You could make the puff pastry if you wish (the recipe is in the book), but we cheated and used a pack instead. It does take time to make this recipe, but you could make the filling in advance if you wish and it’s so worth it! We made the full amount but then put half of the filling in the pie and the other half in the freezer – things like this always taste good after freezing.

Ingredients (serves 4-6, fills a dish roughly 1.5 litres in capacity)

For the filling

10g dried porcini mushrooms

200ml very hot water

100g lardons (diced streaky bacon)

800g lean boneless stewing steak (chuck or skirt) cut into 5cm cubes

About 2 tbsp olive oil (if needed)

3 shallots, peeled and quartered

1 tbsp plain flour

500ml red wine

2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely sliced (we don’t have a crusher, so we sliced it!)

1 bay leaf

Salt and black pepper

1 375g pack all-butter puff pastry (thawed if frozen)

Beaten egg, to glaze

Method

1. Heat your oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the dried mushrooms into a heatproof bowl, pour over the very hot water and leave to soak and rehydrate until needed.

2. Put the lardons into a cold flameproof casserole dish and set over medium heat (we have a stoneware one that only goes in the oven, so we used a large non-stick pan for this bit). Fry, stirring frequently until the fat melts and the lardons are golden. Remove from the dish/pan with a slotted spoon to leave the fat in the pan, and set aside for later.

3. Add the beef to the dish/pan a few pieces at a time, and fry until brown on all sides (add a little oil here if needed). As each batch of beef is browned, transfer to a large plate with a slotted spoon. Then add the shallots and brown quickly, before removing and adding to the beef.

4. Turn the heat down to low and add the flour to the dish/pan. Stir until slightly coloured, stir in the wine and the mushrooms with their soaking liquid. Return the beef and shallots to the dish/pan along with the garlic, bay leaf, and a little salt and pepper (go easy on the salt – the lardons are salty!).

5. Bring everything to the boil. If using a casserole dish, cover and put in the oven. If not, transfer from your pan into an oven-proof dish, then cover and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the meat is very tender.

6. Remove the bay leaf from the dish. Stir in the lardons and then adjust the seasoning as required. If cooking the pie in the same dish, place your pie raiser (or egg cup) in the middle, and leave the whole thing to cool. (I must admit that we didn’t leave it to cool, mainly because we started cooking it later than we anticipated! So we just put the mixture in a new dish – see next step).

7. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, and trim the lid to the correct size of your dish. Then cut some 1cm strips of pastry and use a little water to dampen the rim of the dish, before pressing the pastry strips so they completely cover the edge. Join the ends and trim as necessary.

8. If you’re using a separate dish, fill it with filling and then place your pie raiser in the centre. Then (for either method!) dampen the pastry strip with water, cut a hole in the lid where the raiser will be and then place the lid on top. Press the edges carefully to seal it, and decorate it if you wish.

9. The recipe says to chill the pie at this point as the oven heats up to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. We ignored that bit too, and it was fine! Brush the pie with beaten egg to glaze, and then bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for a further 20-25 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. Serve with some vegetables and mash or roasties. Yum!

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I have always wanted to make gnocchi – it has been one of those things on my food bucket list for a long time now. It takes a little while but it well-worth the effort, and I’ll definitely do it again! But you can always just use the ready made gnocchi if you don’t have the time and this recipe will still taste just as good.

The gnocchi recipe I used here comes from Delia Smith (although there is a really good tutorial with great photos here). The squash recipe comes from BBC Good Food.

Ingredients

For the gnocchi
10 oz (275 g) King Edward potatoes (about 2 medium-sized potatoes)
3½ oz (95 g) plain flour, sifted, plus a little extra for rolling
1 large egg, lightly beaten
salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the squash
450g butternut squash, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
500g pack gnocchi
200g young leaf spinach
100g goat’s cheese

Method

1. First place the potatoes, with their skins on, in a suitably sized saucepan, almost cover with boiling water, add some salt, then put a lid on and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until tender.

2. Then drain well and, holding them in your hand with a tea cloth, quickly pare off the skins using a potato peeler. Then place the potatoes in a large bowl and, using an electric hand whisk on a slow speed, start to break the potatoes up, then increase the speed and gradually whisk until smooth and fluffy. Now let them cool.

3. Next, add the sifted flour to the potatoes, along with half the beaten egg, season lightly and, using a fork, bring the mixture together. Then, using your hands, knead the mixture lightly to a soft dough – you may need to add a teaspoonful or so more of the egg if it is a little dry.

4. Transfer the mixture to a lightly floured surface, flour your hands and divide it into quarters. Now roll each quarter into a sausage shape approximately ½ inch (1 cm) in diameter, then cut it, on the diagonal, into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces, placing them on a tray or plate as they are cut (but don’t stack them as they will stick together!). Cover with clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes, but longer won’t matter.

5. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Tip the squash into a roasting tin with the garlic and oil, salt and pepper and mix well. Roast for 20 mins, shaking the pan halfway through, until tender and golden.

6. To cook the gnocchi, firstly bring a large, shallow pan of approximately 6 pints (3.5 litres) of water to a simmer. Then drop the gnocchi into the water and cook for about 3 minutes; they will start to float to the surface after about 2 minutes, but they need 3 altogether.

7. With a few seconds to go, throw in the spinach, then drain the gnocchi and spinach together. Tip into the roasting tin, then mix everything together well, mashing the softened garlic. Spoon onto warm serving plates, then crumble over the cheese to serve.

Enjoy!

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Yesterday I posted the recipe for sun dried tomato and parmesan bread, and it was really popular! So I thought that I’d post the soup that we made to go with it in case you’re going to try it out this weekend If you’re a veggie, you might want to try my super soup instead!

This recipe is originally from BBC Good Food.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
200g cooking chorizo, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
pinch of cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika, plus extra for sprinkling
pinch of golden caster sugar
small splash red wine vinegar
250g red lentils
2 x 400g cans chopped tomato
850ml chicken stock
plain yogurt, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chorizo and cook until crisp and it has released its oils. Remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.

2. Fry the onion, carrots and cumin seeds for 10 mins until soft and glistening, then add the garlic and fry for 1 min more. Scatter over the paprika and sugar, cook for 1 min, then splash in the vinegar. Simmer for a moment, then stir in the lentils, and pour over the tomatoes and chicken stock.

3. Give it a good stir, then simmer for 30 mins or until the lentils are tender. Blitz with a hand blender until smooth-ish but still chunky. Can be made several days ahead or frozen for 6 months at this point. Serve in bowls, drizzled with yogurt and olive oil, scattered with the chorizo and a sprinkling of paprika.

Enjoy!

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This is another recipe from ‘Mexican Food Made Simple‘ by Thomasina Miers, which has quickly become one of my favourite recipe books. You’ll need to make some roast tomato sauce for these enchiladas, which takes a little while but will be worth the effort! We altered the quantities to make this for two, but I’ve put the original quantities here. Again, I must apologise for the not-so-brilliant photo here – at least the clocks go back this weekend and nights will soon get lighter for taking good food photos!

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

1 quantity of roast tomato sauce (see link above)
200ml stock (we used vegetable stock)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sea salt and black pepper
30g pine nuts
Olive oil
50g raisins
475g frozen spinach, defrosted and drained (we used a bag of fresh spinach)
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
150g ricotta
6 corn tortillas
4-5 tablespoons sour cream
80g Cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Heat up the tomato sauce with the stock and ground cinnamon and check the seasoning.

2. Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan and then set aside on a plate. In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the raisins. Cook for 2 minutes until they plump up. Add the spinach, pine nuts, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and add the ricotta.

3. Spoon two tablespoonfuls of the spinach mixture onto the centre of each tortilla and roll. Cover the base of an ovenproof dish with a few spoonfuls of the tomato sauce and place the rolled tortillas on top, seam side down. Pour over the remaining tomato sauce.

4. Spoon the sour cream on top and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling.

Enjoy!

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Today I made pasta (for only the second time) and remembered how much I enjoy doing it! It’s definitely something to do on a weekend, and it’s easier than you think too. My first attempt was some ravioli, and today I tried out my tagliatelle attachment I had to get Tom to help me put it through the machine because it ended up being really long! 

This recipe is taken from ‘Gino’s Pasta‘ and serves 4. The original recipe says to use good quality pork sausages (or Italian sausages) but we used some smoky chipotle chilli sausages which worked really well.

Ingredients

For the pasta (makes about 400g)

300g white flour type ’00′, plus extra for dusting
3 medium eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

For the rest of the dish

400g good quality pork sausages
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, washed and finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
50g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 15 mins and drained
100ml dry white wine
150ml double cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.To make the pasta, sift the flour onto your work surface. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs, before adding in the salt and oil.

2. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix the flour into the eggs, working from the centre outwards. Once you have a crumbly texture, gather the mixture together with your hands and start to knead until you have a soft dough.

3. Once the dough has come together, continue to knead for about 8 minutes, exactly as though you were kneading bread.

4. Roll the dough into a ball, cover in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

5. After 20 minutes, remove the dough from the fridge and flatten it with your fingers so that it fits through the pasta machine. Flour the pasta lightly on both sides and work it though the machine from the thickest to the thinnest setting – keep the pasta floured so that it doesn’t stick. Pass it through the tagliatelle attachment and leave to dry out a little.

6. Remove the skins from the sausages and place the mixture in a bowl. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and fry the sausage meat and leeks for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to crumble the meat.

7. Add the rosemary and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and cook for a further minute, allowing the alcohol to evaporate.

8. Pour in the cream, mix everything together and cook a couple more minutes.

9. Cook the fresh pasta for 2-3 minutes in a pan of salted water until al dente (if you’re using dried pasta, then you’ll need to put it on a little earlier!).

10. Pour in the cream sauce and toss everything together for 30 seconds to allow the flavours to combine. Serve immediately.

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Venison is such a lovely meat, and I recently discovered that they sell it in our local supermarket. It’s a lean and tasty meat, and as I’d found some diced venison I decided to try out making a pie with it. I found the original recipe for this on allrecipes.co.uk but that one serves 10 people, which is a bit much for just me and Tom! So I’ve adapted it here, adding a few of my own ingredients too.

Ingredients

300g diced venison
2 rashers unsmoked bacon (you could use streaky bacon if you wish)
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
about 500ml beef stock (you need enough to cover the meat in the pan)
1 medium potato, diced
2 small carrots, diced
3 mushrooms, chopped
220ml (1/2 can) Guinness
1 sheet puff pastry
Flour to dust the pastry and venison

Method

1.Heat the bacon in a dry frying pan to render the fat. Remove and set aside.

2. Cook garlic and onions in the bacon fat until caramelised. Remove from pan and set aside.

3. Dredge venison with flour and brown in a hot pan. Return onion, garlic and bacon to the pan. Pour in stock, stir and bring to a very slow simmer. Let simmer for 1 hour.

4. Add vegetables and simmer until tender. Remove from heat and pour in Guinness, stirring well. If the gravy is too thin, thicken it with a little cornflour mixed with water.

5. Transfer contents into a baking dish and cover with puff pastry. Pierce a few steam holes in the pastry (there were holes in the side of mine so I didn’t bother – but I did put a pastry deer on the top!).

6. Bake at 180 C / Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and puffy. Serve with some green vegetables and enjoy!

I like this picture – he looks like he’s coming out of a forest!

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