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Thai Pies June 16, 2018

Filed under: Chicken,Favourites,Tarts & Pies,Uncategorized — delishuss @ 6:29 am
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This is  take on Donna Hay’s Red Curry Pork Pies from her Season’s Cookbook. I was looking for a nice recipe for a picnic in the lovely Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane. Donna’s recipe uses pork; I swapped it out for chicken thigh meat and I’ve added some veggies to bulk them up.

I told my partner that I was making pies, I think he was slightly disappointed when he realised that they weren’t steak and kidney. He was won over when he actually tasted them. They are banging with flavour and just that little bit different.

Utensils: You’ll need 2 round pastry cutters, 1 slightly smaller than the other for the top and the bottom of the pies. A metal pastry muffin tin. I had neither of these so I had to improvise. They were a bit rugged looking but the flavour certainly wasn’t compromised.

Makes 12 pies

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

1 large brown onion, peeled and diced

1.2 kg chicken thigh fillets, chopped into bite sized chunks

2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 red pepper, finely diced

1 yellow pepper, finely diced

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup coconut cream

1 cup chicken stock

5 x 200g sheets store-bought shortcrust pastry, thawed

1 egg, lightly beaten

Oil spray for greasing the pastry tin.

 

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
  2. Heat a large saucepan over a high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add in the peppers and fry for a further 5 minutes until they are starting to become soft.
  3. Remove the vegetables from the saucepan and set aside temporarily while you brown the meat.
  4. Add the remaining oil to the pan, allow to heat and then add the meat and cook until brown. Stir in the curry paste and cook off for a minute or 2.
  5. Re-add the veggies. Add the coconut milk, the coconut cream and the stock to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened. You don’t want it to be too runny or you’ll get a soggy bottom for your pies and no one likes a soggy bottom.
  6. Set the sauce aside while you prepare your pastry.
  7. Cut out 12 of the larger pastry rounds and 12 of the smaller pastry rounds. You can get artistic or get the kids involved and make some leaves for the top of the pies with the leftover pastry.
  8. Grease the pastry tin. Line the holes with the larger pastry rounds.
  9. Spoon in the filling. Don’t overfill or the sauce will ooze out while baking.
  10. With a pastry brush, brush the egg around the edges of the pastry round.
  11. Add on the top pastry round and brush with the remaining egg.
  12. Place in the oven and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown on top.
  13. These are good eaten hot or cold. I just had a thought, they’d be delishuss with a mango chutney.

 

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Easy Peasy Pav with Passion Fruit Cream February 5, 2017

Filed under: Cakes,Desserts,Tarts & Pies — delishuss @ 8:46 am
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I’ve attempted making pavlova in the past with lots of failure. I found this recipe in the Taste magazine. It’s one of Matt Preston’s. His recipes are always straight forward and tasty so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s pretty fool proof. I’ve tried it twice now and it’s worked both times. I’ve altered the topping recipe but the base ingredients are the same. You can add whatever soft fruit you like. It’s best to make the pav the night before.

Ingredients

6 egg whites

315g caster sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used essence the first time around and it wasn’t very nice, so I’d go for the extract or leave it out)

300g thickened cream

3 large passion fruit

3 tblsp icing sugar

1 mango, diced

75g raspberries

75g quartered strawberries

75g blueberries

1 kiwi, chopped

 

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, 130 degrees Celsius for fan assisted. Draw a 22cm circle on a sheet of baking paper. Place the paper on a baking tray.
  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks using an electric beater. Add the cream of tartar. Add one tablespoon of sugar at a time and beat until the sugar is dissolved in the egg whites. It’s worth taking your time to mix it in properly; I think that’s where I have slipped up in the past.
  3. Beat in the vanilla extract. Your egg whites should now be glossy and stiff.
  4. Spoon some of the mixture onto the baking paper and spread it out in the shape of the circle using a spatula. Do this repeatedly until all the mixture is on the baking paper. Try and get some height as it looks better and it collapses a little when cooked. Also, put a dip in the middle as this will be for your topping.
  5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 110 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees fan forced. Cook for a further hour and 20 mins. The meringue should be crisp and dry.
  6. Turn off the oven and leave the meringue in the oven overnight.
  7.  Scoop out the passion fruit pulp from the fruit into a bowl.
  8. In a separate bowl add the cream and sieve in the icing sugar. Stir in half of the passion fruit pulp.
  9. Spread the cream mixture over the meringue base.
  10. Sprinkle over the remaining passion fruit pulp and scatter over the fruit.

 

 

Avocado, Cheese and Salsa Puffs May 25, 2014

Filed under: Mexican,Starters,Tarts & Pies,Uncategorized — delishuss @ 9:54 am
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I was looking for a Mexican starter recipe for my friend’s dinner party and came across these on: http://www.averiecooks.com. I cooked them the evening before the party as I knew I wouldn’t have time to prepare them that evening.  You can just pop them in the microwave for a minute or two to heat them up but they are best served straight out of the oven. They tasted really good but I think if I was making them again I would make them with a cheese that melts and goes stringy. Also I used a salsa that had chipotle and black bean flavours and it competed with the flavour of the cream cheese, but would probably work better with a less flavoursome cheese. I’m not the best at baking but these are so simple and require very little technique but the finish product looks impressive.

Ingredients

Makes 18 puffs

2 ripe avocados, mashed (1 tablespoon per puff)

1/3 cup cream cheese or manchego (1 teaspoon per puff)

1/3 cup salsa (1 teaspoon per puff)

3 sheets puff pastry (thawed as per the packet instructions if frozen)

1 egg beaten for glazing

Salt & pepper

 

Method

1. I made these in batches as I only had one baking tray but you can add multiple trays at a time if you wish. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add a sheet of baking paper to the tray (s) and spray them with cooking spray to prevent the puffs sticking.

2. Flour your work-top and place your sheet of pastry on top. The original recipe said to roll it out as thinly as possible. I didn’t bother. Flour a sharp knife (stops the pastry sticking) and cut the sheet into 9 squares. you will use 6 squares for the first batch and then the remainder with the next batches.

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3. Spoon a tablespoon of avocado, a teaspoon of salsa and a teaspoon of cheese on a square of pastry.

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4. Top with another square of pastry.

 

20140519_2034135. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal the puffs.

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6. Repeat this process with the remainder of the pastry and filling ingredients. Place the finished pastries on the baking tray.

7.  Brush the pastries with the egg mixture and place in the oven.

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8. Cook the puffs for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and puffed up. Check them 10 minutes into the cooking time just to make sure that they are not cooking faster than the mentioned time.

9. Remove from the oven and serve.  I served 2 puffs per person.

Me

 

 

Crustless Quiche November 18, 2013

Filed under: Tarts & Pies — delishuss @ 10:59 am
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The plan was for my team to bring in a dish each to work for our team meeting. I had a look around on the web for a recipe and came across this (www.foodnetwork.com). What appealed to me was the fact that I didn’t have to make pastry. It actually took me so long to make the base that it would have been quicker to make the pastry. I’m going to blame my tools for that. I was using a tiny little food processor and blunted the blade over time. Time to upgrade I think. I ended up tearing small pieces of the sourdough bread. It didn’t affect the final product, which I was delighted with. The dish turned out great and was very well received at work.

Ingredients

680g courgettes or a mixture of summer squashes

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 handfuls 1-inch, day-old bread cubes, preferably sourdough

1 medium white onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram or oregano

480ml single cream

Salt to taste

2 large eggs

2 egg yolks

Freshly ground black pepper

170g young goat’s cheese, such as Montrachet.

55g grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
  2. Shred the squash/courgette on the large holes of a box grater, into a colander. Sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon salt and toss well. Place in the sink and drain for 15 minutes. Rinse and squeeze firmly. By the handful, to remove excess water. Set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, pulse bread into crumbs in a food processor. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add bread crumbs and stir until evenly toasted, about 5 minutes.
  4. Evenly spread breadcrumbs in a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie pan. Place pan on a baking sheet.
  5. Wipe out the pan, add remaining 2 tablespoons oil, the onions and garlic and season with ½ teaspoon salt, cover over medium high heat, until onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Stir in the herbs.
  6. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
  7. Whisk the eggs and add the cream little by little.  Season with salt and pepper.
  8. Spread the courgette mixture in the prepared pie pan. Crumble the goat cheese and evenly scatter on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle Gruyere on top and pour the custard over the fillings.
  9. Bake until the quiche is just set in the centre, about 40-50 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

 

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Tomato, Mozzarella and Parma Ham Tart January 3, 2011

Filed under: Favourites,Tarts & Pies — delishuss @ 10:06 pm
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This is an adaptation of a recipe I saw advertised for Jus-Rol Pastry. It’s very easy to make, if you can slice things up and smear sauce on stuff, then you will well and truly master this. If you were having a few people over this takes no time at all and it looks impressive.

Ingredients

1 sheet of Jus-Rol puff pastry

50 ml of pizza-sauce

1 1/2 balls of mozzarella cheese, sliced

2 on the vine tomatoes, sliced

3 slices of parma ham, halved

handful of basil leaves

Olive oil for greasing baking tray

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees celsius, gas mark 7.
  2. Grease the baking tray with the olive oil.
  3. Roll the pastry out onto the baking tray.
  4. Smear the pizza sauce with a knife but leave about 5 cm of an edge.
  5. Starting on the left side of the pastry, place a slice of tomato, then a slice of mozzarella, and finally a roughly rolled up piece of ham on the sauce.  Repeat this sequence. You should get about three rows.
  6. Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
  7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with basil leaves.

Serve with some roasted vegetables and side salad.