Then there's your choice of lid …

Your “lid” does not have to be pastry.

Here's an alternative “deliberate” cooking suggestion. I'm fond of saying, “if your oven is in use, fill it!” I bake six jacket potatoes at a time, wrapped in foil – they take up very little space in the oven when I'm cooking other stuff. The baked jackets have so many uses and the best bit – no washing up!

The baked jacket potato could be your new best friend – slice them and use as a potato “pie lid” and sprinkle with grated cheese – just add extra veggies!

If however you prefer pastry it doesn't matter whether you make your own or buy a ready-made sheet - the pastry police are in lockdown too! If you fancy having a go at making your own, there are easy peasy recipes coming up.

The guidance that follows is based on a pie to serve 4 generous portions and so your first decision is to choose your serving dish. I normally use square foil trays ( you can use a casserole dish if you prefer) – measurements for your tray or casserole dish are 24x24x6 cms – 9½x9½x2¼” approximately.

Dealing first of all with a ready-made puff pastry sheet, they normally weigh 320g, more than ample to cover the pie filling as mentioned above. The same applies to the shortcrust ready-made version too.

The ready-made sheets should be taken out of the fridge for 10 minutes before use, to allow to reach room temperature - the pastry will be easier to work with and won't crack when you unroll. The sheets are not designed to be rolled and should be cooked in accordance with your pie recipe. The Jus-Rol brand can be frozen for a month and is also suitable for vegans.

A small tip - if you have leftover offcuts of pastry you can create small bite size miniature pasties, fill with onion, grated cheese – leftover cooked chicken or gammon - have a trawl through the fridge for bits and pieces!

Here's another thought – you could make “pot” pies – you can decant the filling into your pots, cover and freeze. Make your pastry when you have time. You don't have to make lids that are an exact fit for your pots – cut out pastry circles, or hearts or whatever design your cutter collection inspires. Bake the pastry tops on a baking sheet and place on top of your pie filling.

Before we get to the easy peasy pastry recipes a few hints and tips that I hope you'll find useful.

Bring on the pies …

If ever there was an excuse to indulge in your favourite pie it's now! It couldn't get much worse - lockdown, winter and snow!

Here's the “pick a pie” series. There are three elements to any pie :

the filling

the sauce

the lid

I've decided to make a chicken and mushroom pie – it's an excellent way to use leftovers too and since I mentioned exactly that in the first winter menu – option 1 “slow cook a whole chicken” it seems the logical place to begin. The following recipe for the filling and the sauce uses both the leftover chicken and the anise infused chicken stock too.

The filling

Chicken and Mushroom - just four ingredients

250g chestnut mushrooms – sautéed in a drop of

rapeseed oil until they have absorbed all the liquid

and have some colour – see the tip given**

diced leftover roast chicken – a mixture of

breast and leg meat – the equivalent of one

breast per person

200ml of chicken stock

Velouté sauce

The sauce

Just in case you didn't know, a Velouté sauce is a light white sauce made with stock and a roux.

You'll need :

15g unsalted butter

15g plain flour

½ tsp Dijon mustard

200ml double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour, gently, for 2/3 mins, stirring continuously – do not walk away.

Then tip your cold stock straight into the roux and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the mustard and cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

Your sauce should be fairly stiff. Fold through the mushrooms and chicken, cover and set aside to cool then fridge until you're ready to rock and roll.

I should add that I've frozen this filling and it's every bit as good from the freezer.

**Before we move on to your choice of lid - a quick tip about mushrooms and minimising food waste. Have you got old mushrooms that are past their best? Using a little alchemy you can “turn something ordinary into something extraordinary” - transform your sad mushrooms and enhance their flavour by adding a glug of red wine or very dry sherry when sautéing. A glug is 1-2 tablespoons and should be added when sautéing the mushrooms, cook out gently until all the liquid is absorbed.

Now for your choice of lid …

Return of the rant!

Before we move on to “pick a pie”, remember in “Making your shopping list” I said “As with the previous lockdown we're going to find that random ingredients will vanish from the shelves without rhyme or reason”. I should learn to keep my mouth shut!

I have a question – what systems are in place for those in charge of stock control and re-ordering in supermarkets? You must have seen staff walking around carrying what looks like a walkie talkie scanning products on the shelves - which brings me to the first rant of our current lockdown.

Have those responsible been away on another planet for the last while – have they not, like most of us, known that the odds on another complete lockdown was on the cards – and furthermore that, guess what, it's winter and therefore customers will want winter style ingredients. Here's the first random shelf disappearance – it didn't take long – I did my once a week shop on Monday – immediately before the current lockdown came into effect. In Waitrose there wasn't a tube of tomato paste to be had – aargh – hello!

This isn't the first time and I know it won't be the last. However I've decided that despite being loyal to Waitrose I've had enough and shall alternate my choice of supermarket and will be able to confirm whether the “empty shelf syndrome” (ess) is widespread – watch this space.

Rotation done and surprise, surprise, no shortage of tomato paste.

It's week two of “ess” the tomato paste vanishing act and back to Waitrose here's the proof :

I'm not normally driven to take photographs in a supermarket but really it is so frustrating.

My smile of the day came from my Sister who text me to ask “was there anything on the endangered list that she could get for me?” Thankfully so far so good, at least I can rotate my choice of supermarket.

Further updates to follow – week three, still an empty shelf and again in week 4. It is a watching brief!

Bring on the pies ...

A sweet interlude – photos and hints and tips

Here's the first photo :

You'll see that the fudge has a marbled top, not spread evenly as the recipe states – it's personal choice, I prefer irregular shapes!

Here's my tip – the recipe says “line a 20cm square shallow tin ...”. dip a teaspoon into the melted chocolate and place a tiny blob in each corner of the tin and then glue the parchment so that it stays put.

Here's another … make sure you sift the icing sugar otherwise you'll finish up with tiny white spots in the fudge.

Here's another – I turned the fudge into a chocolate orange version by adding 2 tsps of Valencian Orange Extract to the condensed milk and melted chocolate.

Here's the second photo :

Here's another … to remove the slab of fudge use an ordinary fish slice. Gently ease the slice along each edge of the tin and then tip it upside down. If the slab of fudge won't comply do not lose your temper just repeat with the slice and it will surrender!

Here's the third photo :

Cut your fudge into squares – the size of the square is up to you. The recipe states you'll get 50. They'll be large. I cut the slab in half and then each half gave me 36 pieces approximately 2x2cms – a total of 74 pieces. My tin has curved corners so I straighten each edge so that all the squares are exactly that, no “curved squares” if you get my drift!

Place the squares of fudge onto kitchen roll to dust with cocoa and leave space between each square for even coverage. Use a tea strainer or a small sieve, tapping the edge gently to dust.

Here's the final photo :

Boxed up, ready to hand round to the

members of your bubble or you can box in small

amounts and freeze

Enjoy!

Now for the return of the rant ...

A sweet interlude …

Some things are meant to be! By chance when browsing my bookshelves I came across one of my favourites - The Little Book of Chocolat” by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. I reviewed this book and road tested many of it's recipes in July 2017 – yikes, how time flies! I can never resist looking at the tabs I made at the time and came across the following which I thought would be the perfect hit for the chocoholics out there – it slipped through the net in 2017 – how could I let that happen!

Chocolate Fudge Squares

Takes 1½ hours/ make 50 pieces

400g dark or milk chocolate, broken into small

even sized pieces

25g butter

397 can condensed milk

100g icing sugar

30g cocoa powder, sifted

Line a 20cm square shallow tin with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. In a non-stick saucepan melt the butter and gently warm the condensed milk, then add the melted chocolate and mix until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar until blended and smooth.

Put the mixture into the prepared tin, spread evenly into the corners, smooth over the top and place in the fridge to set for at least 1 hour. Remove and cut into small squares and dust with cocoa.

Coming next - a photo or two and a few hints and tips …

Winter menu – treat of the week!

My treat of the week is a simple, veggie recipe and one of my favourites – cream cheese and cashew nut paté – it has to be the easiest paté ever – here it is :

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge.

Serve on whatever takes your fancy – rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good too.

Freshly baked bread is the perfect partner to the paté so here's an extra treat for a “comfort” lunch – soda bread!

The following Soda bread is the easiest and fastest, faff free recipe and the most reliable I've ever used.

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

I use St. Ivel low fat buttermilk which comes in 284ml pots. If the dough is a little dry, add a drop of milk – just a drop! You can always add a drop more if required – you can't take it back.

A tip – Instead of flour I sprinkle semolina on the baking sheet and sprinkle a little over the loaf before baking, for a crusty top.

If you're thinking of making soup, serve it with thick slices of toasted soda bread, buttered of course.

Before we move on to the next series of ideas – “pick a pie” – I thought it was time for a sweet indulgence … followed by the return of the rant.

Winter menu – a sandwich for the soul

I mentioned in option 1, slow cooking a whole chicken, that I had a “takeaway” chicken idea for the weekend. If there are four in your bubble then you might want to consider slow cooking a whole chicken just for this purpose, lets be honest, it doesn't take a great deal of effort, nor break the bank either. I'd recommend too that you use the star anise option in the cavity, the flavour is divine. You'll also produce lots of moist chicken which shreds very easily, it almost melts before your eyes.

We've already had chicken soup for the soul – now here's a chicken sandwich for the soul – I have it on good authority that this is the best ever!

Way back when I'd slow cooked and stripped a chicken just before visiting the kids – big kids - and decided to take the chicken with me - some delicious bread and when I say delicious bread I mean a loaf (or may be two) that can be sliced into doorsteps. I've never seen food disappear as quickly for a long time.

Who likes what?

It wouldn't be a sandwich without the extras, here are my

suggestions and it is not an exhaustive list!

Avocado, sliced or mashed to suit, with lemon

juice

Crispy bacon – and bits are better!

Good quality mayo

Beef tomatoes, sliced thinly

Beetroot relish or slices if you prefer

Any salad item you love – spring onions, shredded

iceberg lettuce

capers, cornichons

A slaw of your choice – here's an Asian

recipe that will compliment your anise infused

shredded chicken

Asian Coleslaw

110g white cabbage, finely sliced – approximately

one third of a medium size cabbage

1 carrot – peeled and sliced with a

julienne peeler

1 spring onion – 15g finely sliced

if you want to create a basic slaw stash then

double the amounts given above

3-4 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp caster sugar

Half tbsp rice wine

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp peanut butter

Half tsp chilli powder

4 tbsp fresh coriander

Combine all the above ingredients except the fresh coriander.

Marinade for at least an hour – 2-3 is better still!

Just before serving strain off the excess liquid, stir in the coriander and serve!

A happy afterthought that turns into a huge hit!

Now for the treats …