Who can go past an old fashioned Bacon & Egg Pie.... YUM!

Spray a round pie dish with cooking spray, line with shortcrust pastry and blind bake for 15 minutes or so. Saute some diced Bacon, red onion, red capsicum and mushrooms and add on top of the pastry. Mix together 6 eggs and 300 mls of extra light cream and season with sea salt and cracked pepper. Pour over the bacon mix... Crack 4 or 5 whole eggs on top, decorate with chopped shallots and some low fat mozarella cheese and bake until golden. Slice and serve warm with Salad or chill and take out on a picnic.. which is the plan for us tomorrow. 

Easy Bacon and Egg Pies!

Using Puff Pastry, cut each sheet into 4. Press into a Muffin tin greased with cooking spray.

Saute chopped onion, bacon and mushrooms and place into the bottom of the pastry. Crack in a fresh free range egg and top with half a cherry tomato, some chopped shallots and grated cheese.

Bake in a 180 degrees oven for 25 minutes or until the pasty is golden and the egg is cooked. 

You can also make a big pie in a pyrex pie dish or what you have and slice it. I find these cook a lot quicker and it is a really easy meal to throw together. When I can I make fresh pastry, but being so busy at work these days I just don't have the time :-)

Beer, Beef And Bacon Pie My Way

I thought a nice warm meal might be the plan for this evening seeing as it's cold, rainy and thundering! I'm making a casserole and using it as a pie filling.

 Ingredients:

1kg Diced Beef  (I've used diced porterhouse as we bought a whole one that was shit steak)
4 Rashers of Bacon Diced
2 Lge Onions Diced
2 Lge Cloves of Garlic finely Diced
2 Lge Carrots Diced
3 Medium Potatoes Diced
6 Large Button Mushrooms sliced
2 Coopers Pale Ale 375ml
3 Tbs Powdered Beef Stock
3Tbs Plain flour mixed with a small amount of water into a smooth paste

What to do:

You can either cook this in the slowcooker, or in an oven dish that you can use on the stove top and then the oven. I have used a cast iron casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.  Brown the beef, bacon, onions and garlic. Add the remaining ingredients, but only one of the beers and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, pop the lid on and into the oven. Cook in the oven for approx 4 hrs, stir every half hour adding the other bottle of beer around a third at a time.

To make your pies....

Let your Casserole cool. In the meantime blind bake your pastry for the bottom of your pie. Line a Pie Dish with baking paper, lay down your pastry and cover with another layer of baking paper. Put some Ceramic pie weights into the pie dish on top of the last layer of baking paper. (If you don't have pie weights you can use rice or any kind of dried beans. I used to use Rice before I bought the Pie Weights and leave it in a container and only used it for blind baking) Bake in the oven at the same temp (150) as your casserole for around 10 mins.

Once your pastry has blind baked let it cool.

Add your Pie filling and top with some grated tasty cheese of your choice and place your pastry top on, sealing the sides with beaten egg. Baste of the top of your pie with beaten egg. With a sharp knife leave a few holes in the top to release the heat. Bake until the pastry is golden! Enjoy...

My Spinach, Bacon & Ricotta Pie...

Spinach, Bacon & Ricotta Pie... 1 Onion diced 2 Rashers of Bacon diced 100 English Spinach torn and the ends removed 500g Ricotta (I used my home made skim milk ricotta) 6 Eggs 125g Low fat Cream Cheese 6 Sheets Filo pastry Spray a frypan with cooking spray and add the onion and the bacon.  In a bowl add the Ricotta, spinach, cream cheese and eggs, salt and pepper and  combine.  Add the Bacon and onion and combine. Spray a round pie dish with cooking  spray and put 2 sheets of the rectangular filo one way on the bottom  and 2 sheets the opposite way. Place your filling in the center and fold the outside  of the filo into the center to cover the filling. Place the remaining 2 sheets over the top and fold into the sides of the dish.  Spray the top with a few sprays of  cooking spray and bake for around 25 - 30 minutes until the filling is  set and the top of the pie is golden brown.

My Chicken & Vege Pot Pies

Ingredients

6 Chicken thighs bone in and skin removed
2 Rashers of bacon
1 Large onion finely diced
1 Large carrot finely diced
6 button mushrooms sliced
1 cob fresh corn kernels removed
4 Tablespoons powdered chicken stock
5 Cups water
Cornflour and water to thicken

Heat a large stockpot on the stove and add a splash of olive oil. Saute the bacon & onion and then add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is brown on all sides and then add the water and the chicken stock.  Put the lid on and simmer on low until the chicken is  falling off the bone. Remove the pot from the heat and strain to remove the liquid.  Remove the meat from the chicken bones. Let the stock cool and then skim the fat from the top. Return the chicken to the stockpot and add  the veges (You can add any extra veges you like.. I have a fussy household so I've made mine basic) and the stock. Simmer until the veges are tender and thicken with cornflour. (approx 2 tbs cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water) Add a little more water if it is too thick, or add a little more cornflour and water if it is not thick enough. Let the mixture cool and then place into oven proof dishes and top with pastry. Brush the tops of the pastry with egg wash and bake at 180 until the pastry is golden.

Beef, bacon, mushroom pie with a layer of tasty grated cheese, potato/sweet potato mash topped with pastry

Beef, bacon, mushroom pie with a layer of tasty grated cheese, potato/sweet potato mash topped with pastry.. Ready for the oven.

Add a splash of olive oil into a frypan or I use my cast iron dish with a lid and let it heat up. Sauté the onions, mushrooms and bacon. Coat the diced beef in a mix of plain flour, beef stock and cracked pepper and salt. Add the meat to the pan and brown. Cover the meat mixture with a few cups of beef stock (just enough to cover it) being to the boil, then put the lid on and simmer on low for around 4 hrs or until the meat is melt in your mouth. Let it cool and put into individual serving dishes that are oven proof. Top with some grated cheese, mash (I used cream in the mash instead of butter and milk for a change)and then the pastry. Glaze with egg and bake in a hot oven until the pastry is golden.