Roast Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie with a Suet Crust

Having been kindly sent one of the new OvenLove casserole dishes from Premier Housewares which are coated with Teflon (a fantastic idea) I wanted to make something different to your ordinary casserole. 

 With that in mind I came up with a Roast Chicken and Vegetable Pie with a Suet Crust.

Good Energy Cooking - Vegetable Filo Pastry Tarts

 How to cut the carbon calories in your kitchen - Good Energy has teamed up with Arthur Potts Dawson for a second year to encourage a low-carbon approach to cooking.  I was set a challenge to cook one of Arthur's four new recipes.  With the mention of Feta in the ingredients, for me it was easy to choose, Vegetable Filo Pastry Tart it had to be.  

  Scrummy yummy feta cheese with very slightly crunchy vegetables in a creamy sauce, all encased in crispy filo pastry - what's not to like?!

Steak and Kidney Pie with Black Sheep Ale

Yesterday I felt the need (as you do) to make steak and kidney pie with ale.  Now, you either like kidneys or you don't - simple.  If you don't like them don't put them in and you'll still have a delicious steak pie.

My addition of Black Sheep Ale in this I think really made it something special.  The gravy (even though there was only a relatively small amount) tasted good - really good.

 Once again - not the best of pictures but I can't be letting my dinner get cold just to take a picture - blog or no blog sorry!  Trying to take a picture of something that's steaming hot is near on impossible.

Lambs kidney's don't take very long to cook at all so having read a recipe by Gordon Ramsay and found he adds them in at the end I did the same - what a marvelous idea!

You can use Ox kidney but as I understand it they take longer to cook so you will need to add them into the casserole along with the meat as you would normally.  

Anyway, on with the recipe....

Not Just a Minced Beef and Onion Pie

Do you ever feel the need to eat mashed potatoes - or is it just me?

Mash is nice at any time I think.  But in order to be fed properly you need something to go with it, so of course.....Pie springs to mind - well my mind anyway!

  Scrummy yummy flaky puff pastry.  Inside?  Minced beef, red wine, onions, peas, oregano, rosemary, Colman's mustard, and..... 

Goats Cheese and Red Pepper Pastries with Pesto

I had one of those long pointed sweet red peppers in my fridge. So, not really knowing what to do with just one pepper and seeing as I had some goats cheese too, I came up with these individual goats cheese pastries.

On with the pastries......

Scallops Baked in Their Shells - Fantastic Starter Dish

This is a Martin Blunos recipe for scallops baked in their shells - a fantastic starter course to a meal.
A couple of post back you will see that I cooked them at the Miele Cookery Experience at the BBC Good Food Show.

Print Recipe

For each person you need:
3 nice and fat diver caught scallops, removed from their shells keeping both side of the shell
250g of ready made puff pastry
1 small carrot
1 small leek
1/2 a stick of celery
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon black onion seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
olive oil
a good glug of Noilly Prat or dry white wine
100ml fish stock
1 egg yolk
50g butter

To serve you will need: lemon wedges
rock salt - enough to cover a plate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F or Gas 4
Cut about 4cm from the end of the peeled carrot and slice it very finely into matchsticks. Do the same with 4cm pieces of leek and celery, and keep each pile separate.
Now heat about a tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil in the bottom of three separate small saucepans.
Now add a half teaspoon of the seeds to each pan making sure you put a different one in each pan - don't mix the seeds together!

Cook for a minute or two until fragrant, then add the carrot to the pan with coriander. Add the leek to the pan with black onion seeds and the celery to the pan with the cumin.
Add a splash of Noilly prat (or white wine) and a little stock to each pan and cook gently until the vegetables are softened.
Take the orange roe from the edge of each scallop, removing and discarding the membrane that attaches it to the flesh at the same time.
Put the roe into a blender with the egg yolk and whiz briefly till you have a smooth intensely coloured egg mixture.

Flour a board and roll out the pastry into an oblong roughly 30cm by 12cm then cut into three matching long strips, you need each strip to be long enough to wrap around each scallop shell.
When the vegetables are softened add about a teaspoon of diced butter to each pan, then shake the pans about a bit to emulsify the liquids to make a sauce.
Make three 'doughnuts' with kitchen foil on a baking tray so you can rest the finished scallops - you need them to sit straight in the oven. Place three half shells on a tea towel so they sit flat.
Spoon the leeks into one, carrots into another and celery into the third. Slice the scallops - each one into three pieces and put the scallop slices on top of each of the vegetables.
Spoon over the corresponding butter sauce.
With a pastry brush make a generous ring of the egg roe wash around the outside edge of one of the empty scallop shells.

Now it gets a bit tricky!
Make a ring of the egg mixture around the outside of the shell that is holding the leeks and scallops.
Take one of the strips of pastry and put the two shells together, seal all the way round the shell.
Put the finished shell onto one of the foil rings on the tray. Repeat this with the other two scallops.
Carefully put the tray into the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes, till the pastry is puffed and golden.


Serve on a bed of rock salt with lemon wedges and the idea is you pull of the pastry and dip it into the buttery vegetable mixture in each opened scallop.

Goats Cheese and Red Onion Jam Pastries

In my fridge I had some soft goats cheese and baby plumb tomatoes.
In my freezer I had some ready made puff pastry.
In my cupboard I had a jar of red onion jam - So, wondering what to do with all these nice things, I came up with this!

You will need:

250g of Ready Made Puff Pastry - divided into two
1 Jar of Red Onion Jam
100g of Soft Goats Cheese
6 x Baby Plumb Tomatoes
Some Fresh Thyme Leaves, chopped
Rocket Leaves and a Few Olives to Serve - if you like them, which I do!

Preheat the even to 190C or 375F Gas 5

I rolled the pastry till into two oblongs until they were about a quarter of an inch thick - or slightly more.

Then I lightly scored (being careful not to go right the way through) a border of just over half an inch all the way round.

Taking a fork, lightly prick the pastry inside the border all over to prevent pastry on the inside part from rising as much as the rest of the pastry.
Place them on a non stick baking tray.



Bake in the heated oven for about 10 minutes, remove and very carefully retrace the line you made that formed the border.
Normally, you see in recipes where you would remove the top layer of pastry and either discard or use it as a lid. I didn't remove it, after re-tracing the scored line, I just pushed it to the bottom to make the base thicker and more yummy.......Ha ha a cunning plan ah?!

Now spread a good amount (to your liking) of the red onion jam all over the bottom and top with some goats cheese.

Now, add some halved cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with some freshly chopped thyme leaves.

Return to the oven for (approx) a further 10 minutes until the cheese begins to melt and the pastry takes on a light golden brown colour.

Remove from the oven and top with some black olives and rocket.
Serve immediately.