Salmon Flan

This is such a great recipe and works well as a lunch or light dinner with salad.  It is really easy and you can use tuna instead of salmon.  If you have not made your own pastry before then give this one a go (although you do not need a food processor I find it gives me the best result) as it is really easy.

Salmon Flan

Short Crust Pastry

1 1/5 Cups Plain Flour
100gm Salted Butter
4-8 Tbsp Cold Water
Ice Cubes

Dice the butter into small cubes and return to the fridge.  Add a couple of ice cubes to 1/2 a cup of water and set to the side.  Sift your flour into your food processor with the chopping blade, add your diced butter and pulse until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs.  Or sift into a bowl if you are doing it by hand and add your diced butter the rub the mixture together using your fingers. Add the cold water 1 Tbsp at a time until the mix just holds together.  Wrap the mix in cling wrap and place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Flan Filing

5 Eggs
300ml Pouring Cream
1/4 Tsp Salt
14 Tsp White Pepper
1 Small Onion
1/2 Cup Grated Tasty Cheese
200 - 400 gm Tinned Salmon or Tuna (what ever you have on hand)

Heat oven to 220 degrees Celsius   With a fork beat together eggs, cream, salt and pepper.  Dice the onion really finely until the onion is turning to mush and add to the egg mix along with the onion.  Drain the fish and retain the juice.  If the fish has a lot of bones you can remove them then mash the fish with a fork.  Add the fish and 1/2 of the liquid to the egg mix and mix to combine.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll thinly.  Line a 20 -25cm flan dish and trim off the excess which can be frozen for later use.
Pour filling into pastry lined flan dish and bake at 220 degrees for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and bake a further 15 minutes or until the filling is just et in the middle.

Serve hot or warm with salad.

A Stockpile Challenge Pt 5

Well here we are 19 days in to the challenge and 28 days since I did a "normal" shop and so far I have spent $15.75.
I am starting to think that shopping will be different from now on.  This challenge has really opened my eyes to where we waste food, where I fail to be creative with ingredients and how much variety a few ingredients can provide.  In fact I think we are eating really well.
Last week I made an eggplant and macaroni lasagne which lasted us most of the week teamed up with salad.
I made up a meat mix loaded with our home grown capsicums and tomatoes, then I sliced home grown eggplants into 1cm thick slices and made a white sauce loaded with parsley.

Then it was all about the layers.  Eggplant, meat, white sauce, macaroni and repeat.

Then I retrieved and very hard and slightly mouldy block of parmesan from the fridge.  After trimming off all the surfaces to get rid of the mould I grated it on the top.  Let me just say it was a hit.

At the end of last week I had to got to Brisbane for a few days for work.  While I was down there I decided to go the Rocklea Farmers Market and buy Tomatoes for preserving.

I had to really stop and think about if I should buy them or not since I am doing this no shopping challenge.
Hubby and I talked it over and we decided that we should buy them now regardless of the challenge for a couple of reasons.
1. This challenge is self imposed and there are no prizes (other than the money saved and the pantry clean out)
2. Tomatoes are currently cheap to buy and even cheaper from the markets but will not remain so.
3. It is a 260km round trip to go to the markets from home vs an additional 30km since I was already in Brisbane.
4. Since all the of tomatoes were destined for preserving and we still have a few jars in the pantry they will not form part of our meals this month.
So I purchased 2 x 10kg boxes of roma tomatoes.

Hubby helped me dice them up and each 10 kg box completely filled my 12 litre stock pot once they were all diced up.

And once bottled up I ended up with 20 x 1 litre jars and another litre that I froze in small portions.
So although the challenge this month is to put a dent in the stockpile this lot will keep us going for quite a while but I don't feel bad about it.  This is the sort of stockpiling that will allow us to continue to shop frugally in the future.

Stockpile Challenge Pt 4

Well so far so good.

I am aiming to spend as little as I can this month and this is forcing me to really think about the options I have for the ingredients we already have rather than adding them to the shopping list.

The last time I shopped for food of any sort was on January 22nd.  Since then we have been eating from the stockpile.
Last week I had a few onions,mushrooms, carrots, capsicums and eggplant left in the fridge.  We had stir fry for a couple of nights then we needed a break from all the eggplant and capsicum(these are the only thing growing in the garden and they are thriving).  So I made a Beef Bourguignonne which is an odd dish to have at this time of the year but it was so very tasty and a great way to use up a few mushrooms and a couple of carrots.
On Saturday I went to the green grocer to top up our supply of fruit and vegetables.
I had set a maximum allowance of $15 per week to top up fresh fruit, vegetables and milk and this is the first time I have shopped since January 22nd.  You can see below what I purchased and coming in at a total of $15.75 I am really happy with the result.  I am sure I can make a weeks worth of meals from this lot.

Because this challenge is for all 3 meals a day I have made sure that we have so snacks ready for the coming week.  I made Bran Muffins and some Cheese and Sweet Chilli Sourdough scrolls.

Then for Sunday lunch and dinner I made a Salmon Flan.  It is something I remember eating as  a child but not something I had ever attempted.  It was really easy and delicious as well and there is enough for lunch again tomorrow too.  I will post the recipe later this week.

What have you been baking lately?

I Don't Remember Buying That

I know supermarkets are constantly expanding their range but I am not sure what to do with this "ingredient"...

On second thoughts it is way too cute to cook.

Crystal Waters Permaculture Community

At the beginning of the year Hubby an I were able to visit Crystal Waters, a Permaculture Community in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and about 35 minutes from where we live.  I have been learning a lot about permaculture and how we can apply the principles in our life.

We had organised to take a tour of the community with the lovely Robin Clayfield.  Robin has a vast amount of experience in the world of permaculture  and has lived at Crystal Waters for many years.

At the start of our tour Robin showed us plans and photos of what the property looked like before the village  was built.  She showed us how the plans has drawn on permaculture to design the layout and features including where dams and roads would be built.

Robin took us to look at some of the home within the community and showed us different ways that permaculture had been used to design the homes.
The weather was roasting and at that stage we had not had rain for months so we toured from shady spot to shady spot.

One of the homes we saw had been built with a grass roof (above photo).  I wondered how the owners were able to collect rain water but then Robin pointed out the stone edging (below photo).

Robin and Hubby

We looked at how some residents had built food forests around their homes, others had used fruit trees in their landscaping instead of ornamentals.

We talked about the shared spaces and small businesses that had been trialled and/or established in the community   It was a fascinating tour and Robin was an excellent tour guide.

There was a lot of information to take in and it has given us a lot to talk about since.  We are in the process of trying to learn as much as we can before we move to NZ so that when we are planning our property design we end up with things in the best place.

We are not moving for a year or so which is good because I think we still have a lot to learn.