This is...Sunday lunch!

This week's This is... theme is Sunday Lunch. So this is 'kind of' what we usually have for Sunday lunch. And I'm probably really stretching the definition of 'kind of' here...

Usually Sundays consist of Matt and Kym going mountain-biking in the morning, while Jade and I bake something yummy to have as snacks for the coming week, while watching the kids. The boys then pick up a few meat pies from the local bakery on the way back from their ride, and that's lunch! But.....well, I am just a bit too proud to stick a photo of a takeaway meat pie as my Sunday lunch, and yet I'm not good at out and out lying...so.....


I made homemade pies for lunch! Yep, I figured, why not have the extended family over for a 'typical', and yet 'not so typical' Sunday lunch. It was actually a really lovely day. I made chicken and mushroom pies, and made the mixture the night before (yeah, party animal that I am - this is what I did on my Saturday night!!!). I didn't really follow a recipe as such, but this is how I made them. I think half the reason they were so nice was because we bought all the ingredients fresh from the Rocklea markets on Saturday morning, and you just can't beat good quality fresh produce.



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Chicken Pie Mixture

1.1kg free range organic chicken thighs
700g button mushrooms
6 leeks
1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley
3 tbsp cornflour
1 massels chicken stock cube
A sprinkling of dried thyme
White pepper
Salt

Cut chicken thighs into 2cm cubes and brown in a large pot.

Chop the leeks and saute them with the chicken until soft, then stir through the button mushrooms (I left the small ones whole and the bigger ones I chopped in half).

Just cover with boiling water, add stock cube and thyme, and simmer for about 1.5 - 2 hrs (until chicken is REALLY tender).

Mix cornflour with water and add to simmering mixture to thicken. Chop parsley and stir through. Season with pepper and salt. Allow to cool.

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Next morning, Lee and I cut out some shortcrust pastry to line the individual pie tins, added the mixture, put a puff pastry lid on top, then stuck a pastry shape onto this (this was Lee's forte, and everyone had a different cut-out on their pie - mine was an 'M' for Mum, and Matt's was the truck). We then brushed the tops with an egg and milk mixture, and baked on a pretty high oven (about 200 degrees celsius). Boy were they YUM!!! Matt made a lovely fresh salad to go with them, just to lighten the meal up a bit. Perfect!


So that was one of the triumphs of the afternoon! One of the not so triumphant aspects was Brown Betty, which was a recipe from Net's 120 Ways of Using Bread recipe book . I'm so sorry Net. I have no idea how I stuffed this one up. I really wanted to like it. But, although it looked quite good...


It just tasted like a big bowl of yuck.

Could it have been because I made my own breadcrumbs using wholemeal spelt sourdough bread?

My poor aunty insisted it couldn't be that bad, but when she tried it the smile froze on her face and she gave my husband 'that look', before discreetly spitting it into the bin....oh well...you win some you lose some... On the plus side, Lee and I had great fun using our new apple peeler/corer/slicer thingy that we had been given for Christmas. This was the first time we'd used it, and it was heaps of fun making apple slinkies!


Luckily, my mum (as always) came through with the goods. I hadn't asked her to bring anything, but Mum being Mum, of course she turned up with something...and boy were these something...


Mini lemon meringue pies - oooh la la! Now these were every bit as good as they looked, and went perfect with an after-lunch cuppa. Very civilised really. And so now I don't feel so embarrassed about showing you this Sunday's lunch. It wasn't perfect. But it was pretty damn close! Many thank to The Lark for inspiring us to have such a lovely day :)

PS. If anyone would like the lemon meringue pie recipe just let me know and I'll ask mum for it and post it here. Cheers!