roast chicken and asparagus pie

The light is now good for photos and the weather has warmed up so I'm back on the blog again. There are vegetables in the garden and a few flowers are springing up. Thanks to the silver jubilee, there is bunting flapping about in the hedge, frightening the blackbirds.
The link - 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie! Although I'm sure blackbird would be equally as good, this delicious pasty is made from the leftovers of 2 chickens (mostly leg meat). The asparagus came from a caravan in a lay-by. There seems to be a fleet of these vans parked around North Norfolk, possibly all owned by the same farm, serviced by Eastern European girls.

ingredients:

• left over roast chicken (diced)
• handful of asparagus
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 small red onion
• splash of cream
• milk
• splash of white wine
• butter
• table spoon of plain flour
• salt and pepper
• 1 slab of ready to roll puff pastry (500g?)
• 1 egg yolk
• fresh thyme

1. trim the asparagus and steam it in a glug of wine with a knob of butter and a bit of water. I gave it about 10 minutes (retain the liquor).
2. melt a largish knob of butter and soften the onion, finely chopped, and the chopped garlic.
3. add the flour to the onion pan and cook over a low heat for a couple of minutes.
4. add the liquor from the asparagus and stir. Gradually add milk and cream to loosen the sauce until it is a good consistency to bind the filling.
5. add the chicken to the sauce and warm through.
6. add the asparagus and fold gently into the mixture.
7. sprinkle some finely chopped thyme leaves - go easy because they can over power the more delicate flavours.
8. roll the pastry into a large square. Butter a baking tray and lay the pastry on it.
9. pile up the filling after brushing milk about an inch wide around the perimeter (I'm a maths teacher!) of the pastry.
10. fold the pastry over the top and crimp down with a fork, forming a seal.
11. prick some holes in the top and brush with the beaten egg yolk.
12. cook in a medium oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Oldest boy loved it, youngest boy hated it and the middle one had a fried egg instead! Strawberries (£2.50 from Olga) and ice-cream afterwards.

garden cooking

recipe by demand :)

lemon thyme steak marinade

This weekend shows few new recipes since all cooking has been performed across the road by neighbour, Justin. Much meat grilled over charcoal along with a delicious 'kind of' paella with lamb chops, home made sausage and chicken breasts. Delicious.

I did, however, make a very nice steak marinade:

• 600g rump steak
• juice of a smallish lemon
• 3 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed with about a tsp of sea salt
• about 1 tbs of fresh thyme leaves (Ruth picked mostly lemon thyme which worked very well)
• big glug, maybe 2 tbs? extra virgin olive oil

Marinated the meat in these ingredients for about 5 or 6 hours then barbecued. No photo since that's a bit difficult whilst eating out lol :)

El Cid Pizza

Dad spends 10 minutes for a memory stick to store important powerpoint for tomorrow's school assemby to no avail. Decides to go a bit leftfield and ask the kids - middle boy: "Oh, I think it's on the floor under the breakfast bar." Did he think of picking it up?

A few years ago there was a pizza restaurant called Pizza One Pancakes Too, on Tombland in Norwich. This is my version of their El Cid pizza. It's a little unusual but absolutely sublime. I added anchovies because they taste so good on pizza. Served with chips (which the restaurant failed to put on the menu in favour of salad).

Ingredients:
Serves one or two

• pizza dough (I used a packet mix for convenience), enough to make a 10" base
• 1 tin tuna
• a few anchovies
• 2 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbs mayonaise
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 small red onion, finely sliced
• shake of dried oregano
• olive oil to drizzle
• 200g hard mozzarela cheese, grated

1. mix all the ingredients except the cheese, anchovies and mushrooms
2. oil a baking sheet lightly and place the rolled out base on it
3. spread the tuna mayonaise mixture over the base leaving a 1/2" border
4. top with cheese, then mushrooms and anchovies
5. sprinkle with a little more oregano and drizzle with oil
6. bake in a reasonably hot oven, according to base instructions

vegetable curry with coconut cream

Back to school demands easy teas and this curry fits the bill pretty well. I'd love to say that the vegetables came out of the garden but, sadly, the supermarket could provide where we could not. This curry is deliciously light and fresh. Youngest boy said that it smelt 'lush' whilst middle boy merely stated that the nan bread made up for the lack of chicken. Suffice to say that neither cleaned the plate but what can one expect.

peppered steak with stir-fried spring greens

Adam Ant still has an abundance of charm and talent. To watch and listen to Stand and Deliver (see on you tube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNKxYFROHo

Perhaps this dish should be dedicated to the artful ant. In truth, it's a tenuous link - we were hungry and this is the best the cupboard could offer. It has nothing to do with said singer!

When the waves have been pretty good fun, the evening meal shouldn't take forever to prepare.

Ingredients:

served 5 (3 large plates, 2 smaller)

• 720g rump steak (half price justifies the amount)
• 1 head of spring greens (other cabbage, savoy maybe, would be just as good), thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, even more thinly sliced
• sunflower oil
• glug of dry sherry
• splash of soy sauce (probably light but I prefer dark)
• freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• 1 birdseye chilli (youngest boy would omit this late entry), chopped

1. the steak needs to be oiled and peppered liberally and salted before griddling to taste
2. stirfry the carrots over a really high heat, in a little oil, then add the cabbage, then the garlic
3. add the sherry and then the soy sauce to taste

Meanwhile...

1. the steak has been cooked and briefly rested before slicing it reasonably thinly
2. sprinkle the chilli over the steak before serving
3. (if it was in the cupboard I would have...) drizzle with a little sesame oil

We ate with copious amounts of boiled rice.

the forgotten courgettes

Itrained for a couple of days so nobody picked the courgettes - now we have marrows! Expect no recipes for stuffed marrow.