One Pot French Onion Pasta Bake

It doesn't look like much, but this is a super yummy pasta bake with a nice balance of flavours.  I prepoed the recipe half way and refrigerated the onion and mushroom mixture.  All it took was 30 minutes to finished it off for a weekday dinner.

I made a half recipe and substituted a few ingredients to make 2 to 3 Serves.

Slice then sautee two brown onions in 2 tablespoons of butter and half a tablespoon of brown sugar. Use a pot that will be able to go under the grill if you want to save washing up.  Cook at medium high for about 8 minutes or until onions are softened.  Add a bay leaf, a pinch of thyme, half a tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce and half a cup of white wine.    Cook until liquid is evaporated.  Add 200g of sliced button mushrooms and one crushed clove of garlic and cook for 3 minutes (until mushroom are soft).  At this point you can let the mixture cool and refrigerate until you are ready to finish the dish off.

To finish off the dish I added 2 cups of chicken stock and 230g of short pasta.  Mix well and bring to boil.  Allow to simmer for 8 minutes or until pasta is al dente.  Add half a cup of cream, a pinch of cayenne pepper (so good!) and three quarters of a cup of grated lactose free cheese.  Heat and stir until combined then add another half cup of grated cheese to the top and grill to melt.  You could probably top with parsley so it doesn't look so monotone, but I'm not a fan of parsley.

Original Recipe Here

Pie Day

Apple Pie: this is what happens to old apples in my house

I was so inspired by my new pie and tart recipe book that I decided to make today Pie Day. Also, we have a bucketload of slightly old apples I want to get rid off. I made an apple pie with a traditional sweet shortcrust pastry. Followed by a Chicken, Mushroom and Leek pie with puff pastry.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

Then I made a vegetarian Spinach and Ricotta pie. The Spinach pie had an olive oil pastry which I've never made before. It was pretty easy but when I baked it the pie kinda shrunk away from the side of the pan and "rose". Not sure if this is normal. Perhaps I confused the self-raising flour for the plain flour! Hehe... whatever the reason it was very cool; much easier to serve the pie!

My pie rose!

Spinach and Ricotta Pie : no butter in the pastry! Health benefits cancelled out by all the cheese :)

Beef Pot Roast in a Slow Cooker

My bf's father gave us a slow cooker for Xmas and I couldn't wait to give it a spin. Tonight I made a Beef Pot roast with a side of brocollini, roast potatoes and carrots. Actually I started the roast at 7am before I left for work and left it running until 7pm. The roast was SO tender. A little dry though, maybe next round I'll leave a bit more fat on. I think I'd also better omit the dry onion powder mix coz the gravy was a tad too salty. Here's the revised recipe...

1kg Beef roast (topside)
6 button mushrooms
1 can Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup
1 to 1.5 cup of water

Brown the beef roast on all sides using olive oil on a frying pan. Slice up enough mushrooms to line the bottom of the pot. Ease the roast onto the mushrooms and chuck in the can of soup and cup of water. Cook for 7-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high. In the end you have a lean, tender roast that is so tender it falls apart. The soup turns into a lovely mushroom gravy to have on top.