Pot pie

There aren't many things in life that are more comforting than a pot pie. The most delicious one I've ever had was a sweet potato and chickpea pot pie that I had at a pub at Mount Victoria, whilst driving back from The OC to Sydney one weekend.

I've never seen it on any other menu, and never seen a recipe for such a pie, but I have craved it often. So much in fact that I've searched around on the internet to find something similar. This recipe for Moroccan lamb & chickpea pot pies at Taste is the closest I've seen.

A sudden cold snap hit Melbourne a few days ago. Also, I'm starting night shift tonight for 4 nights in a row. So what better time to fill the fridge with a hearty and nourishing pot pie.



I've adapted the taste recipe to take out the lamb. Still not quite at the level of the Mount Victoria pub, but I'm willing to keep working on it over winter!

Morroccan sweet potato & chickpea pot pies

Ingredients

• Olive oil spray
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• Half a leek (I happened to have it in the fridge. I wouldn't buy it just for the sake of this recipe if I didn't have it already though)
  
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin (I added this because I always seem to use coriander and cumin together)
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 x 400g can no-added-salt tomatoes
• 500g orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, cut into 1.5cm-pieces (I increased the amount to compensate for the lack of lamb)
  
• 60ml (1/4 cup) water
• 1 x 400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
• 1 tsp honey
• 4 sheets filo
• 1 tsp sesame seeds

Method

1. Heat a large non-stick frying pan and then spray with olive oil spray. Add the onion +/- leek to the pan. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the garlic, coriander, cumin and cinnamon. Cook for 1 minute or until aromatic.
2. Add the tomato, sweet potato and water to the pan. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the lamb and chickpeas, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in the honey. Season with pepper.
3. Preheat oven to 200°C. Divide the pie mixture among four 250ml (1-cup) capacity ovenproof dishes. Spray 1 filo sheet with olive oil spray. Fold in half 4 times to make a square. Place on top of 1 pie. Scrunch the edges. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat with remaining filo sheets and sesame seeds. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Serve.

I'm not very good at working with filo, so I kinda mucked this bit up. Still tasted good though. I'm going to have to get some filo lessons from my friend who uses it to make yummy spinach and cheese triangles.

Also I really need to buy some ramekins. I have the small baking tin pictured above, but the rest of the mix just went in a loaf pan since I don't even have any ovenproof bowels. On the todo list!

Tagged!

I was going to start this sentence by saying "I don't normally participate in these tagging things"...which is true, I don't. But given that I've never actually *been* tagged, I can't say for certain whether it's because I don't like tag-things, or just that I've never been asked.

Anyhoo, I've been tagged by both the lovely Michelle, and the amazing Theresa, and given that it's been a while since I posted here, and since I'm unexpectedly home for the night, here goes! I need to list 10 little-known facts about myself and then ask 10 other people to follow suit. Buckle up kiddies.

1. I'm completely unmusically and unartistically talented. Only instrument I've ever played is the recorder. Both my brothers have uni degrees in creative arts but I missed out on the artistic gene too.

2. Before going back to uni to study medicine, I was a computer programmer. Technically I can put the initials BITCH after my name and mean it (Bachelor Information Technology and Communication with Honours). Actually getting that H was one of the main motivators that made me want to do Honours in the first place!

3. My biggest fears are huntsman spiders and leeches. I temporarily got over my fear of leeches after spending a month in Borneo (they are everywhere there), but years later Australian leeches still freak me out unless I have salt on standby. I don't think I will ever get over my fear of hunstman spiders.

4. Goats are my favourite animals. I've had a few pet goats, but a little angora goat named Andy stole my heart. I used to take him for walks through the village we lived in, had taught him to jump over ropes and even tried dying him pink with mulberry juice once. I was devastated when police dogs escaped and killed him.

5. I love British comedy and could spend hours quoting Blackadder, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf and Monty Python. I once translated "my hovercraft is full of eels" into 30 languages just for the fun of it.

6. When I was born I nearly died of haemolytic disease of the newborn and had to have an exchange blood transfusion to replace all my red blood cells at birth. Given that I'm the oldest child, this means my mum unknowingly had a miscarriage before I was born. Nowadays this is prevented by giving prophylactic anti-D injections to pregnant mums with O- blood group. Modern medicine can be great!

7. I had never been overseas until I was age 12. That year my parents packed up and moved us all to England for a year. It was scary, but great. I have never stopped wanting to travel since!

8. I have never been sea-sick in my life. Not even crossing the English channel in a terrible storm when everyone around me was staggering around projectile vomiting including every other member of my family. I sat there doing my maths homework like the nerd that I am!

9. I don't know how to braid hair. I'd really like to learn.

10. I used to hate pineapple, tomato, capsicum, onion, asparagus and a host of other veggies that I now love. I still hate cauliflower, broccolli and brussel sprouts with a passion and can't even eat food those vegetables have touched. I also can't eat mixed peas and corn. They have to be separated and then eaten. OCD much?

Whew, talk about useless trivia huh! :)

Now who to tag? I think all the youlookfab ladies have already played along, and I don't know who else actually reads this blog! Mary, Phil, Nadine: wanna play?

First cold night

In a few months time I might be regretting ever saying this, but Saturday night I was a bit excited that it had finally cooled down enough to wear both boots and a jacket out to dinner.

I'm officially in love with this Boden dress, after having some initial doubts when I first received it. I love its breeziness. And the light material worked well with the leather jacket and boots.



The only thing I had to think twice about was tights/boots combination. It's hard to tell from the picture as it's so dark, but I'm wearing dark blue tights, which I think looked good continuing on from the blue pattern in the dress. However when I tried adding grey boots into the mix, the blue and grey together just didn't look right to my eye. I don't know if my instincts were right, or if I'd have gotten used to it over the course of the evening. Maybe I'll have to try it again some other time.



Doesn't my hair look all over the place? I think 6 months is officially too long to be without a haircut, so I'll have to remedy that soon.

And here's a bonus outfit from a few weeks ago featuring another light and breezy clothing item: a tunic top from H&M in Beijing. It kind of hurts my eyes looking at the pattern in this picture. Hope it doesn't have the same effect on others when I'm actually wearing it!

Things I love about Melbourne #1: TramTracker

Ok, so I kinda love the actual trams too, but so far my favourite thing about Melbourne's public transport network is the TramTracker application for the iPhone.

Image courtesy of iTunes store

It automatically detects which stops are closest to you right now, so if you're using it from home, it tells you how far the next tram is from home. No more faffing about looking up timeables, or waiting at a tram stop for 15 minutes. Heaven!

I just jumped on the iPhone bandwagon last week. So far this is handsdown the best application I have found for the iPhone.

Now if only my myki card would work more than 50% of this time, this whole tram-catching caper would be perfect!

Chicken & corn chowder

Yesterday I finally cooked one of my favourite soups of all time: Chicken & Corn Chowder.

During some cooler weather, I'd bought leeks from the South Melbourne Markets nearly 2 weeks ago, with the express intention of making this soup. Of course now it's warmed back up, and soup doesn't feel entirely appropriate, but I'm starting working nights again tonight, and sometimes at 4am in the morning you need something nourishing, warm and hearty to remind you that you are human despite being awake at an ungodly hour.

I was planning on cooking this on Monday night, so went to the fruit and veg shop, and the supermarket to pick up the few other bits and bobs apart from leeks that I needed to complete the recipe. Sadly I forgot to buy corn!

Chicken & corn chowder just wouldn't be the same without one of it's eponymous ingredients, so I had to hold off on making it until I had managed to procure that final, but vital ingredient.

Worth the wait though!



Here's the recipe I used. I stumbled across the original at allrecipes.com, and have fiddled with it just a teeny bit.

Zippy Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients

• 2-3 chicken breast fillets, cubed
  
• olive oil, small amt for frying
  
• 1 large red capsicum, chopped
• 2 medium leeks, chopped
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 4 cups frozen corn
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2-1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 tin light evaporated milk
  

Directions

1. Saute chicken in olive oil in a big soup pot, until lightly browned; set aside and keep warm.
   
2. In the same pan, saute the red pepper until tender. Add the leeks; cook for 1 minute. Stir in the flour and paprika until blended. Gradually stir in the broth. Add the potatoes; bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Stir in corn, Worcestershire sauce, salt, hot pepper sauce and reserved chicken; bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook, uncovered, for 5-8 minutes or until corn is tender, stirring occasionally.
   
5. Stir in cream and heat through (do not boil).

Easy huh? And so yum!

exercise program day 1 (again)!

I can’t believe I missed out on exercising yesterday. And I was going so well too!!

Instead I did the following:

• Went to physio – neck is close to being all sorted.
• Traipsed around a shopping centre for 2 hours. Quite productive actually as I got both a new swimsuit and a brand new swimming cap!
• Went out for St Pats. I’m living with an Irish lass – I had to!!
  

And of course I wore green!!

But really, I could easily have squeezed in a 30 minute walk if I really wanted to, so it’s my own fault for not meeting this goal yet again. That just means more exercise for me coming up, doesn’t it?

Today was a good first day back though. I roadtested the new swimming gear and it passed with flying colours. No wardrobe malfunctions, I could see where I was going and I was able to leave the house just as soon as I’d put on sneakers, shorts and a bike helmet. No fuss.

Here’s the course I did today.

Notice there’s a bit of to-and-fro’ing at the start. I got halfway there before realising I’d forgotten my goggles, so rode back for them. Can you believe the lazy beastie inside of me seriously considered just buying a new pair there to solve the problem instead. I’m glad I talked myself out of that one!!

Then I swam 1.1km. Go me!

See more progress on: exercise every day for 30 days

Body woes

Today's exercise:

• 8km walk
• 800m swim

Good exercise right? But I’m not feeling good.

When I awoke Thursday afternoon (I’m working nights this week, so I’ve been sleeping during the day) something was very wrong.

My neck and shoulders on both sides, but mainly the right were all locked up and sore. Panadol, Neurofen and a heatpack made no difference. Driving is painful, and to turn and look at something I basically have to turn my whole body, since I can’t rotate my neck.

I’d made a physio appt for Monday, because I thought the SI joint injury that plagued me throughout December was starting to return. Yesterday I called up and was lucky enough to be able to nab a Friday afternoon appointment slot someone had cancelled.

Physio dude was nice enough, but not as wonderful as my Wollongong physio. Or maybe I’m just grumpy to get the bad news. C2 joint is screwed up (thus the neck pain), my thoracic spine is tight due to bad posture causing shoulder pain. And my SI joint is out of alignment again, causing the hip flexor and knee pain I’ve been experiencing when walking.

I forced myself to go walking last night, and I don’t know if that was a good idea. By the end of the walk both hips were hurting and my knee was throbbing. And of course my neck felt no better. It’s probably the worst my body has ever felt.

Today it’s still all locked up despite painkillers and heat. I hope I magically wake up better tomorrow. I have another physio appointment on Wednesday, but I don’t know if I can wait until then.

I hope the walk today and the swim have loosened things up a bit. The walk was less painful than yesterday so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. The swimming was sore on the neck/right shoulder, but not unbearable.

As for the neck? If it’s still causing me grief tomorrow I’m going to treat myself to a massage. Boo!

See more progress on: exercise every day for 30 days