect it'll be Sunday all too soon and I'll be sat here wondering what the heck to eat this week.  You never know, we might even be able to schedule some meals and actually have those meals - or am I being too hopeful?

Chilli, Bacon & Sweetcorn Cornbread

As detailed in my earlier blog, hubby set to on Wednesday and made us a beautiful batch of Cornbread to accompany the Chilli he'd made earlier in the day.  I used to make Cornbread regularly at the weekend and we'd just munch on some when the mood took us.  A lack of the right kind of Polenta (or maize flour) stopped those sorts of shenanigans (which is probably just as well, consider the calories involved) and we sort of forgot about it for ages - literally, years.

His sudden bright idea about making it again was a stroke of brilliance, as we knew it would go beautifully with the chilli - which indeed it did.  Instead of a plain Cornbread, he made one with red chilli, bacon and sweetcorn.  For me, the bacon flavour seemed to disappear, with the chilli standing up bravely against those in the meat part of the dish and the sweetcorn providing a lovely sweet, crunchy counterpoint.  As always, the best part of the Cornbread is the corners with their gorgeously crunchy stickiness, which makes me wonder about producing it in Muffin tins in future, so as to maximise the "corner effect".  Mind you, with the melted butter glistening on the top surface, I'm thinking that this is one that doesn't bear repeating too often!

What do you do with the other half of a roast chicken? Why, Chicken Supreme, of course!

Chicken Supreme : with black pepper added by me!
Be careful with salt, as the soup can be quite salty already.

We'd managed to find a lovely big fat chicken for dinner last Sunday and very nice it was too.  Apart from a bit of deliberation over whether you could cook Yorkshire Puddings in silicon muffin "tins" (which we decided, on balance, we'd have a go at - but not this time), it all went to plan.  Nothing glamorous, just a nicely roasted chicken with Bay leaves in the cavity and fresh Rosemary (both from the bushes in the front garden) sprinkled over, with salt & pepper.

That left us with half a chicken looking for a job to do.  Our normal use for half a roast chicken is to curry it, but we had a tin of condensed mushroom soup in the cupboard - which just yelled "Chicken Supreme" at me.

Because we'd had roast potatoes the day before, that rendered potatoes off the list, so we went with just plain white rice as an accompaniment.  I'd been looking forward to it for days, and my keen anticipation was very well rewarded as it was delicious!

It was hubby's day to cook, and here's how he did it :

CHICKEN SUPREME (serves 3)

Ingredients :

an onion, diced fine
a clove of garlic, chopped fine
olive oil
small can of sweetcorn
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
200ml water
worcestershire sauce
half a cooked roast chicken, taken from the bone and diced
3-4 sprigs of parsley, chopped fine

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion & garlic gently until soft and just beginning to colour.

2.  Add the soup, water, sweetcorn and a splash of worcestershire sauce and mix well to combine.  Once up to temperature,

3.  Add the chicken and mix through gently, so as not to encourage the pieces to break up.  Allow the chicken to heat through.

4.  To serve, stir through half the parsley and sprinkle the remaining half over.

Serve with : carrots & white rice.

Chicken & Sweetcorn Pie

I am really quite proud of this pie, so please be gentle with me when you comment.  *chuckle*  Oh, and please do comment - on any of the posts on the blog.  I welcome all thoughts and questions!

Having re-discovered by pastry-making muse, I have been as keen as anything to practice the skill before it disappears again.  *chuckle*  Hence, I thought I'd have a go at my - then - nirvana of pastry creations - the "top and bottom" pie.  Having done that, I've now got a different nirvana - but enough of that.

So, with planning beforehand, I made the pastry on Saturday and kept it in the fridge until Sunday.  Being disabled, it helps to not have to go through the pastry preparation/washing up cycle as well as the pie creation cycle, all in one go.  However, I do think that it helps the pastry in some way to sit quietly in the fridge for a while.

I have to admit that I cheated on the pie filling and used a tin of Campbell's Condensed Chicken & White Wine soup for the sauce, but hopefully I'll be forgiven!

CHICKEN & SWEETCORN PIE

Ingredients

For the pastry :
280g plain flour
half a teaspoon of baking powder
quarter of a teaspoon of salt
85g salted butter
85g lard
small amount of water

For the filling :
400g chicken breast, skinless and cut into smallish dice
1 tbsp oil
1 shallot, diced small
1 garlic clove, chopped
half a pre-cooked cob of sweetcorn niblets
2 bay leaves
1 tin Campbell's condensed Chicken & White Wine soup
small amount of milk.

Method

1.  Firstly make the pastry.  I think it helps to make it the day before, but it's up to you.  Into a food processor, put the flour, salt, baking powder, butter and lard.  Blitz until the fat has all disappeared into the flour mixture.

2. Then add approx 2 tablespoons of cold water and blitz again, to bring together into a dough.  Add a little more water if your pastry refuses to come together.  Then either turn out onto some cling film and refrigerate, or cut into half and roll out one half for the base of the pie dish.  Place the other half back in the fridge to keep cool.

3.  Lay your pastry into the pie dish, allowing some to overhang - which prevents the pastry shrinking and means you will be left with a good edge upon which to stick the top layer of pastry.  Cover with baking parchment, then add baking beans and put into a pre-heated oven at around 190deg for 25-30 mins.

4.  In the meantime, add the oil and shallots to a deep frying pan and sweat off until the shallots are transparent.  For the last couple of minutes of cooking time, add the garlic and continue to cook.

5.  Add the chicken to the pan, increase the heat and cook until the outside of the chicken has a touch of golden colour.

6.  Add the sweetcorn niblets and the tin of soup.  Let the soup down with 2-3 tablespoons of milk until your preferred consistency is met.

7.  Once the pastry base is cooked, remove from the oven, remove the baking paper and beans and set aside to cool slightly.

8.  Once the filling is complete, add to the pastry base.

9.  Roll out your top layer of pastry, to a size that is just bigger than your pie dish.  Lightly brush the edges of the filled pie with milk, then lay the pastry top over the pie and pinch the edges to secure it.  Cut off any excess pastry, then cut a hole in the middle for any steam to escape.  Glaze with either some beaten egg or milk, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and place into the oven at 190deg C (fan) for 30-45 minutes or until the pastry is looking suitably golden.  It is a good idea to put the pie onto a baking tray, just in case the sauce overflows.  It's far easier to remove it from a baking tray, than it is from the bottom of the oven!

Serve.  :)