Tasmanian Scallop Pies

"Now I'm sad." says Uncle Tom when he finishes a particularly good meal and that's just how Joe and feel after eating our home-made curried scallop pies. I'm getting the recipe written down here before I forget how I made these scrumptious pies.

As usual my presentation wouldn't win a wooden spoon but inside...oh my giddy aunt!

We ate 3 scallop pies in the 2 weeks we were in Tasmania, this recipe tastes just like we had there.

4 small pies or just make 1 big one, I based this recipe on this one

2-3 squares of ready rolled puff pastry...I patched my tins to make sure nothing escaped
300-400 frozen scallops

2 egg yolks and the juice of half a lemon whisked together

2 T each of butter and flour
1 cup of stock, I used chicken
1 heaped teaspoon of Keen's curry powder
parsley, salt and pepper
3 T cream or sour cream

Start by lining your pie tins

 Melt the butter in a saucepan and blend in the flour, cook a couple of minutes then add the curry powder and cook another minute.
Add the stock and whisk until it's creamy and lump free, season well

Set aside to cool a little while you quickly sear the scallops in olive oil or butter, only a minute each side. Take off the heat

Now beat the egg/lemon mix and the cream into sauce and fold in the scallops

Fill up your pies, get the lids on and into a hot oven at 220C for around 20-25 minutes

Make jam pasties with any left-over pastry and cook them too!

Joe took the lid off his pie(is it a Canadian thing or was it to cool it down a bit?)

Here's one of the pies we had in Tassie, at the Richmond bakery, their scallops were much bigger than ours, I'll have to try and get some fresh ones next time...

We are looking forward to tomorrow's lunch now :D
I'm sad because I have lots of dishes to wash so I'd better get that done then I can sit and watch the women's soccer Matilda's vs USA that was played this morning!

Love Sue
xx

Knitting and a Bus

I seem to have been knitting these squares forever, at least 2 years, it's 100% wool and very heavy, very random too, knit 6 varied squares, join them end to end and add them to the side it suits best. This is the first time I've knit a border too, size 5mm needles and 12 stitches;start sewing it to the edge once it's nearly long enough as you will have to stretch it slightly to keep it tight...I also finished a pair of 8ply socks for Wendy, my SIL...it gets quite cold in Albany in Winter...

  This is a free pattern and I made these last year but hadn't given them away, the pattern is from Joyful Toys and is called Peter Rabbit, it uses very little wool...

Joe's chemo is going well and his brother is on the same treatment in Canada...it's to stop the basal cell carcinomas associated with Gorlin Syndrome that they both have. Enough with all this cutting them out, Joe looks like a patchwork himself these days and it's very painful.

Elizabeth has finally been in position to buy a smallish bus which she plans to gut and turn into a camper and then hit the 'frog and toad' with her 2 younger boys....she's had enough sorrow recently to last a lifetime so let's hope this is a turning point in her life...she will never be homeless again anyway!

Lots of work ahead but it's so good to have a goal isn't it?

Dad has gone on a holiday too...he's gone down to Albany to my brother and SIL's home for a few days. He'll come back on the bus which takes about 6 hours, quite an adventure for an 85 yr old.

I've tried some new recipes since we got home, this eggplant curry is particularly good, frugal and easy too and I made some basil and spring onion pesto with basil from the garden that had grown so much while we were in Tassie...I added a few roasted cashews too...one jar is in the freezer to keep it very fresh...

and how's this for colourful...a white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream made by Bree, it had 2 little troll dolls on top later!

So that's all for this quick update, I hope all is well with you,
Love, Sue
xxx