Potato and Meat Pie

This is a derivation of my Grandmother's pie  (Maud Clarke) and was probably made during wartime as it contained little meat. It is, however, delicious and easy to make....

Ingredients:

• Short Crust Pastry (enough to line the top and bottom of a round 20cm baking tin)
• 4 medium sized potatoes par boiled then chopped
• 1 Tbsp of oil or lard
• half a small onion
• handful of mince - it can contain fat!
• 1 egg - beaten for eggwash
• Salt & Pepper to taste.

Fry the mince and onion in the fat until it is all browned off and transfer to a mixing bowl including any juices/oil. Peel the potatoes and then dice into cubes- they must be no bigger than 1cm cubed or even smallr if you can manage it.
Mix the potatoes with the mince mixture and then season with plenty of salt and pepper.
Line the pie tin with pastry and then spoon in the mixture trying to leave as few air pockets as possible. (now you know why you have to chop the potatoes quite small) Top off with pastry and then crimp the edge. Finally, eggwash the top liberally and pierce with a fork to allow any steam to escape.
Bake in a fan over at 180degC (200 conventional) for about 30 mins until golden brown.

Personally I can never wait to tuck in - just add tomato ketchup on the side!!

Ox Cheeks (slow cooked)

By slow cooking the beef or ox cheek, you end up with super tender meat that almost melts in the mouth. The recipe below will feed 2/3 people. I use a pressure cooker for this recipe but there is no reson you can't use a slow cooker or the oven. The difference is that the pressure cooker takes about 1 hour, the oven takes about 4 hours and a slow cooker on low about 12 hours.....

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp light olive oil
• 750gms of ox cheek - cut up into large sized peices
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 celery stick - diced
• 1 carrot - diced
• 2 large cloves of garlic - crushed
• 1 stems of fresh thyme
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 250ml beef stock
• 350ml of full bodies red wine
• 1 tbsp of black treacle
• Salt & Pepper

Firstly you need to season the meat pieces with salt and pepper and then brown the meat pieces all over in a hot frying pan with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Ensure you have removed any fat peices from the outside of the meat. Put the seared meat to one side, add the remaining oil to the pan, lower the heat and add the onion and garlic and cook until soft. Then add the celery and carrot and cook for 5 mins.

Add all of the ingredients to the pressue cooker and cook for 1 hour. (ensure all of the meat is covered by liquid)

Once cooled down, you can remove all of the meat from the cooking liquor and then strain this off, discarding the solids. (it is possible to liquidise this complete liquor but I prefer a richer sauce).
Return the liquid to the pressure cooker and reduce until you have a thick and sticky sauce. Season to taste. Add the meat back and coat in the sauce. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Point to note: if you use a stock cube as your source of beef stock, please be careful in the amount of salt you add as the reduction of the sauce could make it become a little salty. I tend to use Knorr Touch of Taste Concentrated liquis stock.

Serve with vegetables of your choice but horseradish mash is a good place to start!!!

Fabulous Flapjacks

For those with a sweet tooth, there is something a bit morish about these chaps.
Golden syrup is the key ingredient!

• 250gms rolled porridge oats
• 125 gms of butter
• 125gms of soft brown sugar
• 3 tbsp of golden syrup

(and for a really different taste, add 50gms of cranberries (dried) - Whitworths do a nice one.

Melt the butter in a dish in the microwave - 20/30 seconds should do. Then place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly coated in all that goodness!
Put into a baking pan/tray. I like a thick flapjack so a 20cms square tin works well but if you want it thinner try a larger rectangular tray. Press the mixture down into the pan and if you are adding cranberries try and get them to be below the surface.
Bake in a pre-heated over (180degC Fan or 200degC conventional) for 15 to 20 minutes until golden.

When you take out of the oven, score the mix with a knife to portion up and then allow to cool. Then remove from the tray and cool further.

The photo show the pre-cooked ones on the left and the ones on the right are ready to devour!