Cook my Books Challenge- Frugal & Fabulous



Apparently it is spring. The calendar says so, but while I have seen my share of gambolling lambs (and who else but a cute little lamb chop could gambol??) and daffodils, until I enjoy that first plate of asparagus, it is still winter as far as I am concerned.

Watching the All Blacks play Argentina in a Wellington gale on the weekend, Mr PK and I enjoyed excellent cold weather footie watching food. A pasty is a perfect hand held dinner, sustaining, savoury, and if you don’t mind a hail of pastry crumbs all over the carpet, relatively low maintenance fare.

I actually made two versions. The first, based on the famous Cornish version, I baked in a lard based pastry (yes really, lard is wonderful stuff, see here). I kept it simple, with the traditional beef, onion, swede (known as turnip in Cornwall) and potato, going off piste only to add some fresh green parsley.

The second, for my non meat eating sister, a flaky short mess-making butter pastry also containing potato, parsley and onion, with the addition of sharp cheddar cheese. Completely delicious, even a carnivore would be impressed………

The Cornish pasty is based on ther recipe in the inimitable Delia's Frugal Food. I have the 2008 reissue, the book originally came out in 1976, and is full of good hearty mostly English style food that wont cost the earth.

A Long Way from Cornwall Pasties...... based on a recipe by Delia Smith

Makes 4 meal sized pasties, but you could make 6 smaller ones

First make your pastry. 

275 gr plain flour

125 gr cold lard (or cold butter)

pinch salt

Ice cold water 

In a large bowl, rub the fat between your fingers into your flour and salt. You can do this in a food processor, but to be honest it only takes a couple of minutes, and the resulting pastry is much softer & easier to roll than the processor version. Use the same method, adding a couple of spoons of icing sugar and some nutmeg for a lovely crust for an Apple Pie

As you can see there a still little chunks of fat, this is fine, it will melt in the heat of the oven & create steam, giving you little flakes of pastry (which if you are like me, will end up all down the front of your shirt....)

Using a knife to mix, add your ice cold water until the mixture comes together as a dough. Tip out onto a floured bench & just bring together. This isnt bread, it does not require kneading, you are just bringing everything together into a workable dough. Wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge for 30 mins or so (or overnight if you are working ahead)

Now prepare your pasty filling

1 large potato, peeled and cut into small slices
1 medium onions, peeled and chopped into tiny chunks
Half a swede, peeled and cut into small slices
300 gr chuck, blade or topside beef, trimmed of fat & cut into small slices
Salt & pepper
Chopped parsley (not traditional, but delicious)

Try to keep everything a similar size, thin slices of meat and vege will cook right through without overcooking your pastry. You will think there isn't enough filling but trust me, this is plenty, pasties are very economical fare....

Take your pastry out of the fridge, and cut into four quarters (or 6 pieces if maker smaller pasties). Roll out one quarter into a circle about the size of a dinner plate.

Top with a spoonful of potato, then swede, onion & finally meat. Season with salt & pepper, then another layer of potato, swede, onion & finally a sprinkle of parsley. The theory for the layering is the meat juices & seasoning then work their way through the root vege as they cook and give the pasty extra flavour.

If you are using cheese rather than meat, just following the same theory, with your cheese layer in the middle. Use something good and strong like a really sharp cheddar for flavour

Now fold one half of the pastry over to completely encase your filling. This is easier then you think as this pastry is quite soft and pliable. Crimp the edges together, I just go around the edge folding the edge inwards on itself over my finger, I cant tell you it is totally authentic, but it looks ok and does the job! If all else fails go around the edge with the tines of a fork,the main object is to make sure your delicious filling cant escape. Cut a couple of steam holes in the top with the tip of your knife and place on an oven tray

Pop into a 200C/400F oven for 15 mins, then turn the heat down to 190C/375F for another 25-30 minutes, until golden and smelling heavenly.

Now I wont pretend these are the quickest things to make, but they are easy, great value, and if you make a batch up they freeze perfectly. Brilliant picnic food, they are also delicious at room temp, which of course if how they would have been eaten down the mines. The crimp was used to hold the pasty, keeping the rest of your lunch clean if you didn't have facilities to wash your hands, then discarded , but of course you can eat it if you prefer.

Mr PK recommends a good dark beer to drink with your pasty (on a windswept beach with a blanket for preference) , his latest fav is this gorgeous Chocolate Moose from Boundary Road Brewery based just out of Auckland at Red Hill. Rich and chocolatey this is also wonderful in a beef casserole, and I am going to try it in Nigella's Guinness Cake, watch this space.....

Dessert for an Olympian.....

I have gone slightly off-piste this week with my cookbook challenge, although the base of my ice-cream is from Donna Hay, it is so much a variation I think we will just call it a one off, and save Donna for another day……….

Unless you are living under a rock you may have noticed a certain sporting event filling the telly schedule, newspaper, social media……
I love the Olympics. Yes it may be commercial, and but so what, I will cry at the winners (and some of the losers) and become extremely knowledge (or so I think…..) about the most obscure sports, and countries for that matter.

To celebrate I had the whanau around for an Olympic themed dinner. We went back through the last eight countries to host the games, pulled the names out of a jug and cooked a dish we thought represented that country. Mr PK drew a drink from Moscow (um, guess what he made………)

I was challenged to come up with a Sydney inspired dessert……….

So, if, like me, you will be staying up all sorts of unsociable hours to watch the Peoples Republic of Somewhere I Can't Pronounce beat Wherethehellisitstan in the woman's singles final of the synchronised swimming, here is a treat to make it just that bit more worthwhile………

Mango, Lime & Toasted Coconut Ice-cream

The ice-cream is inspired by the Donna Hay recipe from Modern Classics 2, it is plain vanilla to which I add fresh mango puree, lime zest and toasted thread coconut.


1 cup milk (I use semi-skim but anything is fine)
2 cups cream
Vanilla pod
2/3 cup caster sugar
6 egg yolks
1 fresh mango (or use canned)
2 tbsp icing sugar
Zest of 1 lime
¾ cup thread coconut, toasted in a dry pan until golden & fragrant


In a saucepan heat the milk, cream & vanilla pod until hot, but not boiling. Leave to sit while you whisk together your egg yolks and sugar until thick & pale. Take the vanilla bean out (you can rinse it & leave to dry, then pop into your sugar jar!) and while whisking, pour the hot milk into the eggs. Pour the whole lot back into your saucepan, then stir over a low heat for about 5 minutes until your custard has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. It will still be quite runny so don’t worry.

Pour into a bowl & leave to cool for 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile peel your mango and whiz the flesh in the food processor with the icing sugar until it is pulped. Press through a sieve and stir into the custard mixture with the lime zest and coconut. Pop into the fridge & when cold put into your ice-cream machine and churn

Alternatively pout into a plastic contain & pop into the freezer. Take out every hour and using and electric beater, whisk up to break up any ice crystals. Do this 3 or 4 times. Yes, the ice-cream machine is easier!

I like to take my ice-cream out of the freezer for 20 minutes or so before serving so it isn’t to hard to scoop, I served it with Anzac biscuits , and an almond praline. This would have been a Macadamia praline until I saw how expensive Macadamia nuts are?!

This is also my entry for the July Sweet NZ over at After Taste. Be sure to pop over and check out the round up of goodies from all over, great for a sweet tooth!

In case you are interested,the rest of the Olympic marathon looked like this.....




 Pork Dumplings representing Beijing, with Kimchi via Seoul...........

Buffalo wings and ranch dressing all the way from Atlanta (no buffalo was harmed.......)

From our friends in London, Fish & tartare sauce (or Fush!)

Via Los Angeles, Chicken and vege Enchiladas, with avocado & tomato salsa.....

Last savoury course before pud, Athens gives us Octopus and  Potato Pickle salad.........

As you can see, it's a marathon not a sprint..........but food was the winner on the day!

Wishful Wednesday- get busy with the fizzy!

Ok, fess up. Who were you friends with as a kid just so you could go over to their house after school and use the soda stream? If they had a pool as well it was a double whammy, actually that was a combo that pretty much guaranteed friends.
I sound awful (although I have recently heard at least one confession of the above....) but after coming from a house where the drink of choice was water or milk (with Milo added if you were feeling flash) having fizzy drink on tap seemed pretty amazing. That it didn't actually taste that great seemed to be secondary, it was fizzy , coloured & full of sugar, yeowww! The machines themselves were pure seventies chic, orange & brown beauties that promised so much.....

So when my sister got a soda stream for her birthday I was pleasantly surprised. Gone is the bench-hogging clunky plastic look of old, the new machines are actually rather sleek, no shame sitting next to the Kitchen Aid here! So I added one to my birthday list and I am glad I did.

Easy to use, I make fresh sparkling water every day, rather than buying it and getting through loads of plastic bottles. I have a sample pack of flavours to try, although to be honest I prefer a squeeze of fresh lime in my water. Mr PK with his sweet tooth is the syrup tester, I can recommend the Creaming Soda so far....

Now, do you like a good sale? Then let me recommend the Boden sale. This UK website is an absolute cracker. I have been buying these clothes for years, they are fantastic quality, a great range of sizes, and deliver worldwide. The shoes are also brilliant, I have two friends who have brought the rather delicious pony skin ballet slippers........
Go on, treat yourself!