red mum

I HAD Ellybabes over last night for dinner and I made this chicken dish (just the chicken part mind you) from Smitten Kitchen and lovely it was too.

But seeing as how my week was mad and seeing as how I was babysitting from early on Saturday I didn’t get to the shop and sent the Young Wan to the supermarket for the necessaries. And I wrote her a list too, but she seems to have an aversion to lists, always has done.

The amount of times I have discovered the long-listed note after she has left for the shop. Or indeed the amount of times she has come back, minus the note, and minus most of the main items and many additional new ones, I have lost count on both of those.

Even though this happens more than I’d like you would think that I would’ve learned by now, never mind herself. And once again over the weekend, she was sent to the supermarket with a list that I had put together over a while in between cleaning. One of the main ingredients was Parmesan, a small wedge, not flakes, not the one you get in a container; a small wedge of Parmesan.

So she phones from the supermarket and has forgotten the note, course at this stage so have I, all I can remember is Parmesan and eggs. Luckily the Young Wan remembers the bread crumbs but forgets, despite it being on the list and despite being told on the phone, the Parmesan.

Now she was in a rush to get out to the cinema but had been warned on the phone that if she forgot something that I needed she would have to go back out to get it, I was babysitting with no pram so I couldn’t run up later.

When I realised there was no Parmesan, a vital ingredient in Parmesan chicken, she was told she would have to go back up; her face dropped.

“Do you need it?, she asked.

“Yes I need Parmesan for Parmesan chicken.”

*penny drops followed by a big sigh* “Can you not make cheddar chicken, we have lots of cheddar?

“Nope, you’ll have to run quickly.”

So she did, and came back with those flakes which aside from being a waste of money in comparison to getting a small block, are harder to break down into smaller pieces. But better than nothing.

I would definitely recommend the Smitten Kitchen chicken recipe. You do need to have your frying pan sizzling hot, which was hard on an electric cooker, but it was lovely and well worth doing.

NANNY has been sorting out my herbs and spices and I had a little chuckle when I saw this label.

I THOUGHT I would do another easy peasy recipe which I learned recently and thought I would share it with you. There is just one rule it has to be called Sheila’s Pie after Tetra’s Mum Sheila who shared her recipe with me.

It was over at Tetra’s flat one night when she reheated up her Mum’s much-loved mince steak pie and it was wonderful.

I have never managed pastry apart from my easy peasy pizza of course so I asked her to ask her Mum Sheila how she did it. The only problem was Sheila does it all by sight so she would have to stop and measure it all and she did.

So here it is, only my photo-step shows steak pieces pie but I will tell you how to do the mince one which is delicious AND apple-pie which I haven’t yet tried.

Measure 8oz of self-raising flour, place in a mixing bowl and add 2.5oz of Echo margarine and 2oz of whitecap lard (being in Dublin I couldn’t get these brands and I do not know whether or not it makes a difference to the taste I don’t think so).

Then mix together into breadcrumbs, use your fingers to work through the marg, lard and flour, sprinkling down on top of the bowl (ehm for lightness I think).

Would you believe I forgot an important step, open the wine!

Then you add half a mug of cold water and mix into a dough. If it is too sticky add a little more flour.

While all this is going on you could be frying up your onions.

When your onions are sauteed enough, take off the heat and set to the side.

Now this is where I did steak pieces. I bought round steak, thought I may experiment with more things, I figured stewing steak would take too long. I cut the steak into pieces and fryed until all pieces were brown.

If you would like to try the minced steak version, after you fry your onions and set to the side, fry off your mince (we used just under a pound in both cases, steak and mince steak – ehm I think 454 grams-ish but you will know what is too much) in a little water. Then when browned off drain off and mix with the onions.

Then get your pastry and place on a well-floured surface and cut in half. (I don’t know if I am wrong or right but I do little kneading, just until it is bound together.)

Roll your pastry out flat and large enough to cover the pyrex plate you are going to place it on, then trim around the side of the plate with a knife to get rid of the excess pastry.

Once you have covered the plate, add some gravy granules to your ingredients, but if you do not like the thought of that, you could add some cornflour mixed with a little water to your ingredients and mix well. You may see in the pic I also added some mushrooms to my steak pie which I fried off after frying the steak. Add your pie filling in the middle leaving just a little rim so you can join up the top pastry layer properly.

Then roll the second lump of dough (or is that pastry?) large enough to cover the top of your pie. Before you add the lid dab water around the outside of the pie. Then use a fork to bind the top and bottom layers together. To ensure the pie’s success you must also make S and P from your dough scrappings to honour Sheila’s great cooking.

Just to keep you in suspense as to how my pie turned out, I thought I’d show you a self-portrait of the aftermath of me baking, and this is just a snapshot, I was much flourier than this shows. I’ll get the hang of this sometime. Cook your pie for 25-ish minutes at 190.

And here it is, was and ended up.

It was delicious with mashed potatoes, gravy (I make a mean gravy) and garden peas. Perfect for wet autumn evenings like tonight.

(To make a mean gravy, fry off onions until burnt and I mean burnt, you could add red wine if you like, then add water and boil down. Sieve out the burnt onions, add some stock maybe from what you have been cooking but I normally save stock from Sunday dinners. I also at this stage add water vegetables have been cooked in like carrots or something, than add some cornflower mixed with water and thicken, yum.)

I have decided that some weekend I am going to make a load of this pastry and freeze it as I haven’t gotten the knack of making it very quickly yet. You can also make the pie and freeze it.

To make an apple tart make up your pastry as stated already. Take three cooking apples and slice very thinly. Heat in a small taste of water until it bubbles and then remove with apples with a slotted spoon. The add two and a half table-spoons of sugar to the mixture and make as above. Let me know how you get on.

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