Tag Archives: cooking

Pastry for Pies, Quiches and Tarts

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We all have some things that we feel unable to cook successfully.  My nemesis is scones.  I must try again one day.  In the meantime if anyone has a foolproof scone recipe I am willing to give it a go.

Pastry is something that many people do not make from scratch for a variety of reasons.  I must admit I used to buy the sheets of pastry from the supermarket.  I would still buy puff pastry if I specifically needed that as I believe it is quite challenging and time-consuming to make.

Shortcrust pastry is a different matter and in an attempt to reduce the packaging that we accept into our home I have returned to my tried and true pastry recipes (sweet and savoury) which came from my mother.  I have used these intermittently for many years.

SHORTCRUST PASTRY (SAVOURY)

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour

100g butter

¼ cup cold water

Method

Place flour in a bowl.  Finely shred the butter and rub into the flour until crumbly.  Add cold water and stir in with a knife blade to make a firm dough.  Wrap in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Remove from refrigerator.  Knead on a lightly floured board and roll out thinly.  Use as desired for quiche, savoury pie, sausage rolls etc.

Hints

I always use ‘real’ butter – not margarine or spreadable butter.  You will not get the same results with substitute ingredients in this case.

Use beaten egg to brush the top and underside of pie tops.  This will stop the pastry absorbing liquid from the filling and becoming soggy.

SWEET PASTRY

Ingredients

90g self-raising flour

60g plain flour

30g cornflour

90g butter

60g sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon milk

Method

Sift the flours.  Rub in the butter.  Beat sugar, egg yolk and milk and add to other ingredients.  Knead gently and roll out pastry.  Place in pie plate.  Crimp the edges and prick with a fork.  Bake in a moderate oven.

Hints

This pastry is more delicate to work with but makes a lovely shell for a sweet tart such as lemon meringue or caramel.  I have not used it for anything other than tart shells but I am sure it could be.

Here are the finished sausage rolls using savoury shortcrust pastry.  I also made a mushroom and bacon quiche as well as tops for 2 mini beef pies.  These were the circles cut from the pastry in an earlier photo.  I made a double quantity of pastry to do all of this.

Pastry-making is a skill worth having and the results are rewarding.

 

Re-Fried Beans – Let Me Count the Ways

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One of the first recipes I added to the blog was a recipe for making refried beans in a slow-cooker/crockpot.  It is a recipe that came from Mimi on Simple Savings. Here is the recipe.

Crockpot Refried Beans – by Mimi on Simple Savings

2 cups dried red kidney beans
1 cup red lentils
3/4 cup olive oil
6 cups water
1 onion diced
6 cloves of garlic, sprinkled with a touch of oil and roasted for 15 minutes in a moderate oven (more or less according to your love of garlic!)
1 tin peeled tomatoes
1 teaspoon smoky paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1-2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 Bay Leaf

Squeeze the roasted garlic out of it’s papery shell. Chop the peeled tomatoes.

Combine everything in the crock pot, and cook on high for 9 hours (if an old one like mine) or probably on low if yours is a newer model. You can also simmer this on the stove top for 2-3 hours.

Remove the Bay Leaf.

Empty into a food processor and blend until smooth, or mash well with a potato masher.

I love this recipe and use it all the time.  It freezes brilliantly and is really versatile – can be used in nachos, tacos, enchiladas, vegetarian pies as well as some of my original creations.  I hope you like it.

Nachos - ready for oven
A special thank you to Mimi who posted this on the Simple Savings forum 3 years ago.  It has become a staple in our household.

This recipe has become part of our staple diet and it is so versatile and can be used in many different ways.  It is also suitable for freezing so making a big quantity is no problem – I just freeze it in 500g portions.

Last night I cooked up another mix of re-fried beans so I thought I would share some of the possible uses.

Once I have used the stick blender they look like this.

Re-fried beans
Serve as a dip with crackers and vegetable sticks.  Include a dish of salsa or guacamole to complete the Mexican theme.

Make nachos using dollops of bean mixture, salsa and grated cheese between the layers of corn chips.

Bean tacos make a cheap and filling vegetarian option.

Spread on bread, toast or wraps as a tasty base for other fillings.

Use as the base for a Mexican layered dip and serve with corn chips.

Or you can create your own dish and perhaps share your ideas here.

TIP:  The first thing is to give any new creation (whatever it is) a name.  This will give you much more credibility with the family than answering, “Oh, something I made up with what was in the pantry/refrigerator”.

Here is one to get you started.

Mexican Bean Pie

Quantity of refried bean mixture

Cooked rice

Salsa/chilli/Tabasco sauce to taste (optional)

Grated cheese

Dry breadcrumbs

Mix together to get a fairly firm mix.  Press into a loaf tin or pie plate. Top with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake in oven or under the grill until golden brown.

Serve with salad or vegetables.

We had this for dinner tonight served with carrots, broccoli and sliced avocado.  The broccoli and avocado were from our garden.


Inspired

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I have been inspired by reading the series of blog posts this week by Frugal Queen.  They are refresher posts on frugality and Froogs could certainly teach us all a thing or two.  If you do not read this blog it is worth popping in to see what be achieved on very little funds with a bit of creativity.

I have a single bed which was one of the ones my father made over 50 years ago.  However, with Miss O and Belle both needing beds to sleep in when they are here I needed to think laterally.  The single bed is in the room which I use for my sewing room and since I was not prepared to give up the whole room Belle suggested a trundle bed.

I looked on Gumtree on Friday evening and found one advertised not too far from where we live.  We went and collected it yesterday.  $55 for a white tubular steel single bed and trundle in new perfect condition.  We then bought 2 new foam mattresses for $50 each (on special).

Here are the 2 beds made up and ready for use.

2011-07-10 01The top sheet on the trundle is about 20 years old, the last of 2 sets that I had when my girls were young and the blankets on the beds are at least 50 years old.  They were mine when I was was a child and continue to be well-used.

2011-07-10 02Once the trundle bed is rolled away there is plenty of space in the room.  The doona and cover belonged to Missy when she was young.  I made the cover about 15 years ago and it is still as good as the day it was new.

The previous single bed is going to get a new life as a day-bed on the verandah.  I am thinking of making a slip cover for the mattress and also re-fashioning the frame slightly by adding a head and foot board to it.  That will be in another post.

Then there is frugal food.  On Friday I brought home 3 Granny Smith apples from the fruit basket at work as they would only get left there over the weekend and then discarded on  Monday when the new fruit is delivered.

I peeled and sliced them ready to stew.

2011-07-10 03I retrieved some rosella pulp from the freezer.  This was left from when I strained the cordial that I made.

2011-07-10 04Once the apple was stewed I mixed the fruit together and added a crumble topping.

2011-07-10 05So that was dessert.

2011-07-10 06Be sure to check out the blogs I have listed on the sidebar.  There is a wealth of interesting information.  I keep adding more blogs as I stumble upon them.

Organise and Sustain

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Tonight I have been organised by preparing meals to sustain us.  I used 1kg of mince  and made bolognaise sauce which yielded 17 individual serves.  It is now all packed up ready to go in the freezer.  On the weekend I soaked some haricot (navy) beans with a view to making my own baked beans.  Last night I cooked the beans in the slow-cooker and this evening I made up the sauce and added the beans.  They taste great and are so useful to take for lunches.  I made 10 single serves from 2 cups of dried beans.

I will add the recipes one day soon.  In the meantime the freezer is replenished and I know that when we arrive home and don’t feel like cooking too much that I have a choice of easy, nutritious meals at my fingertips.

I made another batch of spreadable butter mixture, too.  As an aside, I cooked risotto for dinner tonight with enough left over for 1 lunch tomorrow.

Tale of Two Bowls

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Did you see the photo of the bowl of rosellas in yesterday’s post?  This is the larger of 2 mixing bowls which I have inherited from my maternal grandmother.  Although I have an assortment of other bowls – glass, ceramic, plastic and metal – none are quite as good as these.  What makes them special?  Is it the weight, the sense of history, the intrinsic link to my grandmother and her kitchen?  I don’t know.

While you are unlikely to ever find me creaming butter and sugar by hand there is a certain pleasure in tucking this bowl on my hip and thoroughly combining the ingredients for a batch of muffins with a wooden spoon.

I have a wonderful Kitchen Aid stand mixer and a Kenwood food processor and they are fantastically useful but I can never imagine myself loving them like I love my mixing bowls.  It is also gratifying to know that I can still create a wonderful array of wholesome food with nothing more sophisticated than a bowl and a wooden spoon.

Apart from the muffins, I also make zucchini quiche, banana cake, muesli slice, tuna patties and tuna roll using nothing more than my bowl and a wooden spoon.  I am sure there are others that I cannot think of at the moment.  What are yours?