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Moussaka

Moussaka recipeSounds all posh and expensive, but really it's not.
 
Ingredients:-
 
750g/1lb 10½oz Lamb mince (Beef and Pork worked in ours)
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves, grated
1 tsp dried Oregano
1½ tsp dried Mint
½  Cinnamon stick. grated
1 tbsp plain flour (Gluten free if required)
400g tin chopped Tomatoes
2 tbsp Tomato purée
2 Aubergines, cut into 0.5cm slices
1 tbsp salt, plus extra for seasoning
100ml/3½fl oz olive oil
500g/1lb 2oz Maris Piper Potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper
 
For the white sauce:-
 
Margarine
Flour
Milk
Salt & Pepper
Grated Italian style Cheese
 
 
Method:-
 
(1) Put the Mince, Onion, Garlic, Oregano, Mint, and Cinnamon in a large heavy-based frying pan and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring to break up the meat.
(2) Stir in the flour and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the Tomatoes and Tomato purée and bring to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mince is tender and the sauce has thickened. Season again if needed and set aside.
(3) Meanwhile, place the aubergine slices in a colander and sprinkle with a tablespoon of salt. Set aside for 10 minutes.
(4) Rinse the aubergine slices under cold running water and pat dry with a clean tea towel. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan and fry the aubergines for 2–3 minutes on each side, adding more oil when necessary. Remove from the pan and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.
(5) Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain in a colander under running water until cold.
(6) Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
(7) To make the white sauce, melt the butter in a large saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for a few seconds, then gradually stir in the milk. Add half the Italian style Cheese. Simmer the sauce gently for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
(8) Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool. When cooled, stir in the egg.
(9) Spoon one-third of the meat sauce into a shallow ovenproof dish large enough to hold 2.5 litres. Cover loosely with a third of the potatoes and then a third of the aubergines, just arrange them roughly on top. Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with the aubergines. Pour over the white sauce, making sure it covers everything in a thick, even layer. Sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheese. Bake for 35–45 minutes, or until deep golden-brown and bubbling.

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Cauliflower & Chicken Soup

Even if I wanted to I couldn't give a recipe for this! Well I'll have a go...


Ingredients:-

Cauliflower Cheese (Rescued from a box in the freezer)
Chicken and Mushroom Pie filling – possibly?! (Rescued from a box in the freezer)


Method:-


(1) Defrost.
(2) Demolish in the blender.
(3) Heat in a pan.


Served with a bit of greenery from the balcony box this was actually a very hearty lunch. We may have to postpone our experimental cooking until later this evening!

 

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Cheese, Hams and Onion Parcel

The Ham in this recipe is a third of the small smoked Ham joint we opened the other day for the Ham & Egg salad from the local Continently shop. To be fair this isn’t the most photogenic Pastry gig we’ve ever created. Party because the Gluten free pastry was left overs we’d frozen and possibly because we jammed too much filling in it! But it was really tasty regardless of looks.

Ingredients:-

Pasty ( Pre rolled will do just fine )
2 medium Potatoes
1 medium Onion, chopped
Ham, cut into fine strips
Cheese, grated
Margarine
Salt & Pepper to season

Method:-

(1) Peal and quarter the Potatoes.
(2) Boil until reasonably soft, drain, mash and set aside to cool.
(3) Fry the Onion in a little Margarine until softened, season with Salt & Pepper.
(4) Add the Ham strips to the Onion and simmer gently for 5 minutes than set aside to cool.
(5) Roll out the Pastry on a floored surface.
(6) Once the filling components hard reasonably cool mix the Ham & Onions with the grated Cheese and add the mashed Potatoes.
(7) In the middle of your rolled Pastry add the filling in a sort of flattened heap.
(8) Fold the edges and sides of the Pastry to create an open parcel.
(9) Move the parcel to a foil lined oven tray and fold the foil around the edges of the parcel to prevent  if from spreading in the oven.
(10) Place in the oven at 180c for 30 to 45 minutes until the pastry is browned and slightly crispy.

We served ours with home made chips, Peas and Brown Sauce. It looked a bit like an open Pastry after all!

 

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Heart shaped Cottage Pies

We only had about 250g of minced Beef left from the Brunch Burgers we made as a bit of a joke on Friday. But that’s not an issue. We fished the heart shaped pie formers out of the draw and made mini Cottage Pies.

As a side we had the very red looking Red Cabbage. We’ve discovered that we actually prefer it as a veg just acidified with a bit of Vinegar and sprinkled with Salt and Pepper, but not boiled. The crunch and acidity work really well with mince dishes which otherwise have a very soft texture.

Served with Carrot, peas and lashings of gravy (Added after I tokk the picture) this was a hearty (Pun intended) meal.

Our Cottage Pie recipe is here

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Ham & Egg Salad

After Fridays silly Brunch Burger experiment we were snacking on left over burger for most of the morning yesterday and to be honest we could easily have skipped dinner. But we had home made Coleslaw, some Salad and some leftover Polish Ham in the fridge. So I cobbled this together. I sliced the Ham and mixed it into the Salad with a but of Mayonnaise, popped the Coleslaw over the top, melted a bit of Cheese over a Waffle each and plonked half a boiled Egg on top.

Sorted and all the leftovers have been used up…..

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Brunch Burger

Ummm – Don’t ask! Actually there is a strange login behind these rather excessive burgers and no we didn’t eat them all in one sitting. We’ll be snacking all day I’m guessing….

We don’t throw anything away unless it’s totally dead. But this means that the freezer slowly gets clogged up with bits and bobs we’ve saved. So in the hope of clearing a bit of space we went rummaging / freezer mining. Here’s the list of (Uninspiring) ingredients we extracted…

Freezer Finds:-

1 pack of pre-made Gluten free buns.
½ a pie worth of Pork Pie filling with Beetroot juice.
A forgotten box of Potato Waffles.
A pack of Polish Smoked Ham.

Not a very promising collection of ingredients. But there was the foundation of The Brunch Burger lurking in there somewhere….

So with the addition of a bit of fresh minced Beef, fresh Salad, some grated Cheese, a couple of fried Eggs, a bit of left over Chilli sauce, some hand cut chips and a few home made Onion ring - we set to work.

The assembly! (This is hardly a recipe, as you would know it!)

(1) Sue made some Thousand Island sauce.
(2) I coated and pre-fried the Onion Rings.
(3) Sue hand pressed both the Pork and Beef burgers and put them in the fridge to rest.
(4) I Cut and pre-fried the Chips.
(5) Sue fried the burgers and put them under in the oven with the grated Cheese over the top to melt.
(6) Sue cut the Ham very thin then grilled it.
(7) Assembly commenced!
(8) Sue grilled the buns.
(9) She spread the Thousand Island sauce over the bottom half bun.
(10) Added Salad and sliced Tomatoes.
(11) Next came the fried Waffle with heated Chilli sauce.
(12) The burgers with melted Cheese were added next.
(13) Pop the fried Egg and top bun on and secure everything with a skewer.
(14) Add the Onion rings on top and server with chips and home made Coleslaw.

Sorry this reads more like a Haynes manual for a 1960s Mini. But nobody in their right mind is likely to follow this as a recipe really!


 

  1. Crispy Chilli Beef #2
  2. Chicken, Cauliflower, Broccoli Pasta Bake
  3. Cold Buffet after Christmas
  4. Sausage Lattice Pie

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