My mother does meat and 3 vege 'til the cow comes home. She occasionally gets particularly adventurous and does packet mixes. Rice-a-Riso was a childhood treat! Do you remember that one?!
Anyhow, with the help of google and the multitude of recipe sites out there (and the multitude of kind people who contribute to those sites) I've expanded my repertoir considerably of recent years.
And now that my recipes are all organized in simple binders like this, I'm on a roll!
(see also My daughter's recipe book )
Last month I was trying to work out what to do with some beef mince that needed using and some shortcrust pastry that my husband bought by mistake (why is it that men don't read the fine writing - "puff pastry is similar to shortcrust pastry isn't it?"!!).
So I found a recipe for small pies that proved such a hit with the family that I have made many batches since. My girls have taken them to school and had to share them with friends. The school headmaster even admired them. Perhaps we have so much international cuisine in our diets these days (italian, chinese, thai, indian, ...) that the humble pie has now become exotic!!
I made a couple of pages about it:
And here is the text from the recipe (I do apologize that I have now lost the link to the original recipe). I have subsequently adapted it anyway with a change in quantities, the addition of zucchini and cornflour and sesame seeds.
Mini Pies
Makes 20
Ingredients
1 white onion, diced finely
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
500g premium beef mince
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 cup diced tomatoes
½ carrot, peeled and grated
1 stick celery, diced finely
1 small zucchini, diced finely
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried Italian herbs
2 sheets low-fat shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp cornflour
1 pkt 5 sheets shortcrust pastry
sesame seeds
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine the onion, garlic and olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and fry for 2 minutes, until softened. Add the mince and cook for 4 minutes, until browned. Mix in the tomato paste and cook until dry, then fold in the diced tomatoes.
- Fold in the carrot, celery, zucchini, Worcestershire sauce, cornflour and dried Italian herbs, then set aside to cool. Cut discs of shortcrust pastry to line 20 ½ cup muffin tins, then fill with the beef mixture.
- Cut pastry discs to top, then arrange on top and press to seal. Brush the tops with egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds, cut a small vent hole, then bake for 25 minutes, until golden.