Now we’re almost done with spring and hurtling headlong towards summer it’s time to get the lighter recipes on the go. Out with winter casseroles and comfort food, in with salads and spring greens. One veg that’s abundant in spring is the humble leek. There are loads of great uses for this relative of the onion but I really love it in a simple chicken and leek pie. Continue reading “Chicken and Leek Pie”
Tag: pie
Bramble Pie Fail
With my newfound grasp of shortcrust pastry I’m filled with grand ideas of what I can do with it. Unfortunately they don’t always work out as I hoped. This was supposed to be a bramble pie covered in golden, sweet pastry which I could perch some cold vanilla ice cream on. Then I would crack it open to reveal steaming brambles in their syrupy sauce inside with the ice cream melting all over it.
What actually happened was that the sauce from the brambles made the pie sides and bottom a soggy lump of stodge and they never cooked properly. While I had achieved a lovely golden pastry on top the sides were a mess. It was still edible and tasted great but a sad failure for what was a great idea. To add insult to injury the next day I was watching Saturday Kitchen and James Martin did exactly the same pie but made it perfectly. The git.
I’m not going to give you a proper recipe for this. If you really want to try it just add some sugar to a standard shortcrust pastry recipe. For the filling you just need to gently heat the brambles in a pan and add sugar to help break the berries down. Taste the sauce until it’s sweet enough and then take it off the heat.
Steak and ale pie
When I think of the food I enjoy the most it always seems dishes that involve chunks of meat cooked for a long time in boozy liquid are the ones that come to mind. A lamb shank cooked in red wine for a couple of hours or those French classics beef bourguignon and coq au vin. Any dish that involves moist meat which just falls apart without needing a knife and a thick, rich sauce which you can only get from a couple of hours of slow cooking is a winner. The only way you can make that better is by sticking some pastry on top of it. Continue reading “Steak and ale pie”
F**k it, it’s Friday – Pie, beans and chips
As a rule I try and avoid the hot food served in the canteen at work, because it’s shite. However the thought of a steak pie, beans and especially curly fries proved too hard to resist today. So hard to resist that I’d already started eating before I remembered to take a photo!
It’s not good for you, it’s not healthy and it’s certainly not the kind of food most people would blog about. But it’s Friday so who cares?
Guess I’d better go for a run tonight to work it off though…
Mince and Skirlie 