If on the other hand …

 … you wanted something special, try this fast flaky pastry recipe which I promise you is easy – it may take a little longer but it's worth it. I've included a step by step guide with hints and tips too!

You will need :

75g of unsalted butter – chilled in the freezer

110g plain flour

pinch of salt

4 tablespoons of ice cold water

Plan ahead - before you begin weigh out your butter, wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer – 30-40 minutes. Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. You'll need a cheese grater on stand-by. Remove the butter from the freezer and fold back the foil – it's easier to control when you grate the butter into a heap in the middle of the flour and salt. You can dip the butter into the flour to stop any sticking.

Using a round bladed knife mix the butter into the flour and salt. Sprinkle two tablespoons of water into the pastry and mix well. Add another two tablespoons and continue to mix. Finally use your hand to bring together – you're aiming for a clean bowl so no bits of pastry left in the bowl. Have a sheet of cling film ready – you can now use both hands to mould the pastry into whatever shape you require. Place on the cling film and wrap.

You can now rest in the fridge before use or place the cling filmed pastry in a bag and freeze.

Microplane graters are a great piece

of kit!

The butter in its foil jacket with the grater

over the bowl of flour and salt – you can just as

easily use the grater vertically if that's more

comfortable

The grated heap of butter

The ball of pastry sitting in the bowl

The empty mixing bowl – not a crumb left behind

Next up – the filling and the final fotos!

Ta dah - Rummage pie – photo guide

It tasted as good as it looked.

What's not to love.

P.s. You don't have to stick to the exact “recipe” for the cheese, it's just what you've got in the fridge that needs using up – but note that it's hard cheeses suitable for grating.

Easy Peasy and a few ideas too!

A pie for summer

Fed up with the same old, same old – here's the thing, I like hot stuff with cold stuff and so the obvious to me is a pie. We still need comfort food in the summer!

It's time for a rummage – in the fridge and the freezer!

I'm sure I've got a shortcrust pastry sheet in the freezer - it's a start. Hmm, the fridge - an odd onion here and the remnants of cheese I've always got in my fridge, yippee, the usual suspects are there - Gruyere, Mature Cheddar and Red Leicester - I think we're getting there, then there's the ever faithful baked jacket potatoes I didn't use. I can feel a pie coming on!

It may be considered as cheating using a ready-made pastry sheet - whether it's with shortcrust or puff. If it's in the freezer then it's a product that's meant to make your life easier and quite frankly both types of sheet are heaven sent when you're in a hurry.

Here's my thrown together recipe :

Rummage Pie – Serves 4

300g grated hard cheese, mixed – whatever

is in your fridge – 125g Mature Cheddar, 125g Red

Leicester and 50g Gruyere

1 medium onion, finely diced and softened

with a knob of unsalted butter until opaque

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 medium jacked potatoes, baked, peeled and

cut into small cubes

black pepper

1 shortcrust pastry sheet – 320g

1 egg, beaten

Knob of butter for greasing pie dish

To assemble :

Make sure you take your pastry out of the fridge to allow it to “warm up” - you'll find the pastry is easier to use and won't crack. Grease and then line your pie dish with half the sheet – you may need to roll it a little to fit – for guidance my pie dish measured 27x9x5 cms approximately.

Tip the cubed potatoes into a large mixing bowl, season with black pepper. Add the mustard to the softened onion and then mix with the potatoes. Add the grated cheese and your filling is ready for the pie dish. There may seem a lot – pack it firmly – it should be raised above the pie dish before the pastry lid is added. Add your pastry lid, egg wash and fridge until you're ready to bake. Don't discard the beaten egg. Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas6, egg wash the pie again and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Note to self – may be add both the shortcrust and the puff pastry sheets to the emergency kit for the freezer?

The bonus here is that this pie equally good served hot or cold with sides of your choice and just think how virtuous you'll feel using up leftovers.

P.s I have it on good authority that for those who are dietarily challenged, Aldi's shortcrust pastry is 99p a box, ready rolled - pretty decent and happens to be vegan. A double whammy - their vegan mature cheese blocks have definitely improved – it melts well compared with the old versions that you tried to melt and just ended up with the texture of wine gums!

A few fotos for you …

It does exactly what it says on the tin :

I don't think you'll ever buy mayonnaise again!

Next up, the slaw :

First up slice a “cheek” of cabbage – a sharp paring knife is the best piece of kit – smaller and more easy to control – with care!

Using a julienne peeler you get uniformly sliced strips of carrot

Combine the cabbage, carrot and spring onion, then season and add the drained apricots and sultanas – the mayo, sour cream and curry powder and a final flourish of the lime juice and mango chutney.

Make it the day before you want to serve it – it gives all the different flavours time to infuse – delicious!

Fresh ideas for a fishcake!

If you want a neat idea for an appetizer or a starter, how about a smaller scale of fishcake with a generous drizzle of rendang sauce, topped with mango chutney – a spot of fusion with small tortilla wraps or flatbreads to mop up the leftover sauce and chutney – outside the box I'd say!

There's a foto in the Fishcake foto guide if you wanted inspiration, in the meantime here's the recipe for the rendang curry sauce :

Rendang Curry Sauce

100 ml coconut cream

50ml water

3 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp curry powder

(I used mild)

1 tbsp kecap manis

(also known as sweet soy sauce)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat and

serve. Can be made ahead and re-heated.

If you like your curry hotter then you can use a medium or hot version of the curry powder – either way to suit your palate!

A few fotos for you ...

The slaw – but not just any old slaw!

OR you could make a special coleslaw – yum!

Coronation Slaw

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

salt and black pepper

30g ready to eat apricots, finely diced

30g sultanas soaked in mango and apple juice

50g mayo

50g sour cream

1 tsp mild curry powder

squirt of lime juice

1 tbsp mango chutney

The recipe given will give you a box of slaw – measuring approximately 11cms x 6.5cms x 5cms. One box lasted me a week, a spoonful here and a spoonful there.

You'd be surprised how well it fits as a side to the fishcakes!

Stick blender mayo

This is the most delicious mayo, made easy and simple with a stick blender – it knocks the spots off shop bought!

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 Liquid 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.

You'll get 425g of mayonnaise and it will keep in the fridge for 3 days or so – if it lasts that long.

As I said – delicious and perfect with the fishcakes!