Steak and Ale Pie

I make savoury things too, contrary to my figure I don't just sit around eating cakes all day but that would be a dream. So I made this pie using my own rough puff pastry to cheer up my boyfriend one day when he was pretending he was ill. It's comforting and tasty and great for a chilly day. This recipe does take a while to cook but to be honest, you don't actually need to do anything whilst it's cooking so great for a film day.

Serves 4-6 people   Prep Time 1hr   Cooking Time 4.5-5.5hrs

Ingredients:

For the filling:

25g Butter

2 tbsp Oil (olive, sunflower or vegetable)

600-800g Stewing steak, cut into 4cm chunks

100g Plain Flour

Salt and pepper

2/3 Rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into small dice

4 Carrots

2 White/yellow onions

1 Sprig of thyme

1 Sprig of rosemary

1 550ml bottle Newcastle Brown Ale (or preferred dark ale of your choice)

6 Oxo Cubes (or stock concentrate of your choice)

You may need 2/3 tbsp of Cornflour

For the rough puff pastry:

500g Strong plain flour

2tsp Sea salt (preferably the finer variety)

500g Unsalted butter, at room temperature, but not soft

Approx 150ml cold water

1 Egg

Equipment:

Large frying pan

Large saucepan or casserole dish

Approx 23-25cm pie dish/tin

Wooden spoon

Chopping board

Sharp knife

Rolling pin

Large mixing bowl
Large baking try

The filling will take around 3.5-4 hours to become tender so start with this. Start by peeling and chopping your carrots and onions. I usually slice the onions and chop the peeled carrots into rounds. Then you can get started  browning the meat. 

Put the flour into a large bowl and season with salt and pepper, toss the stewing steak chunks in the flour and tap off the excess before frying in batches in your frying pan with the vegetable oil. Once all the meat is browned on all side but not cooked through, leave this aside on a plat whilst you get on with the base. 

The heart of any stew or pie filling is getting a good flavour base. I start by frying the diced smoked bacon in the butter in the saucepan/casserole pan with the onions on a medium heat. This will take around 10-12 minutes to become browned and allow the onions to soften, then you can add the beef to the pan along with the carrots. 

Whilst the heat is still high add the full bottle of ale to the pan and boil for a few minutes whilst adding the thyme and rosemary and a little extra salt and pepper. At this stage you can prepare the Oxo/stock concentrate. 

I crush the Oxo cubes into a mug and cover with boiling water from the kettle, stir this into a paste and add to the pan. Now the lid can be placed on, the heat lowered to the lowest setting and it can be left along pretty much for 3.5-4 hours. You can stir occasionally to ensure nothing is catching on the bottom of the pan. 

Now you can get started on your rough puff; Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Roughly break the butter in small chunks, add them to the bowl and rub them in loosely using your fingers. You need to see bits of butter. 

Make a well in the bowl and pour in about two-thirds of the cold water, mixing until you have a firm rough dough adding extra water if needed. Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 20 mins in the fridge. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width, about 40 x 70cm. Keep edges straight and even. Don’t overwork the butter streaks; you should have a marbled effect.

Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length. Fold as before, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 mins before rolling to use. This can now sit in the fridge until your filling is done!

Once the 3.5-4 hours is up you should have a thick saucy beef stew which to be honest is great eaten as it is with mash. If your sauce is not thick enough to act as a pie filling you can thicken this would 2 or 3 tablespoons of cornflour, let down with some cold water and stirred into the stew off the heat and then brought back up to the boil to thicken. Allow the filling to cool a little before putting it into the pastry case. 

Preheat the oven to 190°c/fan 170°c/gas 5 - place a try on the middle shelf to preheat

Once you're ready, cut your pastry in half and roll the first half out for the base, making it big enough to cover the base and sides of your pie dish, place this into your dish which should be lightly buttered and pop this back into the fridge for 10 mins. 

This is when you can fill your pie with your slightly cooled filling (around blood temp should be cool enough). Use a slotted spoon to get all the chunky bits - this will leave you with gravy in the pan which you can heat up later to serve with the pie. Then roll out the second half of your pastry and place on top; crimping all the way around with your fingers and decorating with any spare pastry. You will also need to make a hole in the top of the pastry for the steam to escape and ensure you don't get soggy pastry. 

Brush the pie with 1 beaten egg to glaze and place the pie on the preheated tray and bake for around 30-25mins or until the pie is golden and slightly puffed up. 

Once cooked I love to serve this with broccoli, peas, mash and the leftover gravy. But whatever you like...

Catalonia; I'm coming to eat you

I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow for 4 days so I'll be taking photos and blogging about some of the things I see, eat and try to smuggle out of the country. This may include the odd stray cat.

However, I won't lie, it will probably be multiple photos of jugs of sangria.

Persian New Year Brittle Cookies (Sohan Asali)

My boyfriend is half Persian on his father's side so when Persian New Year came around in March I seized an opportunity to try something new. My very good friend Nina from work is also Persian and offered me this New Year recipe to try for the occasion. The symbolism is that at New Year in Iran you place a number of things on your table to represent new life, fortune and good luck. Due to these looking like little golden coins; they represent fortune in the coming year. But mainly they're just delicious!

Makes around 25-30 cookies   Prep time 25 mins   Cooking Time O mins

Ingredients:

2 Cups white sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 Cup slivered/flaked almonds, lightly toasted
1/3 Cup pistachios, slivered or crushed for garnish
4 tbsp Unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 tbsp Rose water
½ tsp saffron dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water

Equipment:

Casserole/sauté pan (this should be like a frying pan but with deeper edges)

Wooden spoon

Table spoon

Cup measurement

Pestle and mortar (you can also use a tea towel and a rolling pin)

Large flat baking tray (but you can also just use your kitchen counter-top with parchment

Parchment/baking paper

Cover a large baking tray with parchment paper or you can place a long strip directly onto your kitchen counter-top. This is simply a flat surface to set your brittles on. Crush the pistachios into a chunky dust and keep these in a bowl nearby. 

In your pan combine the sugar, honey and butter and place the pan on a medium heat on the hob for about 7-10 minutes or until sugar is completely dissolved. Swirl the pan around a few times, try not to stir the hot sugar as generally it crystallizes and leaves you with a grainy texture. 

Whilst this cooks you can prepare your saffron; if you’re using saffron power you can skip this step, however, if you are using full saffron you will need to crush it into a find powder in a pestle and mortar or in a cup with the back of a spoon. Then add the water and allow the saffron to infuse.

Lower the heat and add the saffron and rose water, gently stir/swirl once or twice with a wooden spoon.

Add in the almonds into the sugar mixture, stir well and cook for another 5-7 minutes on the lowest temperature setting. 

Next you will need to check the sugar is at the soft ball stage, this is when the sugar becomes brittle. I don’t own a sugar thermometer myself so to do this by dropping a few drops of the sugar mixture into a glass of cold water then having a taste! If the texture snaps then it’s ready, if it’s chewy and bendy then keep going until you have the right snappy texture. 

When your mixture is ready, start spooning out the mixture on the parchment paper using a tablespoon so you have rough circles around 7cm in diameter. As quickly as you can and sprinkle the crushed pistachios on top. Allow them to cool completely. 

Remove the sohan asali from the tray, store in an airtight container and serve them the next day. This will ensure optimum snappiness! 

Serve with a hot cup of sweetened mint or Turkish tea or just PG Tips – whatever you prefer!

White Chocolate & Berry Pavlova

This is a pretty good dinner with friends recipe, it looks impressive and can be made ahead of time and assembled just before you want to eat it. Also meringue is pretty light and so most people can save a corner for it! This recipe is a slight variation on the classic pavlova; using a cheesecake style mixture instead of standard whipped cream. I call it the chee-lova. I don’t. 

Serves 6-8 people   Prep time 45mis-1hr   Cooking Time 1-2hrs

Ingredients:

For the meringue:

6 Medium eggs (please try to use free-range and older eggs are usually best for meringue)

375g Caster sugar

2 tsp White wine vinegar

2tsp Cornflour

2tsp Vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

100-150g white chocolate

200g Cream Cheese (at room temperature)

200ml Double cream

1tsp Vanilla Extract

2tbsp Caster sugar

Squeeze of lemon juice (around a ¼ of a lemon)

300-400g Berries of your choice (a fruit salad doesn’t look great so try to stick to 2/3 varieties; I usually use strawberries/raspberries/blackberries)

2/3tbsp Strawberry (cut into bite-sized pieces)/raspberry jam (optional)

Equipment:

Stand mixer/electric hand whisk and large mixing bowl

Weighing scales

Saucepan

Small bowl

2 Baking trays

Baking paper/parchment

Pastry brush

Spatula

Preheat the oven to 150°c/Gas 2 

In a large bowl/stand mixer with whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks are formed when the whisk is removed. This could take up to around 6-7 mins. 

Whisk in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture stiffens further and starts to look thick and glossy.

Add the white wine vinegar, cornflour and vanilla essence and whisk for final time.  

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper/parchment, you can steady it by blobbing some of the meringue mixture on the tray before placing the paper on top.

Spoon the meringue equally between the baking sheets; aiming for 2 circles which are around 23cm in diameter, making a slight dip in the centre of the meringue so that the outside edge is higher than the centre.

Bake the meringue in the oven for an hour, or until the meringue shell has hardened but not coloured. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside until the oven temperature has cooled completely. Please try to leave them alone whilst they are cooling, if you’re anything like me you’ll be opening the door and prodding it. But don’t!

For the cheesecake style filling, ensure your cream cheese is at room temperature; otherwise it will go lumpy and never properly be smooth in the mixture. Beat the cream cheese in a bowl to loosen and add the caster sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice. In a separate bowl whisk the double cream to soft peaks and fold this through the cream cheese mixture. Cover and pop into the fridge until you need it. 

When the meringues are completely cool you can line them with the white chocolate. Melt the chocolate in small chunks over a pan of barely simmering water and use this to brush over the top of each meringue. You will only need to do this for the sunken centre part as this is where the filling will go; you’re basically waterproofing your meringue from the creamy filling.

At this stage I also like to cover some of the fruit in the remaining white chocolate to add a final flourish to the pavlova. These can be set on parchment in the fridge until you’re ready to build.

Allow the chocolate on your meringues to completely and at this point you can either begin to build or set everything aside to build just before you serve (I recommend this for optimum crisp!). Do not fridge your meringues, they’ll go soggy and break!

When you’re ready to build, take your least attractive meringue (poor thing) and place it on your serving plate/platter (you will not be able to able to move this thing once you’re finished. Spoon half the cream cheese mixture into the middle and add a few of your less nice looking fruit, remember to cut strawberries so they’re not too big for the next layer. Then you can add the top layer of meringue and repeat the process; creamy mixture, a selection of berries and finally your chocolate covered fruit (if you made it). It’s also a nice idea to glaze the top layer of fruit with some slightly warmed strawberry jam to make the whole thing shine. But either way, serve to your anticipating guests and take in the applause!

Hot Cross Bun Treacle Tart

So I made loads of hot cross buns and so I had to do something with the ones which were left over. I HATE WASTE! So I made this treacle tart for a work charity bake sale which went down a storm!

Serves 6-8 portions   Prep time  45mins   Cooking time 30mins

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

250g Plain flour

Pinch of salt

110g Unsalted butter

60-90ml/4-6tbsp Cold water

For the filling:

150g Hot cross buns, torn. Preferably, slightly stale ( I used my Chocolate & Orange ones!)

300g Golden syrup

1 Medium size egg, beaten

Zest of 1 orange

½ tsp Ground ginger

½ tsp Ground cinnamon

2 tbsp Single cream

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl

Rolling pin

Weighing scales

Saucepan

Food processor

Pie/flan dish

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter. 

Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it doesn’t become greasy.

Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together. Then grab the mixture between your palms (it will look drier than you think but it will come together!) and squeeze into a ball. Flatten the ball against the work surface to make into a disk (this just means it will chill down faster). 

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.

Roll out the dough so that it is big enough to cover your pie dish with some overhang. Then place into the slightly greased pie/flan dish, leaving the overhang on and prick the base with a fork. Pop this in the fridge whilst you get on with the filling. 

Preheat the oven to 190°c/fan 170°c/gas 5

Whiz the hot cross bun pieces in a food processor until you have breadcrumbs, then transfer to a bowl. 

Pour the golden syrup into a small pan, and bring to a simmer over a low heat. Pour into the bowl of breadcrumbs, then stir in the egg, orange zest, ginger, cinnamon and cream. This should be around blood temperature by now but if not, allow to cool slightly.

Remove the pastry case from the fridge and pour in the filling mixture. Carefully put the tart onto the preheated baking tray and cook for 25-30 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool.

Then you can use a serrated knife to remove the pastry overhang. Be careful doing this so you get a neat edge. My tip would be to use the knife horizontally to minimize breakage. Then eat, preferably with a cup of tea.