I’ll reiterate, I’m not big on actual recipes, so find yourself a pastry recipe you can follow, I use the Thermomix Rough Puff Pastry recipe, which is easily found on Google, you could use shop-bought puff pastry. I find the easiest way to make these is in a non-stick muffin tray which I grease well with oil or butter. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 centimetre thickness cut into circles that fit your particular muffin tray using a pastry cutter (or a glass or cup, whatever gives you a good circle that fits your muffin tray). Make sure you have enough dough leftover for your pie tops, which will be cut smaller than your bases, you’ll need to work that out based on the size of your muffin tray.

For the filling, well you can use just about whatever type of pie filling you have or you fancy. If I have leftover roast beef, lamb or veges and gravy I’ll cut them up into small pieces, mix together and pop that inside the cases. The pies pictured had leftover roast beef, veges and gravy and they’re a great way to make the most of leftovers and you can bulk it out with some extra vegetables, like frozen peas or corn and you could even add some bacon or cheese. If you want to make a filling from scratch a Google search of “pie fillings” will lead you down a rabbit hole of delicious options.

Add your filling to the bases and pop on the lids, a little bit of milk around the edge of the base pastry helps the top to stick to the bases. Bake until golden brown.

You don’t even have to make your own blinis (tiny savoury pancakes) these days, they’re available at most supermarkets and delis (you should find them in the fridge section nearby the fresh pasta or dairy). If you do make your own blini, which I normally do, just use a very simple batter of a cup of self-raising flour and enough sparkling water to make a thick batter. I’m not really a precise cook, there are recipes all over the internet for blini though.

A simple topping of mascarpone or whipped cream cheese topped with a slice of shop-bought smoke salmon is all you need, you can add some fresh dill or chives for a garnish. Really these little blini could hold a gamut of different toppings, so get creative. If you are up for the challenge you could smoke your own salmon at home and use small chunks instead of slices.

So, stay in touch while I add back some old recipes and places we travelled to, and posts and add some new ones for the current time.

Those of you who know us know how much travel and food means to us, I’ll try to draw it all together in this new and improved Food We Love, while telling some stories of experiences.

Welcome along on the journey.