This is a reworking of my Hunza Pie recipe from years ago, but I realised that I don't have the updated gluten-free version anywhere handy to share with friends, so here it is. This is a fabulous recipe for when you come home from the local farmers' markets with a bunch of the green leaves du jour and no idea what to do with them, since the "spinach" of the title is highly customisable. I usually start with a bunch of rainbow chard and add whatever else I have in the fridge or garden - kale, most Asian greens, mustard greens, etc. If you haven't made it to the farmers' markets lately or, like this week, you find all the local kale has gone to seed in the recent mini-heatwave, you can even make it with frozen spinach and grated zucchini to fill out the chard. Hunza Pie is traditionally made with brown rice, but I use white rice these days as brown does not agree with me.
Ingredients:
at least 2 tbsp butter2 red onions, sliced thinly
1/2-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch silverbeet/rainbow chard, shredded
1 bunch other greens (or equivalent in frozen spinach/grated zucchini)
1 cup (dry weight) rice, cooked
1 cup grated cheese (opt)
6 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup cream or sour cream (or milk)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
Melt one tbsp of butter in a large pan over a low heat and slowly caramelise the onions, stirring occasionally to stop them sticking. Add the balsamic vinegar after about 20 minutes and continue to gently cook down for another ten minutes or so. When the onions look and smell amazing, add the rest of the butter and start adding the greens (you may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your pan, adding more as the first wilts). While the greens are cooking down, heat the oven to 180C. When all of the greens have wilted and started to change colour, stir in the rice, and transfer the mixture to a pie dish (I used to add cheese to this, but these days I don't bother and it's
still amazing. But if you want, you can add a cup of grated cheese at
this point).
Whisk together the eggs and cream, sour cream or milk (I have no idea of quantities here as I usually eyeball it relative to the amount of filling). Add oregano and season with salt and pepper, pour over the filling. Bake for around 30 minutes or until top is golden and centre is firm.
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Black Bean Brownies (grain and processed sugar free)
I found a recipe for black bean brownies on the internet which I really liked, but foolishly did not bookmark it or save a copy, and then forgot where I'd found it, and forgot the recipe as well. So this is my attempt at figuring out a recipe for myself, which avoids most of the things which really mess with my health. These are moist and fudgy (at least if you don't overcook them) and delicious. I slice these about 1 inch square and freeze them, otherwise they would disappear extremely fast.
1 ½ cups cooked black beans
16 dates, soaked overnight and drained
2 eggs
4 tbsp cream
4 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
3 heaping tbsp hazelnut meal
3 tbsp cocoa
½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 180C and line a small baking dish with baking paper. Combine in the food processor until smooth. Pour into tray and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, slice then leave in tray to cool for a few minutes before turning out.
This recipe is veganisable if you sub maple syrup for the honey, coconut cream or nut milk for the cream, and 2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 5-6 tbsp warm water and left to gel for a few minutes for the eggs.
1 ½ cups cooked black beans
16 dates, soaked overnight and drained
2 eggs
4 tbsp cream
4 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
3 heaping tbsp hazelnut meal
3 tbsp cocoa
½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 180C and line a small baking dish with baking paper. Combine in the food processor until smooth. Pour into tray and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, slice then leave in tray to cool for a few minutes before turning out.
This recipe is veganisable if you sub maple syrup for the honey, coconut cream or nut milk for the cream, and 2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 5-6 tbsp warm water and left to gel for a few minutes for the eggs.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Odds and Sods Muffins
These are adapted from a recipe by Alison Holst, which is my go-to recipe for sweet muffins. We make porridge for breakfast a couple of times a week,and the kids randomly eat or leave it depending on the phase of the moon, so there are always leftovers. Which is not a big deal, it's a few cents worth of ingredients and the pigs are always happy to take care of leftovers, but as of Wednesday this week we won't have pigs and anyway I don't like waste even if it is waste which is eventually recycled into bacon. Sometimes Dylan puts leftover porridge in bread, so I tried incorporating it into muffins. You can't tell it's there at all, but it makes them lovely and moist.
Ingredients:
1 quantity leftover porridge (can be anything up to about 1.5 cups)
2c plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2/3 cups brown sugar, sifted if you can be arsed
1 tsp cinnamon
currants (I add more or less depending on how much porridge there is)
choc chips (optional but OMG)
3/4 cup liquid
75mL bland-tasting oil
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
Drain the porridge. Combine dry ingredients and stir well, then stir the porridge into it and break up any lumps. Whisk up the liquid ingredients, stir through the dry ingredients as briefly as possible, and lop into muffin trays and bake. My oven, which is non-fan forced and thus deeply idiosyncratic, cooks these best at around 200C provided I remember to swap shelves halfway so the bottoms don't burn, but if yours is fan-forced try 180C instead.
Without the choc chips these are really yummy with jam and butter or cream, like scones.
Ingredients:
1 quantity leftover porridge (can be anything up to about 1.5 cups)
2c plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2/3 cups brown sugar, sifted if you can be arsed
1 tsp cinnamon
currants (I add more or less depending on how much porridge there is)
choc chips (optional but OMG)
3/4 cup liquid
75mL bland-tasting oil
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
Drain the porridge. Combine dry ingredients and stir well, then stir the porridge into it and break up any lumps. Whisk up the liquid ingredients, stir through the dry ingredients as briefly as possible, and lop into muffin trays and bake. My oven, which is non-fan forced and thus deeply idiosyncratic, cooks these best at around 200C provided I remember to swap shelves halfway so the bottoms don't burn, but if yours is fan-forced try 180C instead.
Without the choc chips these are really yummy with jam and butter or cream, like scones.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Zucchini and Feta Muffins - quick hit
I made this recipe today, but what I really wanted to make was this one. Must try the latter when I have leftover rice.
I added about a tbsp of grated parmesan and a slosh of balsamic vinegar to the first recipe, and the muffins came out gorgeously moist and cheesy. Best eaten warm.
I added about a tbsp of grated parmesan and a slosh of balsamic vinegar to the first recipe, and the muffins came out gorgeously moist and cheesy. Best eaten warm.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Hunza Pie
Tonight's dinner was so magnificent I have to write down the particular variation on the recipe so I can hopefully recreate it. Hunza Pie is one of my mother's old standbys, and one of my favourite winter comfort foods. I've seen a number of variations using potatoes in the filling or pastry above or below, but my mother's was always a quiche-like combination of brown rice, silverbeet, cheese and eggs in a pastry shell, topped with sliced tomatoes and more grated cheese. Nom.
Today's effort at recreating it achieved an amazing flavour by gently cooking down the shredded silverbeet in melted butter and olive oil, together with onion and garlic, and with a slug of balsamic vinegar added. The pastry was dead easy, done in the food processor and crisp despite not bothering with blind-baking - in fact, if you have a food processor you can do a lot of the prep in it and save washing up. I served the pie with baked potatoes for a perfect winter meal.
Hunza Pie
1c uncooked brown rice
1c wholemeal plain flour
3/4c plain flour
125g butter, chilled and diced
3-4 tbsp cold water
1 bunch silverbeet
3-4 small onions
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
~1tbsp butter
~1-2 tsp olive oil
~1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp oregano
freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs
~1c grated cheese
2 tomatoes, sliced
Cook the rice in two cups of water in a covered saucepan. While it's burbling gently away, put the flours and butter in the food processor and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs. With motor running, add tablespoons of water down the tube until the pastry comes together. Give it to your daughter so she can roll it into a ball and stash it in the freezer to cool (you can stick it in the fridge, but we don't have one, hence the freezer).
After the pastry has rested a bit, flour a work surface and roll it out to fit a large deep pie dish*. Meanwhile, ask your offspring to rip up the silverbeet and cram it into the food processor. Add a couple of roughly chopped onions, and whizz briefly (don't pulverise it). Melt a hunk o' butter (depending on how nervous you feel about the amount of butter in the pastry) in a big frypan, and add enough olive oil to stop it from burning. Gently fry the garlic for a minute or two, then add the silverbeet and onion and cook til the silverbeet reduces a bit. Slosh in some balsamic vinegar and add the oregano and pepper. When the silverbeet is starting to darken and wilt, add the rice and stir to combine, then quickly toss through half of the cheese and turn into the pastry case. Whizz up the eggs in the food processor and pour over, then top the pie with tomato slices and the rest of the cheese. Cook for around 35-45 minutes.
* Mine was 25cms across and 4cms deep - if yours is smaller reduce the amount of filling, and you'll have some leftovers from the pastry unless you reserve a third of it for topping the pie, as in the original recipe I adapted this from.
Today's effort at recreating it achieved an amazing flavour by gently cooking down the shredded silverbeet in melted butter and olive oil, together with onion and garlic, and with a slug of balsamic vinegar added. The pastry was dead easy, done in the food processor and crisp despite not bothering with blind-baking - in fact, if you have a food processor you can do a lot of the prep in it and save washing up. I served the pie with baked potatoes for a perfect winter meal.
Hunza Pie
1c uncooked brown rice
1c wholemeal plain flour
3/4c plain flour
125g butter, chilled and diced
3-4 tbsp cold water
1 bunch silverbeet
3-4 small onions
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
~1tbsp butter
~1-2 tsp olive oil
~1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp oregano
freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs
~1c grated cheese
2 tomatoes, sliced
Cook the rice in two cups of water in a covered saucepan. While it's burbling gently away, put the flours and butter in the food processor and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs. With motor running, add tablespoons of water down the tube until the pastry comes together. Give it to your daughter so she can roll it into a ball and stash it in the freezer to cool (you can stick it in the fridge, but we don't have one, hence the freezer).
After the pastry has rested a bit, flour a work surface and roll it out to fit a large deep pie dish*. Meanwhile, ask your offspring to rip up the silverbeet and cram it into the food processor. Add a couple of roughly chopped onions, and whizz briefly (don't pulverise it). Melt a hunk o' butter (depending on how nervous you feel about the amount of butter in the pastry) in a big frypan, and add enough olive oil to stop it from burning. Gently fry the garlic for a minute or two, then add the silverbeet and onion and cook til the silverbeet reduces a bit. Slosh in some balsamic vinegar and add the oregano and pepper. When the silverbeet is starting to darken and wilt, add the rice and stir to combine, then quickly toss through half of the cheese and turn into the pastry case. Whizz up the eggs in the food processor and pour over, then top the pie with tomato slices and the rest of the cheese. Cook for around 35-45 minutes.
* Mine was 25cms across and 4cms deep - if yours is smaller reduce the amount of filling, and you'll have some leftovers from the pastry unless you reserve a third of it for topping the pie, as in the original recipe I adapted this from.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
More Soup, and Scone Pinwheels
I've been feeling a craving for soup made with rich meaty stock lately. I made soup from lamb shanks the other night, cooking the bones for two hours on the stove with lots of veges and barley and lentils, then after I'd cut most of the meat off, chucked the bones into the slow cooker with another couple of soup bones, onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, and a slug of vinegar (to help release the calcium from the bones, according to Sally Fallon) and simmered it for about 24 hours. I took some of it out halfway through and refilled the crockpot with more water, and ended up with one litre of thick, gelatinous stock, and two litres of thinner, but still tasty broth in the freezer.
Today was definitely a soup day, so I defrosted a litre of the broth and added half a cup of soup mix (the packet stuff from the supermarket, or just use whatever combo of barley and legumes you prefer), a sauteed onion, and a couple of cups of diced root vegetables. I ended up adding probably close to a litre of water as the soup simmered away for an hour while the lentils and barley cooked, but just keep an eye on it and make sure the water level never gets too low. Then just before serving I added some diced zucchini and Brussels sprouts. We ate it with grated cheese on top, and warm cheese and chutney pinwheels on the side.
Cheese and Chutney Pinwheels
(recipe adapted slightly from Alison Holst's Dollars and Sense Cookbook)
2c flour (I used 1/2c wholemeal and 1 1/2c plain)
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
25g olive oil
1/2c milk
1/4-1/2c cold water
~1/3c chutney
~1/2c grated cheese
Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil, milk and 1/4c of the water, and stir. Add a little more water if necessary until the dough comes together. Roll it out on a floured bench - or, if you're like me and your children have stolen the rolling pin - pat it into a rectangle shape about the size of your average baking tray. Spread it with chutney and sprinkle with grated cheese, leaving a 2cm clear edge on the long side which is furthest away from you. Moisten the clear edge with water or milk to help it stick, then loosen the dough with a palette knife or spatula and roll it up from the long side which is closest to you. Cut it into 2cm thick slices with a sharp knife, and lie the slices flat on a greased baking tray, leaving room to spread. Cook at 220C for 10-12 mins or so, until the pinwheels are golden on top and cooked through. Makes about 15.
Today was definitely a soup day, so I defrosted a litre of the broth and added half a cup of soup mix (the packet stuff from the supermarket, or just use whatever combo of barley and legumes you prefer), a sauteed onion, and a couple of cups of diced root vegetables. I ended up adding probably close to a litre of water as the soup simmered away for an hour while the lentils and barley cooked, but just keep an eye on it and make sure the water level never gets too low. Then just before serving I added some diced zucchini and Brussels sprouts. We ate it with grated cheese on top, and warm cheese and chutney pinwheels on the side.
Cheese and Chutney Pinwheels
(recipe adapted slightly from Alison Holst's Dollars and Sense Cookbook)
2c flour (I used 1/2c wholemeal and 1 1/2c plain)
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
25g olive oil
1/2c milk
1/4-1/2c cold water
~1/3c chutney
~1/2c grated cheese
Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil, milk and 1/4c of the water, and stir. Add a little more water if necessary until the dough comes together. Roll it out on a floured bench - or, if you're like me and your children have stolen the rolling pin - pat it into a rectangle shape about the size of your average baking tray. Spread it with chutney and sprinkle with grated cheese, leaving a 2cm clear edge on the long side which is furthest away from you. Moisten the clear edge with water or milk to help it stick, then loosen the dough with a palette knife or spatula and roll it up from the long side which is closest to you. Cut it into 2cm thick slices with a sharp knife, and lie the slices flat on a greased baking tray, leaving room to spread. Cook at 220C for 10-12 mins or so, until the pinwheels are golden on top and cooked through. Makes about 15.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Butter Cake
I have needed a standard birthday cake recipe for yonks. K's birthday party was this week, so I decided to just go for a classic butter cake recipe*. I can't take any credit for the decoration since my MIL offered to do it, but I figured the cake recipe was definitely worth writing down here for future reference.
I actually made this cake twice this morning, because I'm currently so scatteredbrained from Moving Hell that with my first attempt, I not only forgot to pre-heat the oven, I also forgot that I only have plain flour in the house, and didn't add baking powder to my mixture. The resulting cakebrick was still tasty, if dense, but the version which actually contained raising agents had a lovely fluffy crumb.
Ingredients
125g softened butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups self-raising flour (or 2c plain flour + 4tsp baking powder)
2/3 cup milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C (unless you are a dingbat like me) and grease and flour a cake tin. Let the birthday girl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Hold the beaters steady as she adds the eggs and vanilla essence, and then let her beat them until well combined. Add the flour a half-cup at a time, alternating with the milk, then share the beaters out between your children to lick. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Splat it into the prepared tin with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl, but not too carefully, because your children will probably be finished with the beaters by the time you have the cake mix smoothed down and the tin in the oven, and they will be wrath with you if you haven't left them enough mixture in the bowl to share. Cook it until it is done, and if the top cracks like mine did, don't worry about it, your MIL can always just add extra icing. Or you can, if you don't have a MIL to subcontract your cake decoration out to.
Serve with the traditional accompaniments of out-of-tune renditions of Happy Birthday in three different keys, and an embarrassed birthday girl who wishes everybody would stop singing so she can eat.
[* Acute readers may have gathered from this that I'm no longer dairy-free. I've given up on any attempts to get cute and creative with my diet, or my blogging for that matter, because our upcoming interstate move is monopolising most of my brain power].
I actually made this cake twice this morning, because I'm currently so scatteredbrained from Moving Hell that with my first attempt, I not only forgot to pre-heat the oven, I also forgot that I only have plain flour in the house, and didn't add baking powder to my mixture. The resulting cakebrick was still tasty, if dense, but the version which actually contained raising agents had a lovely fluffy crumb.
125g softened butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups self-raising flour (or 2c plain flour + 4tsp baking powder)
2/3 cup milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C (unless you are a dingbat like me) and grease and flour a cake tin. Let the birthday girl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Hold the beaters steady as she adds the eggs and vanilla essence, and then let her beat them until well combined. Add the flour a half-cup at a time, alternating with the milk, then share the beaters out between your children to lick. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Splat it into the prepared tin with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl, but not too carefully, because your children will probably be finished with the beaters by the time you have the cake mix smoothed down and the tin in the oven, and they will be wrath with you if you haven't left them enough mixture in the bowl to share. Cook it until it is done, and if the top cracks like mine did, don't worry about it, your MIL can always just add extra icing. Or you can, if you don't have a MIL to subcontract your cake decoration out to.
Serve with the traditional accompaniments of out-of-tune renditions of Happy Birthday in three different keys, and an embarrassed birthday girl who wishes everybody would stop singing so she can eat.
[* Acute readers may have gathered from this that I'm no longer dairy-free. I've given up on any attempts to get cute and creative with my diet, or my blogging for that matter, because our upcoming interstate move is monopolising most of my brain power].
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Pumpkin, Spinach and Rice Pie
I had planned on Roast Vegetable Quiche tonight but due to having my keys stolen by evil children we didn't make it to the markets for veg. So I kept the pastry idea, and decided to use up my leftover butternut pumpkin and the other 50c tub of silken tofu.
1 sheet short crust pastry
~2c diced butternut pumpkin, steamed
4 frozen spinach portions, defrosted
~1c grated cheese
~1c cooked brown rice
black pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp nutmeg
300g tub silken tofu, drained
1 egg
~2tbsp sour cream
slosh of balsamic vinegar
1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
Fill pastry shell with beans and blind bake for ten minutes or so. Combine pumpkin, spinach, cheese, brown rice and seasonings and mix well. Put wet ingredients in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Stir into rice mixture, mix well, and turn into pastry case. Bake at 200C until risen and cooked through.
I'm also making Colcannon on the side :D Nom nom nom.
1 sheet short crust pastry
~2c diced butternut pumpkin, steamed
4 frozen spinach portions, defrosted
~1c grated cheese
~1c cooked brown rice
black pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp nutmeg
300g tub silken tofu, drained
1 egg
~2tbsp sour cream
slosh of balsamic vinegar
1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
Fill pastry shell with beans and blind bake for ten minutes or so. Combine pumpkin, spinach, cheese, brown rice and seasonings and mix well. Put wet ingredients in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Stir into rice mixture, mix well, and turn into pastry case. Bake at 200C until risen and cooked through.
I'm also making Colcannon on the side :D Nom nom nom.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Lamb Samosas
I have been seized with the urge to do some cooking for the freezer, in the hope that we find out that I'm pregnant soon and I can get on with the morning sickness and general whinging without having to cook too! These were drier than the vegetarian samosas, but still quite yummy. Next time, I might add some very finely grated potato to help combat the dryness.
600g lamb mince
1 small onion, very finely chopped
1 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1/4 tsp chilli (could add more if not cooking for Beth)
1/2 tsp ginger
1 cup frozen peas (omit if cooking for Beth because she is a fussy bugger)
5 sheets shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 190C. In a large frying pan, saute the onion in a little oil until translucent. Add spices and fry until fragrant. Add lamb and cook until brown, breaking up clumps as much as you can (I use a potato masher). Fry gently until no pink remains, adding a little more oil if it seems dry. Add the peas and warm through as you prepare the pastry. Cut sheets into quarters, fill and fold, pressing down on two sides to make a triangle. Brush with beaten egg and cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Makes 18-20.
600g lamb mince
1 small onion, very finely chopped
1 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1/4 tsp chilli (could add more if not cooking for Beth)
1/2 tsp ginger
1 cup frozen peas (omit if cooking for Beth because she is a fussy bugger)
5 sheets shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 190C. In a large frying pan, saute the onion in a little oil until translucent. Add spices and fry until fragrant. Add lamb and cook until brown, breaking up clumps as much as you can (I use a potato masher). Fry gently until no pink remains, adding a little more oil if it seems dry. Add the peas and warm through as you prepare the pastry. Cut sheets into quarters, fill and fold, pressing down on two sides to make a triangle. Brush with beaten egg and cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Makes 18-20.
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