#shortcuteggsperts - Roast Dinner Tart

For the final #shortcuteggsperts challenge for British Lion Eggs I have been challenged to create a recipe that uses up leftovers as well as eggs. With 5 of us in the house (including one teen with a bottomless pit for a stomach) we don't often have much in the way of leftovers, but if we do they are always put to good use, and never thrown away.

New research by British Lion eggs ahead of British Egg Week (6-12 October 2014) has found that today’s mums are increasingly committed to reducing food waste to save food, time and money - but their biggest challenge is how to feed the family on leftovers and random ingredients at the end of the week. A study of 2,000 mums* found that with the most common days for food shopping being Monday and Saturday, and 55% of mums running out of food 4-5 days after their shop, 67% admit they end up living on scratch meals using leftovers towards the end of the week, peaking on Fridays.

I can definitely relate to these results, and quite often at the end of the week I make random meals to use up the vegetables left in the fridge, be in it a curry, a soup or ratatouille (my favourite). If you have meat and vegetables leftover from your Sunday dinner this recipe is an easy way to use them up, and of course it includes a couple of large free range eggs.

Roast Dinner Tart - serves 4/5

1 sheet of puff pastry

butter for greasing

leftover meat, veg & stuffing - I used roast pork, broccoli, courgettes and mini stuffing balls

1/2 small red onion, sliced

2 large eggs

150g cream cheese

salt & pepper

• Roll out the pastry into a rectangle that would cover a baking tray with raised sides
• Lay a sheet of baking paper onto the baking tray, and grease with butter
• Lay the pastry sheet onto the tray, making sure that the pastry reaches up the sides of the tin
• Prick the base of the pastry with a fork
• Bake in a preheated 200C oven for approx 5 minutes (to avoid a soggy bottom)
• Cut the leftovers into bitesized pieces and scatter over the pastry along with the onion slices
• Beat the eggs and cream cheese together, and season to taste
• Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables
• Return to the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown

I have been provided with shopping vouchers to cover the cost of my ingredients

Three Tier Roast Pork Dinner Pie

When I saw the categories for this week's Great British Bake Off (before I watched the show) I felt a little uninspired. I had made a custard tart last year, and didn't really fancy trying pear pies, so all that was left was a three tier pie. Three tiers of dessert pie seemed a bit much (although my lot wouldn't have minded at all), so I decided upon savoury pies. A trio of pies that could be eaten as a complete meal, without the need for any accompaniments.

My roast dinner pies have everything you need in a roast dinner - pork, vegetables, stuffing and apple sauce. I decided to leave out potatoes as I thought that the pastry would provide more than enough carbs for one meal. The bottom layer was filled with roast pork and vegetables, the middle layer with stuffing, and the top with apples.

I underestimated the quantity of pastry I would use and needed to make a second batch. I'm not a great pastry maker, hence the rustic look, with all the cracks and patches, but it did taste good nonetheless. 

Three Tier Roast Pork Dinner Pie

stuffing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
100g fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
25g butter
salt & pepper
1 egg

1200g Shortcrust pastry (800g plain flour, 200g butter, 200g Trex vegetable fat)  
cooked roast pork
selection of cooked vegetables - broccoli, carrot & yellow courgette
2 eating apples
knob of butter, softened
1 egg, beaten

• Make the stuffing by heating the oil in a frying pan and adding the onion
• Fry gently for a couple of minutes, until softened but not browned
• Add the breadcrumbs, sage, butter, salt & pepper
• Mix well and fry for a couple more minutes
• Set aside
• Line the 3 different sized tins with pastry
• Fill the large pastry case with layers of pork and vegetables
• Beat an egg into the stuffing  and fill the medium pastry case
• Core the apples and thinly slice
• Fill the small pastry case with layers of sliced apple and a knob of butter
• Make lids for the pies and place them on top, sealing the edges
• Brush the pies with beaten egg
• Bake the pies in a preheated 180C oven - I baked my large pie for around 50 minutes, and the smaller two for 40 minutes

It looked a little bare so I popped a happy couple on top

A Family Sunday Roast with Knorr

Today was a busy day that started off with me coming home at 9am from a onesie night in and sleepover at a friends, and then onto a 5th birthday party at a bowling alley followed by a family walk around a local wildlife centre to blow the cobwebs away before arriving back home to prepare a family roast dinner. 

Apparently today was National Yorkshire Pudding Day. I didn't know this until someone tweeted me after seeing a picture on Twitter of my roast. It was a good job then that I made some awesome Yorkies in recognition of this day.

  

Anyone that knows me knows that I don't make a Sunday roast too often, although I have been making a lot more recently. The reason for the roast this week was because my brother and sister in law came up from Devon to visit, which coincided perfectly with Knorr sending a hamper of ingredients to make a Sunday roast, including a joint of beef, veggies, Knorr gravy pots and a gravy boat. 

  

The knorr gravy pots are a convenient way to make home-made tasting gravy without any fuss. Each pot is mixed with 280ml of water and brought to the boil to make a rich and delicious gravy that has no preservatives, additives or flavour enhancers in. They have also been awarded Product of the Year in the Gravy & Stock Category!

Today we used the beef gravy stock pots with our roast beef, which I seasoned with garlic and rosemary before roasting in a pan with carrots, onions and parsnips and served alongside Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, roast potatoes, broccoli and sprouts.

  

An amazing roast, even if I do say so myself....

  

I was sent a selection of Knorr gravy pots along with meat and vegetables to make a roast dinner

Cheats Roast

My family love nothing more than a good roast dinner. Sadly it's not one of my favourite meals, possibly one of my least favourite and because of this, and the mountain of dirty pots and pans that remain afterwards, I don't often cook a full roast dinner.


When I received an email last week with a recipe included for a 'Cheats Roast' I chose not to hit delete straight away and read through the email and recipe. The recipe was devised by Junior's Pantry founder Kate Finch whose family, like mine, would eat a roast every day of the week. This is a quick, easy and economical way of giving them 'almost' a roast dinner without the mountain of pots and pans afterwards.


I changed the ingredients very slightly and this is my version of Cheats Roast :


1kg of Pork Loin Steaks
800g New Potatoes
600g Parsnips
300g Butternut squash
3 eating apples
2 large lemons
Handful of woody herbs, I used Rosemary & Thyme
4 tbsp Olive oil

• Cut the chops/steaks lengthways
• Chop the veggies into large chunks & core & quarter the apples
• Squeeze the juice from the lemons & mix with the herbs and olive oil & season with black pepper
• Toss everything together in a large roasting pan, throw in the lemon halves too (remove before eating!)
• Roast in a 200 degree (C) oven for approx 1 hour (mixing a couple of times during the cooking), until all the meat & vegetables are brown

I made a gravy with the juices from the pan.


Total cost for this was under £10 and it served 3 large portions today with enough left over that I should be able to stretch between 2 or 3 tomorrow, along with a few extra veggies.

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