Photo: Traditional egg and bacon pie

As a child egg and bacon pie was a traditional picnic dish and I loved it. This is not a quiche. The eggs are unbroken and the texture and flavour of the combination of short crust pastry, floury egg yolks, silky egg whites and thick cut bacon is out of this world.

I had forgotten all about this pie until The Chicken Lady served it when we went the Hampton Court Flower Show two years ago. I could have guzzled the entire pie but politeness made me hold back and only accept two slices. Since then I have dreamt about it, on and off.

Faced with a glut off eggs this week I was determined to make a bacon and egg pie. Danny was intrigued.
“We never ate this dish in Ireland.”
“It’s the sort of thing that you might have found in an Edwardian picnic hamper, served on proper plates with crisp white napkins and lashings of homemade lemonade. It sounds dull – no herbs and just salt and pepper – but it’s delicious. I promise.”

But could I replicate the dream pie? I sniffed about on the internet for inspiration. All the recipes that I found broke the eggs, used quiche dishes or streaky bacon. I wanted to make a deep pie with a lid. Eventually I rang my mum who agreed that a pie with a crust was the right place to go – more substantial and economical.
“As far as I can remember I put the bacon on the top. Back then bacon was cheap.”

I used my enamel pie dish. Having greased it I lined it with pastry, broke in six whole eggs and laid two slices of bacon over these. Then feeling like a latter day Mrs Beaton I added another six eggs, finishing off with two slices of bacon under the crust.

I backed the pie in Andrew (on the bottom rack with the extension collar on) for an hour at 175 degrees and let it chill completely before supper. I served it with a simple coleslaw using a fresh cabbage from the garden.

Danny loved it and normally he doesn’t like shortcrust pastry. This is a huge relief as I’d like to bake this regularly. Perfect comfort food for parties, picnics and lunches.

By the way this pie is very, very filling and cold easily feed six.

Traditional egg and bacon pie

Ingredients:

500g of short crust pastry
12 eggs
4 thick slices of unsmoked back bacon
Salt and ground white pepper
A little butter for greasing the pie dish

Method:

Grease a 9 ½ inch (24cm) pie dish well.
Roll out about two thirds of the pastry on a floured board and line the pie dish including the rim.
Crack six eggs into the pastry lined dish. Sprinkle with a little ground white pepper.
Place two slices of thick cut bacon gently over the eggs.
Crack another six eggs into the pie dish and finish off with the other two slices of bacon and sprinkle with a little more ground white pepper.
Roll out the rest of the pastry to make a lid for the pie. Make two small slits in the top and bake at 175 degrees for about an hour.
Chill before serving.

Photo: Game pie

It’s the time of year when we start to clear the freezer of game given to us during the shooting season. We tend to keep our eyes peeled for cut price game.  Waitrose stocks rabbit, venison, pigeon, partridge and quail. All quite expensive but often marked down to half the original price –these are brought home and secreted in the freezer until we have the perfect ingredients for this subtle game pie filling.

Our favourite combination is venison, rabbit and pheasant. This pads out the pheasant and gives a tremendous range and depth of flavour. Our pies are game heavy, with a little carrot and mushrooms. Our prize for cutting down on meat during the week. But they don’t taste very ‘gamey’. At the end of the season we and most people that we know are suffering from Phesantitsis.- a surfeit of pheasant over the winter months.

We developed this game dish to be easy on the palate. A subtle echo of the winter’s bounty. A game pie that would beckon most people back from the brink.

We often make pies with a béchamel ‘gravy’ and quite few vegetables – mild, tasty food. This week I wanted to create something a bit more raunchy. Thickened with pureed dark gilled mushrooms. A dish that would have a spring, chilly evening appeal.

The oatmeal was an echo of Sid’s (Chef at Large) meat and oatmeal stew (highly recommended) and just a handful of oatmeal took away the bitterness that often comes with game and rounded the dish perfectly. The pot barley also added to this softness.

Ideally one of the meat ingredients in this pie filling needs to have bones. For us it’s always the pheasant as I hang, gut and skin and toss most into the freezer. The bones improve the stock immensely. The addition of a good redcurrant jelly or giant slug of sloe gin is essential. Like most slow cooked dishes, this pie filling benefits from a day in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop even more. A perfect cook now eat later dish.

I love meat pies with shortcrust pastry Danny longs for the lightest puff pastry to soak up the gravy. The former is whizzed in the food processor for pennies and the latter is bought. I’ve discovered that Jus-Rol now make an all butter pastry to die for (including the price £1.49). But well worth every penny for topping the slow cooked game pie filling. One pack will provide enough pastry for half the filling. This recipe makes enough filling for about 10-12 portions. We freeze it in batches and hoik out a slab when we need a gentle yet chic game fix. Perfect supper party food for people who are uncertain about game – as seductive as the sudden glimmer of sunshine on water. The game notes are just that, an echo of an almost forgotten aria rather than the complete opera with the spotlight in the bumptious, plump pheasant Diva and beautiful but raucous mate.

The slow cooker chef: Hot spring game pie (10-12 portions)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium pheasant
• 340g of venison
• 600g of rabbit
• 150g of onions (peeled and chopped)
• 400g of carrots (peeled and chopped into 1cm x 2cm lengths)
• 200g of dark gilled mushrooms (finely sliced including stalks – added at the end)
• 3 heaped tablespoons of medium oat bran
• 3 heaped tablespoons of seasoned plain white flour
• 1 tsp of Balsamic vinegar
• Quarter tsp of dry English mustard powder
• 2 tsp of garlic granules or two chunky cloves of garlic skinned and finely chopped
• Half a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
• 2 heaped tablespoons of Pot Barley
• Half a tsp of dried tarragon (or a quarter tsp of fresh)
• 1 heaped tsp of fresh chopped thyme leaves
• 2 Allspice berries
• 6 juniper berries
• 1 pint of good stock (we used goose stock but it could be a rich duck, chicken or game stock. Even 2 chicken stock cubes at a pinch)
• 1 pint of vegetable stock (it could be water plus 2 tsp of a deceb=nt vegetable stock powder)
• 2 tsp of Anchovy Sauce
• 3 tablespoons of Mushroom ketchup
• 1 large handful of fresh parsley (chopped fine)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (or salt) at the end of cooking.
• 2 tablespoons of sloe gin or homemade Sloe and Bramley jelly or red currant jelly (bitter sweet is what you need here)

Ingredients topping:

Pastry – either buy your pastry (1 pack of Jus-Roll will give you enough for a pie for six people or make your own shortcrust (a great food processor method is here and you need to double it).

Method:

The mushrooms, lemon juice, parsley, sloe gin or jelly and ground black pepper are added at the end.

1. Chop up the rabbit and venison into large bite sized pieces. Remember that it will shrink during cooking. Leave the pheasant as a complete carcass. Roll the pheasant and the rest of the meat in the mixture of oat bran and seasoned plain flour. Put the meat into the cold slow cooker.
2. Add the chopped onions, garlic and carrots. Cover these with the remaining flour and mix them with the meat.
3. Add the two types of stock (fowl and vegetable), balsamic vinegar, thyme, dried tarragon (if you use fresh you need half the amount). Allspice and juniper berries, mustard powder, pot barley, anchovy sauce, mushroom ketchup.
4. Stir the ingredients well and set the dial to auto on the slow cooker. Let the dish bubble away very gently for four to five hours. Check the meat and carrots after 3 hours and then hourly until they are both tender. The temperature of slow cookers can vary immensely.
5. When the filling is cooked remove some of the gravy using a ladle – just enough to cover the sliced mushrooms. Simmer until the mushrooms are soft (10 mins). Then liquidise the mushrooms and gravy and add to the slow cooker pot. Add the freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Allow to cool and chill for twenty four hours before adding the pastry topping.
6. As our cooker is on the hot side. We have discovered that it is best to bake the pie at 180c (160c fan) for twenty minutes and then 200c (180c fan) for a further 10-15 minutes. So the pastry top cooks all the way through.
7. Serve with green beans, carrots and a sprinkle of new potatoes.

Photo: Steak and kidney pie

We are eating far less meat these days. Eating superb meals most evenings.  But sometimes we long for a real alpha carnivore meal, especially as we have ditched the Cottage Smallholder Friday night steak treat – just too expensive at the moment.

This recipe is so easy, delicious and cheap. If you used non organic ingredients you could probably cut the price by at least 30% (just 62p per portion. A steal for a rich meat heavy dish.)

I decided to turn some of our shin of beef (£8.00 for 2 kilos from the organic butcher) into a slow cooked steak and kidney filling for pies. In the olden days when I was buying my meat from Fred Fitzpatrick, he would give me an enormous kidney weighing in at around 500g to go with a kilo of shin of beef. The ox kidney that I collected from the Carter Street butchers was literally a whole kidney made up of small kidneys on a central stalk. Weighing in (plus stalk) at 900g. Organic happy kidneys that cost just £3.00.

So I experimented with the kidney element. I added more than usual as I had bounty. The result was a much richer dish. The sort of supper party recipe that would go down very well with our carnivorous men friends.

I also added a lot more flour at the beginning to make a thicker automatic gravy, with a decent splosh of red wine at the end to add a bit of pizzazz to the dish. Both worked really well. This is the perfect budget meal for carnivores that need a delicious meat fix. All organic meat, carrots, onions, mushrooms, homemade Magimix pastry and it cost just 93p per large ‘Supersize Me’ portion. Even  I had seconds.and I  generally don’t return the trough.

The slow cooker chef: Organic steak and kidney pie for carnivores on a budget (10-12 large portions)

Ingredients:

• 1250g shin of beef  (ask your butcher to dice this roughly for you). Shin of beef makes perfect steak and kidney if you have them time to let it simmer for hours. If you are in a hurry we have a quick steak and kidney recipe here
• 1 ox kidney (available from a good butcher. I’ve also seen it at Waitrose. It has a much better flavour than lamb or pig and is easier to prepare). Ours weighed in at 900g. When I had removed the white core it weighed 7
• 6 medium carrots, skinned, trimmed and cut into 3 cm lengths
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 400 g of Chestnut mushrooms these are sliced, sautéed and added towards the end
•  750ml of boiling homemade brown stock (2 x beef stock cube will do at a pinch). This must cover the meat and vegetables so adjust if necessary
• Handful of thyme sprigs (8-10)
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
•  Half a handful of dried wild mushrooms (secret ingredient). Soaked in boiling water to cover and chopped (1 cm) when cool enough to handle (retain the juice and add to the pot)
• 7 heaped tbsp of plain flour (seasoned with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper)
•  A dessertspoon of Lea and Perrins Sauce
• 2 tbsp of mushroom ketchup
• 8 juniper berries
• 8 black peppercorns
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1600g of shortcrust pastry (if you are making a pie for twelve .Otherwise adjust as necessary. 400g of pastry will easily cover a pie for four.)

Method:

1. Remove the white core (our dogs love this bit simmered for ten minutes and chopped fine) from the kidney and chop into 2 cm cubes.
2. Cut the fat from the beef but leave the gristle in. Slow cooking will break down the gristle completely and form the basis of the rich sauce.
3. Toss the beef and kidneys in the flour to coat and add to the slow cooker
4. Add the onions, carrots and stir well
5. Add the balsamic, thyme, and wild mushrooms and their juice. Add a good dash of Lea and Perrins and 2 tbsp of mushroom ketchup. Add the juniper berries and peppercorns. Stir well.
6. Add the hot stock and stir.
7. Set the dial to auto and cook for at least 8 hours. Test the meat after 7 hours. You want melt in the mouth beef but not dog food.#
8. Towards the end of the cooking time slice the Chestnut mushrooms and sauté in a little butter and white wine/vegetable stock until tender. Stir these into the steak and kidney filling.
9. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
10. Pour your filling into a cold pie dish. Line the edge of the pie dish with a strip of pastry and brush with beaten egg before putting on the lid. Press the lid firmly with a finger all the way round before trimming the lid (leave half a cm overhang to allow for shrinkage). Make a couple of holes in the top to allow air to escape and brush with beaten egg or milk.
11.  Bake in the centre of the oven at 180c (160c fan) for 30 minutes and then increase the heat to 200c (180c fan) for ten minutes to brown the top if necessary.
12. Serve on warm plate with green vegetables. Such as broccoli and runner beans or peas.