Takeaway at Home- Duck Pancakes

We all love a takeaway every now again. Unfortunately takeaway doesn't always come cheap, but this is not a problem when you can make your own duck pancakes at home and pretend you're having takeaway! This works especially well when duck is on special offer (like it has been in Sainsburys lately).

This takes a bit of preparation, but if you're savvy you can persuade someone to do the washing up in return for this Chinese-style feast.

Duck Pancakes
Serves 2

Ingredients
Duck- how much depends on how hungry you are and whether this a starter or a main course- I used 2 legs for two hungry adults

For the pancakes:
125g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
A little sesame oil (to be authentic) or olive oil (if you don't have sesame oil)

To serve:
Finely sliced spring onions
Finely sliced cucumber
Hoisin sauce (this recipe looks good) or plain ol' soy sauce
Prawn crackers to keep you occupied whilst the duck cooks

1. Pop your duck in the pre-heated oven- I cooked two legs and these needed 90 minutes at 160℃. Go eat some prawn crackers until the duck has around 45 minutes left. Check the duck and turn if necessary.

2. Put the kettle on to boil whilst you measure out 125g plain flour and a teaspoon of sugar in a heatproof bowl. Pour 100ml boiling water into the bowl and mix well, until a ball of dough is formed.

3. Knead the dough for a few minutes on a well-floured surface, then place the dough back in the bowl and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to rest.

4. Meanwhile thinly slice the spring onions and cucumber and, if you're being super enthusiastic, make some hoisin sauce.

5. Once 30 minutes are up, take the dough out of the bowl and form into a sausage shape. Divide the sausage into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then gently flatten to form a circle- make your dough circles as thin as possible without them breaking/tearing.

6. Brush 4 of the circles with a little sesame/olive oil and then place the non-oiled pancakes over the top of these to form 4 pancake 'sandwiches'

7. Heat a non-stick frying pan and cook the pancakes 'sandwiches' for 1 minute on each side, until they puff up and start to colour, remove and keep warm whilst you serve the duck.

8. Enjoy a delicious (and smug) Chinese 'takeaway' feast!

Thrifty Spinach & Feta Cannelloni

Big bags of fresh spinach are always in the reduced section of our local supermarket (we're talking 15p for a huge bag). Spinach turns quite quickly and is no good to eat raw in salad once it's beginning to go a bit 'funny', but it's still great to cook with and as it reduces down so much, you can use the whole bag up at once, forming the basis of a main meal. Even better than that, spinach is super good for you, full of vitamins A and C and lots of antioxidants. 


Today, to start off my new 'Value Taste Test' (more to follow) I cooked a low-fat and thrifty spinach and feta cannelloni, using Everyday Value lasagne sheets (39p for 250g), a bag of reduced spinach (15p for 260g), half of a block of Everyday Value (noticing a theme here?) 'greek style salad cheese' (75p for 200g) and half a tin of Everyday Value chopped tomatoes.


Spinach and Feta Cannelloni
Ingredients
100g Everyday Value 'Greek style' salad cheese (feta, to you and I)
1 bag spinach, cooked and drained
125g lasagne sheets (half of an Everyday Value box)
200g Everyday Value chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
25g parmesan, grated
Salt, pepper and nutmeg to season

1. Place lasagne sheets in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Add a drop of olive oil to prevent sticking and separate sheets gently with a knife. Leave to soak, meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200℃/400℉/Gas Mark 6.

2. Mix the drained spinach with the feta, season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

3. Drain the lasagne sheets and spread out across the base of an ovenproof dish and, using a tablespoon, spread a dollop of the spinach and feta mix onto each lasagne sheet.

4. Carefully roll the lasagne sheets up and line up in the tray.

5. Mix the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, salt and pepper in a bowl and spread over the top of the lasagne sheets. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan.

6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes and serve with fresh salad.

Healthy Chickpea Falafels

Weeks of the stress of trying to buy a house/being ill/the lead up to my new role at work have resulted in very little exercise and rather a lot of comfort food. So it is that I must turn to Slimming World Free Foods Cookbook. First up- chickpea falafels (from the book) with my recipe for vegetable cous cous.

Cumin-Scented Chickpea Falafels with Vegetable Cous Cous (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 small onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and coarsely grated

2 x 400g chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 tsp finely grated ginger

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

3 tbsp fresh coriander

1 small egg

Salt to season

Fry light for spraying

Cous Cous salad to serve: 200g cous cous, 400ml vegetable stock and whatever veg tickles your fancy- I used 1 small onion, half of a red pepper and a couple of stalks of asparagus.

1. Whizz up the onion, carrot, chickpeas, garlic, cumin, chilli powder and the ground and fresh coriander in a food processer (this was a bit time consuming with my teeny tiny blender bowl!) Pulse and process for 1-2 minutes or until blended, but still fairly chunky.

2. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg and add to the mixture. Season with salt and, using your fingers, mix thoroughly to combine. Cover and chill in the fridge for 6-8 hours to firm up and allow the flavours to develop.

3. Preheat the oven to 200℃/400℉/Gas Mark 6. The book says to line a large baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment and spray lightly with Fry Light (I just stuck them in a non-stick tray as below). Shape the chickpea mixture into bite-sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Spray lightly with Fry Light and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and firm.

4. Whilst the falafels are in the oven, chop and lightly stir fry the veg (or go raw if you prefer) for the cous cous salad. Place the cous cous in a large bowl and pour over the veg stock, allow to soak in for 10 minutes or so, then fluff up with a fork and stir in the veg.

5. Remove the falfels from the oven and serve on the cous cous salad, garnished with chopped coriander.

Revel in the healthy deliciousness!

British Pie Week: Pork, Mushroom and Mustard Pie

There is nothing I like better than an excuse to eat pie and one has come along at just the right time in the form of British Pie Week- 5th-11th March.

To celebrate such a marvellous event, I have come up with a simple recipe for a pork, mushroom and wholegrain mustard pie- what better way to start the weekend?

Pork, Mushroom and Wholegrain Mustard Pie

4 servings

2 x pork chops
1 x onion
Handful of mushrooms
2 x leeks
250ml creme fraiche (or make a roux with milk, a bit of butter and flour if you're trying to be healthy!)
2 tsps wholegrain mustard
1 packet of puff pastry (or make your own if you have time to spare)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200℃/400℉/Gas Mark 6
2. In a large, non-stick pan, seal the pork and then add the leeks, mushrooms, onion. Stir fry for a few minutes, until the leeks, onions and mushrooms have softened
3. Meanwhile, roll out the pastry to fit a greased baking tray/dish- don't forget to leave enough for a lid (and a motif if you like!)- make sure a little pastry is over the sides of the dish
4. Pour the creme fraiche and spoon the mustard into the pan, stir and season to taste
5. Scoop the pork and mushroom mix into the pastry-lined dish
7. Cover with the pastry lid, cut off any excess and press the lid onto the exposed sides using a fork
8. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes, until golden and risen.

Thrip for leftover mustard: stir it into mashed potato for a livelier taste.

January's Seasonal Recipe: Fish and Leek Pie

One of the thriftiest, healthiest and tastiest ways to shop and eat is to use seasonal produce. We're lucky enough to have a couple of cheap, independent greengrocers in Cirencester that sell fresh, local produce that is tastier and usually cheaper than the supermarket. I always assumed that the greengrocer would be more expensive until I actually went in and I have now become an even bigger fan of the greengrocer!

The vegetables that are in season this month are:

Brussel sprouts
Green cabbage
Savoy cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Leeks
Celeriac
Parsnips
Purple sprouting broccoli
Kale
Chard
Leeks
Swede

So this month's seasonal special is Fish and Leek Pie

Feeds two adults and two children (or in our case two adults and one for later!)

Ingredients:
300g mixed fish fillets, skinless (this recipe is using a bag of frozen fish pie mix)
1 large swede
1 large leek
1 onion
100ml milk (I used skimmed milk powder- cheaper and you can't taste the difference in a pie!) + 25ml for mash
Salt and Pepper to season
Optional: cheese for grating

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)
2. Chop the leek chunks approx 1cm wide and roughly chop the onion
3. Put the chopped leek and onion into an oven proof dish with the fish
4. If using milk powder make up 100ml (if not just measure out as usual) and pour over the fish and vegetables, season with salt and pepper
5. Pop this into the oven and put on a pan of water to heat
6. Peel the swede and chop into smallish chunks
7. Boil the swede for 15 minutes, or until soft
8. Mash with the extra 25ml milk for a creamy texture
9. Take the fish mix out of the oven and spread the mashed swede over the top. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese
10. Return to the oven for 20 minutes

It looks a bit lonely here as I forgot to take a photo in 'whole pie' form, but we actually had ours with some lovely stir fried cabbage to boost the seasonal veg count, yum!

Eat Seasonably is a great tool for checking what's in season, when. Why not download a copy of their Eat Seasonably Calendar to stick on your fridge?