Lynne's Dinners - A Photo Diary

Grilled Salmon and new potatoes... mmmmmm... fishy.... Thursday May 9th 2013

2013-05-10T11:48:00.000+01:00

I am very very partial to a little fishy on a little dishy. Today's fish is salmon, very good for you (lots of Omega 3 oils) and the skin is delicious when nice and crispy.

I started the fish off skin side down in a pan, in a little hot oil, and left it on the skin side until the opaque fish was about half way up the side, and then finished it under the grill just to brown the top. The inside was still deep salmon coral coloured, and not at all dry. And the skin was to die for... (it looks burnt in the photo, but it wasn't just a deep crunchy brown...)

Back up the week a bit....

2013-05-06T19:04:00.002+01:00

It's been a funny old week. I've had no energy, no impetus and no desire to cook much.

So we've been eating sausages, and pasta and rice mostly. With salad. Yawn you are saying. I know...sorry....

I've been sorting through to see if I ate anything at all you might find even slightly interesting. I've only found two things - and neither of the photos are amazing. So maybe you would be better off just working back through the better photos from the past month or so!!

Pork tenderloin with an onion gravy, cooked with marsala and veal stock

Chargrilled lamb with fresh pita bread and salad

They did taste good, just not very inspiring! so sorry!

Home-made sausage roll and bread and butter pudding - Monday April 29th 2013

2013-04-30T12:10:00.000+01:00

I don't know why, I just had a real yearning for a hot sausage roll. Ready rolled puff pastry and some skinned sausages, half an hour and here it is... so good!

And to finish it off, a little bread and butter pudding, with the raisins on the bottom before putting the bread in so you don't get those hard burnt ones on the top. (top tip...)

A weekend of sugo di carne... Saturday and Sunday April 27th and 28th 2013

2013-04-29T17:38:00.001+01:00

I made a big pot of Italian sugo di carne.... the stuff English people like to call bolognese sauce.

My Italian mother in law always called it sugo and I make it her way, so sugo it shall remain.

The first half we had simply with spaghetti.

The second half I made into a bastardised version of gnocchi alla sorrentina - it should be with plain tomato sauce along with the basil, mozzarella and parmesan, but mine is a meatier version.

This is how I make my sugo - quantities are up to you, depending on how many of you there are! :

Saute a soffrito of onions, celery and red or yellow peppers all finely chopped. When soft, add a couple of garlic cloves and some finely cubed pancetta and continue to fry. Add minced beef and fry, stirring all the while, until the meat is no longer pink.

Add a good slug of white wine, sherry or marsala and reduce this to almost nothing. Then add sufficient full cream milk to come about half way up the meat and allow this to almost reduce away. Then add chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, salt and little sugar and some dried oregano.

Simmer for a couple of hours on a very low flame.

It is VERY good...

Risotto....Prawns leeks peas and Pernod! Wednesday 24th April 2013

2013-04-24T22:18:00.002+01:00

I like a nice fish risotto... only a little butter at the beginning and no cheese or cream to finish so very light on the tongue.

This one has prawns and some slivers of smoked salmon, peas and leeks. No white wine, but I used a good slug of Fino sherry and another of Pernod which worked beautifully, The slight anise flavour was rounded out with Essential Cuisine fish stock and a good pinch of Urban Spiceman TZ 5P spice.

So very, very good.

Orzo Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs.. The Sun Shone Today! Tuesday April 23rd 2013

2013-04-24T17:42:00.000+01:00

It was a lovely day , sunny not too windy, I even got into the garden for a bit of tidying up.

Which exhausted me as I'm still a bit flu-ridden, so I then couldn't be doing with making elaborate dinner. So I raided the cupboards and the fridge and produced a plate of salad.

Orzo is a rice shaped pasta that is wonderful in soup, but also makes delicious pasta salad. The trick is to make sure it isn't overcooked, and to strain it into cold water to cool so it doesn't go puddinglike. Then when it is lukewarm dress with a balsamic vinaigrette and add any herbs and vegetables you fancy. I had red onion, grated carrot, mint and parsley in mine, along with some cubes of Doux de Montagne cheese..

And I had just a nice little half portion left over in the fridge for lunch :)

More kebabs with Gigantes Plaki... and flatbread Monday April 22nd 2013

2013-04-22T21:49:00.005+01:00

The other half of the half leg of lamb was still in the fridge and needed to be made into something, and the vote was for more kebabs. Marinaded the same as the last time, and with gigantes plaki (Greek Giant Beans in simple tomato sauce, butter beans were used here...) and flatbreads made with my new pizza dough find through Twitter... .

Lamb Kebabs with Pilaf rice - sometime last week....April 2013

2013-04-22T15:13:00.001+01:00

I've been a bit unwell recently, so I am not sure which day I had this rather yummy dinner..

But fortunately I did take a picture, so here it is. Lamb kebabs with pilau rice and salad.

The marinade for the lamb and vegetables is so easy and so delicious.

Cut your lamb (I used leg, but neck fillets and shoulder are also very good) - roughly 250g or so for two people - into 3 cm cubes, and put into a bowl together with a red onion halved and separated into leaves, and a large red pepper (or I used two narrow pointy ones) also cut into squares. Add the juice of a lemon, salt and pepper, a good glug of olive oil and a half teaspoon or so of dried oregano. Cover and allow to sit in the fridge for several hours. String the pieces onto flat kebabs and grill for about 20 mins, or as long as the rice takes to cook. Use the marinade to baste the kebabs as they cook.

My pilaf is made with Essential Cuisine lamb stock, really good stuff, and the only lamb stock I know that doesn't taste of salt and MSG. Saute a finely chopped onion or a couple of shallots until soft, add half a cup of basmati rice per person, one whole cup of water per person, a half teaspoon of Essential lamb stock powder (or you can use any stock cubes you like of course! or even fresh stock if you have some) and a handful of finely chopped parsley. Bring to the boil, and then cover tightly and turn the heat right down to barely simmer and absorb the stock.

It should take roughly the same time as the lamb.

Serve with salad. Yummy.

p.s. I know I go on about Essential stocks a lot. They don't sponsor me, although I am using stock powders I have won in their Facebook competitions, but honestly they really are the best. I hope you give them a go and let me know what you think.

Braise-Roasted Duck Leg with Marmalade Sponge Puddings for afters.. Weds April 17th 2013

2013-04-18T14:46:00.001+01:00

My fabulous Spanish literary agent friend Angela came over last night, whilst she was here in the UK for London Book Fair, and I cooked us dinner so we could natter and catch up on the business gossip.

Duck cooked this way is a favourite, and it really is delicious, and so tender it falls off the bone. If you are good I'll even let you know how I made it...

So here you go...

4 duck legs
1 medium onion, sliced
handful of fresh thyme stems
1tsp each of Essential Chicken and Veal Stock powders , (or any stock granules, Marigold are good)
500ml warm water
salt & pepper

For thickening the gravy:

1 tbs plain flour slaked in a little water
couple of drops of gravy browning or home made caramel (optional)
1 tablespoon of shredded orange zest (optional)

In a sturdy roasting pan just big enough to take the legs, put a bed of onions and thyme

Put the duck legs on top, mix the stock powders into the water and pour over the duck to come about half way up the legs.

Salt and pepper the tops (I was daft and put the salt and pepper on first, then put the stock in, as you can see I washed the salt and pepper off some of the legs.. be sensible, put stock in first, then salt and pepper! ) and place in a moderate oven, Gas mk 4 , 350/175 degrees. Cook for an hour and a half, basting the top occasionally.

After the hour and a half, drain off the stock into a small pan, put the duck back for another half hour at Gas mk 2 300/150. Add the slaked flour to the stock and whisk until smooth, the flour will combine with the duck fat to thicken the gravy. Bring to the boil, whisking and then turn right down to a murmur and cook for 20 mins to make certain the flour is cooked through. Deepen the colour with a little gravy browning if you wish. (You can add the orange zest now if you wish to use it, it adds a lovely flavour to the gravy without turning it into duck a l'orange. )

Remove the legs from the onion/herbs, you will probably need to remove some herbs from the underside, and serve with mashed potatoes, a green veg and the delicious gravy.

To carry on the orange flavour, I decided to make little steamed marmalade puddings for afters...

Made in individual steamed pudding moulds, just a simple Victoria Sandwich mixture (like this one for the cakes I made for Mother's Day) with a little more milk than you would use for the cakes, some zest and orange essence in the mix, and a good dollop of marmalade and one of golden syrup in the bottom of the mould. Cover and steam for 40 minutes. The mixture filled 5 little moulds.

That's it! Now that was all easy wasn't it!

Gawd bless my Pork Belly :) Sunday & Monday April 14th & 15th 2013

2013-04-16T18:04:00.001+01:00

Lovely, lovely pork belly.

Slow roasted for 3 hours with rosemary and sherry vinegar, on a bed of onions and thyme branches, covered in foil, then foil off and a hot blast for half an hour. Rosemary on the very crunchy olive oil potatoes too.

So delicious. And a £6 belly gave me plenty for two days for two of us..

Eat The Fridge Saturday... Minestrone and Pizza - Saturday April 13th 2013

2013-04-13T23:12:00.001+01:00

I always intended to have soup for dinner. But then I saw a rather delicious looking pizza on Facebook and thought that instead of just more flatbread, why not a lovely bit of pizza to nibble alongside?

A question or two on Twitter and Facebook, and I am armed with plenty of pizza dough advice.

Yumyumyum...

Would you like the pizza recipe I ended up with?

Just ask away.....

Fish cakes and Yoghurt Tartare Sauce .mmmmm Thursday and Friday April 11 & 12 2013

2013-04-13T11:36:00.002+01:00

I love a nice little fish cake. If you have never made one, here is how I make mine. Easy peasy I promise you.

Dry mashed potato. I steam mine (roughly 500g floury potatoes make 8 fish cakes, so two per portion, I made two days' dinners ) and then mash. Don't add any butter or milk.

Fish. I made these with smoked mackerel, skinned, flaked and any odd bones removed. And a can of crab lumpmeat I received in a hamper, too tasteless to eat on its own, but good to add texture and a little more bite to the mix. Or you could use tinned tuna or salmon. Or any fresh fish, lightly poached. Or kippers... You want about half the volume of the potato in fish.

Seasonings: I love smokey flavours so added a couple of tablespoons of Halen Môn Smoked Water - really good stuff! I love Alison's salts and this fabulous foodie ingredient really made a difference to the flavour.But don't fret if you don't have it, add a little more pepper instead.
I finely chopped and fried a shallot until crisp and added that with a tablespoon or so of chopped parsley.

Mix this all lightly in a bowl, and chill for a bit until thoroughly cold.

Make smallish patties, flour them lightly and pop on a plate, back into the fridge for about half an hour.

Egg and Breadcrumb: Lightly whisk an egg and a splash of water, get a plate with plenty of dry breadcrumbs ( I like panko crumbs , and am delighted that they are now available in Sainsbury's and Waitrose so I don't have to order them from the Japanese shops) . Dip in the egg and then the crumbs, don't press the crumbs too hard, you want to keep the insides nice and light.
Back on the plate and back in the fridge for another half an hour (or until dinner time, they will keep for ages, even overnight, or you can freeze at this stage. So you could make the fish cakes when you have time, and save the hassle later on at dinner time.)

Frying: an inch of rape seed oil in a frying pan, heat until hot but not smoking and fry on each side until golden. The insides are cooked so you are really just interested in a nice even golden crumb, you don't have to cook the insides. I then pop the finished fish cakes on a baking tray into the oven on a lowish heat whilst I make the salad, the flatbreads and the tartare sauce.

Flatbreads: I was making bread today so used a lump of my usual milk bread rolled into golf balls and then patted flat and cooked on a dry frying pan like these ones.

Tartare sauce: I don't buy tartare sauce any more. It's too easy to make, Half and half mayonnnaise and Greek yoghurt, with chopped gherkins, capers and a little shallot. Maybe a bit of herbs if I am in the mood and they are about.

There you are! It takes time yes, but hassle .. no!

The Sun-Came-Out-for-10-Minutes Spring Salad Dinner - Wednesday April 10 2013

2013-04-11T14:56:00.001+01:00

Did you see it? Did you? It was there... look ... over there......

Oh, It's gone again...

It was sunny. Honestly it was. Sunny enough to make me fancy something salad and springlike.

Avocados that I bought last week to ripen for this VERY sunny moment. Some plum tomatoes, a squeeze or two of nice sharp lime, coriander, sea salt, a smudge of chopped chili. Salad leaves with a little bit of the salty lime juice from the salsa to dress them, some nice prosciutto and salame. And a hard boiled egg - my salad hero.

You could almost think Spring was here and Summer on its way.

Comfort eating... mincemeat and cabbage - Monday April 8th 2013

2013-04-08T22:50:00.001+01:00

I am feeling a bit better today. better enough to cook, though with little enthusiasm for anything elaborate. Which in the end extended to mashed potatoes .. I just cut up some new potatoes and threw them in a pot.

Mince though. That is easy to eat, easy to cook, just all round easy.

I am sure you have your own ways, but if not here is mine. This is my usual base for cottage pie as well, but that would have meant mashed potatoes...

For two people, generous portions

400g good quality lean minced beef
2 medium onions (or one large one or three small ones...)
2 cloves garlic
sprinkling of flour
1 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tbs Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce
1 teaspoon Essential Cuisine beef stock powder (or any other stock powder, granules or cubes you may have but Essential Cuisine are the best by a long way)
1 teaspoon gravy browning or caramel
sprinkle of herbs - I like thyme and marjoram

Chop the onions and garlic and put in a saucepan with a splash of olive oil and a cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the water has evaporated and the onions have started to sizzle. Add the minced beef and cook, breaking the meat up to brown all sides.

Sprinkle with flour and mix this in thoroughly. Add water until a gravy texture is reached. Add the ketchup, L&P, gravy browning, herbs and stock powder. Bring to a simmer and cook for around 40 minutes stirring from time to time. Add a little more water as it reduces to keep to the consistency that you like, I tend to keep it thicker for cottage pie.

Serve with potatoes and vegetables, (Or allow to get cold and cover with mashed potatoes for cottage pie )

Flu can feel just like a hangover... Saturday April 6th 2013

2013-04-07T15:44:00.002+01:00

I felt rotten all afternoon, I think it is a flu type thing I have working up ... so whilst I was happy to cook, I didn't really reckon on any thinking.

I'd exhausted my thinking anyway by making flatbreads for lunch . My last bit of thought was that feeling flu-ridden was rather like a hangover. And the best thing for a hangover is a fryup.

It was good. But I still feel infested.

Boo. End of whining.

Just a little bit of gammon... and lot of soup Friday April 5th 2013

2013-04-05T22:29:00.002+01:00

It isn't necessary to have huge amounts of meat, just a little will do. I had just a small piece of gammon left from yesterday, and diced it to go in the soup I made from the stock from yesterday, the left over vegetables, some extra cabbage, peas and butterbeans, and a good couple of handfuls of fregula, a Sardinian pasta that cooks up rather like pearl barley.

So good. Two large bowlfuls made a good filling dinner.

Learning about pre-diabetes & a low carb Ham Dinner - Thurs April 4th 2013

2013-04-04T21:40:00.002+01:00

Blood tests back and sugar and HBA1C levels show pre-diabetes rather than full blown Type 2 diabetes. Which is a relief, yet not something to sit back and relax about, as it could still develop into that...

An appointment with a dietician has been requested, and until then it will be time to scour the net and read books and generally chat with anyone who has been there and done that. So if you have, do make contact please!

In the interim, I feel it is probably best to keep to a relatively low GI diet, and forgo the delicious yet deadly refined carbs. I started today by substituting puy lentils for the potatoes I would normally have with my boiled gammon and root vegetables. Still delicious, but not as good for soaking up the liquor!

Boulangere potatoes and finishing up the lamb - Wednesday April 3rd 2013

2013-04-04T12:17:00.004+01:00

A slow cooked shoulder of lamb simply has no waste. Unlike traditionally cooked lamb, that clings to the bones in a determined fashion, when it is slow cooked, the collagen melts away and the meat just falls from the bones.

So from one shoulder, I got a large roast dinner for Easter Sunday for 4 adults and one child, a second roast dinner for two people on Monday (and slow roasted lamb reheats beautifully - just wrap in foil and re-roast alongside the potatoes) and today the last of the lamb cold, again for two people. So that is 8 portions (plus a teeny one) from one joint of lamb that cost £14, averaging out at less than £2 per portion, That is GOOD value.

It was so cold today I wanted something warming and cosy, boulangere potatoes are easy and like a potato based fluffy jumper. Simply slice floury potatoes and onions, layer them in a dish, cover with stock (I used Essential Cuisine lamb stock powder) and a scattering of herbs (thyme here) and bake for an hour to an hour and a half on a moderate heat. Very untemperamental is this dish, so it can be cooked early and reheated when you want it. Excellent with chops as well as cold meat.

Easter -- Paschal Lamb but its all about the cakes.. Sunday March 31st 2013

2013-04-01T14:26:00.001+01:00

We had delicious slow roast lamb with rosemary, roast potatoes, etc. etc... but you don't want to know about that.. it is the same as this one - and once again I was too eager to eat the plateful to remember to take a photograph...

Never mind, it is Easter and all about the cakes and chocolate. Sainsbury's had run out of Easter Eggs by Friday and I hadn't thought well enough in advance to buy any more than some creme eggs for Izzy's Easter Egg Hunt but never mind.. I have maltesers. They are egg shaped. So we have little Easter Malteser Nests.. Sort of.

Little vanilla sponge cakes, with chocolate buttercream filling and chocolate ganache icing. With malteser eggs.

And of COURSE there was pudding #2 .. a Greek Yoghurt Cherry Fruyo cheesecake made to the same method as my Oliver Hardy cheesecake but with these ingredients:

100g chocolate chip digestive biscuits
50g unsalted butter
300g pack full fat cream cheese
250g pack ricotta
170g pot of Total Greek Yoghurt Cherry Fruyo
100g double cream
2 large eggs
3 tbs cornflour
1 tsp fiori di sicilia (panettone flavouring from Bakery Bits, you could use orange or lemon extract)
1 tsp vanilla extract

The Fruyo made it a pretty very pale pink colour, we had it with strawberries and passion fruit pulp. Very fresh and tasty!

Another day without meat..an Italianesque Good Friday March 29th 2013

2013-03-30T17:49:00.002Z

I am not at all religious, yet Good Friday is one of those days when eating meat just doesn't feel right. I love food rituals, things like mince pies, Christmas puddings, Paschal lamb, so maybe that is it rather than any Christian feeling.

For whatever reason, no meat again today. Instead I made an Italian style meal. A meat free minestrone, with pretty stellete pasta, followed by a frittata of peppers courgettes and aubergines with a salad on the side.

Pretty healthy I reckon, as well as tasty.

Prawn and Highland Smoked Salmon Risotto - Thursday March 28th 2013

2013-03-30T17:40:00.002Z

Sometimes it is nice to have a couple of days without any meat, we have hardly eaten any red meat this week, and to continue this theme, today was a creamy risotto, with prawns and smoked salmon. The recipe is the same as the one I posted here on A Greedy Piglet a year or so ago, with the addition of some shredded runner beans and some flaked smoked salmon.

At the International Food Exhibition, I was given a sample to try of Highland Smoked Salmon, a lovely soft salty smoke, but the salmon still had a nice bite to it, not at all soft and smooshy like some. The salmon was long cut, which makes for beautiful strips of salmon from the full length of the side, and these flaked easily to add to the risotto when it was finished so as not to book the salmon. Highland Smoked Salmon is supplied to the restaurant trade in the main, but I hope that their lovely fish will be available for us to buy one day soon.

Another pie... with sausages and mushrooms and chestnuts!

2013-03-28T17:13:00.002Z

This is the second pie, really good and quick to put together. I had it with cabbage, mushrooms and the remaining chestnuts for day one, and then again with German fried potatoes (easy sautéed potatoes with fried onions and bacon, delicious!) It reheated well, though I think I heated it a little longer than it needed.

Sausage Picnic Pie:

This is an easy, tasty pie that can be eaten hot or cold, and can make use of things you can keep in the freezer for when you aren't in the mood for making anything complicated.

One sheet of ready rolled puff pastry, thawed if frozen
half a pack of sausage meat (your favourite type, I like something quite herby)
half a tin of prepared chestnuts broken up (use the other half with the vegetables if you are serving this hot)
2 sticks of celery
150g chestnut mushrooms
sprinkling of finely chopped fresh herbs - thyme or oregano are both good
flour for dredging
one egg beaten with a little water for glaze

Cut the mushrooms and celery into small chunks, sauté them in a little oil until softened. Mix in the chestnuts and allow to colour a little. Spread out on a plate to cool (don't add them hot they will melt the pastry)
Slice the sausage meat into 6 rings, dredge lightly in flour
Cut two circles from the pastry, place one on a baking sheet.
Allowing about an inch around the edge, arrange the sausage meat rings in a circle, (there will be a gap in the middle of the circle.)
Top them with the mushroom.celery and chestnut mixture, filling in the middle gap and spreading the rest evenly
Moisten the edge of the pastry with the beaten egg and top with the 2nd circle of pastry. Use the trimmings to make leaves if you like. Seal the edges well and crimp.
Glaze the top of the pie with the egg and cut a steam hole in the middle so that the pastry doesn't go soggy.
Bake in a hottish oven Gas mk 6 for 30 mins, then reduce the heat to gas mk 4 for another 15.
Serve hot with vegetables or salad or allow to cool on a rack and serve cold at a picnic (if the weather ever warms up sufficiently! )

so quiet....... shhhhhhhhhhhhhh and a Mediterranean Vegetable Pie

2013-03-28T17:06:00.000Z

Gosh it's been too long since I diaried my dinners!

I have had several pretty boring ones, and one or two eating out ones, and then there were several days of pies, both newly cooked and reheated the following day to check how they keep. Essential Cuisine have a savoury pie competition on at the moment (if you haven't entered there is still time, it is open until the end of April) so I have been pie developing.

I have made two so far here is the first one - recipe too you lucky people!

The Mediterranean Vegetable Pie:

This is a vegetarian pie, ideal to use up extra marinated vegetables left over after a salad, or you can use bottled marinated vegetables or roast your own. The yoghurt and cheese adds lots of protein, and with the pastry and vegetables this makes a complete meal that just needs some salad on the side. It eats well cold, so would be ideal for a picnic.

The choice of vegetables can be varied according to what you have, or fancy that day. I like to use any leftover griddled vegetables that I make for salads. They keep for a week or so in the fridge, and this is ideal for using up the last bits and pieces. Herbs can also be varied, fresh thyme is my favourite, but fresh oregano also works well. Dried herbs can also be used instead if there are no fresh herbs around.

The Latvian cheese I used is a hard cheese, like a young parmesan. Any hard dry cheese would work fine, even gruyere, ementhal or Jarlsberg, although I wouldn't use a cheddar type cheese as this is too oily (the vegetables are quite oily already).

I make my own pastry as it is so easy with a processor, but bought shortcrust would work fine. A nice alternative to using shortcrust on the top would be to either use crumpled filo pastry or a lid of puff pastry. I think the base needs to be shortcrust as it is more substantial than filo and less greasy than puff pastry. The filling also works as a quiche filling without a top at all..

Pastry

8 oz 200 g plain flour (00 for preference)
2 oz 50g lard or hard vegetable fat (Cookeen or Trex)
3 oz 70g unsalted butter
salt
one egg mixed with a little water

Filling

roughly 10-14oz / 3-400g of mixture of marinated or roasted Mediterranean vegetables (a mixture of any of aubergines, peppers, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, garlic) cooled and cut into chunks
2 oz 50g hard Parmesan type cheese, I used Dziugas cheese from Latvia, grated
6 oz 150g Greek Yoghurt ( I like Total 0%)
2 eggs
half tsp Paprika
one tsp thyme leaves chopped
salt & pepper

One 7 inch (c 170mm ) loose bottomed cake tin or springform tin
Baking Tray

Heat the oven to mk 6 400F 200C
Blitz the flour and fats with the salt in a food processor, and drizzle the egg in until it forms a soft ball. You may not need all the egg. Reserve any egg left over.
Remove and flatten into two discs, wrap in cling film and set somewhere cool (not the fridge) to rest for half an hour.
Roll out one disc and line the cake tin leaving a little overlap on the sides.
Mix the yoghurt, cheese, eggs, herbs and seasoning into a smooth mix, remove and reserve a tablespoonful, and fold in the chunks of vegetables.
Fill into the lined cake tin, smoothing the top. Roll out the other half of pastry and trim to a disc about an inch wider than the circumference of the tin, place on the top and fold and crimp the edges to seal. Use any trimmings to make leaves to decorate the top of the pie.
Mix the retained yoghurt with any left over egg and a little milk to form a glaze. Brush the top of the pie with this mixture and make a hole in the middle of the pie with a knife.
There should be some glaze left, keep that on one side.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25 mins at Mk 6 /400/200 and then turn the heat down to Mk 4 / 350/180 brush again with glaze, and bake for a further 15 minutes or until a knife slid into the pie through the central slit comes out clean.
Allow the pie to cool slightly and then remove from the tin. Check the base of the pastry is brown and dry, if not fully cooked, then return to the cake tin UPSIDE DOWN, and bake for a further 5-8 minutes in a hot oven to dry and cook the base.
Cool on a rack and serve warm rather than hot.

It is lovely eaten cold the following day, and would make an excellent pie to take on a picnic, either made as a large pie like this or in small individual pies or pasties.

International Food Exhibition dinner #1- Fresh Cockles and Lemon Sole Wednesday March 20th 2013

2013-03-21T18:05:00.003Z

I've not been to much in the way of food festivals and exhibitions recently, but I did manage to find time to get to the International Food Exhibition at Excel on Wednesday, the last day of the exhibition.

It's a great trade show this one, specifically for people with links to the food industry. It is quite big, and I never get round all of it, but my main interest is the British regional food section so it doesn't worry me that I tend to miss the International section. It doesn't help that Wednesday is that last day and despite the show being open until 4o'clock, the overseas exhibitors are usually packed up and ready for the off by 2.30... But I like last days, it tends to be quieter and this gives the exhibitors time to talk to people like me.

There were some interesting stands this year, lots of lovely fresh food, and I was so lucky to be around when Channel Fisheries were dismantling their stand and they awarded me with a couple of lemon sole and a large bag of fresh cockles. Now Channel Fisheries are suppliers to many of the heavyweight chefs in the business, the likes of Mitch Tonks, Gordon Ramsey, Mark Hix, Richard Corrigan. Their fish is in Fortnum and Mason's. And judging from the quality of the fish that I had, I am not surprised.

But what I hadn't realised (mainly because I was awed with looking at the gorgeous fish display and didn't think to ask..) but discovered when I was looking at their website is that they will deliver to the door.. to us! Ordinary people with a lust for really fresh fish! Oh what joy! That part of the operation is called Hooked! - neat name! AND I can get the cockles from here if I would like to have them again for a special treat.

Cockles are not something that I can find easily in the supermarket or fishmongers. Mussels yes, but not these little darlings. Oh yes, I can get them ready cooked, ruined with the vinegar they have been pickled in. I know this is a Londoner's seaside delicacy. But I don't like them.

But fresh cockles are another thing. They are delicious. A 2kg bag is a HUGE bag, that needed two pans, and we had two big bowlfuls each as a starter. I cooked them very simply, basically as I would do mussels.

Saute a shallot in a little butter and oil, when soft add a chopped garlic clove and continue to saute for a moment or two. Add in the cockles, and a goodly slug of white wine (enough for about an inch in the bottom of the pan) a little pepper and that is all. Slam on the lid and keep on a high heat for about 4 minutes, shaking from time to time. Check that they are open, if not, give another minute, but don't overcook them, they want to be just cooked or you will lose the freshness and flavour, and they will start to toughen. Use a slotted spoon to put the cockles into a deep soup plate and keep warm in a very low oven.

Allow the liquid in the pan to reduce for another 2 minutes on full heat, add a couple of slices of unsalted butter. Check the seasoning, you might want a little pepper, maybe a little salt (though the cockle liquor is sea water so quite salty) maybe a squeeze of lemon juice. Add a handful of chopped parsley to the bowls of cockles, and then pour the liquor over, making sure to keep an eye and retain the last of the liquid which may be gritty.

Add a nice piece of freshly baked bread with salty butter to soak up all the cockley juices - you may find that many of your shells are empty, but all your cockles will be in the bottom of your lovely parsley scented wine drenched bowl...

Whilst you are eating your cockles, your lemon sole can be cooking happily by itself. I trimmed the head and fins, slashed the fish two or three times, washed and oiled , sprinkled with a little salt, and grilled until the skin just crisped slightly. I then moved them to the preheated oven (about Gas mark 4, 350F/180C) uncovered, and allowed them carry on cooking whilst we ate the cockles. Another quick blast under the grill to crisp the skin whilst I dressed the green salad and we were off again.

What a fabulous fishy meal!

More Charcutiere sauce with quick sausage patties Monday March 18th 2013

2013-03-19T09:45:00.000Z

Quickness of dinner is something I like, this was another 20 minutes from start to finish meal.

Sausage meat cut into slices, patted in some flour and fried in just a smidgeon of olive oil, courgettes and mushrooms sautéed in a little butter, new potatoes with their skins on, and the rest of yesterday's sauce heated through.

Quick dessert too, yesterday I cooked some rhubarb in a couple of spoonfuls of marmalade and a little sugar, and chilled it overnight. Dolloped onto 0% Total Greek Yoghurt with a spoonful of Lizi's granola and some toasted almonds, pudding on the table in about 3 minutes!