Peach Pie

I was given some lovely peaches by a neighbour last week. I had used some to make a peach chutney, that I will write about soon, but the rest were sitting in the fruit bowl and I was starting to worry that they would go bad. While I do like peaches, they are not my favourite stone fruit to just grab and eat, that prize goes to nectarines. This afternoon I decided to use them up I would make a peach pie. I wasn't sure that I had enough fruit to make a full pie so decided to go with some individual pies. I pulled out my Mum's recipe book and used her recipe being sure it wouldn't fail me and nor did it. They turned out extremely well. Just the right amount of sweetness. They could have used a touch more spice though. I think perhaps nutmeg instead of cinnamon. Excellent way to use up the peaches I think. 

Peach Pie

Crust: 

2 cups plain flour

2 tbsp caster sugar 

160 g butter, diced 

1 egg. lightly whisked

1 tbsp vinegar

water to make 2/3 c 

Add flour, caster sugar and butter to food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Combine egg and vinegar and add water to make up 2/3 cup. With the motor running add about 3/4 of the liquid, adding more if necessary, until it comes together. Wrap in glad wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

Break off small pieces roll out to line 4 individual pie pans, remembering that you need enough for lids as well.

Filling: 

6 peaches, peeled & diced 

1/3 - 1/2 c sugar (depending on sweetness of peaches) 

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg

Pre-heat oven to 180 C.

Mix sugar, flour and spice together and then pour over peaches and stir to coat. 

Divide filling evenly between pie tins.

Roll out the remaining dough for the tops of the pies and place on top. Crimp edges as desired to enclose. Make two cuts in the top of the pies and then place on a baking tray and bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Turning the tray halfway through to brown the pies evenly. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Chicken, watermelon & mozzarella salad with mint dressing

No, I promise I haven't abandoned my lovely little blog. I have just been dealing with some personal issues/stresses in my life for the past month and have had a bit of trouble coming up with stuff to post. Also, I haven't really been cooking that much. I have a few things to post but not that much. 

I made this dish quite some time ago now and didn't get around to posting about it then. It was really good. I started out with this recipe over on Taste but made a few changes with regards to what I had and personal taste. I made the mint dressing as per the recipe, using regular mint in place of the spearmint. I set aside a little for drizzling. Then I marinated the chicken in the rest for about an hour. I browned the chicken over a medium high heat for a minute on both sides and then baked in the oven at 180 C for about 15 minutes. I didn't cook the onion. I just sliced some half moons. I added butter lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes and capsicum. I also didn't use the haloumi as I had some buffalo mozzarella that needed to be used up so I just tore it into chunks. It was definitely a very refreshing dinner for a warm day. 

 Chicken, watermelon & mozzarella salad with mint dressing

1 bunch mint, leaves picked

2 tbs capers

1 large clove garlic

1/2 cup (125ml) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing

2 tbs lemon juice

4 chicken breast fillets

1.25kg piece seedless watermelon, rind removed, cut into small wedges

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

1 red capsicum, sliced 

1/2 red onion, sliced 

2 balls buffalo mozzarella, torn into chunks

1 head butter lettuce, leaves torn 

Method: 

Finely chop mint, capers and garlic, then place in a bowl. Add oil and lemon juice, then season with salt and pepper. Reserve a couple of tablespoons for drizzling and then add chicken breasts and let marinate for 1 hour. 

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Heat fry pan over medium high heat and brown chicken for 1 - 2 minutes each side then place pan in the oven for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. 

Allow chicken to sit for 5 minutes and then slice thickly. 

Combine all ingredients on plates and drizzle with reserved dressing.

February 2012 - Coppa, Peach & Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

I actually made the recipe from the February issue back at the end of January. The magazine comes out a week or so before the start of the month so plenty of time to look through it and decide on what to make. 

I had several things marked in this issue to try out. I am very keen to try out Belinda Jeffrey's crispy potatoes with bacon and rosemary. I think they would be the perfect side dish to a roast dinner, probably lamb I think. I also really like the sound of Belinda's Peperonata & spaghettini frittata with harissa cream. It sounds just wonderful, although it does use 10 eggs and serve 6 - 8. That is a lot of food. I might try cutting the recipe in half but not sure how it will go. The full recipe is cooked in a 30 cm fry pan, I assume that my 24 cm pan would work for half the recipe. 

I was also very interested in Jessica Brook's Mixed pepper crusted steak with mushroom salad. I didn't have the dried green peppercorns though. I hope that I can find some and make it though. As it sounds really good. I also like that the mushroom salad uses char-grilled mushrooms. Jessica's Lamb burgers with buffalo mozzarella and cucumber salad. I love burgers and this sounds like a wonderful combination. I think I might make them some time this week. 

My grandparents had given me some lovely peaches so I decided to make Liz Condon's Bresaola, grilled peach & buffalo mozzarella salad. Unfortunately I couldn't get bresaola so instead I purchased some coppa. I was able to get some buffalo mozzarella, it was so very good. It is a shame that I haven't been able to get it since. I hope that they will get some more in. I also added some halved cherry tomatoes and sliced red onion. It was a simple and easy salad to make and was very good. 

Coppa, Peach & Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

Ingredients: 

• 4 peaches, halved and stones removed 
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Juice 1/2 lemon 
• 1 bunch rocket
• 12 slices coppa 
• 2 x 150 g buffalo mozzarella ball, torn
• punnet cherry tomatoes, halved 
• 1/2 red onion, sliced

Method: 

• Heat fry pan over medium-high heat. Brush peaches with oil and then cook until slightly charred. Let cool and peel. 
• Mix together oil & lemon juice and season.
• Arrange all ingredients on serving plate and drizzle with dressing. 

Paradise Pear, Pancetta & Camembert Tart

Wow, is it February already? Hard to believe really. I haven't been all that well over the past couple of weeks so they have seemed to kind of disappear. Hopefully things will improve though. 

I haven't been doing a lot of cooking but I did make these lovely little tarts a while ago. While shopping the one day I saw a package of Paradise Pears. These are tiny little pears. I remembered seeing them in stores last year too but hadn't bought them. So I decided that I would get some and experiment. I decided to use some in a savoury dish. I came across this recipe on Taste and adapted it to how I wanted them to be. I served it with a lovely little side salad. It was a perfect result, if I do say so myself. The sweetness from the caramelised onion & pears combined perfectly with the salty pancetta and silky custard. Camembert was just the icing on the cake.

Paradise Pear, Pancetta & Camembert Tart

Pastry:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
125 g butter, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp white vinegar
water to make up 1/2 c with egg & vinegar

Combine flour & salt, cut in butter. Combine egg & vinegar and add water. Add slowly to flour & butter mixture until you get a soft pastry. (You probably wont need all the liquid) Wrap in glad wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll out and line 10 cm individual tart pans. Place tart pans on a baking tray and chill in freezer for 20 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 180 C.
Line pastry shells with baking paper and fill with pie weights/beans/rice and bake for 15 minutes. Remove baking paper and weights and return to oven for a further 10 - 15 minutes or until slightly golden.

For filling: 

3 Paradise pears 

30 g butter

2 tsp brown sugar 

2 tbsp caramelised onions

4 very thin slices pancetta

150 g camembert

2 eggs 

1/2 c milk

salt & pepper, to taste

Halve and core pears. Heat half the butter in a pan over a medium heat until foamy. Add 3 pear halves and cook until golden. Sprinkle with half the sugar and cook, turning occasionally, until caramelised. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining butter, and the remaining pears and sugar. 

Wipe out fry pan and increase heat to medium high. Add pancetta slices and cook until crispy. Remove to a plate lined with paper to drain, and then crumble. 

Place a small amount of caramelised onions in the bottom of each tart shell, top with some crumbled pancetta, two pear halves and some chunks of camembert. 

Lightly beat eggs in a measuring jug, add milk and salt & pepper and whisk to combine then pour into tart tins. 

Bake at 180 C (fan forced) for 18 - 20 minutes or until set and golden. 

January 2012 - Pork skewers with peanut noodle salad

Wow, it is nearly the end of the month already. It seems to have both flown by but dragged at the same time. I have a new accounting system to learn at work which has been keeping me busy. So I have been doing easy meals this month.

As usual this is a double issue so I had already made something for it for December. In previous years the December/January issues have been filled with Christmas recipes but this year there was a nice variety of other recipes. I did just realise though that both the recipe I made for December and the one for January were from the same feature by David Morgan. A variety of different menus. December was Moroccan, for January I went with the Vietnamese. These were both very good recipes. I particularly enjoyed the pork skewers. They were supposed to be barbecued but since I don't have a gas bottle for my barbecue I just grilled them instead. It was also a very thrifty meal since I had everything to make it in the house including pork fillet in the freezer. 

Pork Skewers 

Ingredients: 

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 red onion, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce 
• zest & juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar 
• 1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced 
• 500 g pork fillets, sliced into 3 cm pieces. 

Method: 

• Combine everything in a non-reactive dish and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. 
• Remove pork from marinade and thread onto skewers. 
• Cook under grill for 3 - 5 minutes each side or until cooked. 

Peanut Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

• 100 g dried thin rice stick noodles
• 1/2 cucumber, roughly chopped 
• 100 g snow peas, sliced
• 1/4 red capsicum, sliced 
• Handful mint and parsley leaves, chopped 
• 50 g peanuts, roughly chopped (I used cashews) 
• zest & juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp brown sugar or palm sugar 
• 2 tsp olive oil 
• 2 drops sesame oil

Method: 

• Soak rice noodles in boiling water until soft. Drain. 
• Add cucumber, snow peas, capsicum, herbs and nuts. Toss to combine. 
• In a small dish combine zest, juice, soy, sugar and oils and mix well. Add to salad and toss to combine.