Little pies

What I would really like is a pasta making machine, I have tried the 'roll~it~out~with~a~rolling~pin'  method but it's a killer on the arms, so I decided to use my dream pasta filling in little pies instead, and they worked out well. 

Shamefully, nothing this time, is home grown or fairly traded with a vegetable growing neighbour. Everything is bought from the supermarket, the local supermarket mind you. 

This recipe makes 4 but I would recommend doubling up and making 8  ~ just for yourself!

This is what you'll need:

2 Artichoke hearts    56p

50g Fresh spinach    50p

10g Cottage cheese   5p

125g Puff pastry      25p

1 Egg                     17p

10g Sesame seeds     8p

Salt & pepper            4p

Total    ~     £1.65

Wash and wilt the spinach. If you bought a big 200g bag put the whole lot in a big frying pan on a low heat for a few minutes turning it over constantly, as soon as it has changed to wilted spinach transfer it to a sieve and run under a cold tap, divide into 4 and squeeze out the water. 

Just use 1 of these spinach balls and put the other 3 in the fridge or freezer for something else,  I just think spinach keeps better this way and takes up less fridge space. Alternatively - buy frozen spinach!

Take 2 artichokes from a tin, rinse under the tap and gently squeezed dry, keep the rest in their juices in a bowl in the fridge. They usually last at least a week.

Pre heat the oven to  180c  gas 4 (or 5 in our slightly rubbish oven)

If you've got a 500g pack of puff pastry then cut off a 1/4 square and roll out on a floured surface until about 2 mm thick,  i.e. as thin as you can.

Then cut 8 circles out, about 9 cm diameter.  Use a pastry cutter if you have one, or a big glass will do. I used a little frying ring which I once bought once to make crumpets with.

Place 4 circles on a baking tray and divide your fillings between them. Leave a 1 cm space around the edge. Season with salt & lots of black pepper!

Beat the egg,  and brush around the edge. Then gently place the other circles over the fillings, you may need to stretch them out a bit to make them fit. Press down around the edge to stick to layers together.

Brush the tops with egg yolk and sprinkle with the sesame seeds, I used my frying ring again for this, to help the seeds stick only to the pie and not go everywhere! 

Make a little hole in the top with a pointy knife,  and bake for 20 ~ 25 minutes or until golden!

  

Cool on a cooking rack.

Cool!

I found these pies incredibly delicious, but they are just a snack or a starter, so I used the rest of the ingredients, plus about 6 thinly sliced par boiled new potatoes, and some chopped dill, and a packet of Mozarella cheese to make this for our dinner.

  

Halloumi, mung bean & slow roast tomato salad

I really love salads! 

And I love Lancasters Wednesday Street Market where I can buy 2 punnets (500g) of little plum tomatoes for £1.20. I bought the leek there too and the mung beans were from the Chinese supermarket, so all cheap except the Halloumi ~ (sorry about that) but very healthy!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

100g Mung beans                   24p 

500g little tomatoes             £1.20

2 x cloves garlic                      10p

1 x leek                                 50p

a few sprigs of thyme              FREE from my garden (which I bought from Wilkos)

1/2 lemon                              30p

1  packet of halloumi           £2.35

some olive oil                         20p

TOTAL                              £4.89

Soak the mung beans in water for half a day or so.

Half the tomatoes and put them in a roasting dish, along with 1/2 tsp salt and some pepper and 1/2 tsp of sugar and the garlic (which I forgot to do!) Roast in the oven, gas 3 / 160c for an hour then leave in the oven to cool.

Slice the leeks and gently fry in olive oil, until soft, avoid burning them!
Rinse the mung beans then bring to the boil in a pan of water and simmer for  20 ~ 25 minutes until soft but not soggy.

 Gently mix the beans, leek and tomatoes together, avoiding mushing the tomatoes along the way. Add the juice of half a lemon and sprinkle with the chopped thyme.

Slice and fry the Halloumi cheese in a large pan with a spoon of oil.  At first water appears to ooze out of the cheese, but this soon disappears and the cheese starts to get it's deliciously salty, crisp crust. You could try marinating it in a bit of lemon juice first - it's can improve to flavour.

Either tear or chop the Halloumi then mix in to the salad or plate up, and arrange fashionable on top before drizzling with olive oil.

And if you make too much salad, and get fed up with having it for lunch every day, you can do this to it!
Fry up 2 veggie sausages, slice and put to one side. Then in the same pan heat up the salad with a few Kalamata olives and 1/4 tin of tomatoes ~ whizzed or sliced. Add the sausages and stir over the heat till hot. Serve with toast and a spoon of Wild Garlic Tapenade!

Rhubarb & Almond Tart

This week I managed to secure myself a Kilo of rhubarb ~ for a bag of wild garlic from my garden!  Our lovely neighbour Alison, co-owns the Lancaster Soup Dragon  (purveyors of the finest vegetarian soup) AND she is brilliant at growing vegetables on her allotment, just up the road ~ I love it round here!

This recipe takes a while as there are 3 components:

Rhubarb compote

Pastry

Frangipane

 :but its worth the effort!

Rhubarb compote (stewed rhubarb!)

400g rhubarb    FREE!

110g sugar    9p

Gently stew for 1/2 an hour or so, or until thickish.

Sweet short pastry

175g Butter       £1.13

1tsp sugar            1p

pinch of salt         1p

1 egg yolk            23p

3 tbsp milk           2p

250g plain flour    15p

Preheat oven ~ gas mark 4 ~ 180c

Mix together the butter and sugar, add the egg yolk, salt & milk. 

In my 'French Brasserie Cookbook' it says mix together by hand ~ I did this although I'm not sure what the point of it is ~ maybe it's just for the pleasure of squishing butter between your fingers.

Then slowly add the flour until just combined, making sure not to overwork it. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.  

Blind bake for 10 minutes.

Almond Frangipane

110g butter                                                                                                        80p

110g light brown sugar                                                                                        30p

2 eggs & the egg white left over from the pastry                                                    46p

110g ground almonds                                                                                      £1.10

25g plain flour                                                                                                      2p

1 tsp baking powder                                                                                              1p

zest of 1 lemon                                                                                                   25p

pinch of salt (which I forgot to add!)                                                                       1p

25g flaked toasted almonds ~ to be added 5 minutes before the end of baking.         29p

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, beat in the eggs, then fold in the rest of the ingredients to make the frangipane.

Assemble ~ I used 250g of the rhubarb compote and spread it over the pastry base. Then carefully spooned the frangipane over the top, making sure the to cover all the rhubarb evenly.

Bake for 25 minutes, remember to sprinkle the toasted almonds on top after about 20 minutes of baking.

When the tart is cool trim the excess pastry.

Unlike the finest tarts on Master Chef, this one did end up with a soggy base, maybe if you used a loose~base tin you could cool it on a wire rack ~ which may help. 

Total  £4.88 ~ not cheap but you do end up with a delicious cake that could feed 12! 

Or 6 people who like huge slices!

Wild garlic tapenade

Wild garlic tapenade

    We moved house last November, and although we spent our last pennies on the leaky roof, boiler and  re-wiring, it's still quite crumbly and desperately needs painting/plastering/over hauling. 

But for the moment I'm calling the decor 'vintage' and the house a 'restoration project',  so I can just ignore it while I make this blog and create Fern & Olives catering menus! 

     Anyway, to the garden which I plan to fill with herbs and some easy to grow edible things,  but at this moment in time is full to the brim with wild garlic. This is a very exciting surprise and a massive bonus! If you fancy collecting some from the woods ~  Read all about it here. 

This is what I've made so far:

Wild garlic potato farls

and...     

Wild garlic, feta, olive & pink peppercorn salad

              

     Todays recipe however is neither of these. It's for Wild garlic tapenade which is delicious and very useful for making into even more food!

60g / 2oz Wild garlic / Ramsoms       FREE

juice of 1/2 a lemon                            15p

40g walnuts                                       50p

1tsp capers                                        10p

1tsp caper vinegar from the jar            5p

7 dtsp of olive oil                                8p

1/2 tsp brown sugar                           3p

1/2 tsp salt                                        3p 

total                                                  91p

(to be honest I have just made up the prices for sugar, salt & oil if anything I think 3p is too much!) 

     Hopefully you have a blender or food processor or pestle & mortar, otherwise just a lot of fine chopping will work well,  you'll end a slightly crunchier version but equally tasty. 

So thats it, and when the wild garlic runs out you could try using other lovely leaves like water cress or rocket. But until then - here are some tasty things you can make with tapenade.

Cheddar & wild garlic tapenade, toasted sour dough sandwich. 

Wild garlic and smoked chedder pinwheel bread.

Coriander Chutney & Oat Pancakes

This recipe is so amazingly easy and delicious, and apart from frying the pancake, there's noooo cooking AND it's delicious, warming, filling and healthy!
I used to make this coriander chutney back in the Fat Olive Cafe days, you need to bear in mind this makes a jar full that lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge, and you can add it to all sorts of dishes like noodles, soups and sandwiches (and pancakes!) to make them very, very tasty.
I think I got the recipe from a Nigella cookbook.
The Fat Olive Cafe, in case you're interested, was my little cafe that I owned at the back of the Assembly Rooms. It was a happy and popular place and we sold lovely veggie food and delicious cakes, but I couldn't fathom out how to work 6 days a week and have kids, so I sold it, and now that Vince is 6, I miss it!
Anyway back to the Coriander Chutney, you will need:

100g Corriander              £1.25
1& 1/2 limes                    45p
50g ginger                       20p
1 clove garlic                    10p
1 little chilli                     10p
100g creamed coconut     30p
150ml hot water
salt & pepper
1 tsp brown sugar

 Total                           £2.40

Making is just a case of mixing all these ingredients in a blender, or finely chop everything and blend in a bowl.

Wash the coriander and and chuck away (compost!) the chunkier stalks. Peel and chop the ginger and garlic. De-seed and chop the chilli and squeeze in the lime juice.

Melt the creamed coconut in the hot water and add, along with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of brown sugar. Wizz, mix or stir. Then refrigerate.

The Pancakes

These pancakes are a mix of two recipes, one for Staffordshire Oatcakes and one from my friend Brenda who pointed me to Revolution from Home. They also make a really nice breakfast, topped with fruit and yoghurt or jam. Or wrapped around a tasty salad and cheese for lunch!  

I used 50g ground oats and 50g spelt flour but you can use either. This makes enough for 4 or 5  pancakes. Using oats and plain yoghurt does makes them even cheaper!

For the Oaty pancakes:

100g of ground oats/ spelt flour         10p
cold water
1 egg                                              30p
1 tsp bi-carb or baking powder           3p
pinch of salt
1-2 dtsp of yoghurt of almond milk    10p
butter or oil for frying                        3p

Total                                              56p

Mix the oats and spelt in a bowl and pour over just enough cold water to cover them, leave them to soak overnight.  (I ground some rolled oats in the blender, but you can buy them already ground.)

In the morning add the egg, bi-carb & salt and enough almond milk or yoghurt, (which ever you prefer) to make a pancake/drop scone kind of consistency - dollopy!

Fry over a medium heat, flip over when a few bubble holes start to appear, they don't take long!

Top with the coriander chutney while still hot and devour. 

Valentine Macaroons

With valentines day coming up,  I came up with another brilliant money making scheme, to make beautiful macaroons like the ones in the magazines with hearts embossed onto their almondy crusts.

Unfortunately  the first batch was a complete flop as adding the food colouring made all the egg white bubbles disappear and I was left with a big sticky pink sheet of goo.

Not to worry, it wasn't wasted though - I bought some frozen fruits and a pot of double cream and some chocolate and made an Comprehensive Mess (sometimes known as Eton Mess).

I discovered later that I should have used gel food colourings - which don't appear to contain gelatin, so are vegetarian.

Anyway these are the ones I made which look nothing like the ones in the French patisseries and I will be giving them away rather than trying to sell them.

For the ganache filling:

(this makes quite a lot, so you could half the quantities - of just eat the rest)

275g white chocolate
250ml double cream
50g butter
1-2 tsp  food colouring

Melt the chocolate in a bowl in a pan of water on a low heat. in another pan heat the cream - gently stir and do not boil. Add the cream to the melted choc. Turn off the heat. Add the butter in chunks stirring until melted. Add the food colouring, mix well then leave to cool.

For the macaroons: (coming soon!)

125g ground almonds
25g cocoa powder
250g icing sugar
3 - 4 large eggs - separated
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the hearts:
1 egg white
3 desertpoons icing sugar

Pre heat oven to gas 9 / 240c / 475f

Line your baking trays with grease proof paper, and get your piping bags ready.

I haven't used a piping bag since I was a kid so I bought myself a selection. I used a big nozzle for the macaroons and a little one to pipe on the hearts.

Mix the ground almonds and the cocoa and most of the icing sugar, leaving a couple of spoonfulls for the egg whites.

You need to then weigh out 100g of the egg white, you can use a broken eggshell to scoop out the excess.

Whisk the egg whites until fluffy then add the rest of the icing sugar, and whisk some more. Then fold in the dry ingredients and leave to stand for 10 mins.

Stir in the vanilla (er... which I forgot to do!) this will deflate the mixture a little, stopping too much cracking on the tops when cooking.

Put the mixture in the piping bag and pipe little blobs about 4cm diameter, not too close together.
When I made these the first time I just used spoons - too be honest I find the whole piping bag thing a complicated mess - and spoons seem to work just as well.

Bake in the top of the oven for 1 minute then reduce the temperature to 180c / 350f / gas 4,  and cook for a further 10 - 12 mins.

A few minutes after the macaroons are out of the oven drop a small amount of water from the kettle underneath the baking paper, this causes steam and helps remove the macaroons easily. cool them on a wire rack.

To finish, sandwich two together with the Ganache and serve / scoff .