Friday Pie Day: Leftover Chicken Pie

Hm, yes, this pretty much looks like leftovers, doesn't it?

I was having a root through my freezer and found some leftover soy sauce roast chicken that my parents had brought down for me when they came to visit a few weeks ago. (Ah, I love my parents, they always brings me food!)

With it taking up alot of space in my little freezer drawer, I figured the easiest way to get through it would be through the Form of Pie.

As you can probably imagine from the recipe name, this is a freestyle chicken pie. Use what you've got in the fridge. For me, that meant a carrot, some broccoli and a bit of lemon. I also had some natural yogurt to use up by the next day so threw that in the end too.

The best thing with this is that because you are using leftover cooked chicken, you can just pile the filling straight into the pastry cases without having to cook anything else first. (Well, I did boil the carrots to soften them a bit)

Now it's totally up to you of course, but I would actually suggest using shortcrust pastry instead of puff, as I've put below. Puff pastry was just what I happened to have leftover to use up (hm, it seems I have alot of old food lying around!) so just went with it.

Of course, as individual pies go, these are pretty hefty, because of how the pastry puffs up! They tasted darn good though, so it's just your personal preference really for how pastry-inclined you're feeling (or what you happen to have leftover!).

Leftover Chicken Pie

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Makes 6 pies (muffin size):

250g puff pastry
150g cooked leftover chicken of some description, shredded
50g carrot, lightly boiled and diced
25g broccoli, finely chopped
Generous squeeze of lemon
100g natural yogurt
Some beaten egg to glaze if desired

1) Roll the pastry out on a floured surface. Cut off a third and stick that in the fridge. Cut the larger piece into 6 squares (about 4"). Line roughly into a muffin tray, allowing the edges to overhang. Chill for at least 15 minutes.
2) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
3) Mix the chicken, carrot and broccoli in a bowl. Squeeze over the lemon, spoon in the yogurt and mix well.
4) Spoon the chicken filling into the chilled pastry cases.
5) Roll out the remaining third of the pastry and cut into 6 squares (about 3.5"). Use to top each pie, using a fork to crimp the edges together, or simply overlap and pinch. Pierce each top with a fork. Brush with egg yolk if desired.
6) Bake for about 20 minutes until puffed and golden.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Baker's Block

Lately, it seems I've hit a bit of a wall with baking. Over the last month or so, both work and life have been getting on top of me to the point where I can't seem to squeeze in proper cake-thinking time. Yes, despite what you see, these cakes aren't all completely random and do result from some form of planning!

But in recent weeks, they just haven't been blossoming into worthy cakes. Take this for instance:

I could pretend that these are some cool deviation from a coconut macaroon.

But they're really not. At all.

These were meant to be raspberry and coconut cupcakes. What you see above is the remains of them, after struggling to peel them out their cases!

I knew as soon as I took them out the oven that they would do this, the rascals.

Ummmm...

This particular problem is not new (you might remember my Accidental Pineapple-Upside-Down Cakes) - it tends to happen when I want to take refined sugar out of the equation, and use fresh oranges as a sub.

Slowly, I'm learning. But clearly, not from my mistakes, because it keeps happening. I'm learning what NOT to do! Hopefully I will be able to push through this Baker's Block soon. Or just start eating cheese.

More successful Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies you might like to try instead!

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas? Continue reading this post..

Paella in a Wok

Paella is only something I've made once before, and when I had some chorizo sausage to use up, I thought it'd be a good excuse to try it out again.

The last time I made it, I kind of did it like a steamed rice dish. I boiled the rice, then turned down to simmer with the lid on, chucking in the other ingredients to cook inside.

This time, I wanted to try it a bit differently, to get more of the smoky flavour you would expect from a more authentic paella dish.

Now I don't have an open fire or a 'paellera', those traditional steel pans used to cook paella, with the two handles.

But I have a wok.

I tossed the uncooked rice in the oil and spices of turmeric, saffron, cayenne and garlic first, before then adding the stock. I figured this would help to completely coat the rice in all the smoky flavourings.

Now wok I own doesn't have a lid, and I'm sure that leaving it uncovered to cook is just fine. But I didn't want all the flavour to evaporate into the air, so I loosely covered it with foil instead.

When it came to adding the chorizo and bacon to the mix as well, this made sure that they wouldn't dry out, and instead have their porky flavours filter through into the rice also.

So did the wok thing work? Well, I had intended this recipe for 4 people, but when it came to serving, I divided it between me and my housemate - and we ate the lot. Must be a good sign, right?

Paella in a Wok

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Serves 2-3:

1 tbsp olive oil
200g basmati rice
1 tsp turmeric
Pinch saffron
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
500ml hot stock
4 cooked rashers of bacon
150g chorizo, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 red pepper sliced
2 spring onions, chopped

1) Add the oil to a hot wok, then add the rice, turmeric, saffron, cayenne and garlic salt. Toss continuously for a minute or so to coat well.
2) Pour in the hot stock, and bring to the boil. Turn down and loosely cover with foil. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
3) Add the bacon, chorizo, pepper, and spring onion, and cover again for another 5-7 minutes. The water should be just absorbed.
4) Gently mix the ingredients to fluff up the rice before serving.

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Student Spud Pie

I know, I know.

This doesn't really look like a pie.

Let me rephrase that - this isn't really a pie at all. But there was something I was trying to do here that makes it into a legitimate pie I swear.

Back when I was a student at uni, one of my favourite comfort foods and easy suppers was mashing hot baked beans with carrots, potato and melted cheddar.

I was randomly in the mood for such comfort and really wanted to share that moment with you - but, as you can probably imagine, it's not the most picturesque thing to serve up.

So I thought I'd try and spruce it up a bit. Do a bit of a Shepherd Potato Pie jobby on it. By serving it within a jacket potato itself, all that mashy baked bean mess would be hidden inside. I left out some mash to stick on the top and baked it to give it a good crisp potato pie-like topping.

And that's mozzarella oozing out there underneath it. Much posher than cheap cheddar cheese. Looks much classier now, right?

Student Spud Pie

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Serves 2:

2 jacket potatos, scrubbed
125g baked beans
100g carrot, chopped
Generous slices of mozzarella
Large pinch of salt

1) Prick the potatos all over with a fork. Microwave for about 5-6 minutes on each side until you can stick a skewer through.
2) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Lightly boil the carrots until soft. Drain and set aside.
3) Gently heat the beans in a pan, then mash in the carrot. Take the pan off the heat.
4) Slice the top third of each potato lengthways. Scoop out the flesh and mash with the potato tops that you've sliced off.
5) Pour half of the mash into the baked bean pot. Add the salt, then mash it all together.
6) Scoop the baked bean mash into the potato shells. Layer mozzarella over the top, then spoon on the remaining mash.
7) Bake for about 25 minutes until the potato top is crisp.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Guilt Trip Sticky Berry Cake

You must excuse my shoddy photography here.

I had to make and snap this one in a hurry.

So I had a bit of a cake catastrophe at the weekend (a story for another time!) and because I've been super busy recently, I was contemplating going to aikido WITHOUT a cake. Yes, for nearly 2 years now, I have baked something to feed my greedy self the Hungry Aikido Boys after training every Tuesday.

One week without bringing in a cake? Ah, that'll be fine, it doesn't really matter. But when I woke up on Tuesday morning, the guilt started to creep in. Turn up to aikido without a cake? Well that's just madness. It's not a drag or anything, but it's got to the stage now where I feel like I must make something now!

My aikido class is a few hours after work so when I finished work, I got to cakework quickly. I had yogurt, I had berries, I had jam...GO!

Of course, I faffed around as I usually do, and there was no time for the cake to cool. And being a yogurt cake, hold on, let me correct myself, being a Hungry Jenny yogurt cake, it was quite sticky. Shoving the warm cake into an airtight tupperware box probably didn't help with this either.

"Um, so what is this?" asked one Hungry Aikido Boy.
"Er...it's a Sticky Berry Cake!" I replied.
"Cool." Cue lots of cake eating and yummy noises.

I think I'm getting better at covering up these slight mishaps.

Sticky Berry Cake (butter free)

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8" round sandwich tin (8 slices):

125g natural yogurt
75ml rice bran oil
50ml orange juice concentrate
1 egg, lightly beaten
125g plain flour
75g white sugar
50g dessicated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
175g red berry jam of your choice
100g fresh raspberries

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degress C. Gently beat the yogurt, oil, orange and egg together in a small bowl.
2) In a larger bowl, sift in the flour, then mix in the sugar, coconut and baking powder. Carefully fold in the jam and berries.
3) Pour in the yogurt mixture, and fold in until just mixed.
4) Transfer to a lined tin and bake for about 30 minutes until you can pull a toothpick out clean.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here. Continue reading this post..

Say NO to Takeaway: Make a Ginger and Mushroom Stir Fry Instead!

A nice straightforward stir-fry for you today. It is veggie-friendly and good for your stomach too with nice calming ginger.

You really can't go wrong with this one.

The mushrooms used are chestnut, which are tastier and have a bit more substance to them than normal white mushtooms. Other veggies thrown into this are beansprouts, celery, spring onion and Chinese leaf.

Now Chinese leaf is perhaps not something you'd normally pick up - well, I mean, I only picked it up myself because they randomly had it at the market. But I think you should probably be able to find a variety in your normal supermarket. If not, a good bit of iceberg lettuce wouldn't hurt. It's not quite the same, but stir-fried lettuce is pretty tasty in its own right (yes, really!).

Fry the ginger in the oil first before adding your mushrooms and all the veggies in. Towards the end, pour in hot stock and soy sauce, which will make sure that the ginger flavour swims out to make sure everything is well coated!

Ginger and Mushroom Stir Fry

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Serves 2:

2 blocks of dried egg noodles (150g approx)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp ginger, grated
125g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
75g beansprouts
50g Chinese leaf, shredded
1 celery stick, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
50ml hot stock
2 tbsp soy sauce

1) Gently boil the noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain in cold water and toss in the sesame oil. Set aside.
2) Add the groundnut oil into a hot wok with the ginger. Toss the mushrooms for a minute, followed by the beansprouts and Chinese leaf.
3) After another minute, add the celery and spring onion.
4) Pour in the stock and soy sauce, then leave to simmer for a few minutes. Keep tossing everything together until all is piping hot.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Mozzarella Mustard Chorizo Puffs

Mozzerella Mustard Chorzo Puffs - now that's a mouthful.

But with my inability to create bite-sized puffs as usually intended, these are way more than a mouthful.

My housemate Grace made this fantastic mozzarella, chorizo and tomato tart the other week. I was out at the time, so I wasn't able to take a photo, but she kindly saved me some, which I ate straightaway - didn't even bother to reheat it because it looked so delicious! She spread a tomato based sauce on the pastry, then topped with tomatoes, onion, aubergine, cheese and best of all, chorizo!

I immediately wanted to make a bite-sized version. Now, mine looks nowhere near as colourful or pretty as Grace's one did, but they still taste good! I whittled it into 4 ingredients - chorizo, mozzerella, mustard and pastry.

Despite baking with puff pastry quite alot, I still always forget how much it ruddy puffs up in the oven - hence the slightly larger than intended 'bite-sized' puffs. Oh well, even one of these at this bigger size isn't enough - you'll definitely want at least two!

Mozzarella Mustard Chorizo Puffs

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12 squares:

250g puff pastry
4 tsp mustard
50g mozzarella, sliced
100g chorizo, sliced (you'll want 2-3 per square)

1) Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface into a large rectangle.
2) Cut the pastry into 12 squares about 3" long. Score a square border about half an inch inside each piece.
3) Spread the mustard to the base of each square within the border.
4) Layer with mozzarella, then the chorizo slices.
5) Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other porky recipes you might like. Continue reading this post..

Amateur Photography at its Best...

The best foodal moments I have are definitely with my sister, Hungrier Jemma.

It perhaps shouldn't be that surprising that Hungrier Jemma shares a love for food, and takes numerous photos of food at every opportune moment. I first realised this a few years ago, when I took her to the Nag's Head in Chichester for a carvery. Man, that opened my eyes to just how Hungry she really is!

The above photo was taken by Hungrier Jemma's fiance, Steven - who in fact, might as well be known as Hungry Steven also. It must have been a really odd sight for others in the restaurant to see Steven take a photo of us taking photos of our food!

We were at a pub restaurant called The Pigs in Norfolk (which, by the way, I thought was called 'Porkys' and got confused about why I couldn't find it online just now).

Here's the actual shot I took:

The Pigs pork, apple and sage burger, Smoked Norfolk Dapple, thick cut back bacon, baby gem, roasted garlic mayo, toasted English muffin, Summer slaw, apple chutney, hand cut chips cooked in beef dripping

Man, those chips were collosal. Yes, you only get a few, and yes, both my sister and I thought it was a bit stingy. But of course, our greedy eyes didn't comprehend that they are in actual fact the size of fat potato wedges really!

I love hanging out with my sister and her fiance because whatever we do, it always seems to centre around food (or dance films, but that's another story). They had come to visit me in Chi for a couple of days, before I followed them back up to Norfolk - not in a stalkerish way, mind, I was invited to stay. For the most part of that long weekend, the word most uttered was 'Beercan' - as in trying to say 'bacon' like a Jamaican without making it sound like 'beer can'.

(You just had a go at that, didn't you?)

So that's pretty much how the whole weekend went, shouting 'beercan' and taking lots of photos. I'm no professional photographer by any means, but there must be some art form in finding Kodak moments that'll get you smiling, right? ;-)

Continue reading this post..

Star Anise Chocolate Pasta

I've had some chocolate pasta sitting in my cupboard for a while now, waiting to be used up. It's one of those things that you don't want to just throw into any old dish. I mean, it's chocolate pasta for goodness sakes, it wants some proper attention.

Erm, ok, so here, it does look like I've just thrown this together quite randomly. But it was a well thought out dish, honest.

Now, whilst I was hunting around for flavour ideas, I came across this delectable Star Anise Chocolate Tart. Ooh, chocolate and star anise? I've never tasted that combo before. So what better time than to try it in a pasta dish eh?

I toyed around with the idea a bit - at first, I had this notion that a star anise chocolate flavour would work deliciously with beef. But then the thought of pasta and beef felt a bit odd.

So I decided to use pork instead, marinading it in some soy sauce, honey and crushed star anise, to keep it soft.

The other thing was that I wanted the dish to be saucy (as I like pasta dishes to be), but not so much that it would mask the beautiful dark rich colour of the chocolate pasta.

I ended up going with a sort of tomato based sauce, but literally just by simmering in some chopped tomatoes, a bit of tommy puree and some reserved chocolate pasta water. I didn't want to turn it into actual chunky sauce. More crushed star anise is then worked into this, to make sure the flavour swims right through.

So even though you can't see it, you can definitely taste its presence. And as for whether it worked in a savoury chocolate pasta dish? Match made in heaven. Try it.

Star Anise Chocolate Pasta

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Serves 2:

125g chocolate pasta
Pinch of salt
2 star anise, finely crushed
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey
125g pork escalope, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
125g broccoli, chopped
150g cherry tomatoes, quartered
50g red onion, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree

1) Gently bring the pasta to boil, then leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes until al dente. Add the pasta during the last 5 minutes. Drain, reserving some of the chocolate pasta water.
2) Mix half of the star anise with the soy sauce, honey and pork.
3) Add the oil to a hot pan. Fry the pork to brown for about 5 minutes.
4) Tip in the broccoli, tomatoes and red onion, frying for another few minutes.
5) Squeeze in the tomato puree, reserved pasta water and remaining star anise. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
6) Stir in the pasta to heat through again, before dishing up.

If you liked this, you might fancy trying this Chocolate Minted Salmon Pasta dish too. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Sweet Potato Chickpea Pie

Ok, I admit - this isn't the prettiest pie to look at.

And it's not even out the pie dish yet..!

Yes, this is one of those pies that is impossible to serve in a neat and presentable way. You just have to scoop it into a bowl and eat with a spoon. But hell, it's alot more comforting that way, eating warm pie out of a bowl.

Technically, you don't really need to put this in the oven - you make the filling on the hob, then stick the mash on top. And you could be done with it at that point. But this Sweet Potato Chickpea Pie is best eaten steaming hot from the oven.

The chickpeas will be softer, and the lemon creme fraiche sauce will seep well into the tomatoes and broccoli too. Your stomach will be a happier one for the 40 minute wait, I promise you.

Sweet Potato Chickpea Pie

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Serves 4:

400g sweet potato, peeled and chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
125g creme fraiche
A little olive oil
300g tomatoes, quartered
175g chickpeas
150g broccoli, chopped
75g onion, chopped

1) Gently boil the sweet potato chunks for about 10 minutes until just done. Drain and keep warm.
2) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Squeeze the lemon juice into the creme fraiche and set aside.
3) Add the oil to a hot pan. Cook the tomatoes for a couple of minutes, followed by the chickpeas, broccoli and onion. Toss everything well for about 10 minutes.
4) Take off the heat, then carefully stir through the lemon creme fraiche. Transfer to a pie dish.
5) Spoon the mash on top, then bake in the oven for about 40 minutes til steaming hot.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

When Looks Are Everything

Put your knives and forks down guys, you don't want to be eating when you see what's coming.

Let me ease you into it - which would you rather have...?

This gorgeous piece of baked stonebass atop citrus-soaked sweet potato mash and aged balsamic dressing...?

...or this...?

Obviously there is an element of personal taste involved here, but I think I can safely say that you'd be more likely to go with the former on this occasion. Whoever said that looks aren't everything has obviously never had bangers and mash like that served to them before.

Now I openly admit that I've created some questionable-looking dishes in the past (take this rather special-looking salad for instance). But that's just at home, usually cooked for myself.

When you're eating out, you want to feel a bit special. You want to feel like the chef has lovingly prepared and plated your food. Maybe it was just the unfortunate coincidence of this shapely sausage dump with its muddy colours. But this did not make me feel special.

I was so hungry that I ate it up anyway, mind. But that initial disappointment on being presented with such an unfortunate-looking dish spoilt the experience for me. (And PS, it didn't even taste that good.)

Perhaps I'm just a snob. But I like to eat with my eyes. Looks are important.

I do apologise now if I've scarred you with that picture. So I'll leave you with this beautiful fry-up...

Now there's a sight for sore ugly-food-ridden eyes! Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Blueberry and Coconut Tarts

For the last month or so, I seem to be run off my feet constantly. Work has been super busy, but there's been loads of other stuff I've been trying to do as well, I can barely keep up with myself!

So when I realised that Friday Pie Day was looming, without a pie in mind to bake, I started to panic. Yes, I have pie deadlines to stick to.

Luckily, I had a bit of sweet shortcrust pastry in the freezer for such an emergency. But what to do with it?

Cue a speedy grab of fresh blueberries from the market, plus a triumphant pickup of flaked coconut from my tin of random baking bits. And voila, these Blueberry and Coconut Tarts were born.

Phew! I didn't think I would make it.

Blueberry and Coconut Tarts

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12 (cupcake size):

250g sweet shortcrust pastry
200g fresh blueberries
2 tsp honey
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp lemon zest
25g flaked coconut

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, and use a 3" round cutter to stamp out 12 rounds. Transfer to line a cupcake tray, pricking each base with a fork.
2) Cover each pastry base with foil and baking beads. Bake blind for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
3) Lightly mash the berries in a bowl.
4) Mix together the honey, cornflour and zest, then add to the berries.
5) Sprinkle some coconut on the base of each pastry base. Spoon in the berries, then add the remaining coconut on top.
6) Return to the oven for about 35-40 minutes.

In the last 10 minutes or so, cover the tray with foil to avoid the coconut overbrowning - like mine did, whoops!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other fruity recipes you might like. Continue reading this post..

I Just Wanted to Share This Moment With You...

Oh, to feel like this every single day...

We've just had a bank holiday weekend here in the UK and for the last few months, I had been planning this epic weekend in Brighton with all my best buds from my hometown Luton. (Well, the four of them plus their other halves!)

It was such a special weekend because it's so rare for us all to get together. It meant so much to me that they all made the effort to come down. My only regret is that I forgot to take a big group photo, oops.

There are too many moments to describe to you from that weekend, so here's a snapshot instead, in pictures :-)

Thanks for the awesome weekend guys, I love you all! Continue reading this post..