Mince Pies

Using a jar of mincemeat makes this Christmas classic a breeze to create. I made my own pastry to give a little extra zing with some orange zest and enhanced the flavour of the jarred mincemeat by adding a little whiskey, cinnamon and nutmeg. These additions and small visual imperfections from home baking these pies brings them a step above the store bought varieties. Pair this with small glass of port.

Ingredients
1 jar store bought mincemeat
1 cup plain Flour
1 tbsp light brown Sugar
1 tbsp dark brown Sugar
1 tsp confectioners Sugar (optional - for dusting)
1/2 cup of Butter, cubed
1 tsp Salt
3 tbsp ice-cold Water
1 shot of Whiskey or Brandy
1 orange, Zest only
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
a bit of Milk

Recipe
Start with the shortcrust pastry, which is the same from my previous recipe. Mix the flour, light brown sugar and salt and rub in the cubed butter until the texture is like that of soft bread crumbs. Add the cold water and form into a dough - no need to knead, treat the dough with care! Cover with clingfilm and and leave to chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.

When the dough is ready, pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees and grease your pan of choice. I used a regular 12 hole muffin pan. Roll the dough over a floured surface as thin as you can make them, then cut out rounds for the base. I didn't have pasty cutter that was large enough for my muffin pan so I used a pasta crimping wheel around a Bonne Maman lid which happened to be the perfect size. Slide the rounds into the muffin tin and then spoon one level tablespoon of mincemeat into each casing. This ended up using just over 2/3 of my 450g jar, so I was able to make a few more the next day.

Using the rest of your dough either cut out a round as the top layer for your mince pies, or cut shapes. I opted for heart shapes as I was feeling brave and creative. Lay them on top and snip a hole in the center if you're doing a full top layer. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle over some dark brown sugar. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown at the edges. When they come out of the oven leave them to cool for a few minutes before transferring onto a serving plate and sprinkle over some confectioners sugar. Enjoy with brandy butter. 

Orange and Apricot "Bakewell" Tart

This isn't your classic Bakewell Tart. I have made some additions and substitutions but the cooking method and essence of the classic is still there. I added orange zest and juice to the cake mixture for a more holiday feel. Then instead of the raspberry jam, I used apricot jam to for the base of the tart. In all this is a far more subtle tart than the classic but with sophisticated flavours. Team this with a mug of English breakfast tea for a match made in heaven.

Ingredients
1/2 cup cold Butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup softened Butter
1 cup plain Flour
1 cup ground Almonds
1 Orange, zest and juice
1/4 cup Suet
3/4 cup of Sugar (I used a combination of dark demerara and natural)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
4 Eggs
3 tbsp Apricot Jam
1/4 cup of flaked almonds to garnish
1/2 tsp of icing sugar to garnish (optional)
1 tbsp Cointreau (optional)
Cold Water

Recipe
Make the shortcrust pastry first by adding the cold butter to the flour with the suet and a tablespoon of sugar for sweetness. Using your hands, press the butter into the flour mixture and rub to form clumps the size and texture of soft breadcrumbs. Slowly add a bit of cold water and using a knife bring mix together until it forms a crumbly dough. Don't worry if it's too crumbly to roll out, put the ball of dough onto a piece of clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge or 10-15 minutes in the freezer.

Pre-heat the oven while you are waiting for the dough to 180 degrees. When the dough is ready, dust a clean table liberally with flour. Roll your dough to 0.5cm thickness and line your baking tin. Poke the bottom with a fork so that no air bubbles form and then line with greaseproof paper before pouring in baking beans. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and let the pastry cool.

To make the filling, cream the softened butter with the rest of the sugar and add orange zest. I like adding the zest at this point as it brings out more of the orange flavour. Once it's light and fluffy, add the eggs ground almonds, baking power, bicarb, xanthan gum, orange juice and Cointreau (if using) and combine well. I used the xanthan gum as I didn't add flour to my cake mixture, so the gum will improve the overall crumb due to the lack of gluten.

Using a tablespoon, spread the apricot jam over the base of the pastry. Then pour in your cake mixture. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes and then top with the flaked almonds. Bake for a further 12 minutes until the top of the cake is a golden brown and the almonds have lightly roasted. Leave to cool on a rack and sprinkle with icing sugar. I enjoyed this cake warm with Brandy butter and a large mug of tea.

Cinnamon Rolls

My take on these delicious beauties. 

Recipe can be found here (Note this is the small batch version of the Pioneer Woman's classic recipe)

http://blog.kitchenmage.com/2011/01/small-batch-pioneer-womans-cinnamon-rolls.html

Swede Cakes

This delicious recipe came from my friend, The Craft Bureau, while we were having some veg-box musings on the train. This time of year veg-boxers are likely to get quite a few of these "alien" vegetables and I feel that there must be more to them than mash. These delightful cakes are mashed swede to begin with but when fried they have a lovely crispy exterior, and the addition of spices makes these far more versatile.

Ingredients makes 8 cakes

1 medium Swede, peeled and roughly diced

Salt & Pepper

Spices of choice - I used chili powder & garam masala

splash of Milk

1 cup of plain Flour

1/2 Leek, or Onion, quartered

1 small Potato, peeled and roughly diced

cooking Oil or Fat

Recipe

Heat water in a large pan and boil the diced swede, potato and leek in a pan for 50 minutes or until the swede is very soft. Drain water and leave in the colander for a good 5-10 minutes to get all the water out. Toss the cooked vegetables back into a pan, add a splash of milk and mash well. It's ok if the vegetables are a bit lumpy. 

The swede holds a lot of water so your mash is probably wet and lumpy at the moment. Take a wooden spoon, add your spices and mix the mixture well. Add half of the flour and combine. You want the mixture to  become more dough like, but not too dry. Think of the consistency of dry starchy mashed potatoes, and add flour until you reach that. 

At this point or post boiling, the mixture can be left covered in the fridge to pick up the flavour of the spices overnight. This will also make it a bit easy to shape your cakes for frying. When you're ready to start frying, heat a pan with some cooking oil or fat. I had some dripping to hand so used that to provide an extra flavour. Keep the pan on medium heat and spoon a serving spoon sized mixture carefully into the oil. They will take about 4 minutes on each side, don't flip them over until their bottoms come cleanly off the pan and are nicely browned. 

Place on kitchen towel to soak up the oil and then serve. 

For a quick breakfast, heat up some swede cakes and serve with a fried egg

Step-by-Step Perfect Bone-In Rib Eye Steak

Every so often, you will find a Bone-In Rib eye steak in Waitrose sitting on the shelf. These things sell out so fast that if you see them, you must buy them all! So once you have acquired this beautiful piece of meat, here's a simple recipe to cook it.

1. Marinate your beef. I used salt, pepper, fresh parsley and lemon zest to keep it nice and simple. 

2. Rub the marinade in with a bit of oil and leave it to rest for 10-30 minutes or longer  in the fridge so that the flavorings permeate the meat.

3. Make sure you remove any blue elastic bands from the herbs when you come to cook your steak otherwise someone will have some rubbery nastiness. Take the steak out 30 minutes before cooking to allow it to get to room temperature. During this time you can make the sides, some hassleback potatoes, potato salad, rocket salad, Polenta chips, mushroom sauce or whatever takes your fancy. Heat up a griddle pan large enough to hold your steak until it's almost smoking. You don't need to add oil to the pan as there is already oil on the steak. Carefully place the steak on the griddle and for a piece this size (750g), I cooked mine for 5 minutes on each side for a nice medium rare.

4. After 5 minutes, flip the steak over. As you can see the meat has a nice crust on it from the longer cooking time. Remember crust = flavour. I normally press down on the fatty eye and other fatty bits to ensure those render down properly. They should sizzle!

5. When ready, allow your beef to rest on a plate tightly covered with foil. This will allow the meat to relax and the juices to flow back into the steak.

6. If you're sharing this steak with a fried, slice through the meat so everyone gets a bit of everything and plate up.  Check out the pinkness in the middle. Glorious!

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Salmon Caviar, Poached Egg and Hollandaise

I had some leftover Salmon roe from an evening I made sushi and woke up the following morning craving it's salty fishy taste. This is a pretty and in my opinion, tastier version of the class smoked salmon and egg breakfast. The eggs are resting on some large cress leaves for a kick of pepper.

Ingredients

2 tsp Salmon Caviar (easily available at Waitrose or your local fishmonger)

3 organic Eggs

2 slices of Toast

1 tbsp Vinegar

1/2 Lemon, juice only

Salt & Pepper

Watercress optional

1 sliced Spring Onion, optional

Recipe

To make the hollandaise, put the yolk in a bowl and whisk in a bit of salt and pepper. Add vinegar and lemon to a small saucepan and heat until it starts to bubble. Pour this into the egg mixture and whisk in. Then slowly pour the melted butter in a thin stream into the bowl as you whisk away. The sauce should be thick and creamy.

Boil some water in a shallow pan and add a small bit of vinegar in the water, this will help keep the whites of the eggs together. Crack each eggs into separate glasses or small bowls for easy pouring into the water. When the water reaches a rolling boil, whisk the water to create a whirlpool and drop the eggs in one by one. Turn the heat down and cook for 3 minutes. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and rest on a kitchen towel so they are not too watery.

Serve by placing some hollandaise on your toast, then the watercress, followed by the poached eggs and topped with the salmon caviar. Drizzle more hollandaise and sprinkle with chopped spring onions, salt and pepper. Enjoy with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

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Piri Piri Chicken

This a recipe inspired by a trip to Portugal earlier this year - the famous Piri Piri Chicken. I bought a bottle of piri piri sauce back with me but you can use a supermarket brand for the same effect, or create your own! It's so easy and a definite crowd pleaser.

Ingredients
1 tbsp Piri Piri sauce (use more depending on how hot your sauce is and how spicy you want your chicken)
1 whole organic Chicken, butterflied
Salt
Pepper
a couple of springs of lemon Thyme
Chips or Salad to accompany

Recipe
About an hour before cooking, marinate your bird in the piri piri sauce. I poked a few holes with a knife into the thighs and breast area so that the sauce would get under the skin and penetrate into the meat. My sauce was eye-wateringly hot so I only used a small amount and rubbed it on with a spoon, I wouldn't recommend using your hands unless you wear gloves and the chili oils can get everywhere. If your sauce is milder and you need to use more of it, I would recommend putting the chicken into a ziplock bag with the sauce and shaking it about to coat the meat. Keep the chicken in the fridge while it's marinating.

When you are ready to start cooking, pre-heat your grill to 220 degrees.  Take your chicken out of the bag and lay it onto an oven dish with a rack below it. I like to season the skin at this point with a bit of salt and pepper so that it would crisp up nicely in the grill. For a 1.5kg chicken, grill your meat for 30-35 minutes. To test if it's done, I take a metal skewer or knife and poke it into the thickest part of the chicken and then lightly touch it against the edge of my lip, if it's done it should sting a little from the heat.

Take the chicken out, and rest it on a plate covered with foil while you prepare any final accompaniments. Garnish with the sprigs of lemon thyme and serve to the hungry hoards. Enjoy.



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