Cooking for the thesps

Had a long but fantastic week last week – playing Bob Cratchit in a very successful am dram production of Christmas Carol with St Paul’s Players in Bristol.  I also offered to do the food for the cast and crew for between the two Saturday shows and was blown away by the response –  homemade sausage rolls, pastillas, rabbit pie, veggie and meat tartlets and cheese and onion plats – and the lot was demolished in the space of half an hour, along with four quiches donated to the effort by another member!

One thing i was really chuffed with was the gluten-free shortcrust tartlets i made.  Gluten-free flour is, according to everyone i’ve spoken to, a major pain to work with – and for the first hour i concurred.  I used my standard recipe, adding just a touch of olive oil to mix, and chilled the pastry overnight.  Getting it out of the fridge the following day i started to work it normally, but it just crumbled… might be my fridge was too cold, but it was turning to chalk – much like the flour itself looked though to be honest!

Anyway, perseverance and working it in small chunks, and letting it up to room temperature really came together.  The recipes (requested by a member of the group) are…

Pastry (makes about 20 tartlets) – very slightly adapted from Richard Bertinet’s shortcrust recipe
250ml gluten-free flour
125ml butter
5g salt
35ml water
1 medium egg
5-10ml olive oil

Combine the dry ingredients and then rub in the butter.  Add the water, egg and olive oil and mix well, working it until combined, but not too much.  Once combined, chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

To roll, divide the dough into at least quarters, and leave out of the fridge until at room temperature.  Roll each section slowly and patiently, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking – too much and your dough will be too heavy.  Roll it to about 4mm thick and use a 8cm pastry cutter to cut into circles.

Veggie filling
1 onion
20g butter
1 parsnip
1 carrot
30ml cider vinegar
water to cover
all spice
50g sugar
Fry the onion until translucent, then add the root veg until it gets a little colour.  Add the vinegar and all spice, then enough water to cover it and cook until the veg is tender, then uncover, add the sugar and reduce it until the water is absorbed or evaporated.

Meat filling
6 good quality gluten-free sausages, de-skinned
2-3 rashers of streaky bacon, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, finely chopped
2 apples, finely chopped – golden delicious works well
splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of cider vinegar
teaspoon each of thyme and sage
seasoning to taste – and it will take a fair bit

Fry the onion and garlic until tender, then add the apples and cider vinegar – also a splash of water to stop it sticking.  Once the apples have soften, mash slightly and leave to cool.

Combine the other ingredients well and add the apples when cool.  Get your hands in the mixing bowl and squidge together thoroughly, making sure the sausages are completely broken down.

Each pastry circle should take about a tablespoon of either filling. There’s no need to bake the cases blind first, as they’re small enough to cook quickly anyway.  Bake for twenty minutes, then brush the top with whisked egg, and bake for another 10 or until golden.

Big fat pork pie

Right, this is what I've baked for tonight's dinner.  Not for me your ginsters or pork farm pork pie, oh no.  This is my own special recipe for chunky pork pie, to be served hot or cold.  It uses sausages and pork fillet - you can also chuck in bacon, pancetta and other filling as you want to.  This'll be served with  new potatoes and whatever green stuff Trina buys and makes me eat...

Ingredients
Approx 150g short crust pasty - you can buy it, or this recipe looks pretty good (I'd reduce the water content a little)- i can't put the one i use on as i think it's copyright...

150g pork fillet, chopped into small chunks (no bigger than 2cm cubes)
3 good quality pork sausages
1 golden delicious apple, cubed in 2cm pieces
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped and crushed
Seasoning to taste (i like mine quite peppery)
1/2 tsp All spice
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or cider)
1 beaten egg (in addition to what's in the pastry - for brushing)

Combine the  ingredients except the egg (and pastry obviously...) - squeeze out or cut open the sausages. Mix thoroughly - you can check the seasoning by removing a small amount and frying until cooked, it will taste approximately the same.  Refrigerate this for an hour or two.

Roll out about 3/5ths of the pastry until it's about 2mm thick and line a small flan tray with it (no bigger than 20cms).  Line this with baking parchment, cutting it to size but leaving enough to overlap the sides of the tray (add the trimming to the rest of the pastry) and fill the cavity with baking beans or rice.  Bake this 'blind' for about 15 mins. Once the blind lightly baked, remove it and remove the beans and paper, and leave it to cool for about 20 mins or so. 

Roll out the last two fifths of pastry to make the lid of the pie - no more than 2-3mm thick, and large enough to cover the whole of the filling and meet the base of it.  Fill the cavity of the pie with the filling, leaving a small gap round the outside.  Brush the pastry edge with the beaten egg and place the lid over the top, pressing it down firmly slightly into the gap so it joins the base, and using a fork to press down around the edge.  Make a couple of air holes in the middle of the lid and brush the whole of the top with egg.  Bake on about 200 for 20 mins, then for a further 20min on about 120.  If you want to make it darker, brush it with a bit more egg before you turn the oven down.  Serve hot or cold.

Mini Pastilla's

This recipe was put together for a birthday party I catered for - it was a cold buffet and we wanted something that minimised mess and cutlery, but wasn't the traditional curly sandwich-type fare.  So I came up with this - the mini pastilla.  I got the idea from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Cookbook- he makes a larger one using rabbit, with scrambled egg and coriander under the lid.  The principle of this is much the same - it's a small filo parcel with slow-cooked spicy meat inside, dusted with icing sugar - very very edible, and great hot or cold.

Ingredients
(makes about 8-10 parcels - depending how big you do them!)
400g lamb - any cut will do, except breast - chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large (pref banana) shallot, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped and crushed
sprig of thyme

1 Bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

1 glass red wine
50g Dried apricot
Honey
2 tsp Ras el Hanout spice blend (you can get this from Asian supermarkets, or otherwise this is a typical blend)
1 tsp Allspice

1/2 a grated nutmeg

Pinch of chili powder (optional)
1 pint good veg stock

1 pack of filo pastry
A few fresh coriander leaves

Butter for brushing onto pastry

Icing sugar for dusting

Brown the meat in the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, sealing on all sides, then remove from the pan.  Add the onions and garlic, then the bay leaf, cinnamon stick and thyme, frying until the onions are lightly covered.  

Return the meat to the pan and add the red wine, frying until the alcohol is cooked off, then add the apricots, honey, and other spices and a few fresh coriander leaves.  Stir to combine, remove the bay leaf, thyme sprig and cinnamon stick, add the honey, then cover the lot with the stock and cook on a low heat for a couple of hours, until the meat is falling apart and the juices are thick (add water or more stock if it's too dry and the meat isn't cooked).  Once cooked, transfer to a shallow dish an allow to cool.

To make the parcels, take one filo sheet and divide it into 4 (each sheet will make 2 parcels - you can just half the sheets to make larger ones).  Brush butter on to one side of one sheet and lay another at 90 degrees to it (making a rough cross).  Place a tablespoon of the meat mixture into the middle and fold the pastry layers over the top, sealing with more butter.  Continue until you run out pastry or meat - you don't have to be particularly neat, it's sposed to look rustic...

Once you've made them all, bake them on a tray until the pastry's golden - should be about 20 mins.  If you're serving them straight away, dust them immediately with the icing sugar.  If you're serving them cold, wait until they're cool, then dust them.

Then eat them.