Smoked ham, leek and goats cheese impossible pie

Impossible pie, what a fascinating title.....

Impossible pies come in two forms, sweet and savoury. The former is essentially a baked custard style dish, the latter a form of a crust less quiche. The impossible bit being (I think) the fact that other than whisking the milk and eggs together you basically throw everything in to the dish and bake and it does look rather impossible at first.

The resultant pie was very tasty and great for a light meal when served with a green salad, its also a useful recipe for using up a few eggs when you have a glut from your hens like we have currently. The additions are infinitely variable I used leeks as we had some in the garden and the ham as it was in the fridge, but I am thinking of making a fully vegetarian version probably using pre cooked broccoli or asparagus and adding a little seasonal wild garlic or sorrel next time.

Serve warm or cold, its also the ideal pack up and go snack for a picnic or lunch box, a definite keeper in my opinion. I now need to try the sweet version.

I recently received a lovely hamper of goats milk goodies from St Helen's Farm so took the opportunity to use both goats milk and goats cheese in this recipe.

What you need

• Extra virgin rapeseed oil (1 tbsp or so)
• Couple of leeks - cleaned and sliced thinly
• Garlic - crushed or wild garlic if in season
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 eggs
• 70g Self raising flour (it works fine with gluten free)
• 300 ml semi skimmed milk (I used Goats as that what I had to hand)
• 1 pack of smoked ham - chopped into small pieces
• Approx 80g mature goats cheese -grated

I used a lightly oiled Pyrex flan dish to bake the "pie" in.

What you do

• Pre heat your oven to 200c 
• In a frying pan cook the leeks and garlic until softened and just every so slightly colouring
• Remove from heat and place in baking dish along with ham and the grated cheese, season with a little sea salt and pepper
• Whisk the eggs, flour and milk to make a thin batter
• Pour this over the leeks, cheese and ham
• Loosely cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes
• After 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for a further 30 minutes until the pie is firm and golden.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so, before serving in slices 
• Refrigerate if you wish to serve cold.

Smoked haddock, leek and pea fishermans pie

I love fish pie, nursery comfort food at its best. This week I decided to make a variation on the classic and it proved a popular dish, definately something I would make again. Pretty economical too as I was able to utilise mostly ingredients from the freezer or store cupboard, the tasty dish is gluten free and utilsed some of the stock powder I had kindly been sent by Essential Cuisine.

I really like Essential cuisines range of stocks as they are not over salted and very tasty, they are very like homemade stock, light in colour and allergy friendly. The smoked haddock I used in this recipe was from a frozen pack but I prefer if possible to use undyed smoked haddock if you can get it, any other white smoked would work too. The peas were frozen petit pois but you could easily use ordinary peas if that is all you have. I had the leeks and creme fraiche in the fridge and potatoes in the cupboard.

What you need

• 2 smoked haddock fillets, skinned and de boned - cut into bite size pieces
• 2 leeks, topped tailed and cleaned. Cut in to fine circles
• Essential cuisine fish stock powder - make to about 150ml stock
• Creme fraiche
• Dill 
• Cornflour
• Frozen petit pois / peas - ramekin full
• Salt and pepper
• Potatoes ( 1 used 2 large poatatoes for 2 people)
• Butter or vegetable oil

What you do

• Gently heat a little butter or oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until they are starting to soften
• Add the fish pieces and cook very gently until just coloured, now add the peas to the pan and the creme fraiche (I used about 2 tbsp), the fish stock and dill.
• Simmer gently until you have a sauce of your desired thickness, if necessary thicken with slaked cornflour. (Slaked is when the cornflour is mixed into a paste with little water or milk or stock). Taste and season
• Place the pie filling in your chosen dish and allow to cool
• Meanwhile cook your potatoes for your mash, once ready then mash with a little butter and season to taste
• Place the mashed potatoes on top of your pie
• Pre heat the ove to 180c and bake for approx 25 minutes until golden on top and the sauce is bubbling
• Serve immediately

Carrot, parsnip and leek soup

I hate to waste food, so often as not I tend to make a soup with vegetables that are getting a bit long in the tooth in the bottom of the fridge. This soup was made with the remains of a pack of multi-coloured carrots I had picked up locally, a couple of parsnips and a sad and lonely leek.

The secret to a good soup is to use a quality stock, I either make my own (if I have time) mostly though I use a quality stock powder such as Essential Cuisine, I find their stocks are really tasty but light at the same time and not over salted.

This is a wholesome soup rich in vegetables and is ideal to serve to vegetarian guests and it complements homemade crusty bread perfectly.

Ingredients

• Carrots - peeled and finely diced
• Parsnips - peeled and finely diced
• 1 large leeks, washed and sliced into rings
• A little vegetable oil
• Vegetable stock or butter
• Salt and Pepper

Method

• Warm a little vegetable oil in a large saucepan
• Fry the chopped vegetables very gently (sweat) without colouring
• Stir frequently to make sure no vegetables catch
• Add enough stock to cover the vegetables, bring to a gentle simmer
• Simmer, covered until the vegetable are softened.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly
• Blend with a hand blender to your desired consistency
• Add a little more stock to thin and taste for seasoning
• Bring back to a gentle simmer, serve in attractive soup bowls

Leek, Potato and thyme Soup

This is my standby soup recipe, deliciously warming and comforting and a great anecdote to when you need the equivalent of a hug in a bowl. Outside its been bashing down with rain and even when it stops raining its raining leaves as autumn is well and truly well under way. Leeks are fairly easy to grow in the garden and even if your yield is disappointing you normally can rescue enough leeks for soup.

Ingredients

• 3 large potatoes - peeled and chopped in to chunky cubes
• 3 leeks, cleaned and chopped into rings
• Vegetable stock about 500ml
• Thyme - dried or fresh
• Salt and Pepper
• Butter

Method

• Melt the butter in a large saucepan
• Add the leeks and chopped potato and cook gently until slightly softened
• Add the thyme and enough vegetable stock to cover
• Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender
• Now liquidise half the soup ( I use a stick blender), by doing it this way you still retain texture
• Add more water / stock if too thick and bring back to a simmer
• Taste and season
• Delicious served with homemade bread

I am entering this into the Simple and Seasonal challenge hosted this month by franglaiskitchen for Fabulicious Food

And also in Herbs on Saturday October hosted over at Lavender and Lovage 

Smoked haddock and leek chowder

This is one of my favourite soup, so warming and comforting. Its loosely based on a recipe in "New Covent Garden Soup - Book of Soups" one of my extensive collection of cookery books. I first had their version off their stand that used to be on London Euston railway station, on a business trip. I make my version fairly regularly throughout the winter season, its easy to substitute the smoked haddock for salmon or prawns and the leek for onion, you could also add sweetcorn too.I used Leeks today as I had a fresh supply from the garden.

Ingredients

• Large knob of butter
• 2 large leeks - cleaned and chopped
• 2 large potatoes - peeled and chunky chopped
• 500ml fish stock - a stock cube is fine
• 1 largeish piece of smoked haddock, cooked, de-skinned and flaked and any bones removed
• Pepper
• Dill Weed

Method

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add 2/3rds of the chopped leeks and potatoes to the pan, cook gently without colouring for about 5 minutes, then add the stock and bring to a simmer, cook until the vegetables are just softened. Now allow your soup to cool and use a stick blender to liquidise until smooth. Now add the rest of the vegetables and bring back to simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, if you need to add more water you can do, add the flaked fish and dill weed, taste and season. You probably won't need any salt as smoked haddock is fairly salty.

Serve garnished with parsley or a swirl of cream or both if you wish.