Shepherds Pie...Recipe

1 lb ground organic beef /chicken(you may need to add butter if using a leaner meat)
1 medium organic onion, chopped 
1 clove organic garlic, finely minced
1 tsp organic thyme, fresh or dried
3 tbs organic ketchup
about 1 tbs organic flour
1 lb bag frozen organic mixed veggies or whatever frozen veggies you have on hand
1/2 cup organic beef or chicken broth 
salt and pepper
1/2 cup organic parmesan 
organic mashed potatoes 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sauté ground meat in a skillet until cooked through. Break up meat as much as you can, making sure there are no big chunks

2. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent. (Here’s where you may need to add a little fat if you’re using a super lean meat.)

3. Add thyme, ketchup, flour, frozen veggies (straight from the freezer), and up to a 1/2 cup of broth or water. Cook until liquid thickens and pulls all the ingredients together. If everyone takes salt and pepper, season now (otherwise wait until you serve so you can skip for the little ones).

4. Put the meat & veg mixture in a baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. Top with grated cheese and some black pepper. Bake until cheese is melted and mashed potatoes start to brown.

Adjustments for using already cooked meat

• Sauté onion and garlic in 2 tbs of butter as your first step
• While the onions and garlic cook, mince leftover meat (use the food processor)
• Add meat to onions and garlic—you may need to add some fat and/or broth if your meat is lean
  Resume at step 3 above

Bacon Lettuce Tomato Pie

Ingredients

• 12  slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled
• 1  cup shredded Swiss cheese (4 oz)
• 1/2  cup Original Bisquick® mix
• 1/3  cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
• 3/4  cup milk
• 1/8  teaspoon pepper
• 2  eggs
• 2  tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing
• 1  cup shredded lettuce
• 6  thin slices tomato

Directions

1. 1Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray. Layer bacon and cheese in pie plate.
2. 2In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, 1/3 cup mayonnaise, the milk, pepper and eggs with wire whisk until blended. Pour into pie plate.
3. 3Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Spread 2 tablespoons mayonnaise over top of pie. Sprinkle with lettuce. Place tomato slices on lettuce.

Potatoes and Fish Pie Recipe

- Approximately 150g skinless snapper fillet (or any other fish you like), cut into medium-sized chunks and marinated in:
- liberal pinches of salt and pepper
- a squeeze of lemon juice (do not allow to leave for more than 1 hour because the lemon juice will toughen and "cook" the fish)

- 2 large potatoes (floury kind), boiled till soft, then peeled and mashed roughly with a pinch of salt, pepper, paprika (optional), a generous knob of butter, and a drizzle of olive oil
- I used a fork and it was done very quickly, no need to mash till very fine as you will be mashing again later on

- 1/4 wedge of yellow onion, chopped finely
- 1 baby carrot, chopped into small chunks
- 1 handful of frozen peas, rinsed and drained
- a knob of butter
- 1 tbsp freshly parsley, chopped finely (leave a small pinch aside for garnishing)

1. In a skillet, heat a knob of butter and add in the chopped onions and carrots. Cook over a low flame until the onions have softened. Do not allow the ingredients (or the butter) to burn. Add in the marinated fish chunks. As the fish cooks, flake some of it with your spatula. The others, leave as chunks. This will give some texture to the potatoes later on.

2. Add the fish mixture into the mashed potatoes, sprinkle the parsley and mix gently to combine. Taste test. Need more salt? Pepper? Add now. Transfer to an ovenproof casserole dish. It should look something like that:



3. Dot with butter and top with shredded cheese (firmly packed).



4. Bake for about 20 mins in a preheated oven, at 170C. The sides should bubble and the cheese should be lightly golden.



5. Leave to cool for about 10mins before serving because it will be VERY hot. Serve with a side dish of salad veggies

Pie...Key Lime

The pie is so simple to make the filling only consists of three ingredients; sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks. To save time you can use a prepared graham cracker crust and just pour the filling into it. 

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks (beaten)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup key lime juice
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. Mix well. Pour into the unbaked graham cracker shell.
Step 2: Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Top with whipped cream.

Making Short Crust Pastry

TECHNIQUES FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY

 How to get the best results when working with shortcrust pastry

1.	For best results when rolling out shortcrust pastry use a large, clean dry area of the work surface and lightly dust it with plain flour.	2.	Place pastry dough on surface and lightly dust it and the rolling pin with flour.
3.	Roll pastry firmly, always rolling away from you, give the dough two to three rolls.	4.	Then turn the dough a quarter turn.
5.	Dust again if necessary and continue rolling out, frequently turning the pastry so it is not always rolled in the same direction as this causes shrinkage.	6.	When the pastry has increased in size, pick it up to turn by rolling it round the rolling pin.
7.	Lift the pin with the pastry around it carefully and turn it to lay out and continue rolling. Again this is done to prevent the pastry from stretching as you lift it which in turn would result in shrinkage in baking. Shortcrust pastry should be rolled out to approximately 3mm to 5mm depth.

 Lining flan tins

1.	Roll out the pastry as described in the 'Best results for rolling out Shortcrust Pastry pages. Measure tin over rolled out pastry to ensure you will have enough to line the insides of the tin with a little excess to make it easier to work.	2.	Lift up pastry around rolling pin as described in 'Rolling out shortcrust pastry pages' , and gently unroll over flan tin, starting with the edge nearest to you.
3.	Gently ease the pastry into the tin, pressing it down the sides onto the base.	4.	Once you have pushed it in all the way round, go around again to press well down on to base , so that there is almost a 'pleat' of pastry at base of sides, and press into the flutes.
5.	Fold back excess pastry so that it hangs over the sides of the tin.	6.	To cut off the excess pastry roll the pin firmly over the top of the tin in both directions.
7.	Gently pull away excess pastry	8.	Now gently pull up the sides of the pastry from the small excess you left at base so that the pastry stands slightly proud of the top. This will ensure a good depth to the sides of the flan if the pastry shrinks slightly in cooking.

 Baking blind

Once a flan tin or ring has been lined you may wish to bake it unfilled (baking blind), to then fill later with a cold filling or one which requires a lower cooking temperature. It is always best, if time allows, to chill the unbaked flan in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before baking blind.

1.	Take a large piece of silicone baking or greaseproof paper and pleat it so that you can fit it into the flan tin easily.	2.	Press paper gently into flan case and allow excess to stand up around edges.
3.	Cover base with baking beans or similar. It is possible to buy ceramic baking beans which are re-usable, otherwise use uncooked rice, split peas or similar to weight down the base.	4.	Bake the flan according to recipe instructions, generally the flan is baked for 12 - 15 minutes then the paper and beans removed and the flan returned to oven to finish baking to a golden brown.

Meat Pie

Meat Pie  (Spicy Beef Pasty)

Ingredients

Short Crust Pastry
500 gm plain flour; sieved into a large bowl
1/2 tspn tumeric
salt to taste
250 gm butter; cut into cubes
125 mls (half cup) chilled water

Filling
500 gm minced lean beef
4-6 cloves garlic; minced
2 inch ginger; grated
2-3 chillies; minced fine
1 tspn tomato puree
1 tspn Lea and Perrin's Worchester sauce
1 tspn HP sauce
1 tspn Dijon mustard
salt to taste
1/2 tspn garam masala
2 medium onions
3 spring onions
2 tblspn chopped coriander
1 tbspn chopped mint

1 beaten egg for glazing



Method
Pastry
1.Place the flour, tumeric salt and butter in large bowl.
2. Use your finger tips to rub the butter into flour so that you get a fine breadcrumb like mixture
3. Add the cold water slowly mix to bind into dough-like consistancy
4. Wrap in cling-film and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes

Filling
1. Dry cook the minced beef with garlic, ginger, chillies and salt, until all the liquid evaporates, break the lumps if they form.
2. Add Worcestershire, HP and tomato sauce, together with mustard and tomato puree. Stir and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and add garam masala, onions. When cool add the mint and coriander.

Pies
Preheat the oven at 220
1. Remove pastry from the fridge, and divide into 20 pieces.
2. Roll into a 3 inch circle, place the filling in the centre, wet half the edge with water and fold.
3 Mark the edge with a fork and place on a greased oven tray.
4.Repeat until you have made 20. Prick each pastry with a fork and brush with beaten egg
5. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes