Spinach, Bacon & Feta Plait

It doesn’t matter how little you have to make a meal, if you’ve got a sheet of puff pastry in the freezer, you’ll always be able to make a little go a bit further. Everything tastes better with puff pastry and this Spinach, Bacon & Feta Plait came together so easy when ingredients were low.

 

 

I had a little bit of spinach (silverbeet), a couple slices of bacon, half a capsicum and the tiniest bit of feta cheese. I could’ve probably found a bit of pasta to go with it but knowing I always have puff pastry in the freezer, I decided to create a pastry plait. It’s so, so easy for either sweet or savoury dishes.

All you need to do is blanch the spinach and squeeze out any excess moisture. Chop the other ingredients and add half a cup of dried breadcrumbs. This will help to absorb any excess moisture while baking so the pastry stays crisp.

To make the plait, make cuts in the pastry on both sides as above, leaving a space in the middle to pile your filling.

I also add a sprinkling of dried breadcrumbs on the pastry, just to be sure all that excess moisture is absorbed. Put the cut pastry on a piece of baking paper on a baking tray.

Pile on the filling.

Starting from the back, start folding the pastry over the piece from the opposite side until you get to the front and tuck the ends in.

Brush with a beaten egg and bake for about 25 minutes in a 180 deg C oven.

A lovely, golden, crisp pastry shell filled with all those delicious flavours of spinach, bacon and feta cheese.

Serve sliced with whatever you like. All I had to go with this was potatoes and a box of long life cream in the pantry so I made dauphinoise potatoes (potato bake) and it was delicious.

Making this dish reminded me of the time I made this Plum & Macadamia Plait. It was made with a basic sweet dough but you could quite easily just use frozen, ready made puff pastry for a quick dessert. It’s a great way to use up fruit that might be starting to turn. You could add just about anything to one of these plaits, sweet or savoury.

Puff pastry is also excellent to use when unexpected company arrives. You can make so many little bite sized snacks and I have 10 different recipes here. It pays to keep puff pastry in the freezer for a quick meal or fast snack.

Recipe

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Spinach, Bacon & Feta Plait

For a quick meal when you don't have much left in the pantry, use what you have got left and fold it into this easy puff pastry plait.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4

Author Anne

Ingredients

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
• 1 cup cooked spinach or silverbeet excess moisture removed
• 2 rashers bacon chopped
• capscim onion or other vegetables, diced
• feta cheese crumbled
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• salt & pepper
• 1 egg beaten

Instructions

1. Cook spinach and remove any excess liquid.
2. Combine spinach, bacon and feta with 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs and salt and pepper.
3. Prepare sheet of puff pastry by making diagonal cuts about 1/3 from the centre of the pastry sheet.
4. Repeat on the other side.
5. Sprinkle some extra dried breadcrumbs on the pastry sheet to help absorb any excess moisture from the filling.
6. Spoon filling onto the middle of the pastry sheet and starting from the back, fold over cut pastry slices over the top of the filling, tucking the ends in at the front.
7. Brush pastry with 1 beaten egg and bake in a 180 deg C oven for approximately 25 minutes.
8. Slice and serve.

 

Asparagus & Bacon Risoni (Orzo)

 

Spring in Australia is a perfect time for some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables and nothing could be better than fresh asparagus. These delightful spears of goodness are at their best at the moment and in abundance. We’ve been eating quite a bit of it lately thanks to Aussie Asparagus sending us a few bunches. This Asparagus & Bacon Risoni is an excellent way to take advantage of in season asparagus.

 

 

It was ‘one of those nights’ when I didn’t have anything prepped for dinner so I relied on the fresh asparagus to get us through the night. If I can get away with a one pot meal, I will. This Asparagus & Bacon Risoni came together so easily. I started by frying a chopped onion in a little oil.

 

Chop the dry ends off the asparagus and chop the rest of the asparagus spear into bite sized pieces.

 

Fry a little chopped bacon in the same pan.

 

 

Add the fresh asparagus.

 

Add half a cup of risoni (also called orzo in other parts of the world). I love risoni and think it’s very underrated. It has the taste of pasta, is quick to cook and is the size of rice. Add a cup of either vegetable or chicken stock and season well with salt and pepper.

 

Once the risoni has absorbed all the liquid (which should only take a few minutes), add a little cream if you like. I always keep a small box of longlife cream in the pantry for special dishes like this. I also found some baby spinach leaves in the fridge which I threw in as well. The residual heat from the dish will wilt these in no time.

 

 

Top with grated parmesan if you wish. This dish was so full of flavour and ready in no time at all. A great way to feature the beautiful fresh taste of in-season asparagus.

Asparagus & Bacon Risoni (Orzo)

 

 

• 1 bunch fresh asparagus, chopped in bite sized pieces
• 3 rashers of bacon, chopped
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup risoni (orzo)
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• salt and pepper
• baby spinach leaves (optional)
• 1/2 cup cream (optional)
• grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In a pan, fry onions and bacon in a extra virgin olive oil.
2. Add fresh asparagus, stock and risoni (orzo).
3. Cook until risoni has absorbed liquid (approx 10 minutes).
4. Add cream and spinach leaves.
5. Serve with grated parmesan.

 

 

Disclaimer:  I received bunches of fresh asparagus from the Australian Asparagus Council. All photos, thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not paid for this post.

Grilled Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Burger

Week day lunches, while the kids are at school, are usually a non-event. It’s either some kind of leftovers from the night before, a salad or crackers with cheese and tomato but if I’ve got all the makings for a burger, I’ll treat myself. On this particular day I had avocados, chicken breast, bacon plus the salad ingredients and hamburger rolls. Avocado on anything tastes good to me so a Grilled Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Burger it was.

Horizontally slice the chicken breast into thin slices and pop in a pan (or on the barbecue) with bacon and a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Toast the bun halves and top with cheese and pop under the grill to melt.

Prepare your salad ingredients. I didn’t want to overload the salad ingredients or else I wouldn’t be able to get my mouth around the burger (I had enough trouble as it was) so I opted for just lettuce, tomato and avocado.

Top the burger bun half with the grilled chicken and bacon then top with the salad. I spread the top burger bun with a little mayo and smothered the chicken and bacon with barbecue sauce.

These were good and so, so filling. Dinner that night was only very light. It’s nice to be able to prepare something like this on the odd occasion, when you’ve got the time to enjoy it without interruption. It saves you running to the takeaway for a burger which I never do anyway. If I had to make these with the kids around one would have just cheese and the other would probably just have chicken, bacon and cheese. Sometimes I feel my kitchen is like a fast food joint and I’m a short order cook, taking everyone’s orders. That’s why I save meals like this when they’re not around.

Grilled Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Burger

• chicken breast, sliced thinly horizontally
• bacon
• olive oil for frying
• cheese
• burger buns
• lettuce
• tomato
• avocado
• mayo
• barbecue sauce (or sauce of your liking)

1. Fry chicken breast and bacon in a little olive oil with salt and pepper.
2. Split burger buns, toast and top one half with cheese and melt.
3. Assemble burger with bun half which was topped with cheese, then chicken, bacon, sauce, lettuce, tomato and avocado with the top half of the bun spread with mayo.

Bacon & Corn Savoury Slice

I’ve been so used to cooking a ‘normal’ meal for 1 plus 2 small extra meals for the little people in the house. One for an extremely fussy eater and the other meal made up of a bit of mine and a bit of the fussy one’s. I’ve always known my son’s been a good eater but just didn’t think about giving him what I had until he asks for it each time. Of course he doesn’t ask for the spicy stuff but I’ve started branching out, or going back to some old recipes, to use up what I’ve got and to introduce him to new flavours and textures.

This recipe is your basic Zucchini Slice. I didn’t have any zucchini so substituted it with a can of creamed corn. I should’ve cooked it in a smaller pan so it was a bit thicker. It didn’t matter though. It tasted great and will be a great filler for my son’s lunch box as well. I love cooking for people who will eat my food. I’m looking forward to trying some of these old family favourites for, well, my family. This would also make a great dish for breakfast, brunch, lunch or snacks and made in a slice pan like I did or in a muffin pan. This would freeze well too.

Bacon & Corn Savoury Slice

• 4 bacon rashers, chopped finely
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Fry bacon and onion until bacon just browned.
2. Add flour to beaten eggs and mix well.
3. Add bacon/onion mixture, grated cheese and oil and mix well.
4. Pour into a slice pan lined with baking paper and bake in a 170 deg C oven until browned on top (approx 25 mins).
5. Serve with potato wedges and salad or vegetables.

13 recipes for 2 slices of bacon

I knew my freezer was getting low on meat, not that I buy it or use much of it anymore.  I still do like to have a bit on hand. A little bit goes a long way in our house so it could be months before I buy meat again. Saturday night movie night is usually a night we have a popular ‘takeaway’ meal made at home. It could be anything like nachos, hot dogs, pizza or burgers. I went searching through a very bare freezer and out from back, like the holy grail, was a freezer bag containing 2 slices of bacon. I hit the jackpot!

source

 

Bacon and egg burgers are as popular here in Australia as a hamburger so it was bacon and egg burgers for us. (Not that I’m a huge egg person so my boy and I shared one egg.) In Australia our bacon slices (or rashers) include the loin section of the middle bacon. You can buy it as a whole rasher, just the loin part (known as short cut bacon), rind on or rindless. I love it all. Some places are now selling a kilo for $5 which is a real bargain. When the fat and/or rind is trimmed from the bacon, you do have quite a nice, ‘healthy’ cut of meat and it is so versatile and a little bit goes a long way.

 

Here are some other dishes where 2 rashers could quite easily feed a family of four.

 

Pasta with Bacon, Baby Spinach & Ricotta

 

 



Honey Roasted Pumpkin & Bacon Mini Quiches

 

Green Pea & Bacon Soup

 

Creamy Potato & Bacon Soup

 

BLT Salad

 

Savoury Stuffed Meatloaf

 

Caesar Salad Sandwich

 

Pasta & Meatballs

 

Oriental Fried Rice

 

Chicken Parmigiana Bake

 

Savoury Bread & Butter Pudding

 

Ned Kelly Pies

 

If a recipe calls for say 4 rashers of bacon, and you only have 2, chop it up finely to make a little go a long way.

 



Pasta with Bacon, Baby Spinach & Ricotta

While on school holiday vacation, I get into a ‘lazy’ cooking mode. Its not like I don’t want to cook. Its just that schedules and routines are out the window so when dinner time comes around, I’ve usually not prepared anything or given it much thought. Those nights we usually have toasted sandwiches, baked beans or something from the freezer.

I looked into the fridge and saw 4 slices of bacon, baby spinach leaves and ricotta, which I have earmarked for another recipe this week. I made a quick sauce out of the ricotta and bacon and threw it all into the cooked pasta, along with spinach leaves which had wilted from the heat of the pasta. The dish only took me as long as it took to boil the pasta. Now, http://zizics.com/profile/Paulsen that’s what I call ‘fast food’. Better than any fast food you can buy these days.

Pasta with Bacon, Baby Spinach & Ricotta

• pasta of your choice
• bacon, diced
• handful baby spinach leaves (for 4 people)
• 2 tbs ricotta
• salt & pepper
• grated parmesan to serve

1. Boil pasta until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
2. Once pasta is cooked, drain and return pasta to the saucepan.
3. Add spinach leaves and stir through cooked pasta. Put lid back on saucepan and set aside.
4. While pasta is boiling, fry bacon in a pan (with or without olive oil), add reserved water, salt and pepper and ricotta cheese.
5. Stir to combine.
6. Add to cooked pasta/spinach.
7. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese to serve.

Serves 4.

BLT Salad

 

I’ve been going to the gym and trying to eat a lot healthier. That’s one of the reasons there hasn’t been too many baked goods on the blog lately. I’m trying to eat a salad at lunch and dinner with whatever I’m having, just to bulk up. I had all the ingredients for a BLT sandwich the other day but knew I couldn’t possibly fit all the lettuce I usually eat in one sitting on one tiny bit of bread so decided to throw it all in a bowl and make a BLT Salad.

 

 

I didn’t want to make croutons nor have too many carbs so toasted just one slice of bread and chopped that up and tossed through the salad. It was a nice way to eat that BLT combination, which is such a favourite with so many people.

BLT Salad

• bacon, grilled, microwaved or fried
• tomato, chopped
• lettuce leaves, torn
• bread, toasted
• vinaigrette or salad dressing of your choice

1. Toss bacon and salad ingredients into a bowl.
2. Chop toasted bread into squares and toss through salad.
3. Top with chopped, cooked bacon and salad dressing. Toss.
4. More salad ingredients or nuts can also be added like pecans, walnuts, pinenuts.

 

Green Pea & Bacon Soup

Pea & Ham soup is (or was) as popular as a meat pie in Australia but going by the prices of ham hocks in the supermarket lately, it might be one of those dishes that might be a little out of reach for some families. I priced them at anywhere between $12 and $15 each the other day and that’s just ridiculous. They used to be considered an off cut and hardly saleable back in the 1950’s, 1960’s or 1970’s and the thrifty housewives of the time, trying to make ends meet, would make the ham hocks up into a delicious pea and ham soup. It’s the same as lamb shanks. No one ever wanted them at one time. Now they are overpriced.

I had some bacon bones (a lot cheaper than hocks) in the freezer that needed using up so made a pea soup based on them and added some frozen green peas for some sweetness and to intensify the green colour of the soup. With the addition of some chopped, cooked bacon at the end, it came pretty close to the old fashioned favourite.

Green Pea & Bacon Soup

1 cup dried split peas, rinsed
1-2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1-2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced finely
3-4 bacon bones
2 bay leaves
1 cup frozen green peas
enough chicken stock to cover
2 rashers bacon, diced

1. Put dried peas, potatoes, carrots, celery, bacon bones and bay leaves in a saucepan and cover with sufficient chicken stock.
2. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer until vegetables and peas are softened.
3. Remove bacon bones. (If there is any meat on them, remove and add to the soup.)
4. Add frozen peas and cook for a further 10 mins.
5. Blend with a stick blender until the desired consistency.
6. Fry bacon until crispy.
7. Spoon soup into bowls and top with cooked bacon.

Serves 4.

Creamy Potato & Bacon Soup

What a miserable old rainy day it was today. I wanted to just use what I had and I had bacon defrosted from making the pies the night before and felt like a hearty thick soup. I have a lot of potatoes so potato and bacon soup it was.

Creamy Potato & Bacon Soup

3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 bacon rashers, chopped finely
2 small or 1 large onion, chopped finely
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups milk
2 tbs plain flour
salt and pepper
olive oil

Fry onions and bacon in a small

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amount of olive oil. Add potatoes and cover with 2 cups of chicken stock. Boil under potatoes are tender. Add pepper and adjust salt, if required. Mash with a potato masher to your desired consistency, ie leave course for a chunkier soup or mash more until a smooth consistency. Blend 2 tbs plain flour with half a cup of milk to a smooth paste, top up milk to one cup, add to soup and add a further cup of milk. Stir until thickened. Serve with crusty bread.

Ned Kelly Pies

Ned Kelly was an Australian bushranger living in the 1800’s and famous for making a ‘suit of amour’ out of sheets of steel, which he wore to a gunfight at Glenrowan, Victoria. He survived the gunfight but was captured by police and eventually hung in 1880. Some might say he was like the equivalent of Jesse James. Whatever you think, he is an Australian folklore legend.

[photo source]


Don’t ask me what the association is between Ned Kelly and a bacon, egg and cheese pie but the bakeries here in Australia have been making and selling them for ages. Meat pies are an Australian national dish. I’ve got a pie maker and it’s great for using leftovers for pie fillings as well as making a ‘Ned Kelly’ pie. I use the pie maker a lot in the cooler months.

Even though the pie maker is supposed to be ‘non stick’, I spray with oil, just in case. I use frozen puff pastry and cut out circles to use as the base and the tops of the pies. You can use sliced bread as well for the pastry cases.

Fill with chopped bacon, beaten egg (2 eggs makes 4 pies) and top with grated cheese. Put on the pastry tops and cook for 12 minutes.

These are good served hot or cold. I guess I have something to thank Ned Kelly for.