Sweet pie crust

A sudden urge to eat a bakewell tart turned in to an experiment with sweet pie crust. Usually I use one of two recipes. One which I learned from my mother many many moons ago (click here for recipe) and the other from my "Spago desserts" recipe book. As I was looking for my recipe for bakewell tart I discovered yet another pie crust recipe.

This one came from the same friend who gave me the bakewell tart recipe. It came with the note "you probably have your own recipe, but here's one just in case". Now I'm not too keen on recipes that use either just egg yolks or just the whites. I think that this is a waste of half an egg. I guess if you could coordinate things well you could make two things in parallel. One that uses the whites and one that uses the yolks. However, I usually only have time to make one thing and then the rest of the egg gets forgotten in the fridge until it is rescued by someone who asks who's science experiment it is! So I've never used my friends crust recipe. In fact, I must admit, I never quite got past the list of ingredients. Since I had some time on my hands I read through it and although I still did not like the ingredients I found the method to be rather intriguing. So I combined a dough recipe from "Spago" together with the technique I learned from my mum to make dough and the technique from my friend as to setting up the pie crust. And what turned out is definitely a keeper. It's delicious, crisp and light.

The smaller ones are a bit over done!

Preparation time: 3 hours (but if you don't let it sit then it's done in an hour); makes 3 9" pie crusts

Ingredients:

4 oz	Ground almonds
1 lb 2 oz	Flour
12 oz	Butter, cold
8 oz	Sugar
1	Egg, lightly beaten

Method:

Ground almonds or almond meal is readily available in Germany (which is where I live). In the USA you may have to make your own. To do this put your almonds in an oven at 375 F and toast until golden 12-15 minutes. You will need to turn them so that they are evenly browned so after around 6 minutes. Allow your nuts to cool completely and then grind them. If you are in a country where almonds are scarce you have two options either omit them completely or substitute with a different nut. Whichever nut you use make sure you roast it first so that the crust is crunchy. Also if you use a different nut and it works please let everyone know in the comments below.

Put the ground almonds (or other nuts) together with the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix briefly. Then cut up the butter into small pieces and work it into the flour mixture using the technique described here.

Once your mixture looks like bread crumbs add the egg and mix everything together until it is just combined. Don't over knead your dough. It will become tough and will not taste good.

Now roll your dough into a sausage, wrap it in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, preferably overnight (If you are a busy mum use immediately. It won't be fabulous but it will be good enough for the masses).

About an hour before you plan on baking your pie take the dough out of the fridge. Cut it into thin slices and line your baking tray. Fill the gaps by pressing larger pieces gently together or by filling with small pieces of dough. The resulting pie will look like a most delicious patchwork quilt.

If you have the time put the pie crust in the fridge for another hour, or over night.

If you need to pre-bake your pie crust bake at 180 C (in a fan oven) for around 10 minutes (yes, this crust bakes really quickly). Fill your pie with filling and return to oven.
If you need just a pastry shell to fill with a cold filling then bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. The pie crust below is filled with lemon curd.

The recipe gives enough dough for 3 pie crusts. You can freeze the rest of the dough for later use. You can also just bake it in slivers for a crunchy cookie. 

Persian Omelette (Spinach and Potato Omelette)

Well now it is time for another one of those easy delicious meals. Fresh spinach seems to have become more available and less dirty. I remember using only fresh spinach in  the USA and not liking to cook with it, even though it was a favourite. It always took me so long to get all the sand out. And I do quite plainly remember that when we first came to Germany the spinach was equally as gritty. Thus I switched over to frozen spinach, but as I've said before nothing beats the fresh stuff. So if you have the time use fresh spinach to make this omelette. If you don't, it's still worth making it, because as my teenager said last night "This is really good" and I was using frozen spinach!

Preparation time: 3/4 hour; serves 2-4

Ingredients:

450 g	Fresh spinach OR
225 g	Frozen spinach
225 g	Potatoes
3 tbsp.	Oil
50 g	Onion
4	Eggs
1/2	Organic lemon
	Salt and pepper

Method:

First and foremost note that the preparation time does not include cleaning the fresh spinach. Depending on the state of it you can add on between 5 and 30 minutes!

Secondly note that this used to be plenty for the four of us but that was a while ago. Yesterday we ate it with a loaf of bread and it was enough food, but if this is all you are serving for a person with a normal appetite you may only get 2 portions out of it. You can also use it as a starter, in which case you should get 8 small servings. Another idea would be to cut it into cubes, stick tooth picks in it and serve it as finger food.

And a small third note before you get started. You need a lid for your frying pan. If you don't have one fashion one out of aluminium foil before you get started.

Fresh spinach: put the clean and still wet spinach into a pot with a lid and cook on medium for about 5 minutes or until the spinach is tender.

Frozen spinach: put in the microwave for 1 minute. Check if it is defrosted, if not put it in for another minute. Continue until the spinach is defrosted. The good thing about this recipe is that you don't mind if the spinach is cooked, or how well it is cooked. So you don't have to waste your time using the defrost setting of your microwave. If you do use the defrost setting you will be adding on a considerable amount of time to the preparation time.

While your spinach is cooking/defrosting you can peel and dice your potatoes and onions. The smaller you dice your potatoes the quicker they will cook and the better the omelette will hold together when cut. I cut mine really fine, maybe about 2-3 mm dice. ("Dice" just means cut into cubes.) The onions you can cut a bit larger.

By now the spinach is either cooked or defrosted. You now have to squeeze out as much water as possible. I use the method of squeezing it between two plates. It works especially well if your spinach is hot, as is the case in this recipe, because you don't have to touch it. Place all the spinach on a regular sized plate. Put an identical plate on top of it. The second plate should NOT be upside down. Put it in the same orientation as if you were stacking the plates for storage. Then hold the plates over the sink, perpendicular to the ground, and squeeze hard. I shake mine a bit to get the excess liquid out faster.

You can now let your spinach stand for a bit while you finish dicing the onions and the potatoes. Once you are done dicing them put a heavy bottomed frying pan or skillet on the cooker on medium high and add 2 tbsp. oil. Once the oil is hot add the potatoes and fry for 5 minutes. To make them evenly brown you will need to stir them every now and then. After 5 minutes add the onions and continue to fry until the potato is just tender. Here again, how long this takes will depend on the size of your dice.  For me it took 5 minutes but it could take up to 10 (unless you have REALLY large dice!). Remove from the heat and set aside.

Now while the potatoes and onions are frying it's the perfect opportunity to finely chop the spinach and put the rest of the omelette together.

In a large bowl lightly beat the eggs. Then grate the rid of half of the lemon and add it to the eggs. Because you are using the rind you have to check carefully if the rind is suitable to eat. If it is organic it probably is, hence I try to always use organic lemon. But even some non-organic lemons have a note on them saying that the rind can be eaten. If you use non-organic ones and it does not say anything I would be cautious and not use the rind. Then add the juice of half the lemon, the spinach and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything well and then add the fried potato and onion and mix.

If you like, once the omelette is cooked you can put it under a grill to make the top a bit brown. If you want to do this make sure that for the next step you use a frying pan or skillet that can be put under the grill. If you don't have such a frying pan, don't fret you can just leave the grill out altogether. It will do nothing to the taste.

Heat your frying pan over medium heat and add the oil if necessary. If you use the same pan that you used to fry the potatoes it is highly likely that you have enough oil in the pan. I usually do. Once the oil is hot add the mixture. Put a lid on the frying pan. If you don't have a lid cover it with foil. Cook gently until the egg is just set i.e. no longer soggy. The bottom of the omelette should not burn if you keep the heat on medium. It takes 10-15 minutes to set.

If you like you can now stick the whole thing under the grill to brown the top.

I served this with a fresh loaf of pumpkin seed bread and salted butter. It was a hit! But you could also serve it with a salad.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Chili

It's one of those days again. Parent teachers night together with the normal shuttling the kids to their normal after school activities. Added on to me wanting to finish the final book in Terry Prattchets discworld series. Well that is not happening tonight!

So I'm going for a single dish because we probably won't be able to sit down together as a family and eat it. Quick and easy mainly from cans. Not too big in the fresh veggie department although you could definitely substitute everything here with fresh stuff. It would just take longer (probably will taste better though).

Preparation time: 1/2 hour; serves 6-8 

Ingredients:

100 g	Onion
2 cloves	Garlic
360 g	Vegan soya mince
2 tbsp.	Oil
225 g	Red bell pepper (sub. w/capsicums or any other pepper)
2 cans	Tomatoes (dry weight 480 g)
1/4 can	Water
1 can	Black beans, drained (you could use kidney beans too) (dry weight 240 g)
1 can	Corn, drained (dry weight 285 g)
1 1/2 tsp.	Salt
1/2 tsp.	Pepper
1 tsp.	Chili powder
1 tsp.	Cumin, ground

Method:

This can be made very quickly and is great recipe to have when I'm stuck for time.

First dice the onion (or chop it, or cut it, or slice it!) and grate the garlic. Open up the soya mince and if it needs to be broken down, because it is all in one clump, do this now. The type I buy is in a clump and it is really difficult if you just put it in the pan and then try to break it up. The method that works best for me is to put the lump in a bowl and break it up with my fingers.

Then put a large pan on the stove on high heat. Once the pan is hot add the oil and then the onion and garlic. Stir all the time to prevent burning. 1 minute of frying should do. Next add the mince, reduce the heat to medium/high and fry it stirring occasionally.
While the mince is frying wash and dice the red bell pepper and add it to the frying pan. Keep stirring everything so that it does not burn.

While everything is cooking quickly open your tomato cans, roughly chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan. Wash the cans out with 1/4 can of water and add this to the pan too. If you don't have canned tomatoes you can substitute with regular tomatoes of an equivalent weight. You should cut them before you start cooking though else you won't be able to get them to the pan quick enough to prevent burning. The redder your tomatoes the better your chili. Don't forget to stir to prevent burning. After about 3 minutes, once the bell pepper is sufficiently cooked add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and cook. You could take it off immediately or you could let it simmer for 30 minutes or so. If you let it simmer make sure that it does not burn by stirring it every now and then and adding more water if necessary.

You can serve your chili simply with bread, flat breads, rice or potatoes. We love it as a topping for baked potatoes together with sour cream, chives, butter and cheese. Or eat it out of a bowl as is. It's also a hit at pot lucks!