Friday @pieminister Day: Clapshot Pie

Right, a decision has been made...

From this Friday Pie Day forward, I shall go forth and make a Pieminister pie on the last Friday of every month, which shall be known as 'Friday @pieminister Day'!

(Or something thereabouts.)

Now I've had the Pieminister cookbook for ages now, but have only made a couple of pies from it so far. But I'm always reading it (recipe books to me are like the classic novel you never tire of) and murmur yummy sounds to on a regular basis.

Yes, time to take some proper pie action and have some real Pieminister adventures!

The Clapshot Pie is basically a shepherd's pie with a Scottish head - in other words, a clapshot mashed top of swede, potato and butter.

This was actually meant to have crispy shallots on it too, but I managed to er, mess up on that front.

Now I had a look in my local supermarket for crispy shallots (apparently you can get canned ones) but couldn't find any. No matter, I'll pick up a bag of shallots from the veg section and crisp them up myself, I thought. And then promptly forgot to do this.

There were no shallots to be seen at my local market either, so in the end, decided to just fry up some normal red onion instead. Alas, when it came to making the pie, I promptly forgot to do this.

Oh, what bother, I'll simply have to make (and eat) this all over again...

Pie out.

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

Three Ways With Radishes

The radish is something quite unbeknownst to me. It's not a vegetable that I have eaten much of at all, probably because it wasn't something that I tried when I was younger. But I always see them at the market and wonder what exactly can be done with them.
I always expect them to taste oniony because they look like some weird love-child of a red onion and a shallot.

But of course, they don't.

When I was talking about radishes with my friend the other day (you know how these things just come up in conversation), she likened them to the crunchy, slightly watery texture of water chestnuts. Which peaked my curiosity about them even more.

Ok, time to get a batch and start experimenting!

Crunchy Radish Rice Salad (v)

Everything in this salad is purposefully raw (well, apart from the rice), to create a satisfyingly crunchy salad. Lovely and fresh. This contains a bit of wild rice too, but you can use all basmati if you wish.

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Serves 4:

125g basmati rice
75g wild rice
250ml hot veggie stock
100g radishes, thinly sliced
100g yellow pepper, chopped
75g celery, chopped
50g red onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Small handful of fresh chives, finely chopped

1. Put the basmati and wild rice in a pan with the stock and bring to the boil. Turn down to the lowest heat, cover and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes until cooked. Take off the heat and allow to sit.
2. Meanwhile, mix all of the veggies into a large mixing bowl. In a small cup, mix the oil, vinegar and lemon juice. Pour this into the bowl of veggies and toss well.
3. Add in the cooked rice, and mix everything together. Carefully stir in some fresh chives before serving.

Chicken and Radish Potato Curry

This is a 'dry' curry – in other words, not one that is caked in sauce. It is quite mild, as the spices are just cumin and turmeric with a kick of cayenne pepper, but you can adjust the taste as you please.

The radishes stay surprisingly firm after being cooked – no sogginess here, thanks. Also you can see, the potatoes are served separately to the curry but you can mix them together just before dishing up instead.

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Serves 2:

400g potato, chopped
Bit of salt
1/2 tsp turmeric + 1/2 tsp
1 tsp cumin
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
250g chicken, chopped
75g radishes, finely sliced
50g courgette, diced
50g leek, sliced
50g red onion, chopped
75ml double cream

1. Put the potato in a pan with boiling water. Bring to the boil then turn down to the lowest heat and leave to simmer for 15 minutes until just cooked. Drain and toss with ½ tsp of the turmeric. Keep warm.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the remaining ½ tsp turmeric, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic, oil and lemon with the chopped chicken.
3. Heat a large saucepan and add the chicken to brown. After a few minutes, add the radishes, courgette, leek and onion, mixing everything well.
4. Pour in the double cream and turn down to simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve with the turmeric potatoes.

Nutty Radish Stir Fry (v)

I meant to toss in some chopped peanuts here too, to make this Nutty stir fry more worthy of its name, but I just forgot, sorry! But it has a good peanut butter sauce base so is plenty nutty with or without the actual nuts.

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Serves 2:

2 wholewheat noodle 'nests'
1 tsp olive oil
75ml hot veggie stock
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
150g carrot, chopped into matchsticks
100g radishes, thinly sliced
100g spinach
2 spring onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Small handful of chopped peanuts (optional)

1. Put the noodles in a pan with water and gently bring to the boil. Turn down and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes until cooked. Drain in cold water, toss in the oil and set aside.
2. In a small jug, mix together the hot stock, peanut butter and soy sauce. Set aside.
3. Get a wok on high heat, and fry up the carrot and radishes for a few minutes. Add the spinach and spring onions. Once the spinach has wilted a bit, mix in the garlic cloves.
4. Carefully pour in the peanut stock and turn down to simmer for about 3-4 minutes; keep everything moving.
5. Finally, add in the noodles and stir everything together well. If you wish, toss through some chopped peanuts before dishing up. Continue reading this post..

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Return of the Soggy Strawberry Cake

There is something about strawberry-based cakes that seems to defeat me.

These were perfectly tasty enough to eat, don't get me wrong, but they were not supposed to turn out like this.

Now, strawberries are my favourite berries in all the land, and I tend to go overboard buying them at the market when they're in season, looking all juicy.

The recurring issue I seem to have with strawberry cakes is that they usually turn out soggier than planned - the saving grace being that they are at least still edible.

With this particular version, not only were they soggy, but they spectacularly deflated once taken out the oven:

They were supposed to be muffins, for cake's sake!

This sinkage was probably for the most part due to me constantly opening the oven to turn the tray around. Not something I would normally do or encourage, for this is a Sin of cake-baking. But it's something I'm having to do at the mo to get my crusty oven to cook things evenly. Irk.

Really need to do something about this...

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

Friday Pie Day: Balsamic Beef Pie

Not the prettiest pie and this also suffered my inpatient hungriness hence the rather poor shot. (Sorry about that)

The other day, I was looking through my random recipe notes (ie Post-Its of various recipe thoughts stuck in a notepad) and spotted one with just 'Balsamic Beef' on it. I really can't remember where that came from or why I felt compelled to jot that down.

Knowing me, I probably just liked the alliteration of it. (Yes, I really can be that simple.)

Balsamic vinegar can seem quite thick at first pour, but don't worry too much when using it as a marinade for meat. It thins down quite well in cooking, and has a lovely sweet taste to it. There is a good pinch of paprika in this too, to add a bit of smokiness.

So, 'Balsamic Beef' - it might not look good, but I hope I at least made it sound good..!

Balsamic Beef Pie

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Serves 2-3:

500g potato, chopped
300g lean beef mince
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp honey
2 tsp oil
125g carrot, sliced
100g onion, diced
100g celery, chopped
50ml hot beef stock

1. Add the chopped potato in a pan of water and bring to the boil. Turn down to the lowest heat and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes or until just cooked. Drain, mash and set aside.
2. Mix together the balsamic vinegar, paprika, honey and half the oil in a large bowl. Add the mince and mix well.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a saucepan, add the remaining oil, followed by the beef to brown.
4. Add all of the veg, mixing everything together well, for about 5 minutes. Pour in the hot stock and leave to simmer for a few more minutes. Transfer to a 8" pie dish.
5. Spoon the mashed potato on top, then bake in the oven for about half an hour or until the top just starts to crisp.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other beefy recipes you might enjoy. Continue reading this post..

Happy British Burger Week!

Doesn't it always tickle you a bit when you hear about a random national food holiday? Sometimes it's just for a day like Something on a Stick Day, or a whole month like National Popcorn Poppin' Month.

Well this week it's British Burger Week and what better excuse than to share some favourites?

Lamb and Goat's Cheese Burger
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There are only 3 ingredients in these burgers, so there's no reason not to give homemade burgers a go. Lamb mince, goat's cheese and spinach is all you need here.

Bulgar Boigers
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This was when I was going through a silly phase of referring to burgers as 'boigers' (it was to do with some computer game I think). It's actually another lamb burger but also has bulgar wheat too for a healthier and slightly nuttier (in a good way) kick.

Rhubarb Turkey Burgers
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A fairly recent experiment where I wanted to try rhubarb, something I've been put off eating since childhood. Working it into burger form works surprisingly well.

Seeing a meaty burger always makes me drool, better go make one now...
Continue reading this post..

10 Reasons to Eat 10 Courses

Well, it helps to be hungry for a start ;-)

My sister Hungrier Jemma recently got married and topped the celebration off at the weekend with a glorious 10-course Chinese wedding banquet.

Now there can be a bit of misconception if you have never been to or heard about such a banquet before.

(But be warned - there are a lot of photos in this particular post!)

The immediate reaction that you might expect from a Chinese-banquet-newbie is something to the effect of “Woah. Ten courses? How can you manage that?!”

Although it helps to wear something more accommodating for a large feast (ie no tight waistbands, belts, high-waisted trousers or tights would be a sensible idea), you are not going to be served 10 whole individual dishes, complete with gleaming waiter peering anxiously over your shoulder to ensure you eat every single last bite.

Each course is served as one main dish in the centre of a large round table of 10 people – both the roundness of the table and idea of sharing one dish together signifies both the unity and generosity of the family.

In Jemma and Steven's case, this was 20 tables - yes, 200 hungry mouths to feed!

The food itself is pre-selected by the bride and groom, and as with many things in Chinese culture, is highly symbolic – the pronunciation of the dish may be likened to a significant meaning such as wealth, for example, or the way it is served can have a certain meaning also, such as being served whole to show completeness.

As well as it all being rather tasty of course :-)

1. Suckling Pig Platter
A symbol of purity and fertility

2. Deep Fried Crab Claws
Crabs are a symbol of good luck

3. Mixed Seafood in Bird Nest
A sign for youthfulness and long life, with scallops representing children

4. Stir Fried Lobster in Spring Herbal Salt with Shallot & Garlic Crisp
This 'dragon shrimp' represents the groom!

5. Shark's Fin Soup
A delicacy to indicate prosperity

6. Braised Abalone
Pronunciation of 'abalone' is likened to an 'assurance of wealth'

7. Steamed Fresh Turbot
Pronunciation of 'fish' is likened to 'plentiful', so again symbolises an abundance of wealth

8. Crispy Pigeon
Signifies a peaceful future

9. Fortune E-Fu NoodlesThe long strands represents longevity

10. Fried Sticky Rice
The sticky texture represents 'glue' bringing together a happy family

There are then desserts served, to wish the couple a sweet life :-)
Unfortunately, I had to dash at this point, but I managed to snap a photo of the enormous cake!



Phew, wouldn't be surprised if you got full just looking at the photos...

Cheers!

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Cinnamon-crusted Banana Cream Tarts

Ooh, hello!

To experience this joyfulness of cinnamon-crusted pastry, it does mean that you need to make the pastry from scratch (surprise!). But even if you are not so homemade-pastry-inclined, you could instead use shop-bought sweet shortcrust pastry, and then simply sprinkle the cinnamon on the base of each pastry cup before you bake it.

The filling itself also has cinnamon, mixed with cream cheese and of course, banana (plus a naughty bit of sugar). The whole lot is then folded with some double cream.

These are cupcake-sized tarts, and the cinnamon and banana flavours are quite strong (in a good way, I would shout!) - but if you wanted to tone them down a bit, you can make the filling more subtle by omitting the cinnamon and mashed banana. That sounds a bit backwards perhaps, but you do still get that hit of cinnamon from the pastry, and get a good bite of banana from atop the tart.

In either case, you do need to let these set for at least 4 hours in the fridge before eating them, mind. They'll be worth the wait though, I swear!

Cinnamon-crusted Banana Cream Tarts

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Makes 12:

250g plain flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sugar
100g butter, cold, diced
Some ice cold water
OR 375g sweet shortcrust pastry

50g banana, mashed + 50g banana, cut into 12 thin slices
150g cream cheese, at room temperature
25g white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
75g double cream, whipped

If using premade pastry, go straight to step 2.

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the cinnamon and sugar. Add the butter and rub in to a breadcrumb-like texture. Adding a little water, start to bring the mixture together into a dough. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Cut the dough in half and roll out one piece onto a lightly floured surface. Use a 3” cutter to stamp out 6 rounds and transfer to line a cupcake tray.
3. Repeat step 2 with the remaining half of the dough. If using shop-bought pastry, you can at this point sprinkle the cinnamon onto the base of each pastry cup.
4. Cover the tray with a large sheet of foil, then push in some baking beads into each hole. Blind bake for about 10 minutes until lightly brown. Allow to cool completely.
5. Mix the mashed banana with the cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon. Carefully fold in the cream.
6. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cooled pastry cases. Top each one with a banana slice, then pop the tray in the fridge for at least 4 hours to set.

Pie out.

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

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Cracked Chocolate Cake

Oops!

Don't worry, I didn't just drop this on the floor.

Yes, it probably wasn't a wise idea to take this straight out the pan from the oven, and using two mismatched spatulas to hoist it out - but that wasn't the real problem behind this cake-up incident here.

I kind of miscalculated my ingredient ratios - the dry ingredients heavily outweighing the liquids in this, hence it failing to mould together and simply falling apart instead. Thanks for co-operating, folks.

The good news is that aside from looking a bit mishapen, it still tasted fairly decent. Yeh, a bit drier than desired, but there is enough chocolatey sweetness in there to see past this.

If ever there was a contender for misshapes at the Chocolate Factory, these would definitely make the cut. At least they've got that individual 'homemade' look ;-)

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

Lemon Almond Yogurt Cake Bars

This is one of those itsy-looking cakes that packs a powerful punch of flavour. In this case - lemon. Whodathunkit?

I always feel like I overuse lemon in a bit - but it's one of my favourite flavours and is such an easy ingredient to use and combine with others to turn something bland into something alot more exciting.

These little cake bars have a decent amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest, but is also quite low in sugar, which makes them even more tangy and wonderful.

I topped these with flaked almonds, but you could try topping with a naughty bit of decorating sugar instead to give them some extra sparkle and sweetness :-)

Lemon and Almond Yogurt Cake Bars

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Makes 18 bars (using 8" square tin):

100ml fresh lemon juice
75ml olive oil
75g sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g flaked almonds
Zest of 1 small lemon
125g Greek yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Beat together the lemon juice, oil, sugar and egg in a small bowl.
2. In a larger bowl, sift in the flour with the baking powder and bicarb. Fold in 50g of the almonds, lemon zest and yogurt.
3. Carefully pour the mixture into a lined square tin. Scatter the remaining 50g of almonds evenly over the top.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes or until you can pull a toothpick out clean, covering with greaseproof paper during the last 10 minutes.
5. Allow to cool for 5, before slicing into 18 bars.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Sweet and Sour Chicken Pie

Does this sound a bit odd to you? Well, it probably would have been odder if it was sweet and sour chicken encased in shortcrust pastry – for some reason, that sounds slightly wrong.

So to run with the sweet and sour theme, this simply had to have a sweet potato topping. Yes folks, this literally is a sweet and sour dish with sweet potato mash on top. But you know what? It totally works. And that's all that matters.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Pie

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Serves 4 (in a 1 litre dish):

300g chicken breast, chopped
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
300g tomatoes, diced
150g cucumber, cubed
150g pineapple, chopped
100ml pineapple juice
50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp cornflour

500g sweet potato, chopped

1. Put the chicken in a large bowl with the soy sauce, honey and oil. Mix well and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put the chopped sweet potato into a pan of water and bring to the boil. Turn down to the lowest heat and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes until just cooked. Drain, mash and set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a hot brown, add the chicken pieces to brown, for a few minutes, followed by the tomatoes and cucumber. Carefully stir in the pineapple.
4. Grab a cup and mix together the pineapple juice, lemon and cornflour. Pour into the chicken pan and gently stir. Turn down the heat, cover and leave for 5 minutes.
5. Pour the chicken pan into a 1 litre ovenproof dish, then bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is just starting to crisp.

Pie out.

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

Happy Wedding Day!

Ok, take your jaw off the ground now, it's not me that just got married, but my sister, Hungrier Jemma, hurrah!

The wedding was at Belfast castle, where Steven proposed to her on bended knee. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day, but it didn't take the smile off their faces for one moment (or the guests either!). In fact, there was one point where we all dashed outside to congregrate on the outdoor spiral staircase to nab a couple of shots - shivering and damp, but worth it!

As part of their wedding gift, I made the Hungry couple a Hungry Book, a personalised recipe book. It's not just got my own recipes, don't worry! I stuck in recipes found that I thought they might like to try, as well as pasting in photos from funny times together.

Hopefully they will use the book lots, even if just to laugh at the photos, if not for the recipes!


It was an amazing day, and it was so great to meet some of Jemma's friends who I hadn't met before as well. The sweetest moment was probably when Steven sang Elvis Prestley's 'Can't Help Falling in Love' to Jemma, complete with acoustic guitar accompaniment. Aw.

Steven - thank you for making my sister so happy...

...and Welcome to the Hungry Family! :-)

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day Faux Pas: Volatile Cheese Tarts

Um, something went a bit wrong here...

Yes, I'm still having new oven battles (well, it's old actually, but new to me for using!) and I can't seem to avoid burning everything that I put in there.

It's getting quite ridiculous really - I was baking shortbread at 140 degrees C the other day, watching it like a hawk and still had to whip them out really quick as I saw them starting to melt into each other!

Back to the tarts though.

I probably did fill the tart shells a tad bit more than I should. But, as you can see, the tops got quite burnt. With all the bubbliness going on underneath though, I wanted to make sure they were cooking through enough to set a bit!

So there I was, watching the little cheese tarts in the oven, crouching and praying. And yes, I was still too late. The volatile little buggers. One second and BOOM. Cheese overspill.

The good news though is that after they cooled down and I was able to slot them out, they were pretty darn cheese-tastic. A bit like a cheese fondue I guess (but less sickly) - at least the pastry shell was useful to help it stay in your gob instead of running down your chin ;-)

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

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