What is it? - Batch cooking of cheese, milk and eggs baked in the oven to make a Savoury Bake. It's real comfort food for me, very versatile, you can eat it hot or cold and add different ingredients to make it more interesting without too much effort.
Time required - about 5- 10mins to prepare and 20-30 mins in the oven. (All my recipes can be prepped in a 45 min carer call. Some may need leaving to cook before being ready to eat, but I'll warn you...)
Recipe after the break:
NB: Get the carer to do the recipe and get it in the oven first BEFORE the other stuff they normally do. Because they'll be twiddling their thumbs whilst the Bake is cooking. A good carer will do this automatically, inexperienced carers with little cooking experience won't. They don't have to watch the oven if the dish you use is deep enough to stop spills, and if you set a timer (I use a loud egg-timer). It won't hurt the food if it goes a few minutes over, especially if it's got a foil hat to stop the top burning (see below). Also get them to read the WHOLE recipe through first so they understand what's needed, it makes it easier for you!
NB2: If you use ready chopped frozen onions & ready grated cheese, you will be within the time frame, if you don't it depends how quick your carer is at doing that. In my experience, not very! Make it easy and buy it ready done. You can freeze ready grated cheese and just hoick out what you want as you go along. Saves waste! Remind the carer to take it out and put it back fast, not leave it around, otherwise you'll end up with a cheese glacier cos ice forms around it if it's left out to thaw a bit then put back.
Cooking Skill required - EASY - very little, knowledge to break eggs, whisk with a fork, put in an oven proof dish and set the oven temp & time when it needs to come out.
Eating Skill required - EASY - doesn't need chewing unless you put chewy stuff in it! Can just be mumbled & swallowed. If you have difficulty swallowing and want it softer, just add a bit more milk at the end so it's a bit less gloopy before it goes in the oven. (The proportion of eggs to milk is what determines whether it sets hard or soft).
MUM'S BAKED CHEESE SAVOURY
Portion size - 4 small ones or 3 big ones.
Ingredients - Essential
55g (2oz) Butter or Margerine
3 eggs (medium)
teacup of milk (we use a mug up to the top of the handle, works fine)
175g (6oz) Grated Cheese (extra strong cheddar is nice. My carer said she used Red Leicester when she did it at home later and liked it)
salt & pepper
Ingredients - Optional (depending on your ability to chew/ tolerate tastes or smells)
2 medium onions, chopped finely OR a handful of frozen chopped onion
Lardons (chopped up bits of bacon)
Already cooked ham, leftover chicken etc
Slices of Fresh tomato put on the top
Dried mixed herbs OR fresh herbs like Chives etc (I grow these on the window sill).
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 185 centigrade (370 farenhait, gas 4). Make sure the shelf is in the right place before it gets hot. Choose the oven proof dish you are going to use - and lightly grease it with butter (using greaseproof paper or a bit of the butter packaging).
I use a glass one that's 24 x 19 cm and 7cm deep. This recipe fills it half full, so no risk of spills! Also this dish has a plastic lid you can put on when the food has cooled, so it doesn't get licked by the cat and can go straight in the fridge.
- Optional - Either - If you are using onions, put them into a pan on the hob, with the butter. If you are using uncooked lardons, you don't need the butter, they have enough fat in them, but a little bit of butter makes it taste better. Cook them on a LOW heat - the onions will go a bit see through (translucent) when cooked, so will the lardons. You don't want them brown & crispy! Then add the cheese, and mix well. Remove from heat.
Or - If you are NOT using onions and/or uncooked lardons, then it's easier, just cut up the butter into small chunks with a dinner knife on a chopping board (it melts in the oven) and mix it in with the cold grated cheese.
- Beat the eggs until a bit frothy in a bowl with a fork. You're not making a souffle, but it's good to get some air in there.
- Add either the onion/ melted cheese mixture OR the cold butter chunk/ cold grated cheese mixture to the beaten eggs. And beat together (this is just energetic stirring).
- Add some salt & pepper to the mixture, and whatever herbs you are using. Plus any cold already cooked meats you want to add like ham or chopped chicken etc. It should be quite a stiff mixture but still quite soft, not all runny, more gloopy.
- Pour the mixture into the ovenproof dish. Lay a few slices of tomato on the top if you want to. Put it in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes. Watch out that it doesn't burn on top - you want it to be nicely brown. If it starts burning, make a little lid with kitchen foil.
- How do I know it is cooked? If you're using a glass dish you can see the sides are set and bubbling. It should have risen a bit, and also the top will be brown and have a nice crust/ crispy skin to it. Get a kebab skewer and stick it into the middle, it'll come out clean if it's cooked through.
- What else? Sometimes if your eggs are small or you've used too much milk then it will not set so well and be very soft (this is good for people who can't chew - so you might want to use a bit more milk). If your eggs are very large and you've not put enough milk in, it will be quite hard set.
- HOT with boiled green beans, or peas, or broad beans. And/or boiled potatoes. It's really nice with baked beans. It's also good with a bit of green salad (nice and easy!) Reheating microwave or in the oven.
- COLD with the same as above. Particularly nice with a potato salad made with half mayonnaise and half live plain yoghurt. You can also use it as a sandwich or baked potato filling.
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