Leeloo Dallas Multi-Pie

Why make one pie when you can make four or five for the same amount of trouble and keep them frozen for when you need them.

If you go to the supermarket you can buy packs of foil trays for about a pound - the sort that you would get takeaway delivered in.

Here's a recipe for four chicken pies:

Two free range chicken breasts
Small pack of button mushrooms chopped
A few carrots chopped
Two medium onions chopped
A leek
Chicken/Veg Stock Cube
Frozen Peas
Frozen Sweetcorn
Few garlic cloves
Chopped parsley
Small pot of double cream (it's the smallest size you can normally buy)
Flour

Take the chicken breast and chop into small bite sized pieces remembering that you want to split this mixture between four pies so you don't want the pieces too big. Put the pieces in a bowl

Add a few teaspoons of flour to the bowl of chicken and mix it around. Basically your using the flour to thicken the gravy that'll go into the pie.

Using a large saucepan, or casserole dish, cook the chicken in a little olive oil till it's cooked through. Then add the onion, garlic, carrot, mushrooms and leek and stir to let them sweat down.

Add some salt and black pepper

After about five minutes, add about a pint of water (boiled) with a chicken/veg stock cube mixed in to the pot.

Add the peas and sweet corn, along with the small pot of double cream

Cook for five further minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened to the consistency you would expect in a pie.

Let the mixture cool. You might want to transfer to something else as the saucepan or casserole dish might take a long time to cool

Spoon the mixture into four foil trays.

Unroll your puff pastry and it should fit nicely over four pies with some spare for a few cheese straws - oh yes!

Don't forget to criss-cross your pies with a knife to encourage the puff pastry to rise. You will also need an air hole in the centre, and finally egg wash the pastry.

Then......

Cook one for your tea, stick the rest in freezer bags and put them in the freezer. There you go, 3 more pies for a future tea.

Big badda boom!

Piri Piri Chicken with Oversized Cous Cous and Spinach

I made this a few nights ago, it's about the fourth time I've cooked it, being a quick easy meal. The idea is from "Jamie's 30 minute meals", I just change the accompaniments he has with it. I tried it with his sweet potato and feta slop, and didn't find it that appealing.

The side dish is my take on South American Rice and Peas, except it doesn't contain rice or peas! Instead I used oversized cous cous, spring onion, red pepper and spinach. The idea is it's something cleansing to eat when the chicken is too fiery. The cous cous is cooked in water with added vegetable stock - you need some salt in there to give it some flavour.

Turn on oven.........................................now

Piri Piri Chicken marinade is very easy. Get a mixer/blender and add to it a few chillis, with the seeds out (how many is up to you I guess). This time I used a habanero, and a few medium red chillis and that was enough! Also a clove of garlic, half a red pepper, a bunch of fresh herbs such as basil and parsley, and the juice of at least a lemon, and some paprika. Whizz that all up and adda bit more water just to thin it out as it will thicken in the oven.

Chicken wise you can use what you want. To follow Jamie you use the cheaper cuts, like Chicken Thighs. You want to slash the underside (not the skin side) of the chicken thighs to open it out, this will help the marinade get into the chicken.

Heat up a frying pan and add the chicken thighs skin side down and let them cook for about 5-10 minutes getting nice and crispy on the skin, then add them to a baking dish which is full of the piri piri marinade, leaving them skin side up.

Now add them to the oven and cook for a further 15-20minutes. When they come out the skin should be really crispy and all the piri piri sauce has gone into the chicken flesh.

Serve on a plate and add a bit more sauce out of the dish over the chicken.

Remember a glass of milk - or beer!

Spicy Lamb meatballs in Pitta

Blogging from my phone. Let's see how well this works!

I had this last week and it was, well... om-nom

Admittedly the meatballs look somewhat like something we won't mention.

I made the meatballs in a blender with lamb mince, chilli, garlic, bread crumbs, lemon juice, spices were ummmmm cumin, fennel, chilli powder, fenugreek and maybe some more I can't remember. Google a lamb meatball recipe!

I made up a ton of salad, poured some natural yoghurt in a bowl, toasted the pitta breads. Oh I also thinly sliced some onions and added red wine vinegar to them to soften them and make them a little less harsh.

And that's it. This was a pain to type on a phone!