Afternoon Tea

Mini Quiches

I loosely followed a recipe for this.
Cut24 circles from 2 sheets of thawed puff pastry, and gently press into well greased shallow muffin tins. Place a little grated cheese and finely chopped shaved ham into pastry, top with 3 eggs mixed with a couple of spoons of cream. Top with a little finely chopped chives and bake at 190C for about 15 minutes, or until pastry is cooked.

Orange date scones

Ingredients

• Melted butter or margarine, for greasing
• 2 1/3 cups (350g) self-raising flour
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 40g (2 tbs) butter
• 1 orange, rind finely grated, juiced
• 1 cup (165g) chopped dried dates
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 125mls (1/2 cup) milk
• Butter, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a baking tray with melted butter or margarine to grease lightly.
2. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the orange rind and dates.
3. Combine the orange juice, egg and milk in a small jug. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the combined liquids. Mix the liquid into the dry ingredients with a round-bladed knife until the mixture starts to come together. Use your hands to form the mixture into a ball. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and press into a 2cm-thick round. Cut out the dough with a floured 5cm scone cutter and place onto prepared tray. Repeat with any remaining dough scraps.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden and sound hollow when tapped. Serve warm with butter.

Roast Chicken with Herbed Tomato Rice

From Super Food Ideas Winter Warmers

4 chicken thigh cutlets, skin on
1 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, diced
8 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
2 tbs chopped fresh basil leaves
2 cups long grain white rice, rinsed
2 cups tomato puree
4 cups chicken stock
Steamed vegetables to serve

Preheat oven to 200C. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large, flamproof casserole dish over high heat. Add chicken. Cook, skin down for 5 to 6 minutes or until skin is golden brown. Turn and cook for 3 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a plate.

Add onion and thyme to the dish. Cook stirring occasionally for 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add parsley, basil, rice, tomato and stock. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat.

Place chicken, skin side up, on rice mixture. Season with pepper. Transfer to oven. Roast, uncovered, for 35 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is cooked through. Served with steamed vegetables.

Variations: 1) Add 1 cup pitted kalamata olives to the rice. 2) Add 1 chopped chorizo with the onion.

I used dried thyme and basil. Boys all loved it

Custard Powder Biscuits

These were a hit in the lunch boxes today, but I might need to try and tweak them so they are a bit healthier!

• 125g butter, softened
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup custard powder
• 80g white chocolate, roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until well combined.
3. Sift flour and custard powder together over butter mixture. Add white chocolate and stir until mixture forms a soft dough.
4. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls. Place on prepared trays, allowing room for spreading. Using a fork, press dough to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Apple and Custard Crumble

From Super Food Ideas Winter Warmers

1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 tbs vanilla custard powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
800 g can of pie apples
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
100 g butter
Cream and/or icecream to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Combine milk and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, whisk 1 1/2 tbs custard powder, 2 tbs caster sugar and 2 tbs cold water in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Add hot milk mixture in a dthin stream, whicking constantly. Return mixture to the pan.

Cook, whisking over medium heat until mixture comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Stir for 3 minutes or until reduced slightly.

Spoon apples into a six 1 cup capacity oven proof dishes. Pour over custard.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, remaining custard powder and remaining sugar in a bowl, stir to combine. Add butter. Using your fingertips rub butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Scatter crumble over custard. Place on a baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Serve with cream or icecream.

You can make 1 large crumble, by placing ingredients in a 6 cup capacity ovenproof dish. Bake for 30 minute or until golden.

I stewed my own apples in the microwave on the automatic stewed fruit setting, without any sugar. I also used wholemeal flour. Very yummy!

Lamb, Bean and Vegetable Soup

From a Woman's Weekly from 1998!

Can be made a day ahead.

2 tbs vegetable oil
1 kg lamb shanks
1 large onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1.5 L vegetable stock
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs tomato paste
2 small parsnips, diced
1 medium swede, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 x 300g cans butter beans, rinsed, drained
1 tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves

Heat half the oil in a large pan, add lamb in batches, cook until well browned all over. Heat remaining oil in the same pan, cook onion, stirring until soft. Add spices; stir until fragrant. Return lamb to pan with stock, sauce, paste and undrained tomatoes. Simmer, covered for 1 hour stirring occasionally. Add parsnips, swede, celery and carrot to pan, simmer covered about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove meat from bones, cut into large pieces and discard bones. Retrun meat to pan with beans, simmer uncovered another 10 minutes and stir in coriander.

To freeze, refrigerate soup until cold; skim any fat from the surface and place in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Place in a large pan, simmer uncovered until heated through.

Serves 4 - 6

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

From a Woman's Weekly from 1999!

1 medium leek (350g) sliced
60g butter
200g button mushrooms sliced
1/4 cup (35g) plain flour
1 tsp chicken stock powder
1 tbs seeded mustard
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 cups cooked chicken
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
1 tbs milk extra
ready rolled puff pastry

To prepare leek, remove dark green top and root end; cut leek in half lengthways. Hold leek under running water opening leaves to allow water to flow between leaves and rinse away grit, or swish in a bowl of water until clean.
Heat butter in a large pan; cook mushrooms, stirring until browned lightly. Add leek, cook stirring until leek is soft.. Stir in flour and stock powder; cook stirring for 1 minute. Gradually stir in milk then mustard, cook stirring until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in parsley, chicken and pepper, cool.
Place chicken mixture in oiled 7 cup capacity oven proof dish. Brush rim of dish with a little of the combined egg yolk and milk. Cut pastry to fit dish, trim edges. Make a strip 1.5 cm wide and long enough to fit the edge of the dish to make a double edge to give more puff. Scallop the edge of the pie if desired by pressing an upturned teaspoon into the pastry. Using a sharp knife, mark the sides of the pastry so that it puffs more during cooking. Place dish on an oven tray bake in a very hot oven (240C) for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 180C and bake for a further 10 minutes or until browned.

Serves 4 to 6. Suitable to freeze.

I used my new pan, which I am loving! I cooked the chicken in it first, then made the filling, then just put the pastry on top and popped it in the oven. I am all for reducing the number of dishes as much as possible!

Tollhouse Cookies

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
125g butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg beaten
1 tsp vanilla
100g choc bits, I used dark choc bits

Set oven to 180C
Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Stir in sifted flour and bicarb, and choc bits until well blended. Form into 5cm size pieces and place on greased baking trays, leaving room for spreading. Top with extra choc bits and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until golden brown.