Cornish pasties

This is a tasty and filling meal for a winter's day.

For the filling, blanch some finely-diced carrots, potatoes and swede, and drain. The veggies should be cut into small pieces - about 1/2" or 1cm in size.

Fry a finely-chopped onion and garlic until golden, and add ground beef (or turkey, or lamb) and fry until browned. Overall, you want roughly the same amount of meat as you have veggies. Stir in the cooked veg, and a good dollop of brown sauce, and leave to cool.

Mix some shortcrust pastry dough, roll it out fairly thin and cut into circles (using a side plate as a template will give you a good size.)

Brush the edge of each circle with milk, spoon some of the filling into the centre, fold over to make a parcel and crimp the edge. Brush the outside with milk and pop into the oven on a baking tray for about 40 minutes, until the pastry has browned.

Shortcrust pastry

This is needed for a number of dishes, so I'm adding it separately rather than keep repeating the recipe.

In a mixing bowl, rub flour and a spoonful of salt into a mixture of butter and lard until it forms a crumbly mix. The proportions aren't too fussy, but you want roughly twice as much flour as fat, and the fat content we use is half-and-half butter and lard. Many recipes just use butter and that's OK.

Add a small amount of cold water until you have a stiff dough - soft enough to work, but not sticky. Adding a dash of lemon juice along with the water will help make the dough more pliable.

And your pastry is ready to roll and use.

Creamy mustard chicken

This is similar in some ways to the creamy pepper pork, except that the sauce has a lot more taste of mustard and less of the pepper.

Rub some whole (i.e. including skin and bone) chicken thighs with a small amount of salt and pepper. Pan fry (starting with skin side down) on a high heat to sear and seal the thighs. Transfer them, skin side up, to a baking tray and pop in the oven for about 1/2 hour to finish cooking while you prepare the sauce. 

Drain off the excess fat, leaving a spoonful in the pan, and fry a couple of finely-chopped shallots until soft. Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate. Stir in a cup or so of chicken stock, then a good tablespoon of whole grain mustard. Let that cook gently for a while, then stir in a tablespoon of mild yellow mustard *. Once that has all blended in, stir in a cup of heavy cream and simmer to thicken.

Serve the chicken and sauce with choice of carbs and healthy stuff.

* Brits take note - this is the stuff that Americans put on hot dogs, not what you would normally call mustard **.

** Unless, of course, you really do want to unclog your nostrils and lose all sense of taste for the next month.

Gnocchi with Pomodoro Sauce

We've gone full-on international this week! This is another first for us, and a very quick and tasty dish.

In a large saucepan, saute a few stems of fresh flat leaf parsley, oregano, rosemary, and basil until they become crisp. Lift out and discard the herbs.

Add chopped onion and garlic and cook gently until soft. Add a can of crushed tomatoes. Season with salt and black pepper. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens. Stir in some thick cream and remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, cook a packet or two of potato gnocchi in salted boiling water until they float to the top. Drain them off and add to the sauce. Add some mozzarella balls and top with a handful of grated Parmesan.

Cha han

A simple but tasty rice dish. This is for chicken and prawn, but you can substitute all sorts of ingredients to your taste.

Preparation:

Finely chop some chicken and marinade for an hour in a few spoonfuls of soy sauce, grated ginger, salt and pepper.

Cook a pan of rice.

Cooking - this is very quick:

Heat oil in a wok. Add the chicken, a handful of quartered shitake and button mushrooms, some shelled prawns, snow peas, sweetcorn, chopped scallions, and the rice. Stir in a whisked egg.