Chicken, Meat Pie and Donuts ...

Time for some food pics ...

A couple of weeks ago, I made a meat, potato and veggie pie that turned out to be delicious. It was wholesome and filling and truly delicious.

Here's the recipe:

Coarsely chop two large onions, and fry in non-stick pan without oil
Add beef (just to seal the meat, not to cook through)
Transfer into pressure cooker (meat comes out *SO* tender)
Add peas, mixed ratatouille veggies, large cubes of potato and mushroom, and large slices of carrots

Always ensure that there's a small amount of water in the base of the pressure cooker, as it's the steam that generates the pressure

Cook in the pressure cooker for ~25-30 minutes

Line base of casserole dish with a thin layer of peach chutney and tomato sauce
Add stew mix
Cover with puff pastry, and brush with egg
Bake for 30 minutes

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Chicken, vegetables and cous-cous from last week:

Once again, I made use of the pressure cooker, where meat is cooked healthily and comes out *SO* tender and soft.

I simply covered the bottom of the pot with a thin layer of water (the chicken was frozen, so it will release quite a bit of moisture itself). Add a large onion cut into halves, green beans (I used frozen - you can use fresh vegetables too), and top with assorted mixed vegetables with spice/sauce.
The pressure cooker takes care of the rest.


Prior to this, I had peeled potatoes and sliced them into halves, and cooked them in the pressure cooker to save some time. I then placed them in a grilling pan in some oil, and into the oven to crisp and brown.

While all the above was taking place, I boiled up some hot water with a dash of olive oil, and cooked the cous-cous accompaniment.

The results are visible on the right.

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Finally - I just made a batch of donuts. Recipe is as follows (note - I used a QUARTER of the recipe, as the full recipe makes far too many donuts for two people to eat comfortably):

1kg flour
1teaspoon salt
60g live yeast (Instead, I use 14g of dry active yeast from a sachet)
120g sugar
50g oil
4 eggs
50g Vodka (3-4 tablespoons)
350g warm water (1½ cups)
1 tablespoon lemon juice


Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and let froth. This should take no more than a few minutes.

Mix all the ingredients (including the yeast) in the mixer (it kneads far better than doing it by hand). The result is pictured on the left.


Leave the dough to rise (I preheat the oven to 50°c, switch it off, and place the bowl inside the oven ...this provides a warm cosy place for the yeast to do its thing. On the left you can see how the dough mixture has increased substantially in volume.





Roll the dough onto a floured surface to no less than 1½cm thick, and using a cup punch out circles. Repeat with the remaining dough until it's all used up. Set aside for a further 15 minutes to rise a little more.




Warm oil in a deep pot - temperature between medium and high (but not too hot or the donuts will burn). Lower the donuts into the oil, and turn when the underside is a honey colour. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain the oil.
I rolled mine in sugar, as you can see, but if you prefer you can let them cool and fill with jam or custard, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.