Chicken and Ham Sandwich Pies

These are the coolest things ever and also the yummiest. These are just absolutely brilliant if you want a sandwich but don't have time to make one, make a whole batch in advance then freeze them and then you can just pull one out when you need it. They are seriously good and such a brilliant way to make a sandwich!

Chicken and Ham Sandwich Pies (from Good Food Magazine July 2011)

(Makes 10)

2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped

100g thick sliced ham, chopped

6 spring onions, finely chopped

100g strong cheddar, grated

3 tbsp full fat soft cheese

2 tsp English mustard

500g pack bread mix

plain flour for dusting

1 egg, beaten

Make the filling by mixing the chicken, ham, spring onion, cheeses and mustard with some seasoning, stir well to combine, then pop in the fridge until later. You can do this up to a day ahead.

Make the bread mix following pack instructions. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, shape into balls then roll out on a floured surface into circles 12cm in diameter.

Heat the oven to 200C. Grease 10 holes of a muffin tin. Put a dough circle into one of the holes, push in lightly, then fill with 2 tbsp of the filling mix. Gather the dough together with your fingers and pinch to create a little parcel that looks a bit like a big flower – don’t worry about totally sealing the dough as the filling will bubble through anyway, which makes the parcels look even better. Keep doing this until you have used all the dough and filling mix.

Brush the parcels with beaten egg and cook for 25-30 mins until golden and risen.Serve with a spoonful of your favourite chutney, if you like.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I finally found some chicken sausage in a butchers in Walthamstow, but I found it a bit dry in this dish. I think I could have done with a bit more pasta water to loosen things off a bit. Also this is something a bit different to do with those leftover brussels sprouts.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Brussels Sprouts (from Two Peas and a Pot)
(Serves 4)

450g brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and outer leaves removed, then sliced in half

3 tbsp oil

salt and pepper

250g dried pasta shapes

4 chicken sausage links, sliced 1/2cm thick

4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

4 tbsp pesto

Parmesan cheese, for serving

Preheat oven to 200C. In a large bowl, mix together brussels sprouts, 2 tbsp oil, salt and pepper. Gently stir until well-combined.

Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil, then spread the brussels sprouts on it evenly. Roast for about 15-30 mins, stirring once partway through, until they are crispy on the outside and cooked on the inside. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning occasionally, until nearly-browned, about 6-8 mins. Add the garlic, and continue cooking for another 1-2 mins until the garlic is fragrant and the sausage is browned.

Meanwhile Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water, and then toss together the pasta, pesto, cooked sausage and garlic, and brussels sprouts. Add in some of the reserved pasta water if needed for extra moisture.

Serve sprinkled with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

Chicken and Ham Lasagne

This is another wonderful way to use up leftovers. Although I made a bit of a mistake. I thought the pasta was precooked and so put it in dry but obviously it wasn't as it just went all crispy and uncooked. I'm realloy kicking myself as this looked like a delicious lasagne. The bits that were edible were really good. Ah well we all make mistakes and I'll just have to try it again next year when I have leftover ham!

 

Chicken and Ham Lasagne (from The English Kitchen)

(Serves 4-6)

 

75g unsalted butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

50g plain flour

700ml of milk

300ml chicken stock

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

salt and pepper

8 cubes of frozen leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

400g of cooked chicken, diced

200g cooked ham, diced

8 sheets dried lasagne

250g of strong Cheddar cheese, grated

 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a large casserole dish. Set it aside.Melt a third of the butter in a saucepan. Add the onions and cook gently for a few minutes until it begins to soften without browning. Add the garlic. Cook for a further two minutes. Scoop out and set aside.

 

Add the remaining butter to the pan. Whisk in the flour to make a smooth paste. Slowly whisk in the milk, until it is completely mixed in and smooth. Whisk in the chicken stock as well. You should have a thickened sauce which coats the back of a spoon. Season with the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix together the ham and chicken. Place half of it into the bottom of the baking dish. Cover with half of the spinach and onion and garlic. Spoon 1/3 of the sauce over top. Top with four lasagne sheets. Spoon the remainder of the ham/chicken mixture and the spinach over top. Spoon over another 1/3 of the sauce. Top with the remaining four sheets of lasagne. Spoon the remaining sauce over all and sprinkle the cheese over top to cover.

 

Place onto a baking sheet and bake in the heated oven for 55 minutes until it is deliciously golden brown and bubbling. Allow to stand a few minutes before serving. Cut into squares to serve.

Ham and Corn Scalloped Potatoes

What to do with leftovers? We had lots of leftovers from the baked ham we had on Boxing Day which is fantastic as I had so many dishes I wanted to try. This is the first leftover ham dish, so simple; corn, ham and potatoes baked together. Delicious!

Ham and Corn Scalloped Potatoes (from The English Kitchen)
(Serves 4)

1 400g tin of creamed corn
leftover baked ham, sliced about 1/3 in thick
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into slices, about 1/3 inch thick
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
170ml milk, scalded (heat just until bubbles appear around the edges of the milk in the pan)
salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter, cut into bits

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease a 2l casserole dish.

Layer up everything in the casserole dish, beginning with a spoon ful of the corn on the bottom, then add 1/3 of the potatoes, half of the onion, half the flour, 1/3 of the butter, some salt and pepper to taste ssome more creamed corn and half of the ham.

Do another layer with 1/3 of the potatoes, the remaining onion, the remaining flour, 1/3 more of the butter, salt and pepper and the remainder of the ham, and half of the remaining corn. Top with a final layer of potatoes, and the rest of the corn. Season lightly and dot with the remaining butter. Pour in the milk. You may not need all of it. You just want to barely see it through the top, it should only fill the dish about 2/3 full.

Cover with a lid and bake for about 45 mins. Uncover and bake for a further 15 mins, or until the potatoes are tender and the casserole is golden brown. Serve hot.

Spinach, Feta and Chickpea Burgers

I made these a little while back and they were really delicious, a bit of a different burger with the feta included in them. I served mine on a bun with some barbecue sauce and pickles.

 

Spinach, Feta and Chickpea Burgers (from Amuse Your Bouche)

(Serves 4-6)

1½ x 400g tins chickpeas, drained

1 egg

120g feta cheese, cut into 1cm dice

40g spinach, finely chopped

3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 spring onions, sliced

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Add the chickpeas and the egg to a food processor, and process for 30 secs or so until a thick paste is formed. Transfer this mixture to a large bowl, and add the feta, spinach, parsley and spring onions. Season with plenty of black pepper and a little salt and mix well.

Shape the mixture into a few burger shapes, and place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Place in the oven for around 40 mins, until firm and golden brown. Serve.

Glace en Surprise or Baked Alaska

This is the first time I have ever eaten baked Alaska, it's one of those nursery puds from people's childhoods, it was really good but I think I over did it a bit as we had a whole small tub of ice cream between three of us! But we demolished the lot!!

Glace en Surprise (from Cordon Bleu Cookery Course)

(Serves 4)

2 eggs

butter

sugar

flour

For the meringue

2 egg whites

4oz caster sugar

2-3 drops vanilla essence

Caster sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Weight out the ingredients so that each weighs to the same as the two eggs. If you have digital scales weigh the egg and then weigh each the butter, flour and sugar to the same weight. Cream together the butter and the sugar and then beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon and bake for 20 mins until golden brown.

Have the sponge cake and the ice cream ready made. Choose a plate or silver dish and chill it well.

To prepare the meringue: whisk the egg whites stiffly, add 2-3 rounded tsp of the caster sugar and vanilla essence and whisk again until stiff. Fold in the remaining sugar. Fill into a piping bag.

Place the sponge cake on the dish, scoop out the ice cream and arrange in top of the sponge. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream to cover it completely. Dust the meringue well with caster sugar, leave for 1 min, then put the cake into the oven and cook for about 4 mins or until the meringue is lightly browned. Serve at once.

Baked Glazed Ham

This was our Boxing Day feast, a lovely baked ham. We had it with bubble and squeak and mustard. Delicious!

Baked Glazed Ham (from Leiths Meat Bible)

1 ham or gammon joint

1 onion

1 carrot

1 bay leaf

fresh parsley stalks

black peppercorns

2 tbsp demerara sugar

1 tsp dry English mustard

1 handful cloves

Soak the joint overnight in cold water to remove excess salt.

Place the joint in a large saucepan of cold water and add the onion, carrot, bay leaf, parsley stalks and peppercorns. Being slowly to the boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer and over the pan. Large joints weighing more than 3.5kg should be simmered for 25 mins per 450g. Joints weighing less than 3.5kg should be simmered for 20 mins per 450g. Do not allow the water to boil as the ham may dry out.

Heat the oven to 220C.

Lift the joint out of the poaching liquor and carefully trim off the skin with a sharp knife., leaving a thin coating of fat on the joint. Reserve the liquor for ham stock.

Mix the sugar and mustard together and press the mixture evenly over the fat.

Using a sharp knife, cut the diamond lattice pattern across the coated fat. If any sugar falls ff press it back on again. Stick a clove into the centre of each diamond segment or into the cuts where the lines cross.

Stand the joint upright on a roasting rack over a roasting pan, fat side up. Bake the joint for about 20 mins or until brown and slightly caramelised. 

Carve into thick slices and serve.

Washington DC and New York

I have just spent a very enjoyable week in Washington DC and New York. I started off the week visiting a friend in DC, going to the Museum of American History and walking round the monuments as well as visiting the Museum of Medican History and the Zoo and all of it was free! They also took me grocery shopping to Safeway and Wegmans, which was enormous! I happily found and bought three different sorts of mint chocolate chips something which is impossible to find in Manhattan!
 

We also went to Pete's New Haven Style Pizza restaurant in Silver Springs, north of DC where they live. I had a metro north pizza with white sauce, pork, pancetta and caramelised onions. It was delicious, I was also surprised but also pleased to note that they served up a gluten free pizza crust to one of our party without any problems. Not something that would ever happen in England!

 

As we were walking through a Union Station to catch my train we passed a Crumbs Bakery outlet with a huge range of enormous cupcakes including a cannoli cupcake! At $4 they weren't cheap but it was probably one of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten. 

I returned to New York on Monday and commenced a week of eating a lot of cake and going to the theatre. 

 

This started with a not very healthy serving of curly fries which I just couldn't resist. I went to see Mockingjay at the cinema and there they were, I love curly fries it's something to do with eating them as a treat as a child that means I can't resist them now! The film was ok, given that it's the first half of the book it was well done.

On Tuesday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to an exhibition about mourning dress which was fascinating. The picture is of Queen Alexandra's half mourning dress, it was beautiful with lots of fantastic sequins, the whole exhibition was fascinating. We also went to an exhibition about Kimono, which was also really good and explained the history of the kimono and how patterns changed through the centuries right up to present day.

For lunch we went to Lady M, where we had sandwiches and then we got some cakes to take home as my father wanted one as well. When we opened the box at home instead of the three cakes we paid for we had four! I was having trouble deciding between the gateau nuage and the crepe cake and she slipped in a piece of crepe cake for me to try!

How fantastically lovely of them. I had read about Lady M in a book called the Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones and explained this to the waitress. So we had those two cakes as well as an Apple Flan and Strawberry Mille Feuille. All were delicious but I didn't think that the gateau nuage was as good as the cheesecake I had a the Two Little Red Hens bakery in April. The crepe cake however was really good. In the evening we went to see The Good Ship, Stings musical about the shipyards in Tyne side. There were some very interesting Geordie accents and I'm not sure that it would work in the West End especially with hardy ship workers dancing in formation!

 

On Wednesday we walked down to the Rockefeller Centre to see the huge Christmas tree and ice skating rink and then down to Grand Central Station to look at the Christmas market there. In fact we went to four Christmas markets! We had lunch in Juniors at Grand Central Station. I had a delicious banana milkshake and a brisket melt.

 

 

The milkshake was delicious but the sandwich was a bit dry and there wasn't enough Au jus for the whole sandwich. In the afternoon we went to see Weisental, which was about the Jewish Nazi hunter after the Second World War. In the evening we went to see A Christmas Memory, all about memories of Alabama Christmas', it was a very sweet tale, even if some of the singing was a bit dodgy.

 

 

On Wednesday we went to the Strand Book Store which I love, and I bought a grains cookbook as well as some foodie fiction. Then we went to the Christmas Market at Untion Square where we ate Cannoli! Pictures above are mud pie, chocolate, original, apple pie, pistachio and pumpkin pie from Artisanal Cannoli. The best were the mud pie and the original flavours. We then walked up to the cook shop Fishes Eddy where I bought a couple of ice cream flutes, a small palate knife and a deep dish apple pie dish. In the afternoon I went to two exhibitions at FIT, one on fashion and dance and the other on counterfeiting and fakes both were excellent.

 

 

For lunch I finally had fish tacos with red cabbage, pico di gallo and spicy mango sauce on wholemeal wraps. They were really good. Then on Thursday afternoon I went grocery shopping again and bought the final few things to bring back. 

 

I also got some of the famed Banana pudding from the magnolia bakery which was fully of banana and so so good. In the evening I went to see Matilda at the theatre which was superb, a proper Broadway musical.

Finally on Friday, the last day and always a bit of a dead day we made our way to the Christmas market at the bottom of Central Park and had lunch. I had Cajun chicken gumbo and finally got my first taste of andouille sausage. It was lovely and spicy but not so spicy I couldn't eat it. 

 

I tried a caramel Cronut filled with cream which was lovely but not as good as the salted caramel Cronut I had from Selfridges a little while ago. We also had a wander around William Sonoma and Whole Food Market just to look at the variety of food on offer. Then we travelled to the airport.

I think the only thing I missed out on doing that I wanted to do was to go to the Waldorf Astoria and try the original proper red velvet cake made from beetroot but there's always next time!

This is the booty I brought back:

Jamie's 15 Minute Meals: Swedish Meatballs with Celeriac and Spinach

I tried another Jamie Meal, I really am whopping though this cookbook, I made a major change to this recipe and left out the rice because I ate so much chocolate during the day that I decided I didn't need the rice too! Nevertheless and despite using 3 pans this was a really tasty meal. My meatballs actually stayed together and resemble meatballs and that must be the first time that's ever happened! Also much cheaper than the crab/smoked trout recipes.

Swedish Meatballs with Celeriac and Spinach (from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)
(Serves 4)

1 celeriac
olive oil
a few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme
200g baby spinach

Meatballs
200g lean beef mince
200g lean pork mince
1/2 bunch of fresh dill
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 swig of vodka
4 tsp cranberry jam
4 tbsp single cream
4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt, to serve 

Carefully trim the knobbly end of the celeriac, remove the skin, then dice it into 1cm pieces. Put into the casserole pan with 1 tbsp of oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, the thyme leaves and a splash of boiling water. Put the lid on, turn the heat to high and cook, stirring regularly. 

Put all the mince into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, finely chop and add most of the dill, then mix and scrunch together with clean hands. Divide the mixture into 4, then pinch and quickly roll out 5 balls from each piece with wet hands. Pour 1 tbsp of oil into the hot frying pan, add the meatballs and caraway seeds, turn the heat up to high and toss regularly until the meatballs are golden. 

Stir the spinach into the casserole pan, then season to taste. Add a good swig of vodka to the meatballs, carefully light it with a match (if you want), let the flames subside, then add the jam, cream and a few good splashes of water, and simmer. Season and serve with the rice, scatter with the remaining dill leaves and yoghurt. 

Turkey and Broccoli Rice Bake

This is a lovely cheesy leftovers dish and perfect after thanksgiving or at any time as it could be made with leftover roast chicken. I love rice bakes and this was no exception really tasty and comforting on these long winter nights!

Turkey and Broccoli Rice Bake (from The English Kitchen)
(Serves 4-6)

250g long grain rice, cooked

3 mugs cooked turkey, chopped

2 mugs cooked chopped broccoli

1 tin condensed cream of chicken soup

2 dessert spoons of mayonnaise

2 stalks of celery, trimmed and chopped

1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped

225g strong cheddar cheese, grated

salt and pepper

handful crushed round buttery crackers

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a large shallow baking dish. Set aside.

Stir together the rice, turkey, broccoli, soup, mayonnaise, onion and celery in a bowl. Add half of the cheese and stir again. Season to taste with some salt and pepper. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Cover tightly with some foil.

Bake for 30 to 35 mins, until the rice is cooked and the casserole is bubbling. Remove from the oven, top with the remaining cheese and crushed crackers. Bake for a further about 10 mins until the cheese is nicely melted on top and it is lightly browned. Serve hot.