Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls

We like to enjoy a bit of seafood around Christmas, and I usually buy just a few of the cheaper varieties....Economically, I see the value in buying a kilo bag of frozen prawn meat. The bag comes with the prawns snap frozen, so you can take out and defrost the amount you need to defrost....No one big lump, which is good. I buy my prawn meat at the local seafood shop....they have it defrosted ready for you to use, and also frozen in the 1kg bags. My prawn meat costs me $20 but there is no waste, no scraps, but all meat.

Here is what I have done with this lot of Prawn meat.......

My Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls.

From left to right in the photo below....mince your chicken mince...then without rinsing the whizzer, mince your prawn meat....add both to a large bowl.....You can use what ever amounts you wish....it all depends on what you have. In this recipe, I used 1 kg of both Prawn meat and 1 kg of Chicken breasts.

So....Left to Right:

Minced Chicken breast, finely chopped Chillie, bruised Lemon Thyme with cracked pepper,

My  Universal Herb & Garlic Mix,  2 egg yolks, Minced Prawn meat.........

Blend it all together.....

Now fry a spoon full, to test for seasoning and flavour....This is a big help before you start wrapping the mix in pastry.....

After tasting the sample....I decided the seasoning and flavour were fine...but I thought they were a little heavy....so instead of saving those egg whites for something else...I whipped them up and folded them into the mix......

Fry to taste again.......much better......yummmmmmm

Now, I used to spoon my mix onto the pastry, but finally lashed out for the real thing last Christmas...and Oh...it is sooooo much easier to use a piping bag.....If you plan on buying one, buy the best quality you can afford.

As in the photo, fold the top half of the bag down over your hand and fill the bag with the mix....Only half fill the piping bag, or it will be too hard to manage.

Twist the top of the bag tight...and begin piping onto the pastry.
Each sheet of pastry needs to be cut in half.............

Use an egg wash as glue...by using on egg, a little water, and a pinch of salt...the water and the salt helps break down the white of the egg..........

Score the tops of the pastry once rolled with a sharp knife...only very shallow though, as you are not trying to cut slits into the tops...it is purely decoration. Then paint each with the egg wash.

To cut each roll into three, first dip your knife into a cup of flour, do this for each cut, and your cuts and edges of your rolls with be much neater.
I was able to fit twelve rolls on a biscuit tray for the oven...in a very hot oven of 240 degrees celcius...bake the sausage rolls for 20 minutes or until golden brown depending on your oven.

Repeat making them until you run out of the meat mixture.....
Both Mum and I enjoyed a few each for lunch, but the rest went into the freezer to be used as a meal for while Hubby is home......

Do you have left over pastry? I had a 12 sheet pack of pastry, and only used 9 1/2...so what did I do to use up the rest of the pastry?......

Fruit Strudel of course.....
In this mix I used....
Left over peaches off our dwarf peach tree
Two green apples, peeled and grated
Strawberries from the garden
Sultanas
Blueberries from the freezer
1 pear grated
a sprinkle of brown sugar

I had enough to make two large ones, and two smaller ones......so into the freezer they went

a yummy dessert fit for a king.....and My King...is home for a few days.

Background: Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls
Foreground: Mixed Fruit Strudel

Hubby and the rest of the family are going to love these......

What have you been baking for the Christmas break?

Chicken kebabs & Cheap chicken soup

When we submit to the take-away beast, it is usually a spare of the moment thought, or because we are not organised....or sometimes we are just too exhausted from the days workload, and have not organised anything for the night's meal. When I buy take-away it is always for one of these reasons....but then I always beat myself up at the huge costs, compared to making a meal from scratch.....

If I wanted to buy chicken kebabs on a stick from the take-away shop....I think they are close to $3.50 each.....Last night I made 20 for the family...way too many but I found this little gadget at the op-shop and just couldn't resist having a go at it. It cost me $2.00.

2 kg of chicken breasts...$18.00

Roll in seasoning from mostly home dehydrated vegies and mix herbs.

I forgot to take a photo of them after I grilled them, but they were delicious. They could have been better if I had just cut the breasts into thinner strips, so they would cook quicker. 

But I just had to try that gadget

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CHEAP CHICKEN SOUP

I had no idea that chicken frames were so cheap...If I want to make stock, I usually wait until I am cooking a chicken. At the price of $1.25 a kilo, I am not waiting any more. These four frames cost me $1.75. 

 I put them all in my large crockpot to cook....look at the meat that is on them....wow!!!
I then removed them from the hot stock to cool enough to take the meat from the bones....saved the bones to make stock. (mentioned later)   

After pulling the meat from the bones, I put the bones in my large crockpot and covered with water. I also added to the stock:
Vegie scraps from prep for soup.like the carrot ends.....and the ends of the swedes I got marked down....I also had kept the radish stalks, finding them lovely dipped in home made yoghurt the other day...so the rest of them went into the stock..... I picked some forgotten butter beans today which were getting too big to eat raw.....so some of them went in, but most of them went in the soup. I also added some dried herbs from the garden because its pouring rain....hey! I don't want to get wet...We are all suffering with colds at the moment, this is why I decided on a nice nutritious soup for tea.

Yes, I have two crockpots going, mine and my mothers.

Below: As it took a while to do a little shopping, because I simply had no energy to do it in the first place.....I knew that putting the vegies in the crockpot would probably not cook them in time for tea, so I cooked them on the stove until nearly cooked....also adding 'soup mix' and dried cracked wheat to the water. All good, cheap fillers.

While shopping, I found two french bread sticks for $3.00....I cut them in three, then halved them....smearing my home made pesto on them, and adding some grated cheese and parmesan cheese from the freezer....I never store grated cheese in the fridge, it goes mouldy too quick.  On to the griller, ready to brown at the last minute.

Here is the stock I am cooking....it has the chicken bones in it.
I will leave this to simmer all through the night....making a lovely stock to strain...
Don't stir your stock and it will be lovely and clear.

 Here is the chicken soup, nearly done, but I forgot to thicken it.....

 I opted for thin noodle pasta, but added some dehydrated mushrooms as well...

Once cooked, I will add this to the soup.

 The Pesto bread turned out yummy.

 Here is the chicken soup finished, after adding the cooked noodles and mushrooms....I also thickened it with 3 beaten egg whites, and have frozen the yolks to be used at a later date. You can freeze eggs as long as you separate them...its handy if you write how many yolks on the bag...or how many whites in a bag.

Not a bad meal for 5 people with leftovers to have in toasted sandwhichs tomorrow for lunch.

Everyone was full, fed well, and at a limited cost.