A cheese pie with a lot of pork and beef

Cheese pie, hey! Normally I know well in advance what I’ll be cooking on a Saturday. Today, however, was different. I hadn’t given much thought to Saturday dinner during the week. I know right. Shock! Horror!

When I saw the pork and beef mince in the meat section of Coles this morning I figured I’d use it sometime during the week. By the time, I got back to the apartment, I still had no idea what I was going to cook. It took a walk around Lake Ginninderra for me to get my head around what I was going to put together.

Please do me a favour

I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the side bar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).

By subscribing you’ll receive a personalised e-mail from me and from time to time, apart from the blog post I’ll share something new, like my ideas for a cook book sometime this year.

Preparing tonight’s dinner

Fortunately, I had most of the ingredients I needed for this somewhat unusual cheese pie.

What you will need to put this meal for one together

• 500 grams of pork and beef mince
• A few good splashes of Worcestershire sauce
• Two handfuls of grated Coon cheese
• A small handful of sliced spring onion
• One small sliced red chilli
• One small sliced jalapeño pepper
• Half a handful of dried chilli flakes
• Two good splashes of cheap olive oil
• Three pieces of bread
• Seven slices of smoked cheese
• Two handful of fried shallots
• One handful of panko breadcrumbs
• One small packet of baby spinach leaves
• Two sliced tomatoes

How to put all this together

1. It’s always best to get your meat to room temperature before cooking it, so pull out the mince (ground meat for my friends in North America) and let it get to room temperature
2. In the mince add a splash of the cheap olive oil, a few good splashes of Worcestershire sauce, a handful of grated Coon cheese, half the spring onions, half the chillies and jalapeño pepper, the chilli flakes and a handful of fried shallots
3. Mix it all together and as my Mum says, whack your pork to get the muscle fibres tender
4. Allow the mince and the stuff you mixed into it to rest while you get everything else prepared
5. In the bottom of a stainless-steel frying pan or any other oven safe container lay out the bread and then lay on some of the smoked cheese
6. Splash some oil around to ensure you have a base with a ‘fried bread’ texture
7. Add the meat mix on top and spread it out
8. Cover the meat with the spinach leaves
9. Lay over the spinach leaves the slices of tomato
10. Next comes the remainder of the spring onions, chilli and jalapeño pepper
11. The final layer on top if the combined panko bread crumbs, fried shallots and the last of the grated Coon cheese
12. I splashed a little more of the cheap olive oil on top before putting it all into a moderate oven set at 150 °C (300 °F) for one hour
13. When it’s ready allow it to cool and serve with vegetables or eat on its own, whatever you fancy really

How did the cheese pie taste?

It was smoky, cheesy, spicy, and crispy. I really liked it. There’s enough left over for meals during the week.

Final thoughts

Making up meals like this is fun. Just put your imagination to it and see what happens.  

If you want to see what I got up to today, check out this link. 

Sunshine Blogger Award

Overnight, my friend Jennifer who writes the blog Little Monster Girl, nominated me for a blogging award, viz., the Sunshine Blogger Award. 

I’m not sure if I’ll get to nominating other bloggers and generating 11 questions, but here are Jennifer’s questions and my answers.

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

Old enough

What is your favourite holiday that you celebrate?

Australia Day, 26 January. It’s a controversial day for Indigenous Australians, but it’s important to me. I also enjoy eating food that is typically Australian on Australia Day.

What’s something you know you do differently than most people?

I cook congee or jook in a slow cooker rather than a pressure cooker or simmering it on a stove in a big pot.

What talent or skill would you most like to have?

I would love to be able to sing.

You have to fight off a monster with whatever is to your left. What is it?

My iPhone. I use the Star Wars light sabre app to scare the monster. 

What’s your favourite meal?

My mother’s wonton soup.

Let’s play “Our Town”–You have died and get to relive one day. What day?

Body surfing perfect waves on the sunshine coast, Queensland.

If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live/have lived your life differently?

I would have travelled and done some of my speciality training overseas and I would have made time to see various parts of the world. 

You can witness any historic event of your choice. Which one?

The Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri. 

Who is your hero?

My former boss, Dr Len Notaras, AM. 

What do you order your first time at a restaurant that you have never been to before?

Oysters natural with a little lime juice and salt if the restaurant has it.  

Stop Press: Leftovers

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.