Hi Everyone!

Hope you’ve had a fabulous week.  I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing with my sisters about our mother’s beautiful desserts.  One of my favourites was her pineapple pie which had a meringue topping on it.  This recipe from the Women’s Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No. 2 came very close although I did have to make one little tweak.  But first our main course.

There were a number of reasons this recipe appealed to me.  The first being all the delicious ingredients and the second the fact that you literally just throw it all in a little parcel of baking paper or foil or a cook-in bag and away you go.  To top all that off, it’s super healthy.

I remembered that Mum used custard powder in her filling so whilst the other ingredients looked close to the mark, I substituted custard powder for half of the cornflour and I have to say it was seriously close to my memory of Mum’s pie.  It’s a light dessert and has the essence of summer about it with the pineapple and lemony flavour.  You don’t even have to buy a whole pineapple because the recipe just uses a tin of pineapple.  All round a winner with the family and an easy meal from start to finish.  This scored 9/10.

Hoping you give this all a go.

Until next week…

From my table to yours with love x

Moroccan Baked Fish in a Bag

A simple and hearty, healthy meal. Fish could be substituted with chicken or feta for a totally vego version - adjust cooking times accordingly

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 400g can chickpeas drained
• small handful stoned black olives
• handful dried apricots chopped
• 1 carrot grated
• 2 tsp harissa paste
• 2 roasted red peppers (from a jar) sliced or chopped
• 2 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
• handful coriander chopped
• 4 fish fillets such as salmon, cod, haddock
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• couscous, flatbreads or Naan to serve

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 220°c/200°c fan forced and put a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.
2. Tear four large pieces of baking parchment and scrunch up to a tight ball. This helps make it more pliable. Open the paper out and sit each one in a bowl making a well in the middle. As an alternative to baking parchment you can use foil, or you can even buy individual cellophane roasting bags, which work a treat.
3. Divide the tomatoes between the parcels, then do the same with the chickpeas, olives, apricots, carrot, harissa, red pepper, spinach and coriander. Season and gently stir to mix.
4. Sit the fish fillets on top, season and drizzle with olive oil. Pull up the sides of each parcel and tie each one tightly with a piece of string. If you are using foil, scrunch together tightly, making sure you leave space in the top to allow steam to circulate.
5. The parcels can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge for a good few hours before cooking at this stage.
6. Put the parcels on the hot baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until the fish is cooked through. When cooked, split open the parcels into bowls and serve hot with couscous or flatbreads or Naan.

Notes

Source: Recipe from a friend (Original - The Flexible Family Cookbook by Jo Pratt)

Pineapple Meringue Pie

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 185 g shortbread biscuits
• 60 g butter
• 2 tbs cornflour
• 2 tbs custard powder
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c water
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1 450g can crushed pineapple
• 60 g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 c castor sugar

Method

 

1. Combine cornflour and custard powder with sugar in a saucepan. Gradually stir in water, stir until mixture is smooth. Add lemon rind and undrained can of pineapple. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Continue stirring, reduce heat slightly, boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, quickly stir in butter and egg yolks. Mix well. Allow mixture to cool to room temp.
2. Cush biscuits finely. Do this with a rolling pin, or in a blender or food processor. Biscuits must be crushed finely and evenly. Any large pieces of biscuits will cause the crumb crust to break when cut. It is a good idea to push crumbs through a fine sieve after crushing if you don't have a food processor. Melt butter, add to crumbs, mix well with fork, press crumbs evenly over side and base of 23cm flan tin. Use a glass or cup to press crumbs firmly and evenly on to side of tin. Refrigerate the crumb crust while the pineapple filling is cooling.
3. Spread filling evenly into crumb crust, top with meringue, spreading it to edge of crust to form a seal.
4. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved. Bake in moderate over 5 to 10 minutes, or until surface of meringue is lightly browned.

Notes

Source: From the Women's Weekly Dinner Party Cookbook No. 2