The scaled down Shepherdess photo guide

The parrots in the pan, roughly

mashed – you should have texture and see

visible pieces of the parsnip and the carrot

The mushroom and chestnut base

With the layer of parrots - check out that colour!

With the sliced potatoes, then finely grated

Parmesan and a generous pinch of parsley -

ready to bake

Ready to eat

Dig in - yum!

I have deliberately not given any specific weights other than The Shepherdess base. In my home I have carrots and parsnips as staples and you know that I always bake jacket potatoes when my oven is on so they are ready to use at any time. You could, if you wished, freeze the mushroom and chestnut base in ramekins and then add the remaining layers at another time. Personally I prefer to pull the complete dish from the freezer. Defrost and then bake at 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20 minutes for an individual portion – check after 15 minutes. Remember that all your ingredients are cooked.

Finally I can confirm that The Shepherdess freezes beautifully. I had two portions. I took my frozen pie out of the freezer and transferred to the fridge overnight. I popped it into a pre-heated oven as above for 30 minutes.

Next up is stuff for the veggie who wants their food to resemble the taste and texture of meat.

The Shepherdess – bits and pieces …

… and Take 2 – scaling down The Shepherdess.

I don't want my meals to look and taste like meat but by the same token I don't want a dish to be bland and boring. As “meaty” textures go, the nearest I get is a chestnut or portobello mushroom.

By the way, you can enhance the flavour of mushrooms, particularly those past their best, by adding a splash of red wine or very dry sherry. Anyway, I digress. My other passion is a good sauce. Using the “keep it simple” method we have mushrooms and chestnuts, a sauce - now comes a choice of lid.

I know that tradition dictates that the lid should be mashed potato as a topping. I prefer sliced cooked baked potatoes and I'd be tempted to add a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese – 40g and a sprinkle of parsley. As is obvious from the previous photos I've used our old favourite the puff pastry lid. Individual pies are fab too – cut out circles of pastry to fit your dish. The world is your lobster!

Another thought … chestnuts have a certain sweetness – you don't have to use them – if you'd prefer not then add another 250g of chestnuts mushrooms.

As a guide I used a pie dish measuring 27x19x5 cms or 10½x7½x2” in old money. The recipe gives you approximately 800g of pie filling (1.764 lbs in old money).

Popping back to the individual pies – here's another idea. It uses the mushroom and chestnuts in the sauce as a base. In my house “parrots” are very popular – that's parsnips and carrots mashed together, well seasoned with salt and black pepper - I use celery salt, it has a fab flavour – don't forget a generous knob of butter (or two) too! That completes the next layer. For the topping, since I've always got baked jacket potatoes in my fridge, ready to use, I add a layer of cooked, sliced baked potatoes and garnish with the Parmesan and parsley.

This is a fly by the seat of your pants recipe – add a layer of any cooked veggies of your choice that you happen to have in your fridge. I always cook more veggies than I need – here's where it pays off!

You'll get 6 individual pies, based on the 800g of filling mentioned above and a pie dish measuring 10cms diameter x 5cms deep (4”x 2” in old money).

Freeze and use whenever. If you're a lone veggie as I am these scaled down Shepherdess pies are perfect for the freezer not to mention convenient – it works for me.

Here's a photo guide which I think you'll find helpful. All you need is a fork or a spoon if you prefer!

The Shepherdess photos

the mushrooms and chestnuts, blitzed

ditto, pan fried

with the cream and other ingredients

served in an individual pie dish with

a pastry lid

Coming up … The Shepherdess bits and pieces, followed by a scaled down Shepherdess. As is usually the case with my food, there's always a variation or two!

Lets begin …

… with what my idea of a fab veggie dish is and for those, like me, who don't want their food to resemble and have the texture of meat.

Autumn is on its way – my favourite season. Autumn makes me think of chestnut mushrooms with their wonderful depth of flavour - a perfect combination of earthiness complimenting the sweetness of the chestnuts in this recipe.

I want to serve dishes similar in appearance for both meat eaters and veggies too – everyone is the same, but different if you get my drift. The best example I can give you is a Shepherd's Pie – on the same table would be The Shepherdess – a veggie version of the same. Here's my take, two different ways.

The Shepherdess

or Mushroom and Chestnut pie

Serves 4

500g chestnut mushrooms, quartered

180g vac pac chestnuts, quartered

1 medium onion, finely chopped

celery salt and black pepper

a generous pinch of dried tarragon

3 cloves of garlic paste

a glug of dry sherry or red wine – 15ml approximately

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

30g butter

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

300ml double cream

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and garlic paste, season with celery salt and black pepper and cook until the onion has softened and begins to colour, 5 - 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms, season again then add the tarragon and butter and cook for 5 minutes, turning the mushrooms so that they are covered in the oil and butter. Add the dry sherry (or red wine) and reduce so that the mushrooms absorb the flavours. Add the chestnuts and balsamic vinegar and mix well until reduced and syrupy. Add the cream, bring to the boil and then reduce and simmer for 5 minutes so that it reduces a little and thickens.

Next up …The Shepherdess photos.

To be or not to be … a vegetarian

... or somewhere in between!

Anything goes these days. I've been a vegetarian for many years, in excess of 30. Back in the day it was not easy. Believe it or not I've known people who said they didn't eat meat but always indulged in a bacon buttie at the weekend – I jest not.

I now realise that I've disliked meat since I was a kid – in the 50s and 60s you didn't say no – meat has always been expensive – look at the famous protected recipes like a Cornish Pasty, or Mexican food - there is a very small meat content simply because nobody had money for expensive ingredients.

I've been at dinner parties and so embarrassed because I had to announce that I didn't eat meat – even though the host had been to my home and had apparently forgotten – then after the excruciating time of cobbling what she thought was “vegetarian” - then ladled gravy made with meat and bacon over my vegetables – hmm.

I am happy to report that we've moved on a pace since then and now we've swung the other way - there are so many versions of the classic “vegetarian” it's difficult to keep up. You can be a flexitarian – semi-vegetarian, those who eat mostly veggie but occasionally eat meat. A Pescatarian – abstain from eating animal flesh with the exception of fish. A stepping stone may be to a veggie.

In my world, 35 plus years ago a vegetarian was pure and simple – I didn't eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish or animal flesh of any kind but did eat eggs and dairy products – in other words a lacto-ovo-veggie. Lacto – milk – ovo - egg ergo a Lacto-ovo veggie.

Are you confused yet?

Coming up we'll do some veggie stuff, to suit every style of vegetarian!

Matt's mayonnaise

Here it is :

Stick blender mayonnaise

1 egg

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

pinch of salt

juice of half a lemon – 2 tbsp

350ml of grapeseed oil

Break an egg into the stick blender jug. It's important that the yolk doesn't break. Add the mustard, salt and lemon.

Add the grapeseed oil, again being careful not to break the yolk. Insert the stick blender, be sure that the blades completely cover the yolk.

Blend – after a couple of seconds you'll see white ribbons rising through the oil. Slowly pull the blender up through the oil so it amalgamates and push down again to incorporate all the oil.

Serve!

Variations on a theme :

For a French mayonnaise swap the lemon juice

for white wine vinegar, keep the remaining ingredients

Smoked mayo – stir in a few drops of smoke flavouring

to the mayo – substitute 1 tbsp of cider vinegar for the

white wine vinegar. Add a few drops of maple syrup

on each dollop of mayo. Fab on fries!

There's Japanese, Salsa verde and Thai -

check out Matt Preston's essential tips for

making mayo at home.

It does exactly what it says on the tin, here's a photo :

Hold the front page – next year will be completely different for MasterChef Australia since there'll be a new line-up of Judges – watch this space!

My guilty pleasure!

Speaking of hollandaise sauce and it being, if you will, the warm version of mayonnaise reminds me of exactly that. My route to a fast home-made mayonnaise is circuitous but one that I hope you'll find interesting.

I'm not a fan of cookery shows generally but I've watched MasterChef Australia since it began in 2009. It knocks other series of “MasterChef” into a cocked hat. Although based on the original British format it is without doubt an annual breath of fresh air for those who are interested in all things food related.

Each year it re-invents itself whilst keeping the original concept. It has a Mystery Box, an Invention Test, Off-Site and Team Challenges and then the Immunity Challenge followed by a Pressure Test and an Elimination as the competition progresses. As each week goes by you get to know each home cook, their strengths and weaknesses and then watch as they tackle all the challenges and discover talents they didn't know they possessed. They have guest chefs and a MasterClass at the end of each week.

The main judges since the beginning are chefs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston.

The competition begins in Australia in April and then shown in the UK in August.

One of my favourite pieces has been watching Matt Preston during the MasterClass segment – each of the judges cooks in some way, usually picking up elements or dishes that the contestants have struggled with in the previous week. Matt is different since, as a food critic, you wouldn't necessarily expect that he'd be able to cook – just eat! His speciality is easy and straight forward, with a short cut or two along the way.

Stand by for one of his best!