Holly October 8, 2013

Pork & apple samsosas

Beef, Kids, Pastry, Pork, Snacks, Weaning 2 Replies

Do you have a best friend? I hate the very label.

I went to a school where every girl had to have a best friend. The class was divided into neat little pairs. Every so often someone would decide they wanted to break best friends and have a new best friend, which would of course mean everyone had to break best friends. It was barbaric. One girl in particular was responsible for a lot of the rumours spread that resulted in the inevitable breaking of friends, tears, sleepless nights and snotty tissues. She was expelled in the end. Although at my school it was called being ‘asked to leave.’ Private schools love a euphemism.

Recently I noticed a friend of a friend on Facebook post a photo of herself and the mutual pal together with the label ‘I love my best friend!’ or something similarly twee. It made my blood boil. So territorial, so exclusive to every other friend either woman may have. It’s as rude as not replying to a party invite. Don’t even get me started on that.

The only kind of best friends chat I tolerate in this house is between brothers. Ie/ my sons. I tell them all the time to look after each other, that they’re so lucky to always be best friends etc etc until I feel my voice grow hoarse. Years ago, when my eldest were still in utero, I read that if you tell a child something enough it becomes their reality. So I carry on with my indoctrination of sibling best friendery. It’s working so far. Who knows how long it may last.

These samosas were made by my little boy Max who is almost 3. He did a mighty fine job, brushed the filo, folding the triangles. They’re delicious warm with a stir fry as a ‘fusion supper’ (husband’s words not mine) or cold in lunch boxes. Beware they’re moreish.

One year ago: Apple and blackberry flapjack and Cheatscake

Two years ago: Father Christmas’ Bakewell tart and Chocolate cupcakes and truffle icing

Three years ago: Roasted red tomato soup and Chicken piggy pot pies

Pork, beef and apple samosas

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
200g pork mince
100g beef mince
1 beef stock cube
10 small portabello mushrooms, finely diced
1 green pepper, deseeded and finely diced
3 carrots, grated
1 bramley apple, grated
2 tbsp cranberry sauce
Black pepper
12 sheets filo pastry
50g butter, melted

Make the filling by frying the onion and garlic in the oil until soft on a medium heat in a frying pan. Add the pork and beef and turn the heat up. Fry until browned then turn the heat down and add the crumbled stock cube. Chuck in the mushroom, pepper, carrots, apple, cranberry sauce and black pepper and fry until everything is soft and the carrots and apples are starting to stick to the pan. You basically want a really dry mixture. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 and line two baking trays with non stick paper. Take a square of filo and brush with melted butter then fold in half into a long rectangle. Brush with butter again and place some filling into one corner then fold that end over to make a triangle. Keep folding, using butter as an adhesive until you reach the end of the samsosa and then paint the edges shut using the butter to fold the filo over. This video is very useful if my instructions are lacking.

Repeat for all 12 samosas making sure to pack them tightly then bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and very hot. Be careful if small people are eating them warm as the filling really retains it’s heat.

Holly September 24, 2013

Sausage and butterbean pie with red Leicester mash lid

Pastry, Pork, Tarts and Pies Comments Off

Every day is not a pastry day. Some days are a mashed potato day and there’s no mash I love more than Red Leicester cheese mash. The colour is admittedly, alarming. But the hug it delivers forgives it’s technicolour appearance. With sausage, sage and butter beans hiding under the Red Leicester blanket this is nigh on the perfect Autumn pie.

One year ago: Death by chocolate cake and Lemon brioche

Two years ago: Macarons and Sausage and potato pie

Three years ago: Mince pies and Easy cheesy pasta

Sausage and butterbean pie with red Leicester mash lid

Ingredients:

Feeds 4

6 good quality sausages
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp groundnut oil
2 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 x 400g tin butterbeans, drained and rinsed
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
850g potatoes, peeled and cut into 4cm chunks
100mls hot milk
50g salted butter
100g Red Leicester cheese, grated
Salt and pepper

Cut the sausages into 4 pieces each using scissors and fry with the onion in the oil on a low heat in a large frying pan until both are browned. Add the sage leaves and fry for another minute then pour in the beans, chopped tomatoes and garlic. Give it a good stir and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Boil the potatoes until a knife passes through them easily then drain and allow to sit in a colander over the pan they were boiled in for 3 minutes; this helps to evaporate any excess water. Place in the stand mixer and use the flat beater to mash the potato on a low speed until creamy and without any lumps. Add the hot milk very slowly with the beater running at speed 1, then the butter and the cheddar. Mix until combined being careful not to overwork the potato. Taste and season as required.

Pour the sausage and butterbean mixture into a large pie dish then spoon the mash over the top and bake in a preheated oven at 180C/gas mark 4 for 30 minutes. Serve with lots of green buttered vegetables.

Holly April 28, 2013

Perfect pork crackling

How to, Pork 9 Replies

Pork is my husband’s favourite meat; for a roast, for a stir fry, when in a restaurant – wherever the opportunity for eating pork strikes, he will take it. And perfectly crunchy crackling makes him an even happier bunny. Here’s how.

Holly January 23, 2013

Leek, potato and ham soup

More, Pork, Soup 4 Replies

I bought some jeans in Marks and Spencers today. I also bought a jumper. And I really liked them both. I almost skipped to the counter to pay for them, so gleeful was I in my purchase. The jumper was chunky and warm with stripes and the colour red, two of my favourite things. The jeans were Mum jeans and I felt very excited that I would be able to get them on without dislodging my internal organs or needing to lay on the bed and breathe in, thinking thin thoughts. I put my hand up and admit I do not want to partake in lunges in the morning just to ease jeans over my ample bottom. Does anyone else have to do this? Or is it just me.

Whilst we’re on the ample bottom subject, I’m thinking of trying that 5:2 diet. You know the one, where you eat normally 5 days a week and starve yourself on just 500 calories (600 for men, lucky souls) for the other two days. Sounds hellish but I’ve always liked a challenge. I don’t really like it when diets are sensible, because I always figure if I’ve eaten like a hippo to get to the point where I need to lose weight, then the process should be a little bit unenjoyable, to stop me pigging out again. I tried that dreadful cayenne pepper and lemon juice diet once. I still find it very hard to use cayenne pepper in any recipe. It makes me gag.

One ‘diet’ that I am happy to revisit again and again is one where soup is involved. Apparently it keeps you fuller for longer. Well it does if you eat 4 portions though I’m not sure that’s the idea. This soup is not a low calorie soup, but it is very nice indeed. And easy peasy to make.

One year ago: Bake me not chocolate cake and Joyful banana, butterscotch and fig traybake

Two years ago: Light and sweet carrot cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Leek, potato and ham soup

Makes a large vat of soup, enough to feed 8 people easily with normal sized portions. You could make it in these quantities and freeze half or just halve the recipe.

Ingredients:

75g salted butter
2 leeks
2 tbsp Marigold bouillon
4 pints cold water
4 medium potatoes, finely chopped
4 slices thick, proper ham
Black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and chop the leeks into square type shapes about half a centimetre long. Pop them into the butter and stir. Allow them to sweat on a very low heat for about 10 minutes. Keep stirring as you don’t want them to catch and brown. Browned leeks are a very bad thing in my opinion. Acrid and chewy. Eww. Add the Marigold powder or a veggie stock cube and stir again until all dissolved and bubbling in the buttery leeky mixture.

Add 4 pints of cold water and then turn the heat up. In the meantime peel and finely chop 4 medium potatoes and add those to the soup mixture. Bring to the boil. Then simmer until the potato starts to break up. Add the ham, ripped into pieces for a rustic look. Then use a potato masher to mash down any larger lumps of potato – this also gives the soup a certain starchy thickness that is all important. Now you can add a splash of milk here if you like. My very glamourous costume designer friend does and she has dressed Brad Pitt and Ange (as she calls her) so she’s very much at the cutting edge of all things soupy and celebrity. I don’t add milk if I’m adding ham. I just don’t.

Taste the soup and then season to taste. I don’t add salt as the Bouillon powder if salty tasting, as is the ham. But it’s very much your call. Enjoy with light rye bread or spelt bread (mmmm) or my husband’s fave walnut bread.

Holly January 17, 2013

Butternut squash, chorizo, bean and harissa soup

Pork, Soup 9 Replies

Being busy, or rather people who bang on about being busy, is one of my all time pet hates, up there with people who take their eye bagged ridden children food shopping at 10pm and those who moan about not having any money and then go on expensive holidays.

I think the Busy People think that by wearing this verbal busy badge of honour they sound important, like a latter day version of a business lady from Working Girl who walks to work in her trainers to save time. Well, it doesn’t make me think you’re busy. It makes me think you should be quiet and get on with your busy list of things to do.

Maybe I am just jealous. I used to be a Very Busy Person when I had a proper office job with a time you had to arrive at and a pension plan and private health. Now I have a scrap of paper with a list of things that need doing on it. Some have been on the list for over 5 years. Tirelessly re-written when a new scrap of paper beckons.

At this very moment, a quick glance tells me I need to do some filing (yawn), contact a solicitor about writing a new will (or if I do pop off then my double bed and a silver necklace are going to arrive on an ex boyfriends doorstep in Manchester… not sure his wife would be keen on that or my bedless grief stricken husband come to think of it), sort out passports for both sons (form filling, arghhh no, surely I need to do something more pressing like check Facebook or read the Daily Mail comments on a celebrity story) and eBay a DVF dress I bought 3 years ago and have never worn as it makes me look, quite frankly, hideous. Designer clothes do not magic away hips. Wrap dresses are for my skinny snake hipped sisters.

So maybe I’m not busy with the important things that Busy People are busy with, but I am busy playing Lego, building train tracks, reading stories, helping little boys peel carrots and mix Yorkshire pudding batter and of course I am busy pushing swings. That’s a very busy job indeed, for very Busy People.

This is a recipe for Busy People. I managed to whizz this up whilst playing train tracks intermittently.

One year ago: Bake me not chocolate cake and Joyful banana, butterscotch and fig traybake

Two years ago: Light and sweet carrot cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Butternut squash, chorizo and harissa soup

Enough for 2 very large dinner type portions or 4 smaller ones

Ingredients:

Half a butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks, no seeds please
2 onions, peeled and quartered
4 tbsp groundnut or veggie oil
200g chorizo sausage, cut into slices and skin removed
1 chicken stock cube
1 tsp harissa
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Black pepper

Pop the oven on to the highest setting and roast the butternut squash pieces and the onions in a roasting tin coated in 2 tbsp of the oil until browned and a knife slips through the squash easily, took about 20 minutes in my oven. Then pop into a large saucepan. In the meantime fry the skinless slices of chorizo until browned. (Can be easier to remove the skin once cooked, up to you… or don’t remove the skin at all! Adds a slightly grainy texture to the final soup though.)

Throw the sausage into the large saucepan with the veggies and add the stock cube and harissa, then pour boiling water over the top until it comes to about an inch above the veggies. Pop onto a low heat to simmer and after 15 minutes blitz with a handheld blender or pop in a regular blender if you prefer. Check for heat (our harissa is homemade by Mr B and is fiery), add a little more harissa if you like and then some black pepper too. Probably won’t need salt as the stock cube provides a fair amount of that. Then add the beans and heat through on the stove for 5 more minutes. Serve with crusty bread and butter.

Holly August 16, 2012

Sausage rolls with a hint of apple

Christmas, Pastry, Pork, Snacks 16 Replies

I am a child of the 80s. I owned a crimper. I even used it. I also owned those strange bendy rods used to curl hair into tight perm style ringlets. My first LP was Care Bears the Movie (The Soundtrack) and I remember the exhausting and expensive transition from records to tapes to mini discs to CDs. In pre Cbeebies days I loved to watch Pigeon Street, Fraggle Rock, Jackanory, Dogtanian, Danger Mouse, the Muppet Babies and Blue Peter. I adored my A La Carte Kitchen, my Get-a-Long Gang lunchbox, my Mr Frosty, my ear muffs, my T shirt that changed colour as I ahem, glowed… and my posters of Tiffany and NKOTB. My favourite things to do were read Look In magazine, eat those little frozen mousses’ that came in stacks of 10 and visit various Leicestershire attractions with my Mum, my Dad and both my Grandmothers. The best bit of these trips was the unveiling of the picnic feast.

There was always a pork pie. We’re from Leicestershire so it’s the law. There was always tuna and salad cream sandwiches, egg and cress sandwiches (home grown cress of course from a scooped out boiled egg filled with cotton wool and with a smiley face drawn on with marker pen), Red Leicester cheese sandwiches (Leicester connection again) and some form of potted meat rolls. There was always cold sausages expertly grilled by my maternal Grandmother and bought from a butchers facing Leicester Market called Walkers. There was always celery that ended up going home untouched. There was smokey bacon Walkers crisps (Leicester again you see) and likely a Wagon Wheel or melted Penguin bar. I would drink a warm Capri-Sun and the adults enjoyed restorative flasks of tea. The perfect 80s picnic complete with Whitney to sing us all the way home. The only thing missing were sausage rolls.

The sausage rolls of my childhood were, if I’m honest, a bit of a disappointment. Shop-bought, more than a little greasy and under seasoned. If you’re still wishing for a few sunny days to end this rained out summer then you cannot go wrong with this recipe from Sainsbury’s. Incredibly easy to make, sweetened with a little grated carrot and apple and likely to disappear in a flash. You could make a huge sausage roll if you’re pushed for time, make little filo versions for a more sophisticated affair and use sausagemeat and dried herbs to cut down the cost. My youngest son prefers the filo versions, in fact it’s a case of blink and you’ll miss them when he’s presented with these.

Ingredients:

– 1 teaspoon olive oil

– ½ onion, finely chopped

– ½ carrot, grated

– 1 small Bramley cooking apple, grated

– 1 teaspoon fresh sage, chopped

– 250g extra lean British pork mince

– 1 pack ready-rolled puff pastry

– 1 medium egg, beaten

– 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

– 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 200ºC, fan 180ºC, gas 6. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the onion. Cook until soft, then add the carrot and apple.
Transfer to a bowl, then mix in the sage and pork mince until well combined.
Unroll the pack of ready-rolled puff pastry, then cut in half lengthways. Divide the mixture in two, and place in the middle of each strip of pastry. Brush all edges of the pastry with the beaten egg, reserving some for the top. Fold the pastry over the filling, and seal by pressing gently on each roll.
Flip the roll so the seal is on the underside of each roll. Cut each strip into 8 rolls.
Brush the tops with the remaining beaten egg, then sprinkle with the poppy and sesame seeds. Place the rolls on a baking tray and bake for 25-30 mins until crisp and golden, and the pork is cooked through.

Or you could cheat…

Make one giant sausage roll by doubling the sausage filling in the above recipe. Place the filling in the centre of a piece of ready-rolled puff pastry. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg, then roll the pastry over the filling. Flip and lay seam-side down on a baking tray. Cut diagonal slits across the top, brush with a little more of the beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame and poppy seeds. Bake for 55 mins, then leave to cool before slicing up and serving.

Or you could save money…

Use ready-made sausage meat for your filling and season with dried herbs. Make the sausage rolls as usual, then brush the tops with milk rather than egg. Top with freshly ground black pepper.

Or you could jazz them up a bit…

Use filo pastry and brush one side of one sheet of pastry with melted butter. Fold the pastry in half, then place a portion of the pork filling at the top corner. Fold the pastry over the filling at right angles to make a triangle and continue folding to form a neat triangular parcel. Seal with a little melted butter. Repeat with the remaining pork mixture and pastry. Place the parcels on baking sheets, brush the tops with a little melted butter and sprinkle over poppy and sesame seeds. Bake for 25 mins until golden.

If you’d like step by step pics then you can download them here.

Holly May 22, 2012

Razzamatazz ribs

Pork 16 Replies

Recently I met a man, under 30, who used the word razzamatazz. He also used the word jeepers without irony or a hint of self indulgence. I was waiting for him to use ‘moreover’ within a sentence but he left me wanting more on that front. Something for another day perhaps.

It got me thinking about all those words that have fallen out of favour. Old fashioned names have become very popular though I have yet to meet a baby Deidre. A quick poll of Twitter tells me that skedaddle, spiffing, fiddlesticks, dash, smashing, hurrah, cripes, palaver, nincompoop, jolly, crikey and rather worryingly please and thank you are all words that are in danger of extinction. I suggest we all take responsibility for one word each, per week and aim to resurrect these endangered species before it’s too late. Please feel free to add yours to the pile.

Here are some razzamatazz ribs to start us all off. They’re sweet, a little spicy and really very agreeable. Spiffing even.

Ingredients:

– 8 or so handsome looking pork ribs

– Bunch of fresh thyme, squashed up a bit

– 3 tbsp honey

– 3 tbsp dark soy sauce

– 6 cloves of garlic, crushed

– 2 chillis, chopped up roughly with seed

– 1/2 bottle Womersley raspberry and apache chilli vinegar or another white vinegar of your choice

– 1 tbsp cornflour

This is jolly easy. Place the ribs into a baking tray in the morning. Pop all the other ingredients into a jam jar and shake well. Then pour over the ribs, cover in foil and leave in the fridge until about 5 hours before you need them. When you’re ready to go preheat the oven to Gas 1/140C and place, still covered, in the oven, on the middle shelf. Leave for 4 hours.

Remove the grey looking ribs from the oven and turn up the heat to Gas 7/220C. Throw the foil away but keep the sauce. Place the ribs onto a baking sheet and pop at the top of the oven for about 20 minutes until they are crispy around the edges but not burnt. Do keep a good watch of your ribs.

In the meantime strain the marinade through a sieve into a small saucepan and heat on the hob. Once simmering remove a good tablespoon of the sauce and mix in a cup with the cornflour until really smooth. Then add back into the simmering sauce, stirring continually. The sauce should thicken. If it doesn’t do the same again with half a tablespoon more cornflour. If it goes lumpy worry not! Just strain through the sieve again.

Serve the ribs with this sauce either on the side of poured over the top depending which way your guests swing.

P.S. If you wanted to follow the man I mentioned then you would find him @gowen1

Holly January 2, 2012

Super-juicy, diet-friendly roast pork

Pork 3 Replies

I’ve done it again. Every year I promise myself I won’t. Every year I vow to channel my idea of the perfect French woman and only eat bird-like quantities of delicious morsels over Christmas, rather than shoving selection pack chocolate into my mouth in a gluttonous fashion. Here I am with my waistband cutting into my tummy as I type, though with glowing, fat filled skin. There’s a wrinkle-plumping silver lining to every cloud.

Here’s an idea for the juiciest roast pork, guaranteed not to make you feel deprived in any way if you are laying off the chocolate for a month. Just maybe give the crackling a wide berth.

Ingredients:

– 135g salt

– 1.3 litres boiling water

– 45mls Womersley lemon, basil, bay and juniper vinegar

– 45mls maple syrup

– 545g peeled, cored and sliced apples (any quantity is fine though, this is just what I used)

– a joint of pork – make a note of the weight though before you throw the packaging away

Brining the pork makes for succulent meat that’s not only perfect for eating with all the trimmings but makes for the best cold cuts. None of that dried out sandwich meat here, oh no Sir.

Take a large dish/clean bucket that fits in your fridge and place everything in it apart from the pork and stir until the salt dissolves. Let the mixture cool until room temperature, then place the pork in it. The pork displaces the brining mixture so obviously choose a dish/bucket that’s large enough. Cover, then place in the fridge or in a cool place like the garage/utility overnight or for 12 hours.

In the morning strain the pork brine mixture. I tend to just tip the lot into a colander and catch the apples and pork that way. Then find a roasting tin and place the apples onto the bottom to act as a platform to raise the pork. Place the pork on top, skin side up and then give it a good rub with a tea towel until the skin is dry. If you’re of the crackling persuasion then score the skin with a sharp knife and rub a tablespoon of salt into it.

Leave for 30 minutes to come to room temperature and in the meantime calculate your roasting time. You need to roast for 30 mins per 500g of meat plus an extra 30 mins. To roast, place in a preheated oven at Gas 7/220C for the first 30 minutes then turn down to Gas 4/180C for the rest of the cooking time. Every 40 minutes or so I drained some water away from the roasting tin. (The brined pork will release water as it roasts. Pouring it away ensures it roasts rather than boils.)

Careful not to over roast your pork! If your oven cooks hotter than the dial says then keep an eye on your meat. I rested my meat for 30 minutes after it came out of the oven, covered in foil, before carving and serving with all the usual trimmings. Beware eating the apples, they’re rather salty. Think of them as a marinade rather than an ingredient for apple sauce.

Holly September 12, 2011

Sausage, potato and onion pie with a flaky pastry lid

Pastry, Pork, Tarts and Pies 609 Replies

I love pies. I do not consider the insult ‘who ate all the pies’ to be a particularly harsh one. It implies the recipient is indeed of the rotund variety. However, it also implies that this very person chose a wonderful way to get to this state of waistband. If someone said ‘who ate all the mild, tasteless cheese?’ to me, I’d be incredibly offended. I can’t think of a worse food to squander precious calories on. Pie however, well, that’s a connoisseurs way to pile on the pounds.

This is the kind of pie I’d like to think Margo from The Good Life would have called an ‘assembly pie.’ In that the pie contents don’t do much cooking once they’re in the oven. That’s done before. So it’s a high maintenance pie. Lots of prepping. It’s very good though; in the way that most pies are good. You can feel the fatty goodness clinging to your waist and thighs as you eat it. Don’t let that put you off. Just enjoy it and eat salad tomorrow.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

200g plain flour
75g soft lard
75g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp white wine vinegar
140mls very cold water
1 beaten egg for glazing and fixing the lid

For the filling:

8 of your favourite sausages
600g peeled Desiree potatoes – about 6 medium sized ones for me but depends how close to the skin you peel
200g peeled onions – about three medium ones for me
25g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt

For the creamy sauce:

140g creme fraiche
60mls double cream
40g wholegrain mustard
lots of freshly ground black pepper
lots more freshly ground black pepper for the layering

You need a metal pie dish for this baby. You could use a ceramic one but I can’t guarantee the puffiness of the pastry. You need said dish to heat up VERY quickly in the oven along with the pastry. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My tin is 18cm in diameter at the base, by the way.

Make the flaky pastry first. Take the soft butter and lard, place in a bowl and beat the hell out of them with a fork until you have a creamy looking blob of fat. It needs to be well mixed. Then spread evenly over the bottom of the bowl and mark out quarters with a blunt knife.

Put the flour into a bowl and rub in one quarter of the fat you’ve just combined and marked out. Once you have a breadcrumb like consistency add the white wine vinegar and use a blunt knife to stir. Then add the water. Stir with a blunt knife until combined. The dough may be stickier than you’re used to. That’s okay. Turn the dough onto a very well floured work surface. Turn over so that the dough blob is completely covered in flour. Don’t worry about too much flour. You just brush it gently off your pastry every time you roll the dough. Don’t forget to do this.

Next, use your hands to shape the pastry into a rectangle with defined corners. Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry to about 1cm thick. The size dimensions should be roughly double the length to the width. (I use 2 hand spans by 1 hand span.) Lay it out, long side across, in front of you. Tease the corners back into place if they have disappeared. Put your hands under the pastry and allow the pastry to ‘shrink’ back a little. You don’t want the dough to have any tension and appear or feel stretched. If it does it’ll shrink in the oven and your lid won’t fit your pie!

Take your blunt knife and another quarter of the fat mixture and dot across the pastry leaving gaps in between dots. Be careful not to drag the pastry or in any way stab it. Be gentle. The fat needs to be soft to allow this. Then mentally divide the long pastry rectangle into thirds. Fold the right hand side third into the middle to meet the end of the first third. Then fold the first third over to meet the end of the second third. (If this doesn’t make sense then you may need to look on youtube. Sorry but it’s hard to describe this.) Make sure your pastry has defined corners, if not simply push and pull a little until you have right angles. Wrap your pastry block in clingfilm and place in the fridge. Set your timer/phone for 5 mins.

In the meantime grill your sausages until dark brown all over. I’d advise a dark colour as there’s nothing worse than an anaemic sausage in a pie. Leave to cool once cooked. You can also get on with peeling, slicing and cooking your onions at this point. Fry them in a pan on a lowish heat with 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp caster sugar and the butter until starting to caramelise. Then set aside to cool a little.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and with the ‘open’ side of the pastry facing you (the bit with all the folds visible) roll out onto a well floured work surface again to the same dimensions as before then pop your fingers underneath to release any tension. Repeat the fat dotting and folding, then pop into clingfilm and back in the fridge for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Put the kettle on. Peel the potatoes and slice to about 3mm thickness. You can use a mandolin but beware that when you boil the potatoes they may turn to mush in minutes. Boil the potatoes in a big saucepan for about 8 minutes or until cooked but not mushy. Drain immediately and then leave on the side.

Take the pastry from the fridge and do the same drill with the last quarter of fat. Put back in the fridge, well wrapped of course. Then start to slice your sausage. Slice into 3/4mm thick slices, lengthways. I get four out of an average sized sausage.

Make the creamy sauce by combining all the ingredients. Set aside. At this point remove the pastry from the fridge and pop it back onto the well floured work surface. Roll into a rectangle as before and fold as before but without adding any dots of fat this time. Put back into the fridge. Set the timer for 30 minutes.

Take your pie tin and start the assembly. This is the order. Don’t deviate from it please:

1/3 of potatoes layered on the bottom of the pie dish
1/3 onions on top
1/2 sausage slices arranged pointing from the outside rim of the dish into the middle like a wigwam
1/3 creamy mixture dotted over the top
Lots of black pepper
1/3 of potatoes
1/3 onion
1/2 sausage
1/3 cream
Lots of black pepper
1/3 potatoes
1/3 onions
1/3 cream
Lots of black pepper

Then place this tin in the fridge. The filling should appear peaked in the centre in a bonfire fashion, like a proper pie should. At this point make sure there is only one rack in your oven, bang in the centre. Then preheat the oven to Gas 7. Take your egg, beat it and set aside with a brush for egg washing. You should also locate a fork, a sharp knife and also some scissors.

After the 30 mins is up, take the pastry from the fridge as well as the filled pie dish. Roll the pastry into a square (well floured work bench la la la etc) until it’s about 3cm wider and taller than the edges of the pie dish. Then cut off two sides of the square producing two long strips about 1.5cm wide. Egg wash the rim of the tin and fix these strips onto it. You want the whole rim to be covered. Then egg wash the strips please.

Now check the remaining pastry square is at least 2.5cm wider and longer than the tin by hovering the tin above the pastry gently and checking by eye. If you’re happy then gently fold the pastry into quarters. (Don’t press it into quarters. This is for ease of moving the pastry.) If not happy with the size, roll until you are. Don’t go mad though and roll too thin or your pastry won’t do its flaky thing.

Take your square folded pastry and place gently over the pie dish with the innermost corner in the centre. Then unfold, gently. Do not stretch the pastry at all. In fact, try to release some tension by pushing the pastry into the middle. Then press the pastry gently onto the pastry rim. Trim the pastry about 0.5cm larger than the edge of the pie tin using scissors. Try not to drag the pastry at all. Then dip your fork into the remaining flour on the work bench and use it to indent around the rim of the tin. Keep re-flouring your fork to stop any dragging.

Nearly there… take a blunt knife and ‘knock up’ (stop sniggering) the edges of the pastry. Basically you’re using the knife to fluff up the pastry of the rim and the lid until they are fluffed up together, meaning they don’t come apart when baking. Also meaning the side of the pie has a nice thick layered appearance. Then just egg wash the whole pie really well and then cut a cross in the top to allow any steam to escape and ensure a really crisp and flaky lid. Pop in the oven for 20 mins, then turn the heat down to Gas 4 and bake for another hour. Serve with green beans/peas/baked beans or whatever else does it for you.

Holly March 20, 2011

Homemade sausage meat with onion two ways

Pork, Snacks 10 Replies

Nope, it’s not a mistake. I admit defeat. I cannot make sausage meat look attractive. Not in its pure sausagey meaty form. So here’s a picture of our fridge instead.

Before I met Mr. B I used to have fantasies about meeting a lovely man, getting married, having babies and then buying alphabet magnets for the fridge. Well, despite my lamenting to anyone who’d listen that I’d never meet ‘the one’ the fantasy did indeed come true and here’s the pictorial proof.

I never thought I’d be the type of woman who makes her own sausage meat. I also never thought I’d receive a sausage making attachment for my second wedding anniversary. Goodness, I love my husband. We have not looked back. It’s a whole different world of sausage worship. If you can, do it. You won’t regret it.

Here’s my recipe for a good basic sausage meat. It tastes great in sausage rolls – using homemade puff pastry or not. You could add anything to it really. Leeks would be nice perhaps.

Ingredients:

300g pork belly (Remove any big bits of fat or skin etc.)
300g pork shoulder (As above.)
200g streaky bacon (Remove any rind.)
1 tsp of ground mace
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
10 fresh sage leaves finely chopped
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil for frying (I used Crisp n’ Dry.)

Cut the pork belly and shoulder into 1 inch cubes and start to feed through your meat mincing attachment. This takes a while so start this off first. Do not be tempted to put the bacon through first – it tends to clog the attachment up. Bacon goes through last.

Fry half of the onion in the oil and the sugar on a low heat until it starts to turn a caramelly brown colour. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Once you have all the meat minced grab a large bowl and put everything into it. Then roll up your sleeves and start to squelch. That’s the best way to describe the sensation as you hand mix sausage meat. It’s quite satisfying and really the best way to get the lot well combined.

That’s it. Use as you wish. We have ours in sausage rolls. We have it for dinner fried in little stuffing like patties wrapped in bacon and sage leaves. Charlie has it fried in tiny balls for dinner with Smiley Faces. Max hasn’t had it yet but give him time. Freezes well too.

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