FAMILY HELPINGS

Acouple of weeks back I was at Field Days doing cooking demonstrations. I had a great time and it was awesome to see so many of you at Mystery Creek. Anyway, driving home I thought I’d share a couple of the recipes I made there. They’re easy meals for the school holidays and the kids can get stuck in and help to make them.

Sausage and Sweet Corn Pie

Serves 4

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 60 mins

1 sheet of puff pastry

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated ¼ cup onion, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, minced

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 250g pork sausages, cooked 1 can canned corn, strained 4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup cream

¼ tsp salt

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

1 Tbsp pine nuts

2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 Preheat oven to 180C and grease pie dish (approximately 30cm by 22cm) with olive oil. Roll puff pastry to approximately ½cm thick. Place in pastry in dish and sprinkle with cheese.

2 Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft. Add the chopped sausages and corn kernels. 3 Place into the pie dish lined with puff pastry

4 In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, cream, salt and Italian seasoning; mix well. Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture.

5 Lay the sliced tomato on top and sprinkle with pine nuts. 6 Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted halfway between centre and outer edge comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Pork Burger with Smoked Chipotle Slaw

Serves 4

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 20 mins

500g NZ pork mince

1 egg

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 small bunch of basil or coriander, thinly sliced

1 tsp salt and ground pepper 2 Tbsp Moroccan seasoning 4 burger buns, split and buttered Smoked Chipotle Slaw 1 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp smoked chipotle tabasco 3 Tbsp mayonnaise

⅛ head of cabbage

1 large tomato sliced into 4

1 In a mixing bowl, combine pork mince, egg, Dijon mustard, basil or coriander, salt, pepper and Moroccan seasoning; mix well.

2 Divide into 4 equal pieces and shape into 4 large patties.

3 Rest in the fridge until you are ready to cook.

4 For the smoked chipotle slaw, combine in a medium mixing bowl, the chopped parsley, balsamic vinegar, tabasco and mayonnaise; mix well. 5 Remove the dry or damaged leaves from the cabbage, slice thinly and combine with the mayonnaise mixture.

6 Cook the patties in a non-stick pan on medium heat for 3-4 minutes then flip and cook the other side for a further 3-4 minutes until cooked through (alternatively you can brown patties in the pan and then finish off cooking in the oven — you could also cook them on the barbecue for 5-10 minutes each, until cooked through).

7 While the patties are cooking, toast the buns in the oven or outside on the barbecue.

8 To construct the burger, place a small amount of slaw on the toasted bun along with a slice of tomato and top with patty and more slaw, then top with the other half of the toasted bun.