Limited Ingredient Challenge - Bacon and Pea Pies

In a bid to both inspire and define what creativity in cooking means, I have been challenging my Year 13 Food class to limited ingredients cooking challenges. I give them a list of ingredients and a day or so to think about it and plan, and they come up with a dish. A not too dissimilar process to that which we all go through while looking in a pre-shopping day fridge.
Friday's challenge list was as follows: 1/2 cup short grain rice, 2 eggs, 1 rasher of bacon, 2 mushrooms, 1/2 cup frozen peas, 1/2 an onion and 1 carrot. In addition to this they had the choice of flour, butter, cream, spices, soy sauce, stock and other general pantry items, as well as some rather small (and left over) pieces of rump steak. The only rule was that they had to use some of all the main challenge ingredients except one.

Thinking I had better walk the walk I came up with my own rendition - Bacon and Pea Pies. We had all sorts of other dishes: lots of adaptations on fried rice, a delicious risotto served with a side of scotch eggs, fried eggs with vegetables, an interesting interpretation of crumbed bacon and steak pieces, as well as fried rice and crumbed steak.

The pressure was on, we were on shortened time thanks to Assumption Day Mass, and I for one didn't want to be receiving my blessing from the Bishop while still wafting of onions!

Bacon and Pea Pies

Preheat the oven to 200deg. C

Pastry
1 cup flour
70g butter
1 teaspoon salt
approx 5 tablespoons cold water

In the food processor combine the flour, butter and salt until well incorporated. With the motor running add the cold water a teaspoon at a time until the mixture forms lots of little balls of dough. Take the lib from the processor - the dough should form a ball when pressed together.
Take from the processor, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate while preparing the filling.

Pie Filling
1 egg
1/3 cup cream
1 clove garlic - crushed
1/4 onion - finely chopped
1 mushroom - sliced
1 rasher of bacon - cut into small strips called lardons
1/3 cup peas

Thoroughly combine the egg and cream with the crushed garlic, and season with salt and pepper.
Prepare the onion, mushroom and bacon and combine with the peas.

Assembling the Pies

Roll the pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap. Using a suitable sized jar or bowl, cut out circles from the rolled pastry. Place the pastry discs into Texas muffin tins.

Place a small amount of the filling into each pastry case.

Using a jug, pour a small quantity of the egg and cream mixture into each pie. Be careful not to overfill. If they overflow the mixture will burn onto the tins and be a real pain to clean!

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling cooked and set.
Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before attempting to remove from the tins.

It was about now that the girls noticed my slight cheat of leaving out the carrots! Too short of time before Mass, I left the filled pies in the fridge and baked them straight afterwards. I thought the moisture from the filling might ruin the pastry, but they were quite alright after baking.
Just in time for lunch.

Auditioning the Party Food

This was a bowl full of delicious Bacon Wrapped Beef and Goat Feta Meatballs. As often happens when we have guests, I forget to get the final shot before the dish goes to the table. The proof of all dishes is in the eating, and these, as you can tell by the almost empty plate, were delicious. Little Miss 3 has a birthday soon - much excitement in our house - and with lots of her little buddies and their parents coming to the party, I need to try out some possible yummy cocktail food solutions.

Some lovely friends of ours came around this morning for coffee and a catch up - the perfect guinea pigs for a bit of party food.

Bacon Wrapped Beef and Goat Feta Meatballs

750g beef mince
150g fresh white bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes 
1 onion
a handful of fresh herbs - parsley, basil, mint
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon chilli sauce
2 teaspoons salt
75g goats milk feta
approximately 28 strips of streaky bacon 

Preheat the oven to 200deg. C. Line an oven tray with cooking foil.
Put the peeled onion and garlic into the food processor; cut a cross into the top of the tomatoes, squeeze out the seeds and add to the processor with the oil, chilli sauce and salt. Blend into a semi-smooth paste. Crumble the feta.
Combine the mince, crumbs and tomato mix.








Lastly mix in the feta - you don't want it to crumble too small, so try not to over mix.













Roll the meatballs about the size of a small walnut. Cut the streaky bacon slices in half, and wrap each meatball in a section of bacon. Skewer two meatballs onto each small cocktail stick and place them onto the oven tray. At this stage the meatballs can be stored in the fridge until required.







I baked them for about 20 minutes in total, turning them half way through the cooking process. The bacon should be crispy and the meat balls cooked through.

Then just serve them up and enjoy. Lucky last ones left. Yes I had eaten two previously - quality control of course!

I'm thinking of just serving one per stick for the party, as there will be plenty more treats on offer for our little guests.

Mushroom and Bacon Soup on a Chilly Old Day

It's supposed to be summer, but today's rain and chilly weather would have most of us think otherwise. As a general lover of heat and with only a few precious days of holiday left, I would have preferred a scorcher. All that said, the garden has benefited enormously from the rain; the runner beans are swelling by the day, the tomatoes are proliferating and the lettuces have perked up endlessly since the rain.
As much as I love hot summers (oh the berry fruit!) we were reminded of one of the great joys of cooler weather: Soup. We were treated to a delicious Pumpkin Soup lunch made by our very culinarily capable friend Ben. After such a delicious change of fare, and feeling a little pinched for time, I got inspired to make another round of soup for tea:  yes, it's been that cold. After a quick recon in the fridge, Mushrooms seemed the most logical base. Hmmm.. Add that great standby of the last minute meal - bacon, and dinner wont be far away.

Bacon and Mushroom Soup

Approx. 9 or 10 brown flat mushrooms - cut into cubes - about 3 or 4 cups full
5 rashers of streaky bacon - sliced into small strips
2 cloves garlic - crushed
2-3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons plain flour
approx 5 cups chicken stock or water or water with stock concentrate added - heated
50 ml cream
a splash of sherry - optional, port will also do the trick

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large saucepan and cook the mushrooms until they have melted into a black mass and released all their water. Transfer them to another bowl.

Add the remaining oil to the pan - no need to wash the pan first - fry the bacon and garlic until the bacon is quite crisp.
Add the flour and stir: the mixture with froth up; don't let it colour or burn. 
Add the heated stock liquid to the pan in thirds, stirring constantly to avoid lumps forming until the soup boils.

Return the mushrooms to the pan, add the sherry, and simmer the soup for about 15 minutes. 

Take the soup from the stove, add the cream, and blend until smooth. Return the pan to the heat. Add more water or stock if the soup is too thick. Check for seasoning - with all the bacon it will probably only require pepper. Heat sufficiently for serving, but don't let it boil once the cream has been added.

Serve with buttered toast for a quick, simple and tasty meal.

Green Pea Soup with Crispy Bacon

At the risk of sounding a monotonous drone of familiarity: here we are again, its getting late, tired child, late working partner and me. Not so much parental guilt today, as managed to pick little Miss 3 up from Preschool at a more acceptable 4pm, rather than a meltdown inducing 5. Whats for tea Mummy? That's a good question my little blossom. Something in a hurry.

Little Miss 3 just loves peas. This might sound a little abnormal for a three year old but she will happily eat them at any stage of the day. This fact led to a late afternoon brainwave - Green Pea Soup with Crispy Bacon.

To make this cheerful Pea Soup:

Finely chop an onion and gently fry it in a little oil.
Don't let it brown.

Add the peas. I used frozen, but fresh would work just as well.

Its way too late in the day to measure anything. I threw in about half of a 1kg bag. About 3 cups at a guess.

The exact quantity really doesn't matter.

Yes, that is a three year old helper's hand.




Cook the peas with the onions until they start to heat through.

While that is heating, begin to fry a few rashers of bacon.

Once the peas are starting to cook, add enough boiling water or stock to generously cover them.

Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Take off the heat and attack with the stick blender, but not too much as its much nicer as a hearty rustic soup.

You could use a kitchen whizz (if you like washing up all those components after) or a potato masher and a lot of elbow grease.

Check the seasoning.
Be careful if your using stock that contains salt as it may mean no extra needs to be added.

If you can be bothered running out to the garden, a sprig of mint would be a welcome addition. At our house it was cold, and I was in a hurry. Enough said.

Soup and bacon all ready to go.

Little Miss 3 had already made off with some of the crispy bacon.









A few bits of toast and butter and we have a hearty dinner made with little time and effort.

 

Perfect timing as the man of the house arrived home just in time for tea.

 Clearly a successful tea time offering.