Category: Pie

Individual Shepherd’s Pie

Maybe it is the whole Covid thing or maybe it is just because it is getting colder here but I have been craving comfort food like nobody’s business.  My particular drug of choice has been potatoes.  I love them at the best of times but nowadays?  I have eaten them pretty much every day since lockdown.  And one of the best comfort foods around that has been feeding my potato addiction is Shepherd’s Pie!

Shepherd's Pie2

Normally when we make Shepherd’s Pie, it is the job of the Fussiest Eater in the World. He can’t cook much all that well but he knows how to do good British stodge to perfection.  And his Shepherd’s Pie is great.

But wait…I am probably making some assumptions here.  So let’s start with…

WHAT ON EARTH IS SHEPHERD’S PIE?

Shepherd’s Pie is a dish made of cooked lamb topped with mashed potato.  The same dish made with beef is called Cottage Pie or Hachis Parmentier if you want to be French and fancy.  Which usually is my default mode (wound up to eleven)  but today I am using lamb so common or garden Shepherd’s Pie it is!

Traditionally, this was made with the leftover lamb from a Sunday roast.  We usually use bought minced lamb for our Shepherd’s Pie but this time round, I wanted to, what they would call on the cooking shows, ELEVATE the dish, so I used some diced lamb.

Shepherd's Pie3

 A DIGRESSION ON WORKING FROM HOME

I was very pleased to read Yinzerella’s post the other day on the pleasures of lockdown.  I too am enjoying many of the aspects of being at home 24/7.  For instance I have

  • More time to spend with Oscar and Holly.
  • More time to read, to craft, to study, to do yoga and to blog!
  • Started to declutter and organise my life
  • Massively reduced my carbon footprint  The last time I filled my car with petrol was in March!  We got solar earlier this year so even though I am using more electricity by being at home, it is being paid for by the power we are generating.
  • Invented a push-up challenge and am doing a Buzzfeed core challenge.
  • More time to cook. 4-hour slow-cooked lamb on a Tuesday night?  Not a problem. Grapefruit brulee for breakfast?  You betcha!
  • Totally embraced my basic B instincts!  These faux fir booties?  I know,  so chav,  but wearing them made my feet warn for the first time in DAYS!!!!  I may never take them off!

Shepherd's Pie6

Anyway, back to the Shepherd’s Pies.  I slow-cooked that lamb for four hours with red wine and herbs and garlic and tomatoes until it was melt in your mouth tender.

Then I made mashed potato with heaps of butter and milk to top it, and then topped that with a heap of grated cheese!

Shepherd's Pie4

This was so good.  Tender lamb, cheesy mashed potato…what else can I say except if you are craving a cuddle in the form of food, make this straight away!!!  Of course, you can use this mix to make one large pie but I love small food so individual serves it was – one for each of us and one for lunch the following day!  This reheats beautifully so you can make a few extra to warm up for additional meals.

I cut the recipe in half for these pies because I only had 500g of lamb but the full recipe will make one large or 6 small pies (depending of course on the size of your small pie dishes).

The Recipe

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Individual Shepherd’s Pie

This hearty British dish combines slow-cooked lamb and cheesy mashed potatoes to make the most comforting of comfort foods

Ingredients

  • 60ml olive oil
  • 1kg diced lamb
  • 1 brown onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 celery stick, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 40g plain flour
  • 250ml  beef stock (more if cooking for a long period of time)
  • 200 ml red wine (I used a cabernet merlot)
  • 145g tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 sprig of rosemary
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 kg potatoes peeled and halved
  • 50g butter
  • 175ml milk
  • 180g Cheddar cheese, grated
    Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add half the lamb and cook, turning as required until browned on all sides.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with another tbsp of oil and the remaining lamb.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute, stirring to ensure that the garlic does not burn.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring,  for 1 minute.

Gradually add the stock to the pan followed by the wine, stirring to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add the lamb, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, rosemary and bay leaves.  Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for between one to four hours – you may need to add more stock or wine if you are cooking for longer than an hour.

While the lamb is cooking, boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes or until tender.  Then drain and return to the pan.  Add the butter and milk and mash until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the office to 200C.

Once the lamb is cooked, measure it out into 6 small (1 cup capacity) ovenproof dishes.  Top with the mashed potato and then with the grated cheese.

Cook in the pre-heated oven until the cheese is golden brown and melted – around 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Shepherd's Pie5

What is your go-to comfort food?  I hope you get to have some this week! My next post  will also be comfort food but of the cake variety,,,,

Have a good one and stay safe!

 

Beetle Pie

Beetle Pie?  WTF is going on at RFFMT?  Is this the month of disgusting sounding food? Well, maybe…but I also just got sent a copy of The Nightmare Before Dinner: Recipes to Die For: The Beetle House Cookbook by Zach Neil and couldn’t wait a year for Hallowe’en to share a recipe with you.

And as with last week’s Stuffed Monkey, the yumminess of the Beetle Pie is directly proportional to the yechhhh factor of its name.  That is to say….it’s totally delicious.  Let me convince you by unpacking it into its component parts:

  • Chocolate wafer crust
  • Pistachio custard filling
  • Blackberry jam topping
  • Whipped cream and fresh blackberries to garnish

Yeah, baby!

There are so many things to talk about this week.  I really want to tell you about the book that contained the Beetle Pie recipe but that will have to wait.   Because while researching this post  I came across an absolutely bonkers tale from history involving a very different type of beetle pie.

So buckle in….because we are taking a trip in the way back machine all the way to 1863.

Beetle Pie

1863 was a huge year in history.  In America, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.  The Red Cross was founded in Switzerland.  And, in London, the first tube train ran between Paddington and Farringdon.  And some five miles away from Paddington,  in Brixton, Mrs Elizabeth Wilton baked a pie for her neighbour’s coachman, Edward Gardiner.

The relationship between these neighbours was…..strained.  Mrs Wilton liked to have German bands (and Negro singers) playing loud music in her house a few times a week.  This was not appreciated by the neighbourhood in general and her sickly, elderly neighbour specifically.  Words were exchanged.  And sometimes more than words.  On one occasion,  Mrs Wilton was seen throwing bricks at the neighbour’s windows!  She was feisty!

Beetle Pie2

She was also batshit crazy!  One day, she baked the German band a pie. They took it to the local pub to eat.  However, the pie was not filled with apples or rhubarb or cherries.  Or anything normal.  Because this was a pie baked by  Elizabeth Wilton who was as mad as a box of frogs.

The pie filling was a pair of ladies knickers!

Not to be outdone, one of the band members then donned the knickers, returned to Mrs Wilton’s house and danced in front of her door for a while.

I imagine that dance looking a little like this:

 

Loud music? Brick throwing? Underwear pies? Revenge door dancing? It’s 1863 people!  Calm the hell down and go catch one of those newfangled tube trains.  We won’t be needing your kind of mad arse white trashery until we invent reality tv in about 120 years!

But all this is merely to set the context under which the hapless Edward Gardiner received his pie.

BeetlePie3

Now, I don’t pretend to know anything about the life of coachmen in 1863 but from what happened next, I’m guessing it was hungry work.  Or maybe, they didn’t get paid a lot so hunger was par for the course.  Or maybe Edward Gardiner was just not too quick on the uptake.  Because despite the lingerie pie precedent, it took him a  good “six or seven mouthfuls” of Mr’s Wilton’s pie before he realised that

  • It tasted revolting
  • It was filled with black beetles and,
  • “A nasty stuff resembling mustard, but it was not mustard.”

The “nasty stuff” was later discovered to be gamboge, a yellow tree sap used as a laxative.

 

Not So Fast Eddie eventually took what was left of the pie to the local police station.  Where the sergeant claimed to have never seen “anything more filthy or disgusting” and that he had to open all the police station windows to get rid of the “intolerable stench”.

Let me just repeat.  The sergeant took one whiff.  Eddie G? Six (or seven) mouthfuls…

The next day, Mrs Wilton turned up at the police station bearing…..yep…you guessed it.  A freshly baked pie!

Which upon examination was found to contain a painted toy pear.

Which was found to be full of black beetles!

Later, in court, Mrs Wilton admitted having made the original beetle pie “as a lark”.

The judge agreed that it was a practical joke and not meant to cause injury and she was released from custody.

BeetlePie4

A few months later the irrepressible Mrs Wilton was back in the police station.  This time she was charged with knocking off a policeman’s hat whilst being drunk in public.

I love this woman!!!!!😍😍😍

There is no record of whether she baked the charging officer one of her very special pies!

BeetlePie5

I hope you loved the story of the utterly eccentric Elizabeth Wilton and her black beetle pies as much as I did!

I found the entire story on  The Skittish Library.  It’s a fabulous site, why not pop over and see what other delights Estelle has to offer!

And make a beetle pie in celebration of  Elizabeth Wilton and her pie making badassery from 1863!

Have a great week!

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Pieathalon 3 – Lemon Potato Pie

It will come as no surprise to you, wise people of the internet that this, in all it’s earthy glory, is a potato:

PotatoAnd this, is a can of beans.

They don’t call me Captain Obvious for nothing!

Lemon Potato Pie Beans

What is probably not so obvious is that you can turn these into this:

Lemon Potato Pie4

That’s right,  lemon meringue pie made from spuds and beans.

How?

Well, it’s Pieathalon – the foodie equivalent of Mouseketeer Surprise Day; anything can happen and it usually does!

Starting with a brand new logo (thanks Greg, it looks super!)

PieathalonPieathalon is that time of year when bloggers from all over the world swap recipes and rejoice in the kooky baked goods of yesterday.  The full list of participants and what they made is at the bottom of the post.  Why not go visit them all?  Maybe start with Battenberg Belle who is making my pie of choice, Fatty Arbuckle’s Delight, then pop over to Ruth at Mid Century Menu  who sent me lemon potato pie!

Lemon Potato Pie 2

Lemon Potato Pie – The Pie

The recipe for Lemon Potato Pie comes from 250 Superb Pies and Pastries, a book from 1941. The use of the humble spud instead of the more luxurious ingredient of butter to create lemon curd had a feel of wartime austerity about it.  Butter was rationed right?  Otherwise….why?   No, seriously, WHY?

Let’s not delve too deeply into the minds of 1941 and get stuck right in to the pie.  Starting with some grated potato.Lemon Potato Pie 3This was then parboiled for a spell and quickly became a kind of gloopy liquid.

Lemon Potato Pie5

After the rest of the ingredients were added and it cooked some more, the potato broke down even further.  However, at the end of the cooking there were still some small flakes of potato which were odd and a bit off putting when you tasted the….sludge.  So, even though this was not in the recipe I blended the lemon mixture to make it smooth.  Bear, in mind I have the fussiest eater in the world as my chief taste tester!

Lemon Potato Pie6

Lemon Potato Pie  – The Meringue

So, then to the meringue. And here disaster struck.  I had put the separated whites into a bowl and left them on the far side of the kitchen bench while I made the filling. When it came time to make the meringue I looked around to where I had left the egg whites and they had vanished.

“Did you take my egg whites?” I asked The Fussiest Eater in The World.

“I gave them to the dogs.  I thought that’s what you left them for”.

We had no more eggs.  And we had been to a rather boozy lunch that day so there was no option of getting into the car to go buy more eggs.

“Crap…guess, I’ll have to finish it tomorrow”.

Lemon Potato Pie7

A bit later, I was making our dinner which was the Argentine Beef Stew from The A-Z of Cooking (1971). I will definitely blog about that one soon, it was DELICIOUS and I remembered something about making meringues from bean water.  A quick visit to Google confirmed that you could make meringue from the water that surrounds tinned chickpeas or white beans.  Why not give it a whirl?  It’s in the same spirit of “make do and mend” as the potato based filling.

Lemon Potato Pie8I drained the can of beans, the beans went into the stew and the bean water went into the mixer.

I was incredibly surprised to see that it meringued up a treat!

Lemon Potato Pie9Ooops!  I’d over filled my pie!

Lemon Potato PieIn homage to Ruth, I thought I would let the Fussiest Eater in The World have the final say on the Lemon Potato Pie.

Lemon Potato Pie: The Verdict

Mixed.

Lemon Potato Pie10So, what do you think?

“The filling is gorgeous.  It’s really delicious”.

And the meringue?

“Tastes like the worst marshmallow in the world”.

Well done cooks of 1941!  And thanks Ruth for a  super recipe!   Your lemon potato pie is delicious!

Sadly, vegans and egg intolerants, the aqua fava meringue was not. It was much more marshmallow-y than meringue-y. It was very gooey and a bit stringy – think mozzarella cheese on a pizza.

 

Lemon Potato Pie11

Here is the recipe for the pie:

Lemon Potato Pie recipeGiven the bean meringue was a failure, here is the proper recipe for the meringue from Ruth.

“The recipe for Meringue 1 is 2 egg whites, 4 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Beat eggs until frothy, add sugar gradually, and continue beating until stiff.  Add flavoring.  Pile on pie and bake in 325 degree oven for 15-18 minutes”

Pieathalon 3 – The Bloggers

Here is the full list of the wonderful crazy people who participated in Pieathalon this year.  I’m heading off to see  their creations!  Why not join me?

Thanks as ever to the wonderful Yinzerella for making it all happen!

Have a wonderful week.  Now go eat some pie!

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My, My, Belgian Onion Pie – Pieathalon 2

My, My, At Waterloo, Napoleon Did Surrender

It seemed quite appropriate that I made my Pieathalon pie on Eurovison weekend.  After all, my pie was a Belgian Onion Pie with French Pastry Dough. And in 1974 ABBA won Eurovision with their song Waterloo which draws its inspiration from the site in BELGIUM where the Brits defeated the FRENCH army lead by Napoleon.

The coincidence is almost spooky.

Belgian Onion Pie

But would this pie take me down like a diminutive French General?  Or, like a bearded drag queen was I going to “rise like a phoenix” to Euro glory?

 And I Have Met My Destiny (In Quite A Similar Way)

A few weeks ago, the lovely Yinzarella put out the call and 19 bloggers answered.  We were going to take part in a global event to rival Eurovision, Pieathalon 2.

Pieathalon

  The History Book on The Shelf (Is Always Repeating Itself)

My recipe, which came from S.S. over at A Book of Cookrye is taken from The Cotton Country Collection from 1972:

Pieathalon BookWhich looks and sounds like it comes more from the Mississippi Delta than any field in Flanders I ever saw.  Which is fine, I just finished reading Miss Hazel and The Rosa Parkes League for bookclub.  I’m feel like I’m down with the M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter….

I also recently made a French Apple Flan, so my credentials for France are also solid.

  • I have driven through Belgium on a bus.
  • I have watched “In Bruges“.  Twice.
  • They have waffles.  And chocolate. And smurfs.

And that’s pretty much the sum total of my knowledge about Belgium.  If there’s going to be a weak link here, it’s bound to be Belgium…is Pieathalon going to be my Waterloo?

My, My, I Tried To Hold You Back (But You Were Stronger)

French Pie DoughI feel like the The French Pie dough recipe is very French.  And by that I mean both annoyingly pedantic in some details (Triple sifting flour?  Really?) and then just gives a big Gallic shrug and leaves others mostly up to your imagination.  The implication being if you are that much of a dummy to not know what spices and liquid to use in your pie dough, you probably shouldn’t be making pie dough.

My imagination told me to use a pack of French Onion Soup Mix for both –  a spoonful of the dry mix as my dough spice, then make up the rest of the soup and chill it down for my liquid.

My imagination is a psychopath.

The soup mix made the pastry quite salty.  If I had added more salt by adding the soup, I’m pretty sure it would have become inedible.  So, after a moment of panic and some highly creative swearing I used some pear cider as my liquid.  Purely because I happened to be drinking it at the time of making.

2015-05-17 00.17.00

And you know what?  It worked!!!  Really well.  The sweetness took out some of the salt and I think the bubbles helped to make the pastry really light and crisp.

I loved this pastry.  It had a real French Onion Soup flavour.  I am going to make it again but into “cheese” straws to have with dip. And I will probably use Pear Cider as my go to chilled liquid again too!

Now to the first way I “tweaked” this recipe…you may know that  have a weakness for small round food.  I’m also very much of the mind that more is more. So, why make one pie when you can make a lot of pies?

French Pie Dough 3
French Pie Dough 3

And Now It Seems My Only Chance Is Giving Up The Fight

I was actually pretty confident with the filling.  Because pastry is the hard part of any pie right? And honestly, I nailed that French pie dough like a….like a….French hammer…Yeah…just like that.  (Note to self, find some better metaphors).

So bring on the filling….

Belgian Onion Pie Filling Recipe

First up -looking at this very cute picture made me think the pie was baked in onions.  I’m not actually sure HOW you would bake a pie in an onion but I do know I want to find out.  Another entry into the bucket list of weird food I want to make. I think it also may have sub-conciously influenced my idea to make party-sized pies instead of one big one.

Then? Chopping three large onions?  There were tears before bedtime.  Then I weighed the butter.  Half a pound of butter seemed like an awful lot. I checked my measurements from ounces to grams and weighed it again.  No, my measurements were right and that was still a, pardon me for using a very technical baking term, a shit ton of butter.

Belgian Onion Pie - ButterSuddenly my mountain of onions seemed like barely a hill next to that Everest of butter.    In the end, I couldn’t do it.  That skyscraper of butter was too overwhelming.  I cut off about a third of it and stuck that back in the fridge.  I felt really bad about this because I had wanted to follow the recipe exactly.  But I was convinced this was just wrong.

And I could just add some extra butter if I needed, right?

Then I started to saute my onions. I was a bit worried that the onions would suck all the butter up and it would be too dry.  It seemed ok when the onions were sautéing, however once I added the flour the butter problem became apparent….

Belgian Onion Pie 4

Far from being too little butter there was still too much.  WAY too much…it was pooling everywhere…

Belgian Onion Pie5I made the decision to tip some more butter out….turned out to be about another two tablespoons.

Belgian Onion Pie 6I was kind of worried about doing this but as soon as I added the milk and cream, it all came together perfectly and I knew I had made the right decision.  Look how lovely and smooth the filling looks.

I only had filling for ten little Belgian onion pies so I ate the additional pie shells.  That pastry was awesome!!!!

Belgian Onion Pie 7
Belgian Onion Pie 7

And half an hour later they came out like this. Puffed up, golden brown, the Belgian Onion Pie babies looked like little golden buttercups!!!

Belgian Onion Pie 8
Belgian Onion Pie 8

I was so happy with these.  And not only were the baby Belgian Onion Pies so pretty to look at, they were delicious too – the light crisp pastry, the creamy filling, they were gorgeous!!!!  And they tasted just like French Onion Soup!

You could almost say they were souper!

Gahhh…….Thankfully,  the Belgian Onion pies tasted better than my puns!!!!!

Belgian Onion Pie 9

 I Feel Like I Win….

So despite a couple of hiccups, Pieathalon 2 was a total success.

Huge thanks to S.S. for the recipe and Yinzerella for the opportunity.  I LOVED it!  Here is my slightly twisted Muriels Wedding thanks to you both:

“I used to sit in my room for hours and listen to ABBA songs. But since I’ve met you and moved to Sydney joined in Pieathalon , I haven’t listened to one Abba song. That’s because my life is as good as an Abba song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen”

High praise indeed!

And as a fitting finale to this Pieathalon, Ladies, Gentlemen…bring out your best moves and your favourite satin jumpsuit  and join me, Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths in a little celebration of all things Pieathalon.  Feel free to sing along with my ever so slightly modified lyrics below as you bust a synchronised move…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U4kDzwZAMk

 Pieathalon, Belgian pie with butter galore,

Pieathlon, promise to love you for ever more

Pieathalon, couldn’t escape if I wanted to,

Pieathalon, Knowing my fate is to be with you,

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pieathalon,

Finally facing Pieathalon!”

The entire list of bloggers and pies are here.  Please check ’em all out but check out Sarah who made my Fiesta Almond Peach Pie recipe first!

Mandee from Vintage Recipe Cards  – Peach Pizza Pie
Susie from Bittersweet Susie  – Blueberry Cream Pie
Ashley at A Pinch of Vintage – Pecan Pie
Saucy Cherie at cookbookcherie.wordpress.com – Prune Whip Pie
Kelli from Kelli’s Kitchen – White Christmas Pie
Heather from Yesterday’s Menus – Pasta Cheese Pie (link no longer works 7/11/21)
Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers – Magic Cream Pie
Kelly from The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en Web Series – Swiss Pie with Hot Dogs
Dr. Bobb of Dr. Bobb’s Kitschen – Mincey Peach Pie
Sarah from Directionally Challenged Cooking – Fiesta Almond Peach Pie
Clara at Heritage Recipe Box – Cottage Cheese Apple Pie
Poppy of “Grannie Pantries” http://granniepantries.blogspot.com – Brandy Alexander Pie
RetroRuth from Mid-Century Menu – Cheese Pie
S.S. of A Book of Cookrye – Gowanda Pie
Emily aka Yinzerella  from Dinner is Served 1972 – Melton Pork Pie
Erica Retrochef from Retro Recipe Attempts – Steak and Mushroom Pie
Catherine at  Battenburgbelle –  French Onion Pie

Have a great week, and go eat some pie!

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Book Club Update – Slow

It’s been a while so I thought I would give you a little update on how I am getting on with the Tasty Reads Books.

Slow: Valli Little: August 2014 pick

Slow - Valli Little
Slow – Valli Little

Recipes in book: 60

Recipes marked to cook: 34 38

Cooked to date 12 22

Newly Cooked

p50 Fresh Piccalilli

I did not make the Ham Hock Terrine that this was supposed to accompany but this was one super pickle!!!  So fresh and tasty and zingy.  Piccalilli 2

 

p60 Roast Chicken With Pan Roasted Romesco

This was delicious!

Roast Chicken With Romesco

 p64 Oven Baked Thai Chicken Curry

Meh…take it or leave it…a solid chicken curry but nothing to write home about.

Oven Baked Chicken Curry
Oven Baked Chicken Curry

 p66 Moroccan Chicken with Olives

Sorry, I took this photo on the fly during a dinner party.  Not the best quality but this dish was great.  Very tasty and you can pop it in the oven and pretty much forget about it until serving time! Oh,  and in the background you can see the fennel and apple salad from Persiana.

Slow - Moroccan Chicken With Olives
Slow – Moroccan Chicken With Olives

 p70 Massaman Roast Chicken

I really wanted to cook this in style of the cover (above) but we had a heap of chicken breasts…this was delicious!

Slow - Massaman Curry Roast chicken
Slow – Massaman Curry Roast chicken

  p74 Fish Pie

OMG.  So good.

Slow - Fish Pie
Slow – Fish Pie

 

Slow - Fish Pie2
Slow – Fish Pie2

p76 Green Curry With Smoked Salmon

This was ok.  I  probably would not make it again.  It was a bit too salty with the smoked salmon and the soy and the fish sauce.

Slow - Hot Smoked Salmon Green Curry

 p84 Fish Tagine

Superb!

Slow - Fish Tagine
Slow – Fish Tagine

 p102 Baked Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta

Absolutely delicous!!!

Slow - Baked Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta

 p124 Deep Fried Brie with Sweet Chilli Sauce

Slow - Deep Fried Brie

Of this lot, my top three were the mushrooms, the fish pie and the tagine.  And you know…fried cheese is never  wrong!!! The piccalilli was really good too.

The worst was the smoked salmon curry.  Funny thing was, I don’t think I had it marked as something to cook, however we bought some hot smoked salmon which was on sale so I thought I would give it a go.  I should have stuck to my initial instincts.

 Still To Go

p6 Braised Beef Cheeks With Salsa Verde

p8 Braciola  (you’ll notice I’ve added a few in)

p10 Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce

p22 Lamb & Apricot Tagine

p24 Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks

p28 Lamb En Croute

p36 Macaroni Cheese with Truffle Oil

p44 Meatballs with Heavenly Mash

p62 Roast Quail with Split Pea Dhal

p88 Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread

p92 Cauliflower Cheese Soup

p104 Pumpkin, Goat’s Cheese and Onion Marmalade Jalousie

p106 Twice Baked Souffles

p110 Mushroom & Potato Tarts

p116 Bagna Cauda with Baby Vegetables

p118 Instant Fondue with Roast Vegetables

Sixteen to go.

I’d like to cook them all before this August which will be the 12 month mark.  Technically, that should be easy.  Then again, I also have retro books, Persiana, Healthy Every Day and two Tasty Reads selections I have not even told you about yet!!!  Plus at least one other bloggy project I am keen to get off the ground.  We’ll see…

Have a great week!

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