Feeling Greeky

I have been remiss with trying out recipe ideas recently, so I've taken advantage of the latter, less busy, part of the half-term holidays to try out some new things.  Now, I know that this kind of pie is nothing new (sorry spanokopita), but I like to think that there is a place for my distracted version; mainly just stirring stuff together, but with a nice bit of pastry layering to feel like I've done some 'real' cooking (what a ludicrous phrase that is - all cooking is real cooking, unless it's merely re-heating, I suppose... but what else am I supposed to do with leftovers?)

'Greek-Style' Cheese & Spinach Pie

For the 'hard cheese' specified, I use a roughly half-and-half mixture of parmesan and cheddar, but either would be fine on its own, or use a different, well-flavoured hard cheese.  I do wonder about blue cheese as an idea, too, maybe with walnuts replacing the almonds?  Perhaps another day...

600g spinach, (2 big bags from the supermarket)
handful flaked almonds
good pinch dried oregano
3 eggs
200g feta cheese (or similar Greek-style' or 'salad' cheese)
150g hard cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
good grating of fresh nutmeg
50g or so butter, melted
1 (supermarket) packet of filo pastry - 12 sheets

Wilt the spinach in a couple of batches by plonking it in a colander and pouring a kettle-full of boiling water over it.  Remove it to a big bowl and leave to cool.  Repeat with the second batch.  When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as you can, being careful in case there are any 'hidden' pockets of hot water.  Set aside.  Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan until just golden, remove to a dish and add the dried oregano immediately.  Stir, and the delicious aroma of the herb will be released. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, add the cheeses, the garlic, a little black pepper and plenty of nutmeg (lush with spinach).  You don't need to add salt, the cheese is plenty salty enough.  Finally, add the nuts/herb mixture and the roughly chopped spinach.  Mix well.

Brush the inside of a pie dish with melted butter and lay a few sheets of filo over to cover the base and overhang at the sides.  Brush with butter again, then top with some of the spinach mixture.  Repeat with another layer of buttered filo; another layer of spinach filling . Finish with a nice thick layer of buttered filo sheets.  Sprinkle with another pinch of dried oregano, for pretty, if you like.  Bake at 180°c for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.  Serve with a cucumber or tomato salad (or both, or something else entirely, if you like, hehehe).  We nibbled on some black olives and feta that I'd marinaded in garlic oil beforehand.

Cath xx

Su-pie-lative

 I may have pointed out before, just once or twice, how much pie means to the members of this household.  I am always greeted with smiles, and shortly thereafter blissful munching, when I bring a pie to the dinner table.  This is my version of a classic chicken pie; no frills really, but easy to make and lip-smackingly rewarding to eat. Adding suet to the pastry makes for a gorgeously flaky, almost melting texture.  I have all but stopped glazing pies with egg-wash; dusting the pastry with flour instead makes for the pie-crust of my husband's dreams, soaking up, as it does, the chickeny juices and his beloved Henderson's Relish.

Old-Fashioned Chicken Pie

350g plain flour
90g suet
85g butter, diced
cold water, to bind pastry
400g chicken thigh meat, diced
1 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 large onion, roughly chopped
4 sausages, skinned
breadcrumbs
100ml chicken stock
1 tsp cornflour, slaked with 1 tbsp water

Make the pastry. Rub the suet and butter into the flour, season it well and bind it with some cold water.  This is made much, much easier if you can just bung it all in the processor and whizz, but no matter if not.  Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish.  trim the excess and roll out a lid for your pie.

Toss the chicken in the flour, then mix this with the chopped onion.  Squidge the sausagemeat together with a handful or so of fresh breadcrumbs, divide the mixture into six and roll each into a small ball.  Put the floured chicken, onion and sausagemeat balls into the pastry-lined dish.  Mix the sock and the slaked cornflour together and pour this liquid evenly over the ingredients in the dish.  Top with the reserved pastry lid, crimp the edges and dust lightly with flour.  Bake at 180°c for  25 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 150°c and cook for a further hour. 

Serve with a (preferably green and leafy) vegetable of your choice, tonight we had some simple steamed-and-buttered cabbage.  Perfect plus.

Cath xx

Weekend Cook

While cooking during the week has its rewards and is a worthwhile occupation, it can be fraught; keeping the family happy, the cook composed and the suicide hour as peaceful as is reasonably possible.  Weekdays find me looking for shortcuts, quick solutions and recipes for the all-important slow-cooker.

Weekends are another matter, though.  I am rarely more at peace with myself than pootling around in my little kitchen at the weekend; baking for the week ahead, preparing bits and bobs in advance for the week's meals and just generally idling hours away planning lovely meals...

Saturday night was pie night for us and, while I would usually make a pie like this with leftover roast, or otherwise cooked, chicken, his one was a scratch pie from start to finish.  Poached chicken has such a beautiful succulence in a pie and the liquid provides a tasty sauce with little work.

Chicken & Leek Pie

Obviously you could use leftover cooked chicken, as detailed above and just steam the leeks while you make the sauce with a pint of stronger chicken stock (and I would recommend the Knorr Stock Pot stock gel if you have no homemade stuff to hand)


4 chicken breast fillets
60ml dry vermouth
3 leeks, trimmed and sliced thickly
light chicken stock or water, to cover
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 dried whole chilli pepper
40g butter
40g flour
1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

Put the leeks and chicken breasts into a large saucepan and pour over the vermouth.  Pour the stock or water into the pan and add the peppercorns, bay leaves and chilli.  Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Remove the chicken and leeks from the pan with a slotted spoon and strain the liquid into a jug.  Pour the liquid back into the clean pan and boil it, reducing it to a pint.  Leave the liquid to cool.  Chunk or slice the chicken breasts as you like and put them, and the leeks, into a pie dish.  Put the butter and flour into a saucepan with the poaching liquid and bring to the boil, whisking continuously.  Turn the heat down and simmer, still whisking, until the sauce has thickened.  Pour this into the dish and gently mix to coat the other ingredients.  Top the dish with the puff pastry and bake at 180°c for 30-45 minutes until the pastry is cooked and everything has had chance to heat through completely.



This weekend has been boosted by my acquisition of Kitchen, the lovely new offering from Nigella Lawson.  Filled with all sorts of good things and the sort of perceptive, evocative writing she is so well-known for, I have been sofa-bound, armed with this book, whenever time allows.

Today, I decided to try out a few of the recipes; the Everyday Brownies (p.217) and the Crustless Pizza (p.26) and the Ham Hocks in Cider (p.368).  The brownies were very popular with the children, being more 'cakey' and considerably less opulent than my usual Fabulous Chocolate Brownies.  The pizza was a delicious kind of  'Yorkshire Pudding' pizza and went down very well with all of us at lunchtime.

Ham Hocks in Cider are now simmering on the stovetop in readiness for our supper this evening.  Happily, the ingredients are things that I generally have in the house (apart from the fennel seeds, so I left those out and added a couple of bay leaves instead).  Two large hocks cost only £3.00 from the butcher yesterday, so hardly extravagant.  To that end, I plan to serve the hocks with extravagantly buttery mashed potatoes and, I think, the last of the purple sprouting...

Cath xx

Easy as Pie

Let's face it, sometimes it just has to be pie.  However, at the moment I'm suffering from a nasty cold and don't feel much like elaborate, constructional cooking so tonight I opted for an easy route to pie pleasure.  Ready-rolled puff pastry is yet another of those ingredients that the modern home cook can give thanks for and for a quick assembly job like this, it's the perfect kitchen helper.  Something of a wellington, but much less of a fancy, formal meal... more of a pixie boot, really!
 
Easy Mushroom 'Pixie Pie'

2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
4 portobello mushrooms
150g soft cheese with garlic & herbs (I used Boursin)
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water and a pinch of salt

Cut the sheets of puff pastry in half widthways, and place a mushroom on each piece.  Spread the soft cheese over the mushroom 'gills', then brush the edges of the pastry with the egg wash and fold the corners into the centre to cover the filling.  Place on a baking sheet, then brush with more egg wash.  Cook at 180ºc for 40 minutes or so, until crisp and golden.

At Christopher's insistent request, I also served some small baked potatoes (though I personally feel that potatoes and pastry is de trop.  This garlic-and-lemon spinach is all I wanted...


Garlic-and-Lemon Spinach

So easy, and so fast.  I adore spinach any old how, but this is my absolute favourite way to cook it!

1 tbsp olive oil

5 cloves garlic, or to taste, chopped
200g leaf spinach, rinsed and just shaken dry
juice of 1/2 a lemon
black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the chopped garlic.  When it is soft and fragrant, add the spinach, turning quickly in the garlicky oil, throw over the lemon juice and then clamp on the lid.  Let the spinach wilt, then give it a good grinding of black pepper and serve warm.

Cath xx

Freezer Burn

Back in cyberspace again...don't ask. Suffice it to say that my absence has not been entirely down to laziness on my part. But no matter, onwards and upwards!

Keeping the freezer organised can be a problem for me, to often it seems to become a black hole of food amnesia if I don't keep on top of it ALL THE TIME. I have to force myself to use the freezer properly, that being said I do enjoy having it all efficient and fabulous! As well as the inevitable cache of frozen vegetables (so useful, I don't know what I'd do without them), homemade stock and the boines to make it with, I keep hunks of meat bought when there are good deals to be had, and a stash of both sweet and savoury crumble topping, ready mixed to be used from frozen.


I don't very often cook specifically for the freezer, though that time of year when I do is fast approaching. More often what I do is double up on things I'm cooking anyway; pies, casseroles, chili con carne and bolognese sauce (to name a few) are as easily made in double or triple portions as in single and then I've an extra meal or two to parcel away, in anticipation of a busy day.

Today I had a good quantity of leftover meat from a whole turkey leg joint I cooked for our Sunday roast at the weekend so this, combined with a tin apiece of ham and sweetcorn, plus a little leg-bone stock to make a savoury sauce went into two pies. The pie for tonight's dinner is in the oven as I type this, and you can see the other in the freezer picture above. I lined the (oiled) pie tin with some (oiled again) foil, then open-froze it in the tin once I'd assembled it. Once hard, it's the work of a moment to pop it out of the tin and wrap it in more foil. Thus, my pie tin is not buried on Hoth for weeks on end!

Cath xx

Meat and (Two?) Veg

This is pie for lazy people, or people (like moi) with only half an hour to get dinner ready and a serious craving for pie. All you need to do is make a filling and stick in a case made separately, by scoring and baking some ready-made puff pastry. The kids enjoyed it and as for Hubby, well, it's PIE - what's not to like?

Cheaty Meaty Pie

500g block puff pastry
1 red onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 large mushrooms, chopped
500g beef mince
300ml beef stock

Roll the pastry out into a rough square about half a centimetre thick. Cut into quarters, then score a square in the centre of each. Put on a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes or so at 200°c.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Fry the onion, pepper and mushrooms together until softened, then add the mince. Brown it well, then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the pastry cases are ready.

Place each pastry case on the serving plates and use a knife to remove the centre squares. Fill each case with some of the meat mixture, then top with the pastry squares for 'lids'.

Serve with a green vegetable (or two, if you like).

Another Popular Veggie Supper

I'm a manic clipper of magazines and newspapers. Anything that I think might come in handy in future gets torn out and goes in my cuttings drawer. This could be recipes, website URLs, ideas for kids' parties, or just pictures that i really like (though these normally end up on my collage wall upstairs). This pie was originally adapted from an ancient cutting from the Safeway magazine (telling you just how old it was). The veg I use most often are potatoes, carrots, leeks and swede, but vary them as you like. Chunks of squash are good in it, as are parsnips in place of the swede or potato.

Cheesy Vegetable Filo Pie

approx. 2lb vegetables (and see above), peeled and cut into smallish chunks
284ml double cream
50ml dry sherry
vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 50ml hot water
350ml cheese sauce (homemade, or use a shop-bought tub of 'fresh' sauce)
200g frozen peas
270g pack filo pastry, defrosted if frozen
melted butter
75g grated cheese

Heat a little oil in a large, deep pan and fry the vegetable chunks for 10 minutes until lightly browning. Pour in the cream, sherry and stock-cube water then add plenty of black pepper. Mix well, cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the veg are tender. Stir in your cheese sauce and the frozen peas. Transfer all this to an ovenproof dish. Brush the sheets of filo with melted butter and lay them on top, scattering on grated cheese as you go. Bake at 200­°c for 15 minutes until the pastry in browned and crisp.

Cow Pie

Call me childish, but when I had some pastry trimmings left over from making tonight's Minced Beef & Onion Pie, the nostagia bug bit me and I decided that it should be a 'Cow Pie' in honour of Desperate Dan. My tomboy tendencies as a child made me an avid reader of 'The Dandy' and a particular fan of Dinah Mo, though I also read 'Bunty', just to prove that I've always been one to want a bit of everything!

Cow Pie

400g flour

200g butter

2 medium onions, halved and sliced

250g beef mince

150g mushrooms, chopped

beef stock cube

1 tsp cornflour

Make some pastry and set it aside while you prepare the filling. Fry the onions until soft, then add the mince and brown it. Add the mushrooms and crumble the stock cube into the pan, mixing well. Stir the cornflour into 200ml water and pour this into the pan. Bring to the boil and let the mixture bubble gently while you roll out the pastry and line a pie tin or dish. Fill the pie case, top with the pastry 'lid' and (if you're as juvenile as I am) use the trimmings to make two 'horns' and a 'tail'. Affix these with a leittle beaten egg, then glaze the pie crust and bake for 20 minutes at 200°c. I tastes really good, believe me - especially with mashed potatoes and peas, though tonight I decided to forgo the mash and just cook a vat of peas with plenty of mint from the garden.

Aunt Aggie would be proud of me...

Cheese Saves the Day (again)

I feel compelled to pass on this little idea quickly. Yesterday, when Chris and I were preparing an Idle Pie for dinner, we trimmed off the pastry and found we had quite a bit left over.

I wasn't willing to waste it, or worse, wrap it in clingfilm, put it in the fridge and waste it in two days' time (!). So, I rolled it out thinly and we scattered grated cheese (parmesan) over it. Fold it like a letter (in thirds), roll it out again and repeat. Cut into strips and 'twist', putting them onto an oiled baking sheet. We put them in the oven with the pie (at 180°c) for about 10 minutes, until an enticing toasted cheese aroma filled the kitchen, then I cooled them on a rack.

Et voilà! A lovely pre-dinner nibble and no pastry trimmings in the bin!!

Idle Pie

Idle Pie is the accepted name for Meat & Potato Pie in my husband's family and it was something I had to learn quickly how to cook to Karl's quite exacting specifications; good chunks of meat; tender, but not mushy, potatoes; a good savoury gravy cloaking the filling and a stout pastry case to hold it all together. I don't think that I've achieved the apotheosis of pie, but it's pretty darn good. Make sure the meat is a good stewing cut such as shin or chuck and not too lean. As long as you're in the house to put the pie in the oven and hang around (doing other things of course) while it cooks, this is actually a fairly low-effort affair. Make the pastry and preheat the oven, then get the filling together while the pastry rests in the fridge. A quick assembly and bung it in the oven until dinner time.

Idle Pie

Put a large baking sheet on the middle shelf of the oven and preheat to 180°c.

For the pastry:

175g lard
350g plain flour

Rub the fat into the flour, season it well and add enough cold water to bind the pastry together. Rest it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so, then roll out and line a metal pie dish. Trim the excess, then roll out again to make the pie 'lid'.

For the filling:

500g stewing beef (and see above), cubed
1 large onion, chopped
1 fist-sized potato, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing well to distribute the flour and seasoning evenly. Tip all this into your lined pie tin, then pour 175ml of cold water over. Top the pie with its top crust, crimp the edges together and brush the whole lot with beaten egg. Cut a couple of slits in the top of the pie to let out the steam (no need for a funnel here), then transfer to the baking tray in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 150°c and cook for a further 1 hour 15 minutes.

A dish of vegetables is all you need to to with this, then a comfy chair to sink into as you find out just why we call it idle pie.

'New from Old'

Yesterday evening we had a lovely dinner of roast pork with lots of vegetables and, of course, gorgeous roast potatoes cooked by Karl. We had a 1.5kg piece of pork shoulder, with the bone removed, so I filled the cavity in the centre with a bunch of fresh sage from the garden, which gave the meat a lovely flavour. We followed our meal with some jellies, striped yellow and green, that Christopher and I had assembled together. It was a lovely evening so after supper we headed down to the beach for a walk.

Because of the leftover pork in the fridge, dinner was a pretty easy option tonight. I often make pies like these when we've had a joint of roast pork the day before and you can see the recipe here. Tonight I used broccoli instead of cauliflower (also left over from last night) and crème fraîche instead of double cream, because that's what I had in the fridge. Because the pork was already so strongly flavoured by the sage, I didn't add any more herbs.

I really like cooking with leftovers. It would be easy to dismiss the idea of a 'repeat performance' as dull, but I get a lot of pleasure from making something new out of the bits we didn't need after all. I've actually made some really good things this way. It would be awful to just throw the stuff away after it has lingered under clingfilm in the fridge for a few days. Far too much food gets wasted anyway, and I can't bear to do it in such a cavalier manner when something else could be done with it. Some of the best meals ever were designed to use up scraps of meat, stale bread or stock made from leftover bones. Plus it saves money, which is not so much a plus as it is a reason.

"Cath's School Dinners"

My Mum was still here today, so I finally made James' christening cake this morning while she looked after the boys for a bit. The recipe comes together quite quickly, then it needs a good long stretch in the oven, which gave us time to pop down to the park in the village before we had lunch and Mum had to go home (boo). This is the cake I make for special occasions like birthdays and christenings when a fruit cake is needed (or simply desirable). It's also the cake I make every year for Christmas. When I was still working full-time outside the house, I used to take one to work just before Christmas to share in lieu of Christmas cards, as I thought it a little excessive to give cards to people I saw every day. I think the cake went down better anyway.

Celebration Fruit Cake

175g unsalted butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
750g mixed dried fruit
Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
100ml brandy
3 large eggs, beaten
100g ground almonds
200g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp each of ground mixed spice, cinnamon and ginger
¼ tsp ground allspice

Put the butter, sugar, dried fruit, lemon zest and juice and brandy into a large pan. Heat gently, stirring to melt the butter. When it reaches boiling point, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 150°c. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line it with baking paper. Stir the eggs and ground almonds into the fruit mixture. Add the flour, baking powder and spices to the pan and mix well, then transfer the mixture to the lined cake tin and level the top. Bake for 45 minutes, then turn the oven down to 140°c and cook for a further 1 hour until the surface is dark golden brown and firm to the touch. Put some foil over the tin if the surface starts to colour too much. Check that the cake is cooked through by piercing the centre with a skewer. It should be clean when removed. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin, then wrap the cake in a double layer of baking paper and foil. It will keep in a cool, dark cupboard for two or three months.

If you like a boozier tasting cake (I do), you can make little holes all over the top of the cake with your skewer, then spoon about 60ml of extra brandy over the surface.



For the last couple of days, Hubby has been bringing home some lovely things from the end-of-the-day reductions at work. Included in the haul was an organic free-range chicken (reduced from nearly £7 to 9p!) and dozens of sausages (ditto). Most of it is now in the freezer.

Thinking I had better do something with some of the sausages, I made something tonight that was my absolute favourite when we used to have it for lunch at school when I was a child. In light of the recent hoohah about school meals, I feel very proud to look back with such culinary nostalgia. The food we got was GREAT, God bless Mrs Owens! I honestly can't praise it enough, and this recipe, based on the memory of my schooldays, goes down very well with everyone I give it to. Christopher adores it, as does Karl. I think its pretty much ideal food as far as they're concerned; after all, when you look at it, it's a big sausage roll! On that note, I should add that leftovers are great cold the following day, as you would no doubt expect.

Sausage Plait

For the Pastry:

300g plain flour
150g butter
a little cold water

Make the pastry. I use my KitchenAid, but use a processor if you prefer, or do it by hand, rubbing the fat into the flour and using a knife to mix in enough cold water to bind it.

For the filling:

12 pork sausages or 800g pork sausagemeat
1 large onion, coarsely grated
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp fine semolina

Mix all the filling ingredients together. Using your hands is easiest (and quickest), but a spoon will do if you feel a bit squeamish about handling raw meat. Please remember to take off your rings, or one might go astray and break someone's tooth! Wash your hands well before and after.

Roll the pastry out into a largeish (about 30cm) square. Spoon the filling down the centre, then make cuts down the sides at right angles to the filling, every 3cm or so. Fold these strips over the filling to form a ‘plait’. Tuck the ends in, then transfer it to a oiled baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 180°c for about 40 minutes, or until cooked through.

I served the plait with baked potatoes and a big bowl of salad. For pudding we had some of the lemon tart my Mum bought for us to eat while she was here, which we didn't eat because we were all too full of curry lunches and other good things.

And again with the pie

I don't know why, but I'm absolutely exhausted today (more than usual, anyway). Christopher had a bad dream last night and kept waking me up afterwards, complaining that he'd "fallen over". He did settle back down eventually, though, which was something. Hubby didn't get back from work until nearly 1am either (after a supposed 10pm finish), so that didn't help.


I chatted to some of the mums at playgroup this morning about James' newfound hatred of his bouncy chair and accompanying unwillingness to sit 'propped-up'. He tends to repeatedly thrust his hips in the air in complaint, which looks quite amusing, but which inevitably causes him to slide down whatever he's leaning on and start crying. One of the girls suggested a Bumbo Baby Sitter, so after playgroup finished, I took the boys off to Argos to acquire one (reasoning that if it didn't suit us, I could always return it). So far he loves it! He tried his hip thrust thing a few times initially, but seems to have given up in favour of actually sitting and playing. Best of all, it leaves both his arms free, so he has been happily rummaging in his toy tub for most of the afternoon. We also realised it will be brilliant for trips away from home and especially camping holidays.


I tried cooking something new tonight. I've been trying to make time for reading again now that James is a little bigger and - guess what - the books I read most often are cookbooks! A favourite for quick, low-cost family meals is Meals in Moments by Maggie Brogan. I picked it up in a local (and sadly, now closed) discount bookshop a few years ago and several dishes from it have entered the list of family favourites that I go back to regularly. Most have been adapted along the way to suit us, but then I love tinkering about with recipes and only very rarely cook one 'as is'.



I don't know if Karl was very convinced by the idea of a cheese pie. He asked a few time whether there was anything else in the pie and what else we'd be having. Still, I went ahead and it was a success in the end. To go with it, I steamed some new potatoes and prepared a bit of salad. The original recipe that this was based on, 'Cheese Plate Pie', specified a 20-23cm tin pie plate, but I just used one of my ordinary non-stick pie tins, which was fine.

Fluffy Cheese Pie

Preheat the oven to 200°c and put a large baking sheet on the shelf to heat up.

400g plain flour
150g butter
25g lard

Rub the fat into the flour (add a pinch of salt if you're not cooking for tinies). Add a little water and knead lightly together to make pastry. Roll out the pastry quite thinly, line your(lightly oiled) pie tin and trim off the excess. Roll out the remaining pastry for the top and set it aside while you make the filling.

50g butter
75g cheddar cheese, finely grated
2 large eggs
a pinch each of plain flour and mustard powder
freshly ground black pepper (+ salt if you like)
milk

Melt the butter, over a low heat, in a largeish saucepan. Beat the eggs, cheese, flour and mustard powder together, then grind in some pepper to taste. Pour this into the melted butter and cook gently, whisking all the time until the mixture thickens, which will take just a few minutes. Pour this into the pie case and quickly top with the other piece of pastry. Crimp the edges together (using the tines of a fork or just pinching with thumb and forefinger) and brush the top of the pie with a little milk, then put the pie tin on the pre-heated baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes until the pie is cooked through and the top crust is golden brown.

The pie should slip out of the tin and onto a serving plate quite easily.

Next time I might put some very finely chopped spring onions into the filling, or perhaps some fresh thyme leaves as I am very 'into' thyme at the moment. We had one reasonable-sized slice of the pie left over (not bad for this house), which will be great for Hubby's packed lunch tomorrow, that's if he doesn't have it for a snack before we go to bed!

The Continuing Saga of Pie

A busy few days for us - when is it not? We spent the day shopping in Carmarthen yesterday. After an enormous pub lunch (at the New Stag in the town centre), all we could face at supper was a plate of sarnies. Karl didn't even manage that, having gorged himself on a rather large mixed grill. He had a pork pie and a packet of crisps, which is very like him. He's working the night shift tonight, so today we ate our main meal together at lunchtime. To fill his stomach for a long night, and to lift his spirits in anticipation of same, there was only one choice; pie.

A pie that I could get ready in time for lunch had to be a fairly simple affair. I cooked some chicken thighs yesterday, in advance of this morning's quick assembly job. It sounds more fiddly than it is, trust me.

Chicken & Sweetcorn Ladder

25g unsalted butter, diced
25g plain flour
300ml milk
pinch mixed dried herbs
250g cooked chicken, diced
150g sweetcorn (defrosted if frozen)
500g pack puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water

Make the binding sauce. Put the butter, flour, dried herbs and milk into a saucepan. Bring to the boil, whisking all the time. Turn the heat down when it reaches boiling point and cook for a few minutes longer. Set aside to cool.

Roll out the pastry to a large square (about as thick as a £1 coin) and cut in half. Place one piece of pastry on a baking sheet. Mix the chicken and sweetcorn into the sauce and spoon along the centre of the pastry. Cut slits in the second piece of pastry, about 2.5cm apart, leaving a 4cm border all around the edge. Brush beaten egg on the pastry edges, around the filling, and then top with the second piece, pressing the edges together well. Brush the top of the pie with more egg (sometimes I sprinkle over more mixed dried herbs at this point, to ape my loved and lost 'Devon Savouries' Chicken & Sweetcorn pastries) and bake at 180°c for about 25 minutes, until puffed up, crisp and golden brown.


We ate this with some salad and it was just perfect for a main meal on a warm day like today. Some steamed new potatoes would be lovely if you want to gild the lily, or if you have to stretch the meal a little further. This served Hubby, Christopher and me very well, with enough for seconds. I'd also held a little of the filling back for James to eat for lunch, whizzed to a purée, with some toast on the side.

Easter Holiday (Phew!)

Well, we've really enjoyed the Easter holiday weekend. I love having family or friends to visit at any time, but especially when we can enjoy some really great festive food together. On Thursday we had a fairly ordinary family meal; our great favourite, Savoury Mince Crumble. On Thursday evening, before we all went to bed, I made some hot cross bun dough (for the first time ever) and left it to prove overnight.

On Good Friday, I finished off the hot cross buns and we ate them for breakfast, still warm from the oven, with butter and a little cheese. They were so good that I was convinced to make a second batch of dough that evening for Saturday's breakfast.

The weather was not as good as had been forecast, and very misty, so we decided to spend part of the day shopping in Aberystwyth and went for lunch at 'Le Figaro', a restaurant which Hubby and I used to go to quite often when we were first married.

For supper that evening I cooked a Fish Pie, with smoked and unsmoked coley, sweetcorn, wilted spinach and wedges of hard-boiled eggs, all coated in bechamel sauce and topped with mashed potato. I served it with some broccoli. James had a small portion, whizzed in the blender and seemed to absolutely love it; opening his mouth, kicking his little legs and shouting for more.

On Easter Saturday, the weather was glorious, so I took my parents and the children to one of our favourite spots for a picnic of rolls, salad, cold meats, eggs, fruit and some homemade bara brith.

We had a fairly simple supper on Saturday night, a casserole of chicken thighs, with sausages and butter beans. I cooked it last week and put it in the freezer so that I could simply defrost and then reheat it , topped with a thick layer of breadcrumbs. A few vegetables were the only accompaniment necessary and then we had Jane's Grapes for pudding, which I had prepared the night before

Jane's Grapes

Small Seedless White Grapes

Whipped Double Cream

Granulated Sugar

Fold the grapes into enough whipped cream to just coat them. Pack into a serving bowl (about two-thirds full) and smooth the surface as much as you can. Cover the top with a thick layer of granulated sugar and chill overnight (don't cover the dish). Just try it...

For breakfast on Easter Sunday, we all had boiled eggs, even Hubby, who didn't have to go to work (hooray!). Christopher and I had made Easter baskets for everyone, which I filled with a selection of small chocolate eggs. We all exchanged eggs and some other gifts, and later spent some time in the garden, before having a lunch of Leek and Potato Soup, homemade Granary Rolls and some cheese (including Drewi Sant, Perl Las, and some Gorwydd Caerphilly).

Leek and Potato Soup

large lump of butter

5 sliced leeks

2 large potatoes, peeled and roughly cut up

1 litre vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

500ml whole milk

Melt butter in a large pan, turn the prepared leeks and potatoes in the butter until well coated. Pour in the stock, add the bay leaves and bring to the boil. Simmer (with the lid partly on) for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are well cooked. Remove the bay leaves and purée. I use my hand-held stick blender, but use what you like. Stir in the milk and heat through. I topped it with a swirl of cream and some chopped fresh parsley.

This soup freezes very well, but you may need to purée it again when you reheat it after defrosting; sometimes it can get a little lumpy with freezing.

The Easter Sunday dinner was the highlight of the weekend for me. We spent some time in Aberaeron that afternoon, so before we left, I prepared the (2kg) leg of lamb by stabbing it and stuffing the slits with garlic and fresh rosemary. I rested the joint on a couple more large sprigs of rosemary in my Silverwood roasting tin and poured over a glass of red wine.

When we got home, when I put it in the oven and gave it a couple of hours at 200°c, adding about 200ml of water to the tin after an hour. While the meat was resting, for 10 minutes or so, I tipped all the juices from the tin into a small pan and added a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly, Simmered for a few minutes, with the meat juices from the carving dish added just before serving.

I served Hasselback potatoes and plenty of vegetables with the lamb and gravy, then we followed it with a lemon cheesecake. This recipe works really well and everyone always likes it. My brother, in particular, is very partial to it and in the past has phoned me from the supermarket to ask what ingredients he needs to make it.

Really Easy Lemon Cheesecake 

200g digestive biscuits, crushed

60g butter

405g tin condensed milk

200g cream cheese

142ml carton double cream

zest and juice of 3 unwaxed lemons

Melt the butter and mix in the biscuit crumbs. Press into the base of a 20cm springform cake tin to form a crust and chill (not you, the tin) while you make the filling. Whisk the condensed milk and cream cheese together until smooth. Mix in the cream and then add the lemon zest and juice. Stir well, but quickly as it will start to thicken immediately. Pour the filling over the base and cover the tin. Leave it in the fridge overnight. Leftovers will keep for a couple of days, unless Graeme's around.

There was enough lamb and gravy left over to make a superlative Shepherd's Pie for our supper tonight, after my parents had embarked on the long drive home.

Shepherd's Pie

1-2 tbsp leftover lamb dripping

1 onion, chopped finely

leftover gravy

300g leftover roast lamb, minced

6 medium potatoes, peeled and halved

butter and milk, to make mash

Cook the potatoes (I prefer to steam them). Meanwhile, melt the dripping in a deep frying pan and gently fry the onion until cooked, but not coloured. Add the gravy, and a splash of water if needed, and bubble for a moment. Tip in the minced meat and mix well, then turn into an ovenproof dish. Mash the cooked potatoes, with butter and milk as you like. Use the mash to top the pie. Rough up the surface a little with a fork and then bake at 180°c for 30 minutes until browned and bubbling hot. Serve with peas.

James had a spoonful of pie whizzed in the mini-blender with a few peas and wolfed it down. It hardly touched the sides. He's turning into a right little greedy guts, that one, can't think where he gets it from...

Pie again

It's soooo cold. Having been really very pleasant for the time of year, we are suddenly assailed by icy winds threatening to blow the bins down the hill and have had to start lighting the fire again. Mood not greatly improved by Hubby's constantly asking me "do you think it's going to snow?", in manner of excitable eight-year-old. Oh well.

Leftovers from last night's roast proved fruitful in the production of yet another pie this evening. I made two individual ones, in a couple of little oval tins; one for Chris (with which I 'helped' a little) and one for Hub, who is on a late shift again. I had the cauliflower left over in the fridge from last night, too. I wouldn't bother cooking it specially, but it is good if you have it.

Pork & Vegetable Pies

200g plain flour
pinch of salt
100g fat (50g butter & 50g lard, for preference)

Make pastry and line the bottom of two greased single-portion oval pie tins. Preheat the oven to 180°c.

150g leftover roast pork, diced
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
pinch dried mixed herbs
60ml (4 tbsp) double cream
4 cooked cauliflower florets, broken into little pieces
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water

Cook the onion, carrot, celery and dried herbs in a little olive oil until soft. Pour in the cream and bubble briefly, grinding in a little black pepper. Stir in the pork and the caluliflower pieces, then pile into the pie cases. Brush the pastry edges with egg wash and top the pies with the remaining pastry. Pierce the top of the lid to let the steam out, then brush all over the pie with more egg. Bake for 20 minutes.

As you can see, I rather go in for silliness on the crusts of small pies, but I appreciate that not everyone is as daft as me. I do feel it makes a fairly basic offering a little more special, somehow, though.

Pie, part one.

Spent the day filling the house with food . I made some stock from Sunday night's roast chicken carcass yesterday, so this morning I skimmed the fat off and put most of it in the freezer. I left the bread machine making a wholemeal loaf while we went out and did some shopping. We went to Owain's Butchers in Aberaeron for a kilo of beef shin , a vast breast of lamb and my husband's great weakness, a rather fine looking pork pie. All that for well under £8 - bargain! . We combined this with a trip to feed the ducks with the stale end of last week's granary loaf. I say feed the ducks, but actually it was more like feed the duck, singular. No reasoning with a two-year-old who's found a new friend, is there? Even if the 'friend' is a somewhat vociferous mallard drake.




Came home and made a chicken and ham pie using the leftover chicken from Sunday's bird, and a sauce made with 300ml of the stock made from its bones. Anything presented in 'pie form' is always well-received in this house...