Deliberately creating leftovers …

for a Root Veggie Pie filling - “RVP”. The following recipe ticks more than one box. It makes use of the space in your oven when it's already on – for example if you're treating the family to a roast this weekend - you can prep a pie filling whilst you're at it!

The RVP began life as a vegetarian Christmas Dinner for me and I made it using veggies I loved.

Back to the roast – use whatever root veggies you love – the list is endless, celeriac, squash, leeks, swede, turnip – roast 900g approximately but it doesn't need to be exact. What does matter is that your veggies are of a similar size, they'll roast evenly and prevent a trip to the dentist!

I chose the parsnips, carrots and potatoes because I'm using them for the roast dinner, so all I'm doing is prepping extra of each.

Root Veggie Pie

Serves 4-6

300g/11oz carrots

300g/11oz parsnips

300g/11oz potatoes

top, tail, peel and then cut into a dice – 2.5cms/1” approximately

1 large onion, finely chopped

celery salt and black pepper

4 tbsps of rapeseed oil

large knob of butter, cut into 4

3 garlic cloves, peeled or 3 cloves already roasted

(optional)

a roasting tray or casserole dish if you prefer

measuring 33x23x5cms/13x9x2”

Tip all the veggies into the roasting tray, drizzle the rapeseed oil over the veggies, season well and then, using your hands, toss the veggies so that they are coated in the oil. Add the butter.

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

Roast the veggies (set your timer) for 20 minutes, turn and repeat. Use a paring knife to test, the knife should move through the veggies easily. If you meet resistance roast for a further 10/15 minutes and test again.

Set aside to cool, cover and fridge.

Next up – choose a lid!

Radio Recipes - 22nd March 2021

As promised here are the recipes and the bits and pieces mentioned during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Monday 22^nd March, 2021 at 10.45am.

Eggs Benedict – but not as you know it

Here's a photo of the finished dish – if you'd like chapter

and verse on poaching an egg, check out the Egg label

Fast Fish Pie

Serves 4

2 large baking potatoes – stab carefully with a

paring knife, wrap in foil and bake for 1 hour at

180fan/200c/Gas 6 – already done!

Set aside to cool then slice thinly – skin on or

off – personal choice

500g of fresh fish, wrapped in foil and baked for

15 minutes

If you want to cook ahead you could bake your

fish for the last 15 minutes of your potato baking

time – don't forget to use your timer!

Cool the cooked fish and then place in a sealed

container ready to use

Your fish can be a mixture of whatever you choose – for example, mix smoked haddock or cod with salmon and prawns – it's whatever floats your boat – pardon the pun. If you're using cooked peeled prawns as part of your 500g of fish then don't add them until you're assembling your pie.

Next up the sauce for your fish :

Mornay Sauce

Serves 4-6

40g unsalted butter

40g plain flour

600ml of milk – I use semi skimmed

150g mature Cheddar cheese

(or a combination of Cheddar and Gruyere)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour. Cook gently for a minute, stirring and add the mustard – make sure you don't brown the mixture. Gradually add the milk whisking constantly and eventually bring to the boil, whisking until it's smooth and thick. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, then add the cheese and season. I'd taste before you add salt – there's salt in the cheese – adjust accordingly. Your sauce should be a stiff consistency.

You can make the sauce ahead, fridge or freeze.

When you're ready to assemble, preheat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

You can use foil trays – 24x24cms to serve 4 or smaller if you want individual servings, otherwise a square casserole.

Open up your foiled fish and tip it into a large mixing bowl. Break the fish into chunks, gently, then season with black pepper.

If you're using cooked, peeled prawns, now is the time to add them – if you're using frozen prawns make sure they are properly defrosted in the fridge and discard any defrosting liquor.

There will be jelly from the cooked fish – discard or include – it's all flavour and will combine with the sauce you've made. If you've not used any smoked fish then you may want to add a sprinkle of salt. Add your Mornay sauce and fold to mix, gently.

Tip the mixture into your tray or casserole.

Add the sliced cooked potatoes, add a knob or two of butter and ground black pepper. If you're feeling really decadent then sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with vibrant fresh veggies, preferably steamed or, dare I say, with a coleslaw or, if feeling really Northern, mushy peas!

A final word on fish.

Some may say it's extravagant to use cod loin in a fish pie – they'd be right. However if you're trying to convince your family to eat fish it would be a good idea to use a fish that doesn't have any bones. Using smoked fish with non-smoked gives a far less “fishy” taste. Shop smart if you can and a reminder that Aldi's range of fish – including cod and haddock loin too – is excellent and the best value. The trick here is the delicious strong cheese sauce. Tick, tick and tick!

Oh and by the way the Dijon mustard is optional but it does give an excellent zing so worth a try even if you're not a fan of mustard generally. It adds flavour without blowing your head off.

My final tip - each of the elements for this filling and the pie as a whole can be made ahead, all that remains is assembly, and whilst I probably shouldn't be advocating eating supper in front of Netflix all that's required is a deep bowl and a fork – delicious comfort food!

Here are a few photos :

Balsamic Onion Jam - 4 of everything!

4 medium brown onions, finely diced

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

1 garlic clove, finely chopped (optional)

1 tbsp unsalted butter – 15g-30g

as a guide my “tablespoon” was exactly that -

from the cutlery drawer

the large frying pan measures 29cms/11” in diameter

and is non-stick

Using a large frying pan, cook the onions in the butter over a medium/high heat, stirring constantly for 5-8 minutes until they are opaque. Add the vinegar and sugar. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until the onions are cooked down to a jam-like consistency for 20-25 minutes. Do not cover the pan at any stage.

The recipe will give you 300g of jam.

Cool and place in a sealed container or a jar with a tightly fitting lid and keep in the fridge.

Here's a photo of the finished relish – ta dah!

Finally, a sweet treat – Chocolate Orange Fudge

Chocolate Orange Fudge

Takes 1½ hours/ make 50 pieces

400g dark or milk chocolate, broken into small

even sized pieces

25g butter

397 can condensed milk

2 tsps of Valencian Orange Extract

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, followed by the Orange Extract. 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.

Hints and tips

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.

And 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!

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 a couple of photos :

I hope these ideas have helped and may be inspired some of your own!

Stay safe and well, x

An all time favourite ...

 ... the Cheese, potato and onion pie filling.

This recipe never fails and is so versatile – you don't have to make a pie – there's always a pasty! It gives another example too of the merits of baking jacket potatoes ahead and uses for that stash.

Serves 2

2 medium sized baked jacket potatoes

approximately 400g – peeled and cut into cubes

measuring 1.5cms/½”

1 medium onion, finely diced and

sautéed with a knob of unsalted butter and

a drop of rapeseed oil until softened – 5 minutes

add 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard to the onion

150g of grated cheeses – 50g each of Mature

Cheddar, Red Leicester and Gruyere

Black pepper

1 amount of Fast Flaky Pastry

(as given in “More pastry choices”)

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

1 foil pie dish – 18cms/7” in diameter and

4cms/1½” deep

Using a large mixing bowl add the potatoes and onions and mustard – season with black pepper. Fold in the cheeses.

On a lightly floured surface roll out your pastry – dust your rolling pin too. Roll out as evenly as you can turning the pastry as it takes shape – always roll backwards and forwards and quarter turns so that it keeps to a circle. If you roll side to side you'll stretch the pastry and it will shrink when cooking!

Tip the filling into the pie dish – it will seem like a lot – pack down firmly. Egg wash the rim of the dish and then gently lift the pastry lid on top of the filling. The egg wash will glue the pastry in place and you can press the lid onto the filling gently. You can use a sharp knife to remove any excess pastry then, using a pastry fork edge the pie. Egg wash the pastry and add two cuts in the centre of the pastry to vent the pie.

Bake in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 35 minutes.

Double the quantities to serve 4 and use either a square foil tray or a casserole measuring 24x24cms/9½x9½”.

If you'd like an alternative lid, you could tray the wholemeal pastry for a change.

Next, a filling created by deliberately roasting extra veggies ...

A slow cooker filling

Here's a filling that uses your slow cooker and, other than 30 minutes prep, the rest is done by magic!

Steak Pie Filling

Servies 4/6

1kg/2.2lbs braising steak or stewing steak, cubed

glug of rapeseed or Canola oil

2 x Knorr beef stock pots

2 heaped tbsp tomato paste

2 heaped tbsp small chunk Branston pickle

or you could use your Balsamic Onion Jam!

Brown the meat in a frying pan, using a drop of rapeseed oil – do this in small batches – if you don't you'll get grey looking meat - it'll take ages and will stew. Using a slotted spoon pop the browned meat into the slow cooker.

Dissolve the stock pots in the residual pan juices, then add the tomato paste – make sure the paste is properly melted and “cooked out” - if you don't do this you'll get a bitter taste. Add your Branston, then add 250ml water, bring to the boil and tip over your meat. Slow cook on low for 4 hours. If your gravy is too thin then add a little slaked cornflour and thicken to taste.

You can make this filling ahead and freeze it, should you have a spare 30 minutes.

All that remains in your choice of lid – you could cheat and use a puff pastry sheet, make double the amount of Fast Flaky Pastry (given in “More pastry choices”) or create a “hot-pot” style, sliced potato lid from your ready-baked potato stash – there's an idea!

Life is so much easier this way.

Then there's an all-time favourite …

Finely diced onions – the easy way!

The best way of describing this technique is with a photo-guide, here goes :

all that's required is a small chopping board and

a sharp paring knife - peel a medium onion as shown

below

cut the onion half and

lay it flat on your chopping board – take a

close look at the onion and you'll see natural lines

take your paring knife and follow the lines in

the onion – slicing through leaving

the root alone, stopping short by 1.5cms/½”

approximately so that the onions stays

in tact

assuming you're right handed, hold the

onion with the root to your left and slice across the

onion finely with your paring knife, carefully,

keeping your fingers slightly tucked away

take it slowly and if this is your first attempt

I'd suggest you stop well short of the root as shown

then repeat with the remaining half - ta dah!

I've always diced onions using this method and was taught that the root is the cause of “tears”. I can honestly say that I've never had an issue.

Back to the remaining pie filling ideas ...

Balsamic Onion Jam – the photo guide

 

the onions, finely diced

cooked in the butter for 5-8 minutes

until they are opaque

simmered gently – for the first 10 minutes

you can see there's liquid at the edges

simmered for the final 10 minutes now

the liquid has disappeared and the consistency

is jam-like and darker in colour

here it is – in all its glory!

I like a relish that's finely cut, not large pieces that are difficult to “sit” on top of a biscuit with cheese or on top of a generous slice of good bread and butter, cheese and topped!

You could even add a tablespoon to soups or casseroles for extra flavour.

Speaking of finely diced and whilst we're on the subject … next up is a class on how to finely dice onions ...

Balsamic Onion Jam

I had planned a treat for supper – a Croque Monsieur with a side of fries and wanted a savoury “jam” or relish to serve with it. I love Balsamic Vinegar and so the following recipe ticked all the boxes. It's great too for anything cheese related for that matter like a Ploughman's Lunch or a cheese & pickle doorstep sandwich with fresh bread.

Here it is :

Balsamic Onion Jam - 4 of everything!

4 medium brown onions, finely diced

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

1 garlic clove, finely chopped (optional)

1 tbsp unsalted butter – 15g-30g

as a guide my “tablespoon” was exactly that -

from the cutlery drawer

the large frying pan measures 29cms/11” in diameter

and is non-stick

Using a large frying pan, cook the onions in the butter over a medium/high heat, stirring constantly for 5-8 minutes until they are opaque. Add the vinegar and sugar. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until the onions are cooked down to a jam-like consistency for 20-25 minutes. Do not cover the pan at any stage.

The recipe will give you 300g of jam.

Cool and place in a sealed container or a jar with a tightly fitting lid and keep in the fridge.

Photo guide coming up …