Category Archives: Vegetables

Potato and Onion Tart with Walnut Parmesan topping

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Dinner, Pies, Vegetables, Walnuts

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What to cook? It’s Sunday night. Don’t feel like meat, but know that Mr MWCED will want something a little substantial after soup last night. I settled on this tart because we had the ingredients and I found one recipe that suggested a walnut and parmesan topping, which is perfect because we have a new round of walnuts and will need to start using them. Ok so I cheated and used prepared pastry, you could make your own of course.

This will make four tarts, we ate 2 and can freeze the other 2. As no-one else is going to say it I will have to, “they were delicious”. I could have cut into another – but held back – after all I need to make sure there is something in the freezer for Mr MWCED when I go tripping off to Brisbane next weekend.

This makes 4 pies.

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1-1/4 sheet ready rolled shortcrust pastry sheet
3 onions finely sliced, sweat in 20g butter
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
3 small potatoes finely sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped spinach
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves finely chopped
salt and cracked black pepper
20g finely grated parmesan
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/4 cup sour cream you could use cream, but we never buy cream so this was what we had in the fridge
50g walnuts
1/4 cup grated parmesan

1. Put walnuts onto an oven tray and bake at around 180 Celsius for around 10 minutes. Take out of oven and cool. Blitz in the food processor, or finely chop and add parmesan. Set aside.
2. Prepare pastry – put into pie molds and place in fridge for around 20 minutes.
3. Heat butter in pan and sweat onions for around 15 minutes. Add brown sugar. Add potatoes and cook for another 15 minutes – until potatoes are soft – this will depend on how thin you slice them! Also add thyme at this point and salt and pepper to taste. Once the onions and potatoes have carmalised then take from heat and cool.
4. Break eggs and add to bowl with sour cream and parmesan. Mix until well combined.
5. Take pie molds out of fridge. Add spinach to bottom of pies, then fill with potato and onion mix.
6. Fill carefully with the egg and sour cream mix, try not to get liquid on outside of pastry (but don’t fret too much if a little liquid goes outside of the pastry – just not too much – otherwise the pastry won’t become nice and crusty)
7. Top with the walnut and parmesan mix.
8. Place in oven and cook until pastry and topping is crisp and egg mixture is no longer runny. Can be between 15 and 30 minutes – depending on your oven.
9. Carefully take out of molds and serve with a crisp green salad.

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Yowzer, these were Very Delicious. I think they are a Winner. And they might just get me out of Jail while I swan around in Brisbane next week and Mr MWCED has to stay at home.

Pasta e Fagioli Soup with Focaccia

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Dinner, Pasta, Soup, Vegetables

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It must be the colder weather.   I just knew that what I wanted to eat needed to be soup, needed to be pasta, and needed some freshly baked bread.  What I didn’t know was what it was called.  So my apologies to any purists out there – this version was created and then I realised nothing is ever really created (well, ignoring the amazing items that come from Heston) and found that Italy has the name for my pot of bubbling goodness.

tiny little pieces of pasta just waiting to be souped

tiny little pieces of pasta just waiting to be souped


Enough for 3 or 4 people, or 2 really hungry ones:

3 tbs olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped, or fewer or more, up to your taste
1 carrot diced
4 slices bacon finely chopped
1x400g can diced tomatoes opened
handful parsley chopped – I also had some basil that I chopped with the parsley – use whatever herbs you have on hand (or dried ones if your garden is bare
about 1 litre chicken stock yup, I cheated, and used the little pots of stock that you add water to. They are probably one step up from stock powder, but hey I’m not saying this is gourmet
150g soup pasta to be perfectly honest I would use any pasta shapes I had at home, just happened to have ‘soup pasta’. They are tiny little shapes of pasta that work well for soup.>
1 x 400g can cannellini beans opened and drained – you could be Very Organised and cook up your own, but this dinner is all about speed – after all it’s Saturday night and we have to watch the rugby
parmesan grated – as much or as little as you like – Mr MWCED likes his on the side so not much went into the soup – I grated about ½ cup and it all got used
Pesto to taste, about a teaspoon
salt&Pepper to taste – will depend how salty your stock is – I always grind a fair whack of pepper into my sauces and soups
  • Heat pan with a tablespoon of oil and brown off the bacon. Once this is cooked put aside.
  • Clean out pan and add rest of olive oil. Heat and add onion, let sweat a few minutes then add garlic and carrot.   Cook for around 5 minutes or so, then add tomatoes and half of the parsley. Cook for about 10 minutes.
  • Add half the stock and then pasta.   Stir continuously for around 6-8 minutes until pasta is soft. Add more stock as needed. Soup should be quick thick.
  • Add cannellini beans, a bit more parsley, the bacon and heat through. At this stage add parmesan and maybe a bit of pesto if you like.  Check taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.

This is a recipe that can be adapted however which way. Add more /different vegetables, experiment with herbs, use different pasta, add some chopped Italian sausage, just have fun.   And, more importantly, eat some delicious soup!

Italian Pasta and Bean soup

Because I had been thinking of soup most of the afternoon (I was cold therefore I needed to think warm things),  I was able to be ultra-efficient and get some ingredients into the breadmaker in preparation for dinner (usually I far from ultra or efficient!).   My Focaccia recipe came from a much used bread recipe book (Alison Holst’s Bread Book). Once the breadmaker had finished the dough cycle,  I then kneaded it for about 10 minutes – you know, until that time that the dough feels smooth and doesn’t need extra flour, doesn’t stick to your hands, and makes you feel kind of dreamy and proud of your domestic skills.   Roll into a rectangle, around 20cm x 30cm, place on an oven tray (I line it with baking paper) and put in a warm place for around an hour (my warm place was the oven which had been previously warmed and then turned off).   After an hour the dough should have doubled in size.  Turn oven to 225 Celsius.   Poke the loaf with your fingers to create holes over the surface.  Brush over oil and or whatever toppings you wish.  i had some homemade pesto which I mixed with a little olive oil and spread that over the bread then finished off with sprinkling Maldon salt.    Bake for around 15 minutes, until golden brown top and bottom and you Just Have To Take It Out Of The Oven And Feel Great Satisfaction.

Go on, you can do it!

Go on, you can do it!

 

Chicken Thighs – yet another….

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in chicken, Dinner, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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Ok so I must ‘fess up.  We eat a lot of chicken thighs in the MWCED household.  Preferably boneless and skinless, though sometimes a bit of bone and skin is ok.   The problem with skinless is that you just don’t get that lovely colouring – but better that than far too many calories I figure.   You can see what I mean with the picture from last night’s dinner.  The meal was very  yummy,  but doesn’t win any prizes for looks.   Still,  if you want a tasty, quick and flavoursome dinner, this is one to keep going back to.   Surprisingly there is no garlic in this recipe, yowser, what was I thinking!

As for the veges,  I felt like potatoes.  And we had some beans – a bit different from courgettes 100 ways – due to them being in season and in our garden.    We also have a lovely crop of tomatoes and just happened to have these wee ones – which went great with the beans.

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Here we go:

INGREDIENTS – for 2 to 4 (depends how hungry you are)

  • 3 slices bacon, chopped into smallish pieces
  • ½ cup flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 teaspoon mixed fresh herbs from the garden (I used oregano, thyme and parsley) – or use dried (but only about 1 teaspoon if dried)
  • 4 chicken thighs – one each was enough for us, but if you are hungry and there are four people then perhaps use 2 thighs each
  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  • one onion, finely sliced (shallots would work nicely here if you have them, sigh, I didn’t)
  • ½ cup dry white wine – well I use whatever happens to be open – usually in our household it is Chardonnay
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • chopped parsley

 

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Fry the bacon for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the hot bacon grease in the pan (turn down the heat while prepping the chicken).   You might need to help the bacon along with a little of the olive oil.
  2. Mix the flour with salt and pepper and the herbs. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and transfer to the hot pan. (Add olive oil if needed). Pan-fry the chicken for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown (but not cooked through). Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside on plate.
  3. Add the onions to the pan with the rest of the olive oil. Saute for 5-10 minutes, until softened and fragrant and golden brown. Add the wine slowly, stirring to get all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock and let everything cook until it reduces slightly, about 5-10 minutes.
  4. Add the chicken and bacon back to the pan and then transfer to an oven proof dish and bake for 40 minutes, basting the chicken every 10 minutes or so with the pan sauce.. Skim the oil off the top of the sauce if you want.   You could also serve with bread to soak up all those juices.

 

 

vegetables

Use enough potatoes for the number of people. Mine happened to be quite large so I cut into smaller pieces. Boil until just tender.   Then put onto an oven tray with some olive oil, salt and a little pepper.   Cook in oven with chicken until done. Add a bit of butter to top of potatoes and cook under the grill until browned and crisped.

Meanwhile put green beans into boiling water for a few minutes. Take off heat and strain. Add beans back to hot pot with baby tomatoes. Add a teaspoon of pesto – add pot lid and let heat from pot/beans warm through tomatoes.

Enjoy!