October 15, 2012

Mexican chicken pies



This was something of a one-pot wonder for when I couldn’t decide if I wanted a casserole, something spicy or something all vegetabled up! So I created this based on a Mexican recipe for burritos with chicken and rice.
This made quite a lot – enough for dinner for probably six or more, mainly due to the amount of rice I inadvertently cooked. 

Ingredients 
2 chicken breasts diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed/finely chopped
1 onion, diced
2 carrot, diced
½ zucchini diced
1 capsicum, diced
10 or so mushrooms, diced
2 chillies, chopped or equivalent in dried chili
½ teaspoon ground/minced ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons dried oregano
1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste
2 tins diced tomato
2 cups rice, cooked
4 sheets pre-packaged pastry

Method
Heat frypan, add in garlic and onion.
After a couple of minutes, add in chicken.
When the chicken is sealed, add in the spices, vegetables and stir occasionally for a couple of minutes.
Add in the tomato paste and tinned tomatoes, and about 1 cup of water
Preheat oven to about 190C.
Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes until the flavours are developed.
Turn off the heat, add in the rice.
 Prepare the tins  (I made a couple of small party-pie tin sized ones, and one big pie)
Cook for about 20 minutes, until pastry is cooked and brown.

October 14, 2012

Mini quiches

Mini quiches

Delicious lunches, snacks and finger foods - and they can be reasonably healthy too. 

My favourite thing about quiche is that just about any kind of leftover or vege can be whacked in there, add some egg and it tastes great. 

Tonight's was all about vegetables. And it's now my pre-made lunch for the week hurrah!

1 sheet shortcrust pastry
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 capsicum, diced
6 mushrooms, diced
1/4 zucchini, diced
1 tomato, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
basil, cracked pepper

 3 eggs and 1/4 cup milk whisked together
1/4 cup grated cheese

just about any vegetable, ham, salami, chicken, frozen peas or corn could be added in here

I made this in mini pie tins so that I can could make, but it could easily be made in mini-muffin trays or something similar depending on how big you want them. Also works in a big quiche tray. 

Pre-cook all the veges until they are just softened. 
Grease the muffin trays and lay the cut pastry over the tray holes. 
Divide up the vege mixture between the muffin holes, then pour over a little of the egg mixtures (keeping in mind it will expand when it's cooked). 
Sprinkle a little of the cheese on top, cook in the oven for about 20 minutes depending on how big theyare.