Mince Pies

The classic mince pie. Can't be beaten. Serve warm; prize off the lid, top with a dollop of clotted cream, replace the lid and prepare for deliciousness.

For 12 - 15 mince pies

8 oz plain flour

pinch salt

2 oz white vegetable fat (eg Trex), cut into 2 cm cubes

2 oz butter cut into 2 cm cubes

2 - 3 tbsp very cold water

a jar of mincemeat

a splash of milk

sprinkling of sugar

• To make the pastry, put the flour,salt, butter and vegetable fat into a stand mixer bowl. Mix with the 'k' beater until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs - it doesn't mater if there are still a few small lumps of butter. This can also be done in a food processor (beware of overmixing, it mixes very quickly).
• Add two tablespoons of the cold water and mix slowly until the mixture begins to clump together and a dough begins to form. If it still looks dry, add another half a spoon of water and mix some more; don't be tempted to put too much water in at a time. At this stage it is important not to work the dough too much, or it will become tough (this is all to do with the amount of gluten that forms in the dough if you overwork it, or if you add too much water- you don't want pastry dough to be made too elastic by the gluten, so you work it as little as possible). As soon as you have clumps of mixture stop mixing and try gently squishing the clumps together with your fingers. If a dough forms without flakes coming off, it's ready and you can tip it onto a work surface and gently squish it all together to form a ball of dough. 
• If you're not in too much of a rush, wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Apparently this makes it easier to roll out. I often am in too much of a rush, so I roll it straight away. Putting it in the fridge to rest is supposed to allow the gluten time to relax, but I'm blowed if the gluten is going to get to relax if I don't!
• Flour the surface lightly, flour the rolling pin and roll the dough to thickness of about 4mm. Using pastry cutters, cut out 12 circles big enough for your bases and 12 smaller circles for the lids  (a regular mince pie tin needs bases about 7cm diameter and lids about 5.5cm). You will need to squish the dough trimmings back together and re-roll to get the full number. I have read that you shouldn't re-roll the trimmings more than a couple of times, to avoid tough pastry, but I just keep going until I've used up all the pastry, normally ending up with 15 pies for this amount of pastry.
• Preheat the oven to 180 C
• Lay the bases in the mince pie tin, put in about 1 tsp of mincemeat (I always use the mincemeat as it comes from the jar, although you can make your own, or add extras like chopped apple and brandy to the jar).
• Top with the lids, very gently pressing them onto the bases. (Because we serve the hot pies with clotted cream, we like to prize off the lids and put the cream inside, so you don't want the lids too stuck down. You can always just dollop the cream on top of the cooked pie if you prefer.)
• With the tip of a sharp knife make a couple of little slits in the top of each pie, then brush them with a little milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
• Bake in the hot oven for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. If you want you can give them a dusting of icing sugar before serving.
• Serve with proper Cornish or Devon clotted cream, although I believe some people like them with brandy butter or single cream.

Please don't eat me!

Lamb Tagine

Last year for Christmas we got a tagine dish. Initially sceptical, I couldn't imagine that a tagine cooked in this would be any different from a tagine cooked in any other kind of casserole dish. Well my scepticism was unfounded - the tagine that emerged from this dish was juicy and delicious, the lamb meltingly tender and the sauce thick and unctuous. The only problem is that you can only cook enough for four and it would be nice to have a bigger pot for entertaining. The tagine cooks long and slow and needs virtually no attention during its time in the oven. Serve it with couscous and some steamed veg for a hearty warming dinner.

This was the first time that I have used the North African spice mix, ras el hanout. Before I have resorted to a mixture of paprika, cumin and coriander. The ras el hanout made a big difference. It's difficult to say what the main flavours are, but there is pepper, cinnamon and a chili kick, but  also a surprising scent of rose as I fried the meat. This wasn't obvious in the finished dish, but I guess it must have added an extra dimension. I was lucky enough to get some brought back from Tunisia, but it is available in some supermarkets or online. Definitely worth tracking down.

For four people:

about 800g diced lamb shoulder, most (but not all) of the fat removed (I bought a shoulder roast with the bone in, weighing about 1.1kg)

1 large leek, cleaned and sliced

1 red pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic

ras el hanout spice mix brought back from Tunisia.

1 tbsp ras el hanout spice mix

1 tsp flour

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp harissa paste

a few sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped

a cooked red pepper (antipasti type from a jar) chopped

1 can tomatoes

about 10 dried apricots, roughly chopped

about 6 dates, roughly chopped

sea salt to taste

fresh coriander, chopped

good handful of flaked blanched almonds

Pre heat the oven to 150 C
Toss the cubes of meat in the ras el hanout, smoked paprika and flour, then fry them in batches in sunflower oil to brown them all over.
Transfer the meat to the tagine dish, deglaze the pan with a bit of the juice from the can of tomatoes and put that with the meat. 
Using the same pan, gently fry the leeks and fresh red pepper in some of the oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes. It should only be slightly softened and slightly browned, not cooked through. Throw in the garlic, the sundried tomatoes, cooked pepper, harrissa, apricots, dates and the tin of tomatoes. Swish out the can of tomatoes with about half a can of water and add that to the mixture and bring almost to the boil. Season with some sea salt.
Add the lamb cubes and stir it all together, then transfer it all to the tagine dish, put the lid on and put it into the preheated oven for 2 hours. It can stay in there longer, just lower the heat down to about 100 C. Don't lift the lid during cooking - it will all stay nice and moist if you just leave it alone.
Before serving, scatter the top with the flaked almonds and some chopped fresh coriander.
Serve with couscous (allow around 75g dry couscous per person)

Fish baked in parchment with Beurre Blanc Sauce

Baking fish in parchment is a quick and easy way to cook it and has the advantage of keeping it deliciously moist and tender. It also makes for a very quick cleanup with no messy oven pans to wash. 

I have tried it with various firm-fleshed white fish and salmon. Here I used a selection of monkfish, swordfish and ray wings that happened to be on quick sale at the supermarket. Never having tried ray wings before I thought they looked interesting. They were tasty and creamy in texture, but I'm not sure I'd buy them again; they had a strong, almost bitter flavour. The monkfish and swordfish were delicious. 

I had some parchment bags in a drawer that have been lying around forever, so I used those to wrap the fish. You can use sheets of parchment folded artfully around the fish, or even tin foil. I fear that my parchment folding would not be brilliant and it would leak. 

I once went to a Japanese cooking demonstration where the Mr Okada, the chef, used a kind of turkey roasting bag, cut into squares and tied around the fish (in that case black cod, with added onions, mushrooms, a kind of mayonnaisey sauce seasoned with dashi and a small piece of chicken thigh, which was totally amazing and which I still crave today - that's a recipe for another day). You could get away without making an extra sauce as the juices from the fish and veggies mix with the white wine in the bag to form a tasty sauce. However, we tend to like quite a lot of sauce on our food, and the beurre blanc adds a luxurious touch and does go really nicely with the boiled new potatoes.

• About 175g fish per person
• about 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs - (eg parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives)
• clove garlic, crushed
• 2 sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• handful of dried mushrooms, soaked in water to reconstitute, then drained and chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil (substitute some with the oil from the tomatoes)
• 1 large leek, cleaned and julienned
• about 1/2 cup white wine
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
2. Cut the fish into large chunks, removing bones. (I used the monkfish bones to make a little bit of stock to add to the sauce - put in half a cup or so of water, a sprig of thyme and rosemary and a bayleaf and a few of the chopped leeks, boil it up for a few minutes, strain and reduce).
3. Mix together the herbs,garlic, oil, tomatoes and mushrooms and put in a large bowl. Add the fish and gently stir around to coat it. Season then pour in the white wine and set aside for a few minutes while you prepare some veggies (I just used new potatoes and green beans).
4. Put the fish into a parchment bag (or arrange on squares of parchment large enough to fold up around it. Put the chopped leeks on the top of the fish. Pour over the wine, fold over the parchment to seal. I split it between three bags, but you can put it all in one big bag, or make individual parcels for each diner to open at the table if you prefer.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish). You can just open the end of the parcel to check if it's done, refolding and giving it an extra few minutes if need be.

For the beurre blanc sauce:

1 shallot, finely chopped

60 ml white wine

60 ml fish stock or water

30 ml white wine vinegar

30 ml lemon juice

100g cubed butter (should really be unsalted, but I only had salted and it was fine)

1. Put all the ingredients apart from the butter into a small heavy based saucepan and boil to reduce to a syrupy liquid. Gradually whisk in cubes of the butter to form an emulsion.