Chocolate Key Lime Pie

I first tried key lime pie in America, I’d not even heard of it until then, but I was instantly hooked and had every intention of making my own, eventually. When I came across this recipe in one of my books, I had to try it. The picture sold it for me, as well as the name, I mean chocolate key lime pie, how can you not be attracted to that? Unless you don’t like chocolate or Key lime! It was utterly divine, naughty but nice. Is that not the case with most things we really enjoy though? A moment on the lips, a life time on the hips. Is that not what they say? In this situation though when faced with to have or not to have the key lime pie, I am afraid it is a must have key lime pie. Oh well we only live once, may as well enjoy it while we can. Although when I have eaten half in just a couple of days, I feel guilty, naughty and FAT all my own fault and doing of course, but I have to go on a diet until I feel as though I have purged enough, but oh boy was it worth it! I have also made mini one  of these….

Chocolate Key Lime Pie

150g digestive biscuits (Graham crackers)

150g Oreo’s (not double stuff)

50g unsalted butter, melted

50g dark chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk, chilled

4 key limes, 2tbsp of zest and 175ml of juice

300ml double cream

Grated, best quality you can afford dark chocolate

1. In a food processor, whizz the digestives and oreo’s together. Then add the butter a little at a time, you want a dark, moist, sandy mixture. Add the chocolate chips, then pour the mixture into a fluted tart tin, press onto the base and up the sides, pop it in the freezer to chill while you make the filling.
2. Pour the condensed milk into a large mixing bowl, add the juice of the limes and mix well. Pour in the double cream and whisk until thick, spoon it into the base and use the back of the spoon to roughly smooth out the top.
3. Cover and let the pie chill over night or for at least four hours.
4. To serve grate the chocolate over the top and sprinkle with the lime zest. The filling will soften at room temperature so you need to keep it in the refrigerator.  

My Steak and Kidney Pie

As a child my least favourite things my mother would cook for dinner, were what my Grandma called “fage” a potato cake thing, I just googled it and the recipe I found said to fry them in a skillet, but my Mum and Grandma would grill/broil them. I hated the dry potato skin that forms when you bake mashed potato, and it is also the reason I hated my Mum’s Shepherds/cottage pie, the crispy mashed potato on top just makes me gip. I make it every now and again but I have to get the timing absolutely perfect or I can’t eat it. Then there was the liver and onions with bacon, my worst nightmare, I hate most things that involve offal. My Mum would say it’s not that bad chicken liver is milder than other types of liver. To me however, liver is liver and it’s not nice, Glen loves liver and onions though so I make it for him and Mum 30 odd years later is still telling me that chicken liver is milder. I marinate mine in milk overnight which seem to help. Incidentally I did try cooking with chicken liver a little while ago, foolishly I bought two pots because they were super cheap, turns out I really don’t like chicken livers, I would rather just buy whatever else is on offer at the time. I hate broad beans, they were always a horrific and traumatic ordeal as a child. I lived in a different time to kids these days, my Mum didn’t make 5 different meals because one of us didn’t like fish or Shepherd’s pie, she cooked one meal, and we were all expected to sit at the table together and eat everything that was put in front of us, we usually had a dessert for afters, which I suppose was an incentive to eat all our dinner, because the rules were eat everything on your plate and you get pudding,  pointless rule really because we always got to eat pudding and the reason, we always got to eat pudding was because of the other rule, which was we weren’t allowed to leave the dinner table until we had eaten everything on our plate. Even if that took hours and it was stone cold by the time we had finished. Broad beans were right up there with the vilest ingredients for me and I would struggle for hours, trying to eat them. And last but certainly not least would have been steak and kidney pie, although my Mum didn’t like kidneys either, but she liked the flavour infusion they gave the pie. I don’t understand that, but I guess it’s the same as saying, I don’t like tomatoes but love tomato soup? This is my recipe for steak and kidney pie.

Steak and Kidney Pie

2tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

750g stewing steak, cut into cubes

250g kidney, cut into teeny tiny pieces

30g plain flour

200ml beef stock

250g button mushrooms, quartered

2tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

100ml double cream

Shortcrust pastry

And a beaten egg for glazing

1.       Heat the oil in a large frying pan/skillet, add the onion and cook until it is glassy, stirring occasionally.

2.       Now add the beef and the kidneys cooking until just starting to brown, then add the mushrooms and carry on cooking until the mushrooms are soft and the meat is properly browned. Sprinkle in the flour and stir well to coat all the ingredients in the flour and then add the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce, season to taste, bring to a boil, whilst stirring, partially cover and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 2 hours.

3.       After 2 hours check that the meat is done, it should be tender, if necessary leave for a further 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed, stir in the cream and leave to cool.

4.       Next roll out your pastry (I buy store bought, because so far it’s the one thing I am yet to beat). Don’t forget it shrinks during the baking process a little so make sure it is big enough.

5.       Spoon your beef filling into your pie dish and top with your pastry, using a knife, poke a few holes in the middle of the pastry. Finally brush the top with the egg and bake in the oven at 200˚C/400˚F for about 30 minutes, the pastry should be crisp and golden.

Broccoli Rabe Pie - Errmm well not really!

Broccoli Rabe, what is that? I had no idea. It’s a herb related to the turnip and looks a bit like broccoli (I’m guessing that’s where the “broccoli” bit comes from), I had to google it. I’ve not seen it, but like most things that’s not to say, it’s not here in Germany, I just haven’t seen it. Why am I talking broccoli Rabe? This next recipe was inspired by Broccoli Rabe Pie…

America is great, my most favourite place on earth and I would go back given the chance. You can buy frozen pie crusts, and not worry about having to make pastry from scratch, I still make rubbish pastry. I’m speculating here, slightly bitter and angry about the past, and what I say next, will probably reflect that – mostly because I never measured up to what was expected of me. All of my “friends” were the perfect women – great cooks, perfect mothers and housewives etc… Pastry was never an issue for them. In truth I didn’t really have any friends, they were all my ex’s friends and took great pleasure in humiliating me – my issue is not that I’m unable to make pastry, and every thing to do with my body heat. I’ll not go into it again but if you have read my blog about quiche Lorraine you’ll know, that regardless of what I do my hands are always too warm.

Broccoli And Spinach Pie  

1 pie crust

¾ lb broccoli
¾ lb spinach
3 eggs lightly beaten
2/3 cup cottage cheese
½ cup mixed shredded cheese
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

1. Preheat the oven to 375˚F (190˚C) Check the instructions for your pie crust, does it need prebaking? If so now is the time to do it.
2. Cook the broccoli and the spinach for 5 minutes or until just tender; drain well, cool slightly and finely chop.
3. In a large bowl stir in the eggs, cottage cheese, pepper, garlic and shredded cheese. Stir in the broccoli and spinach. Pour egg mixture into your pastry shell. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the knife comes out clean. Let it stand for about 10 minutes before serving.

Instead of using broccoli and spinach, you could use 1 ½ lbs of broccoli Rabe and follow the original recipe.

Chicken and Vegetable Pie

Chopped up little bits of chicken

 This is a mish mash of what I had to hand at the time, I am not very creative, and need an idea to expand on, I used the crispy topped fish pie as my basis and then expanded on that..... This is probably why I always begin with a recipe.

Chicken and vegetable filling with out the creamy bit

Chicken and vegetable filling with the creamy bit

Chicken And Vegetable Pie

2 chicken breasts
1 carrot, sliced
1 leek, sliced
200g spinach
100ml water
1 chicken stock cube
salt and pepper to taste
200ml milk
1 tsp cornflour
puff pastry

1. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, then gently fry the chicken, when cooked add the other vegetables and gently stir fry until done.

Finished pot pie

2. Add the water and the chicken stock cube to the chicken and vegetables and simmer gently. Season with salt and pepper.

Just about to be eaten

3. Pour all but about 30ml of the milk into the mixture, then add the cornflour/cornstarch to the remaining milk, give it a good stir and then add to the mixture, stirring until thickened, if it's not thick enough repeat the cornflour process again, with a little less liquid. Taste and season accordingly.

4. Spoon the mixture into the pots you want to use and then top with the pastry, bake at 180 C for about 20 minutes or until pastry is golden.

Fish, Fish, Fishy, Fishy Fish!!!!!

I love fish, my husband loves fish - my only issue is the bones. I'm not too squimish, so heads,eyes and tails don't bother me, but bones - Ewwwww NO thank you! You will find that 90% of my dishes are made with fillets or boneless cuts of meat for that reason. However every now and again I'll give them a whirl. Fish is the one thing which I have tried to 'get over' and just can't, so aside from one or two all my fish recipes are boneless and skinless or adapted to make them that way.

We love this following recipe and I have made it many times, Crispy Topped Seafood Pie, it's another versitile recipe which is why I for one love it, it can be altered anyway you see fit. I've used catfish, salmon, cod and haddock. Shrimp go in the recipe anyway but I'm guessing you could add crab, lobster or equally any kind of shellfish, and on the note vegetables are also open to interpretation. Personally I have only used the vegetables that came in the original recipe but the facts remain the same, use any vegetables you wish! As long as they fit in the pie dish and you like them, it matters not a jot which vegetables you use.

Crispy Topped Seafood Pie

500 grams fish (Salmon, swordfish, cod etc.)
1 ¼ cup milk
1 bay leaf
2 leeks thinly sliced
2 cups broccoli florets
6 oz shrimp, shelled and cleaned
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
Salt and black pepper to taste
Pastry
¼ cup cheddar cheese shredded

1. Poach the fish in milk with  the bay leaf for about 10 minutes, until fish flakes

2. Blanch the vegetables, for 3 minutes in boiling salted water.

3. Lift out the fish, discard the skin and any bones, flake the fish. Strain and reserve the milk.

4. Put all the vegetables and fish with the prawns into a pie plate.

5. Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the flour and cook stirring for a minute. Remove from the heat and slowly stir in the milk. Bring to a boil stirring until thickened, Pour over the fish.

6. Grate the pastry and sprinkle over the filling, sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes at 400°F (200°C)