It's Winter, we're loving the change of season, and hot delicious beef pies are always popular here in tropical North Queensland when the weather turns so chilly. It's been down to 5 degrees the last two mornings, however the days are sunny and sublime but still cool. I made a dozen Beef Pot Pies last week, it was an easy way to feed 11 people, with one left for us for lunch the following day. Tennis players are hungry people. It's a pleasure to be in the kitchen right now, however I am torn, as the garden is also calling me for attention, and the beautiful sunshine outside is demanding to be enjoyed. This post is part of the monthly In My Kitchen series, a global event, hosted by the lovely Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. I hope you enjoy it.
I used my Aussie Beef Saltbush Stew recipe to make the these Beef Pot Pies. I kilo of beef chuck steak cooked up beautifully in the slow cooker, and was the perfect amount for 12 pies. I topped the meat up with some separately sauteed mushrooms, and they were delicious. The red wine I added just might have helped as well. Luckily I have 12 matching white ceramic dishes, so I spooned the beef filling into the dishes, and then used bought puff pastry to cover them. Normally I would make my own shortcrust pastry, but I had a sticky date pudding to cook as well so I took a shortcut with the pastry. They were delicious. I used an egg wash of beaten egg and a little bit of milk, so that they browned up as required. Here's the link to the Beef Stew recipe if you missed it before. I posted about my Sticky date pudding quite a few years ago when I was new to blogging, and that post needs updating, however I use that recipe all the time, it's delicious. Here's the Sticky Date Pudding link.
These are the photos of the Beef Pot Pies being cooked and assembled.
Ready for cooking in the Slow Cooker |
Waiting for the Puff Pastry |
In my last post about my Greek Inspired Cauliflower, I mentioned a Speed Peeler, and asked if anyone had one or had heard of it. The reason was that Jamie Oliver mentioned one in his Cauliflower recipe that I had based my recipe on. No-one seems to have heard of it. Well no surprises that when I googled it, a speed peeler is one of Jamie's kitchenware products, available on sale at Woolworths here in Australia, probably in the UK and other countries too. I'm not rushing out to buy one as I think my vegetable peelers do a great job, and I think I might have bought one like this before during my long culinary vegetable peeler purchasing history, which has since broken as they all eventually seem to do, for me anyway.
Here is the link to the infamous 3 in one Speed Peeler if you want to take a look.
Jamie Oliver 3 In 1 Speed Peeler Each | Woolworths. Mystery solved.
I've also been doing a little bit of online shopping, and bought a 12 cup Mini Bundt Pan from Kitchen Warehouse. I still have to try this tray out, but I have a nice little bundt cake recipe in mind which I was so excited about when I first saw it. It might have to wait in the queue though until after the holidays.
Freshly picked rosellas |
Rosellas still on the bush |
Firstly the Cooks note: This recipe makes 4 large flatbreads, however if you prefer them smaller like pita bread, cut the dough into 8 portions.
If you can't find Greek style yoghurt, use regular yoghurt and reduce the water in the recipe to 1 1/4 cups.
The flatbreads also make crispy and delicious bases for pizza. The smaller ones are excellent as pita or pocket breads.
Use plenty of plain flour when you are rolling out the flatbreads to prevent them sticking to the bench, and use a floured rolling pin
Ingredients:
(No oil needed to cook)
4 cups Plain Flour
1 sachet (7 grams or .25 ounce) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C, if you are pedantic, we're not)
1/2 cup Greek-style yoghurt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt (the original recipe used 1 tablespoon but we thought it was slightly too salty, up to you)
Method:
1. Dissolve the yeast, sugar and salt in a small bowl with the warm water. Add the water and the yoghurt to the flour and mix well. The dough will be nice and soft but not sticky. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured bench and shape it into a ball.
Now cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rise at room temperature for 3 hours. ( We place ours in the warm laundry, where our hot water system happens to be, and close the door, and it sure did rise!)
2. Cut the dough into four triangular portions. Shape the dough into rounds and flatten each round on a well floured bench as though you are making pizza dough. We flattened ours out further with a floured rolling pin so that it was a larger and thinner flatbread and it was perfect.
3. To cook your flatbread, choose either the BBQ or a cast iron skillet. As Mr. HRK was cooking, he chose to use a pizza stone in the BBQ, which worked like a dream. Preheat the BBQ or stove to a medium-heat. Place one round of dough on the BBQ or skillet and bake until the brown spots on the bottom, about 1 minute. Flip the bread and bake for another minute. Remove the bread and wrap it up in a clean tea towel to keep warm. We separated them with baking paper like you do with pancakes in case they stuck together with humidity around, but it really wasn't necessary.
For the whole Turkish Feast backstory about these pizza bases you can find it by clicking on this link:
Oh did I forget to give you the score from the game on Wednesday? Well it was an annihilation by New South Wales over Queensland, however the food in our kitchen was great. Better luck for the next match hopefully, always optimistic.
It's been a busy week's cooking with the pie dinner last Friday night, then Mahjong was on Tuesday afternoon at my place so I made one of my favourite cakes. A generous neighbour gave me some lovely, juicy limes from their backyard tree, so I baked my Lime Syrup and Coconut Cake, you can click on this link for the recipe. Always a favourite, served with yoghurt,
Delicious and tangy Lime Syrup and Coconut Cake |
Cooking the lime syrup |
Grating the lime zest |
Lots of good stuff! Those red rosellas are absolutely gorgeous. And those hot beef pies are sensational. Mr. HRK is a talented chef :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Angie, the red rosellas are pretty aren't they, and cook up really well to make a delicious jam. My hubby does enjoy making pizza.
DeleteEverything looks so delicious! Have a great weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Martha, it's been another busy weekend using up fresh produce, but it's great to be productive.
DeletePlease send me that extra beef pie! ;-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha, Jeff it's long gone, but there will be more I'm sure. So easy to bake up. Halve the quantity and freeze some, for Ron. Thanks so much for your interest.
DeleteBeef pies look like a great way to serve people good food in preportioned quantities.
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks Mae, I like to make individual dishes of food for dinner guests, so uncomplicated.
DeleteYes it is pie weather and your look really good. I am going to give the pizza dough alternative a go as it looks easy and quicker than normal. Thank you cheers
ReplyDeleteThanks Bernie, we find these flatbreads crisp up so well and are fast to make. I'm very happy to have this kind of pizza made for me. I hope you like it, please let me know what you think.
Deletehi pauline
ReplyDeletei'm intrigued with that speed peeler. years ago i bought a Luke Nguyen peeler but i never used it. it was way too complicated for me :-) Locky looks so adorable doesn't he? My sauerkraut turned out really well this year; i was so happy with the amount of bubbles and tang! Your pizza looks marvellous as does the slice and the pies! perfect food for this great winter weather we're having! take care and keep warm and thanks for joining in with IMK! P.S. are you going to use Follow.it for email subs now? I'm giving it a go.
cheers
sherry
Hi Sherry, Yes I will give follow it a try. We've still got to the end of June haven't we to make the change? My sauerkraut is looking good I think, but of course as soon as I started the fermentation it has turned quite warm, still not as hot as summer. It smells good.Cheers, Pauline
Deleteyes we have till end june to make the change. i'm going to get hubby to help me this week. i don't think it matters if people get double emails about our posts for a short while! as far as i can work out, we don't need to do anything about Feedburner (not even delete the subscribers as some people suggest) because their emails will stop automatically from Feedburner and Follow.it will then take up the slack. Oh boy - i hope i've got this right ...
DeleteHow beautiful to have fresh rosellas, the color is so vibrant. Delicious looking pies too, nothing like comfort food to keeping you warm during winter months.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Moya, it's lovely to hear from you. The rosellas are a sensational colour aren't they, and the jam cooks up into a beautiful red conserve as well. Rosellas are quite easy to grow here in the tropics. Cheers, Pauline
DeleteI have a speed peeler and use it mainly for carrots and really very little else. Those pizzas look very loaded! And you could make a syrup with the rose hips? I made your chocolate and honey cake on Saturday and it went down a treat :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the speed peeler, he's marketing his merchandise in his recipes, something I haven't noticed before, his right I suppose. Yes Make it Like a Man pizzas are loaded:)Ha, Ha good word for it. Thanks for the feedback on the chocolate and honey cake. I love the recipe. Thanks so much Tandy
DeleteI want to be in your kitchen! So much good stuff. :-) And I can never resist a beef pie!
ReplyDeleteThanks KR, yes beef pies are always a hit here too, especially in cooler weather. However we have become quite particular about our beef pies, some are definitely better than others.
DeleteOh those beef pies look so amazing! I have never heard of a speed peeler and I have no idea how they can speed up the peeling? I love the look of those rosellas
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your interest in my blog, d o s.
DeleteThe speed peelers are very clever marketing by Jamie aren't they?:)We made some very nice rosella jam, the rosellas were so fresh and fleshy. Cheers, Pauline
It's freezing here at the moment so those beef pot pies are calling my name! :D
ReplyDeleteLorraine I hope you are coping ok with all of the Covid problems in NSW again, Queensland is on alert too. Difficult times again. It's cold here today as well, and a hot pie would be delicious. Thanks so much for visiting,Cheers, Pauline
ReplyDelete