Monday, September 23, 2013

Chicken and Camembert Pie

Cooked Chicken
Camembert (as little or as much as you like really, today I am using half a round)
Spring onion
White Sauce (see sausage pie recipe for white sauce "plan")
Frozen Flakey pastry

Make white sauce
Add cooked chicken, chunks of camembert (or brie or whatever cheese you have on hand really, I have just used plain old mild cheese before!!)
Slice SPring onion and add to sauce
Stir gently to mix
Turn out into pie dish or casserole dish
Put one or 2 sheets of frozen flakey pastry

Cook at about 180*C for about 30 or 40 minutes until nicely brown.
I like it best with mashed potato and steamed peas...or mircowaved at least!

Sausage and something with roast veges pie

This is quite the "use up the leftovers" recipe for you!

Ingredients
Left over meat (I have 3 sausages and I am going to find some chicken or maybe something else...or maybe not?)
Left over roast veges (I have left over kumera and pumpkin)
Onions or Spring onions
White or cheese sauce

Pastry

Make white sauce (melt 1 T butter, add a couple of T flour, mix into paste and add a couple of cups of water...not too much or it wont thicken, not too little or it will get thick too fast and turn into a big clump...there must be a proper recipe somewhere out there, but this is how I make it...and it is different every time! - then put in microwave for a couple of minutes, take out and stir, heat again for less time, stir, repeat with less and less time in microwave until it has thickened to your preference!  You can also add some cheese at the end here if you are making a cheese sauce)

Chop or veges and meat into smaller bits, throw into white sauce, if using spring onions, slice them and throw in, if using brown onions,  chop and fry them in a little oil to soften first, then throw them in.

Add salt and pepper and any other herbs or spices to taste, turn out into a casserole dish.

Put a sheet of ready made pastry on top

Bake at 180*C for about 30 or 40 minutes til nicely browned

If I remember, I will photograph this tomorrow night and put the pic up.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Corned Beef...aka Corned Silverside

Ingredients
1.5 kg piece (or there abouts...i usually use smaller...although since coming up with my leftovers recipe I might be inclined to buy a bigger piece and have even more leftovers!!)
1 Onion
10 whole cloves
1 Tbsp Golden syrup or Brown Sugar
A couple of Bay leaves (I often wonder how much difference it would make to the flavour if I didnt put these in!!)
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp Flour
1 tsp Mustard (just use what type you've got, if it is a Hot English one, use a bit less)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Not quite 1/4 C vingear


Turn CrockPot on High
Cut Onion into 6-8 wedges, place on the bottom of crockpot
Tip about 1" water in the bottom
Put Meat on top
Poke cloves into meat and drizzle or sprinkle over golden syrup or brown sugar
Chuck in a couple of Bay leaves
Put lid on and turn to LOW
Cook for 8 hours

Mustard Sauce
When meat is ready, remove from crockpot

In a small microwave safe bowl put sugar and egg and mix together
Add mustard and flour, then stir in about a cup of liquid (if you are wanting to have extra sauce for the leftovers meal, add a little more flour and more liquid, maybe double it...you can add more of the other ingredients too, but i never remember, and it seems to taste fine!)
Add vinegar and heat in microwave till thick (like making a white sauce, you could do it on the stove top too if you prefer....I cant tell you how though...I'm not really a real cook and I like to use the microwave a lot!)

Serve with...whatever you like...but if you are looking for suggestions, I like to serve it with mashed potatoes and peas or another steamed vege or 2, pour sauce over top like a gravy....but make sure you have set aside enough for the leftovers before you serve it out to everyone






Corned Beef Casserole

Does this picture look really disgusting or kind of arty?!?!  I suddenly realised I should take a picture, but I was half way thru eating it!  I have seen this sort of picture in other recipe books!?!?!  No seriously I have!


Ingredients

Left over Corned Beef  (maybe a couple of cups worth)
Left over Mustard Sauce (A little less than a cup probably)
Mashed Potatoes  ( I think i used about 5 potatoes)
Breadcrumbs (half a handfull...just for sprinkling over the top)
Dots of Butter (optional)

Cut Corned Beef into small pieces or shread it or something.  Mix it into the gravy and spread into the bottom of a casserole dish.
Top with Mashed potatoes
Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and if you feel like making it particularly tastey add a few dots of butter across the top (although this will add callories and butter costs money!?!?)

Throw it in the oven at about 180C and cook for 30 - 40 mins until heated through and poatatoes and breadcrumbs are  starting to go golden and then just decide on quite how golden you like it and take it out then!

I like to serve it with some sort of green vege, maybe brocolli or frozen peas again...maybe a salad if you have lettuce you need to use up.  It's already got the potatoe in, so you dont need to bother with the starty vege.

Like the Roast Chicken Casserole  this needs a little bit of forthought.  When you are making your corned beef in the first place, just make a little bit of extra gravy, set aside that and enough meat for an extra meal, before serving it out to the family.


Saturday, June 15, 2013

Roast Chicken Casserole

Ingredients
Left over chicken - could be from the roast or I often use 3 or 4 left over drumsticks
Left over gravy - or if you haven't planned ahead and made extra, then you can just use a pit or something (ideally about 1/2 to 3/4 cup)
Left over stuffing  (ideally a couple of cups worth)


spreead shredded chicken over base of casserole dish
Pour in gravy and mix together
Sprinkle stuffing over the top and bake for 30 mins or until heated thru and possibly a little crunchy on to depending on your style of stuffing.


This recipe is super easy and fast, but to make it budget friendly you need to think ahead.  Plan for this meal in the days or so after having a roast chicken....or freeze the left overs and have it later.  I usually have a roast chicken buying the biggest chicken that is on special and fits my budget.  But I use up all the left over chicken on other meals!  So I freeze the left over stuffing and the left Over gravy.  "left over gravy?" you say "never heard of it!". Yes...it needs to be planned for, for my last roast I just made sure that I made a serious abundance of gravy, you can always just put out a small amount of gravy a save what you need for the other  meal.  For me, I usually find I have a bit of left over stuffing anyway, but I did need to make extra to make sure I would have enough for this meal.

I like to serve it with some roast veges, which I guess could be left overs too...maybe boil a few extra potatoes when you are doing mashed or roast and then freeze them before roasting or mashing them, and chuck them in the oven to roast when nyou do this meal.  And then something even, maybe frozen peas, or even a salad works well.