Chicken and Mushroom Pie

serves 4-5

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

1/2 a medium onion

250g mushrooms

1/2 cup sweetcorn 

1tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp plain flour

1/2 cup milk

salt and freshly ground pepper

For the shortcrust pastry:

1 cup plain flour

3 oz margarine

pinch salt

cold water

Method
1) First make the pastry.  Mix the flour and the margarine into 'breadcrumbs' and add the salt.  (It is easiest to do this in a food processer.)  Add enough cold water to bind into a ball of dough.  Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour, or make in advance and keep for up to 3 days.
2)  Chop the mushrooms and onions and fry in  the vegetable oil until cooked and lightly browned.  Add the sweetcorn and fry briefly.  Remove to a plate.
3) Fry the chicken chunks until lightly browned on all sides, but not cooked all the way through.  Add more oil if needed.
4) Sprinkle the flour into the pan with the chicken, add the seasoning, and fry briefly.
5) Put chicken and vegetables into a shallow oven-proof dish, and pour over the milk.
6) Now roll out the pastry to the size and shape of the oven-proof dish.  Place over the top of the chicken mixture and press round the edges to seal.  Cut three slashes in the middle of the pie to allow steam to escape.
7) Bake in a 160C oven for around half an hour, or until pastry is lightly browned.  Serve immediately.

Day 51: Making Good Use of the Oven

This has been a day of triumphant cooking!

Recipes are posted below and above, all very suitably frugal.  But the important thing about this evening's cookery is that I managed to plan things so as to make very good use of the oven. 

The menu was intended to be as follows:

Boston Baked Beans

Oven Chips (fries)
Falafel

Quiche

Focaccia 

Ginger biscuits

Roasted tomatoes

slightly blurred Boston Baked Beans
with foccacia and a sprinkling
of grated cheese.

The Baked Beans were made in the slow cooker, having been soaked all night and cooked for 8 hours on Low from morning through to evening.  This in itself is a massive oven saving: just imagine running the thing for the same length of time!  Oh, and they were amazingly delicious, btw - though with that much bacon, one could hardly go wrong.

The Oven Chips saga began two days ago.  Rather than boiling just enough potatoes for one serving, I stuck five large ones in the pan (unpeeled), and cooked the lot.  One I ate that night, but the other four I stored in the fridge.  So tonight I cut one into wedges, put them on an oiled baking tray, sprayed them with vegetable oil and a dash of Cajun seasoning, and baked for about 20 minutes until they were crisp and brown and lovely.  

The oven chips cooked on a baking tray alongside the falafel, which had been made a couple of days before from the same batch of chickpeas which made the hummus.  These too had been frozen for a few days till I was ready to use them.

The remaining three potatoes I also cut into wedges, spread them out on a baking tray, and froze them for half an hour until solid.  Then I removed them from the tray and put them in a plastic bag, and now I have frozen oven chips in my freezer, all ready to go.

Remember the left-over pastry from the large quiche?  I had lined three ramekins with it, and frozen them.  Now I mixed up two eggs and some milk, popped a piece of frozen cooked broccoli and some feta cheese in each one, poured over the egg mixture, and baked in the bottom of the oven.  Thus was the oven full of chips, falafel, and the little quiches, all of which took about 20-25 minutes to bake at 200C.  (Admittedly, the chips were a bit overdone!)  One of the quiches has gone into the fridge for tomorrow's lunch; the other two are back in the freezer.

Previously in the afternoon, I made the foccacia dough and left it to rise.  I am a bit nervous of making yeast bread, usually preferring to stick to soda bread, but my little sister makes an amazing foccacia, so I thought it was worth a go.  The result is pretty good for a first attempt, although a little harder than I would have liked it.  It was intended to bake this along with a batch of ginger biscuits, 25 in total - but my sister phoned, and they never got made.  So half the oven was, alas, unused.

Then finally, I followed the suggestion of Friend Sharon on Day 41, where she says this:

If you have some supermarket basic tomatoes and want to make them into something gorgeous - cut them in half, place in an oven tray cut side up, sprinkle with salt, a touch of sugar and some dried (or fresh) thyme. A little drizzle of olive oil helps things along. Preheat the oven as hot as it will go...if being really frugal make these after something where you've had the oven on anyway...then put them in and turn off the oven. Leave for about 8 hours or overnight. (This is taken from Nigella's Express book...called moonblush tomatoes...but she uses expensive vine toms to start with). Great in salads, on toast, baked potatoes, chopped and through pasta...just sooooo nice.

So as you can see, all this was something of a complex operation, easily upset by an unplanned (though very pleasant) phonecall.  But in the event, it all worked out well, even if I was a bit hot and tired afterwards.  The oven is a terrible user of fuel, so I have come to a resolution that I will never just use it for one thing.  That meant a little forward planning, but despite appearances, I didn't actually run it like a military operation: I just cooked a bit extra wherever I could and froze it; then on the day looked to see what I had.  So I am all stocked up on main meals the next few days.  Maybe weeks!

Tomorrow, I will be blogging about indigestion.

Broccoli and Feta Quiche

serves 6

The pastry base, uncooked

For the Pastry

2 cups plain flour

4 oz margarine

2 tsp dried mixed herbs (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup milk

1) Add the flour, the margarine, the herbs, and the salt to the food processor and whizz to make 'breadcrumbs'.
2) Gradually pour in the milk, whizzing all the time, until a ball of dough forms in the food processor.  This should not be too sticky: if it is, add some more flour.
3) Remove from the food processor, knead very briefly, then place in a plastic bag or wrap tightly in clingfilm.  Place in the fridge and allow to 'rest' for about half an hour.
4) Remove from fridge, and roll out thinly (about 3 mm).  Line an 8 inch quiche dish, and trim the edges.  (There is no need to prick the base.)

Preheat the oven to 220C (200C for fan oven).

The Final Result!

For the Filling

7 medium eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp finely ground white pepper

1 small head of broccoli, cooked

100g feta cheese

1) Beat the eggs with a fork.  Add the milk, salt, and pepper, and beat well.
2) Break the broccoli into small florets, and arrange on the pastry.  Pour over the egg mixture.
3) Cut the feta cheese into 1cm cubes, and sprinkle over the quiche.
 4) Place in oven, and cook at 220C (200C) for 10 minutes.  Then turn down the oven to 180C (160C), and cook for a further 25 minutes until browned.  Remove and serve immediately, or allow to cool.

Notes

Shortcrust pastry is really easy to make, especially if you use a food processor, which is the method described here.  Alternatively, do it by hand.  The pastry can be made well in advance, and rested in the fridge for anything from half an hour to a couple of days.  (Resting stops the pastry shrinking away from the sides of the dish, and makes it easier to handle.)  Or it can even be rolled out, used to line the quiche dish, and then covered and frozen until you are ready to use it: just add the egg mixture and cook straight from frozen.

There will always be pastry trimmings left over - I used these to line some ramekin dishes, which I have frozen as they are, uncooked.  Then, when I am next using the oven, I can add another beaten egg, etc, to each one and cook straight from frozen. 

The first secret of this quiche is to add more milk than seems intuitive.  This makes more of a soft custard, which sets very flat instead of puffing up.  (And is also more economical, making the eggs go further.)  

The second secret is in the baking.  The first 10 minute blast at 220C cooks the pastry base so that it doesn't go soggy.  This means you don't have to bake blind the pastry, which can be a complicated business.  Then the lower temperature of 180C gently sets the egg.

The filling here is a lovely one - baking makes the feta cheese go all soft and creamy, without actually melting.  I have also gone fancier with this in the past, spreading tomato puree on the base of the pastry and then adding a layer of cooked spinach before pouring on the egg.  But of course, all sorts of other fillings can be used.  The bacon bits, if you fry them first, will make for a classic Quiche Lorraine.  Or fry an onion, add grated cheddar cheese, and then sprinkle some dried mixed herbs on the top.  Voila!  Cheese and Onion Quiche.

This freezes really well, and makes for a good packed lunch.

Frugal Bolognaise

Serves 6-8

Ingredients  

1lb (500g) minced beef

50g bacon bits (optional)

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 medium courgette (zucchini), grated

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 tsp dried mixed herbs

salt and freshly ground pepper

Quick Prepare Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Combine all the raw ingredients in a large bowl.  Get your hand in there and squeeze them all together!

Place in a casserole dish, cover, and put in the oven.  Cook at 180C for half an hour, then turn down to 140C and cook slowly for another couple of hours.  

Remove and serve on rice or pasta.

Alternatively, use the slow cooker and cook on Low for about 4 hours.

Quick Cook Method

1) Using a large frying pan or ovenproof pot, fry off the bacon (if using), the onion, and the courgette until soft.  Use a little oil or bacon fat (the bacon bits might provide enough).  This will take around 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, and fry for another 2 minutes.  Remove from pan.

2) In the same pan, fry the minced beef until browned.

3) Return vegetables to the pan and stir in the tomatoes, the puree, the herbs, and the seasoning.  Simmer for around 20 minutes to reduce and thicken the tomato liquid.  Serve over pasta or rice.

Frugal Notes
The first rule of frugality is track down some cheapish minced beef.  It doesn't have to be top quality Steak Mince.  But at the same time, you don't want to go too cheap. (I have dark memories of the bag of frozen mince I bought once as a young student.  You had to pick the wee tubes out of it.)  But even so, minced beef is one of the cheaper meat options, if you compare it to a pork chop or a chicken breast.  What's more, you can bulk it out to make it go a whole lot further.  Lidl does a good quality Scottish Beef Mince, and other supermarkets and butchers may have their own decent offers. 

Yum!

The other thing to look out for is some cheap cans of tomatoes.  Supermarket own brands are usually very cheap, if you aren't too fussed about the organic thing.  (I have seen them as low as 9p, though they all seem to be 33p now.)  Oddly enough, the chopped tomatoes are often more expensive.  As a young student, I learned to buy a can of Whole Plum Tomatoes, open it, and then swirl a knife around the can to produce the desired chopped effect!  However, in this case, I didn't use a can, because I had three over-ripe large tomatoes to use up.  I just chopped them roughly and put them all in, skin and seeds too.


A courgette (zucchini) is a marvellous thing for bulking out minced beef, as well as adding nutrition.  It grates easily by hand.  I am not fond of big chunks of courgette, but I can eat this recipe absolutely fine.  I have also served this to courgette-hating children, and they didn't even know they were eating it.  And of course, you can add all sorts of other vegetables.  Red peppers and mushrooms work particularly well.

Another way of making the meat go even further would be to prepare some dried kidney beans (follow the packet instructions precisely, or these can be poisonous), and turn the whole into a chilli with the addition of some dried chilli flakes or tabasco sauce.  This can be done on the second day of serving to ring the changes.

Lastly, a bolognaise can be made to go very far indeed, depending on how you use it.  Serve it like the Italians do: not piled up on top of your spaghetti, but stirred through.  Alternatively, stir some bolognaise sauce through some cooked penne pasta, place in a casserole dish, and top with a little grated cheese and some dried mixed herbs.  This can then be grilled for 3-5 minutes, or put in the oven for about 20 minutes.  This can be done with only a couple of tablespoons of the sauce, so that it goes absolutely miles.  It also freezes well.

Day 21: Fun with Falafel!

The Falafel worked!  Yes it did!  It worked, and was delicious, and very very cheap!  I also have about 3 meals' supply left over.

So basking in my triumph, I am going to do nothing else today but post my recipe.  It is an adaptation of one that you can find here: Falafel Recipe - which is far more authentic, of course.  But mine suited me, and was also much lower in fat.

So here you are:

Falafel     (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1 cup dried chickpeas

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp cumin

2 tbsp flour

salt and pepper

olive oil (preferably in a spray bottle)

Method
1)  Soak chickpeas overnight in plenty of water.  Drain, add fresh water, and bring to the boil for about 5 minutes.  Reduce heat, and simmer for at least one hour.  (I used my slow cooker.)  Drain, and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. (3 days in my case!)

2) Roughly chop the onion and garlic, and add to the food processor with the chickpeas, cumin, flour, and and seasoning.  Whizz until the mixture forms a rough dry paste, and can be shaped with the hands.  (I had to do this in a couple of batches.)

3) Turn on the oven and preheat to 200 degrees celcius.  Spray the oil on a large baking tray.

4) With your hands, shape the mixture into balls around an inch in diameter, and space evenly on the baking tray.  The mixture makes about 24 balls. Or make them into burger shapes to use as vegeburgers.  Spray all the falafel balls with oil, and bake for half an hour until crisp on the outside and lightly browned.

Serve in pitta breads with lettuce, tomato, baba ghanoush, hummus, and/or thick natural yoghurt.  (Add some chopped mint leaves to the yoghurt, if desired.)  You could also shred some savoy cabbage instead of the lettuce!

Today's Expenditure: 70p