Christmas Pie

Oooh, I've had a few odd days off work and i have made like a domestic goddess and gotten everything ready in advance for christmas that i can.

I always make christmas pie for christmas eve, then we have the leftovers as part of christmas tea. It's become a bit of a tradition, I also made it for my work buffet last year and it seemed to go down quite well, so I've made two lots today, and they have come out beautifully, even if I do say so myself.

Here's the recipe for this delicious pie.

1. Heat oven to 190 oC
2. Heat the olive oil and add the chopped onion. fry until soft and golden, then add the chicken or turkey and fry until browned.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sausagemeat, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, apricots, chestnuts, thyme, onions, and chicken. This is great fun if you mix it with your hands, but make sure the onions and chicken have cooled a bit! season with salt and pepper if you wish.
4. Grease the pie dish.
5. Half the pastry, and roll out in a circular shape until it is big enough to cover the bottom of the dish. Press the pastry into the dish.
6. Chuck the sausagemeat mix into the pie and squidge it down (again with your hands if you don't mind getting squishy!)
7. Roll out the rest of the pastry until it covers the top. Use some beaten egg to moisten the top of the pastry in the pie dish, then cover with the rolled out pastry top.
8. Squidge the edges together slightly. Cut away any excess and retain. Press a fork around the outside of the pie for a nice patterned edge.
9. Glaze all over with the beaten egg.
10. Now for the most important and fun bit! Use the scraps of pastry to make lovely christmas shapes and stick onto the top of the pie. This year I've used gingerbread man, star, christmas tree, and snowman cutters. Holly leaves and berries also look really good. I tend to leave the shapes unglazed because it makes a nice contrast and makes them stand out more.

This pie can be frozen for up to two months, or can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days. It's perfect warmed with a nice winter salad and some chutney.

Chilli Beef Ramen

I invested in the wagamama cookbook and DVD, and have been having a great time making recipes from it. This is chilli beef ramen soup, which is lovely to have in this wintry weather we are having in Newcastle. There is nothing more comforting than noodle soup. The recipe is fairly easy, but i've noticed a couple of the recipes in the book need you to make a couple of different sauces in advance, so you need to be fairly organised. 

Apple Berry Crumble

mmmm yummy! I made some delicious mini apple and berry crumbles the other day. I had a lot of leftover apples and some garden apples that my mother in law had given me so it seemed rude not to! The crumble topping was delicious- made with oats and demerara sugar, then I topped them off with walnut halves. Next time I might try and make some in mini silicone cups so they could pop into a bento and make a lovely teeny tiny pudding for lunch time. They would be super cute made in heart shaped ramekins as well. Here's the recipe, folks. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 large cooking apples, or 8-10 small apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks,
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sugar
225g frozen mixed berries

Crumble Topping:
170g plain wholemeal flour
75g butter
75g sugar
Handful of oats
walnut halves

Preheat oven to 180 oC

In a saucepan over a low heat, cook the apple chunks, water and sugar until the apples are soft, syrupy and mushy (about 10-15 minutes). add more sugar if needed. Once the apple is ready, stir in the frozen berries and stir until they are thawed.
Transfer into ramekins and allow to cool while you prepare the topping.

In a medium sized bowl, rub the butter into the wholemeal flour until it resembles course breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and oats, then sprinkle into the ramekins over the apple and berry mixture. Put some walnut halves on top to decorate (optional of course)

Bake for 15-20mins, then devour when still warm.

Spanish Fabada recipe

Hi all,

Whilst on our hols in Spain we had something called fabada as part of a tapas meal and it was delicious, so i thought I'd give it a go when I got home. Fabada is a lovely, rich stew made of white beans and chorizo, morcilla (black pudding) and pancetta (definitely not one for vegetarians!). It doesn't make for the most attractive of meals but it's perfect for cold, dark nights!

Its one of those meals that takes a short time to prepare, but quite a long time to cook, but it's actually quite easy to make. Here is the recipe:

500g dried cannelini beans
250g black pudding
250g chorizo
250g pancetta
pinch of saffron
2 bay leaves

1. Soak the beans in water overnight.
2. Put the beans in a large pan (or put half into two pans), just cover with fresh water, and bring to the boil.
3. Meanwhile, chop the chorizo, plack pudding and pancetta into small cubes.
4. Add the saffron, black pudding, chorizo and pancetta into the pan, along with the bay leaves, (add more water to just cover the ingredients in the pan if need be)
5. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes, then skim off the froth from the top of the stew.
6. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours until the beans are tender. Make sure to stir occasionally and add water to keep the beans covered so they don't split.
7. Once the beans are tender, increase the heat and stir continuoously until the stew reaches the desired consistency. It should be relatively dry and stodgy, but you could make it more liquid if you would like.

These amounts made two lots big enough for a main course for two people, and a smaller amount which is perfect for use in bento lunches!