Friday 13 June 2008

breakfast cake, coconut chicken soup, pigeon pie

Breakfast



For me - banana coconut smoothie
For the kids - Breakfast cake

Breakfast cake
(makes 9 kid portions, 6 adult)
4-5 cups oatmeal or rolled oats
1-2 cups yogurt
4 eggs
1 tbsp - 1 cup sweetener to taste (I use a tablespoon of whole sugar or maple syrup)
3/4 cup coconut oil or melted butter
1-2 cups milk or cream (or a mix)
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp baking powder
1-2 cups fruit (fresh, dried or frozen - I used frozen raspberries today)
1 mashed ripe banana

Soak oats overnight in yogurt and 1-2 cups warm water overnight. Add a tbsp of freshly ground wheat if possible. If I am using rolled oats I put the mixture through the blender. You don't have to - if you use just the oats you get a lovely custardy base with a cakey oat topping, blending gives a more consistent texture.
Preheat oven to gas mark 4. Mix eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, baking powder and spice. Add milk and mix. Add the fruit and the oats and mix well. Pour into 9x13 inch pan. Bake for an hour until set.

This recipe is very fluid - you can mess with just about all the ingredients and amounts depending on what you have around and it is still great. It freezes well and is nice as a cold snack.


Banana coconut smoothie

From eat fat lose fat

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup whole coconut milk
2 tbsp maple syrup (I leave this out - waaaay too sweet for me otherwise)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Process in a blender until smooth. Add water to get the right thickness. Enjoy!


Lunch

Coconut chicken soup

This is from Eat Fat Lose Fat.
Serves 4
1 can whole coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup brown rice (optional)
1/4 tsp crushed red chillis
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tsp salt or 1 tbsp thai fish sauce
1 tsp natural sugar (I leave this out - I like the soup slightly tart)
Juice of 1 lemon or two limes
1 tbsp fresh basil leaves
1 cup chopped chicken (cooked or raw)

Place all ingredrients but the chicken into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for abot 1 1/2 hours, or until rice is cooked (if not using rice, simmer for about 30 minutes). Add the chicken 15 minutes before serving.
Be careful when simmering this - it boils over really easily. I find it best to take it off the heat after it boils, reduce the heat to the minimum, then put the pan back.


Dinner

Pigeon pie

1lb chuck steak
10 pigeon breasts
Seasoned flour and cooking fat (I used beef dripping)
4 oz bacon or ham, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, thickly sliced
8 oz flaky pastry *
1 1/2 pints good stock
dash Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/350 oF/ 180 oC
Dice the steak and coat in seasoned flour. Brown in the cooking fat and place in the bottom of a large pie dish. Next layer the pigeon breasts on top, then the bacon or ham, then eggs. Season with salt and pepper and add a little parsley if possible. Pour on two tbsp if water. Then top with the flaky pastry, leaving a hole in the middle (I put a china blackbird into mine because it amuses the kids! Shame it ended up at a drunken angle). Bake for two hours in a moderate oven.
Before serving, pour a little boiling stock, which has had the Worcestershire sauce added to it, into the pie. Traditionally served with potatoes and veg.

*Flaky pastry - cheats version!

4oz butter
6oz plain flour
pinch salt

Weight out the butter and put it in the freezer for about half an hour. When it is cold and hard, put the flour into a mixing bowl and grate the butter over it, using a course grater. Then mix the butter around in the flour using a palette knife - coating the fat with flour. Add two tbsp of cold water and continue to mix with the knife for as long as possible (the heat of your hands is not good for pastry). Keep adding water a little at a time until the pastry comes together in a ball that is not sticky and there is no flour left in the bowl. Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour before use. Freezes very well. This recipe makes enough for two pigeon pies.

I don't often use white or unsoaked flour in our meals, but occasionally I do a pastry with it. I do have some great wholemeal, soaked pastry recipes but every so often it is nice to indulge.

3 comments:

spughy said...

Thanks for the pigeon pie recipe! (But you got that cheater flaky pastry recipe from Delia Smith, didn't you? :-D I use it too.)

Ruth said...

Yep! I often use Delia's recipes as a starting point. My Mum is a former home ec teacher and is a font of wisdom when it comes to cooking. But you cannot get recipes from her over the phone (quantities are often 'um... I don't know....just pour a bit in') so Delia it is!

Ruth said...

Oh and I think I got the pigeon pie recipe from Mrs Beeton - another much thumbed kitchen book. Everyone I know owns one but I may be the only person I know who uses it regularly!