Sweet Chicken Pie

Roast chicken and sweet potato; who can argue with that combination? Now put them in a pie and make the top nice and fancy and you've just made that combination even better. I happen to use chicken thighs on the bone and roast them at the same time as the sweet potato, it means that the chicken stays more flavourful and that the potato soaks up anything that might escape from the chicken whilst cooking. If you have already roasted a chicken and you are looking for something to do with the leftovers then this is a good use of them too, it just means roasting the sweet potato separately. The puff pastry top gives a little bit of excitement as well as having a wonderful flavour. You can experiment with the nuts and herbs that go in the top (if using rosemary be sure not to go over board and make sure it is finely chopped). I have broken it down into three components: white sauce, filling and pastry, just to make the method clearer. Serve with some cabbage or tender stem broccoli.

White Sauce:

30 g butter

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

375 ml whole milk

2 bay leaves

Add the bay leaves to the milk and heat through so it is just about simmering. Turn the heat off and let the bay steep into the milk. When the rest of the filling ingredients are ready, transfer the milk to a jug and remove the bay leaves. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, when it is bubbling add the flour and whisk vigorously until it forms a paste. Very slowly, and at first, bit by bit, add the milk whisking constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper for seasoning then pour over the chicken and potato in the pie dish.

Filling:

Four chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)

Four large sweet potatoes - peeled and diced into 1 in cubes

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prep your potato whilst you're waiting and scatter them into the bottom of a baking dish. Season the chicken thighs well, on the top as well as the bottom and snuggle them in with the potato. Roast everything for 40-45 minutes (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your chicken thighs as well as your oven). After 20 minutes give everything a stir to keep things browning evenly. When you take it out, let the chicken sit for about 5 or 6 minutes. When ready to use, take the skin off and remove the bone. Shred into bite sized pieces and put in a pie dish along with the potato.

Pastry:

Half a packet of puff pastry

2 tbsp fresh thyme, picked from woody stalks or finely chopped if soft stemmed

50 g toasted hazelnuts, chopped

1 medium egg, whisked

Roll the pastry out so it is very thin. Roll it out so it is double the width of the pie dish you are using. Scatter the chopped hazelnuts and the thyme on half of the pastry. Brush the egg wash in a square around the nuts and herbs and fold the pastry over on itself. Press down on the edges to make sure they are sealed, I also pass a rolling pin back and forth to make sure it is thoroughly compressed. This may lead to a few holes so try and be careful to keep these to a minimum (size wise at least). Once you have all of the filling in the pie dish, brush more of the egg wash around the rim and press the pastry lid on top, you may need to gather any excess pastry bunched on the side. Take the rest of the egg and brush over the top of the pastry to give it a lovely crisp as well as a beautiful sheen. This needs to bake for 25-30 minutes.

Afternoon Tea, Only a Little Different...

As shrimp and grits are to the South, so is afternoon tea to Britain. Or at least by every stereotype you can find about this great isle. For now I'm going to revel in this stereotype as everything about this dining event is great. Not only an excuse to eat in between lunch and dinner, you get a choice of sweet and savoury. So here are a few ideas for some old afternoon staples, only not as you've ever seen them before (hopefully...)

Sausage Rolls with Red Onion Marmalade

4 Sausages - casing removed (Cumberland is preferable due to the herbs)
Half a pack of puff pastry (as discussed previously, you would be foolish to want to make it yourself)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 egg - beaten

1 red onion
balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar

For the onion marmalade:

• Peel and finely slice the red onion. On a medium-low heat sweat them down in a little butter until they are soft - about ten to fifteen minutes - ensuring they do not burn.
• Add about 4 tbsp of the balsamic vinegar - the affect is not pleasant when adding vinegar to a hot pan so make sure your head isn't directly over it!
• Stir constantly while the vinegar is bubbling to reduce. Add the sugar to help it caramelise and to sweeten the vinegar.
• When the mixture is treacly and thickened up turn off the heat and set aside.
  

To make the sausage roll:

• Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
• Roll the pastry out on a floured surface until about 1/2 cm thick. You ideally want it to look like a wide rectangle.
• Combine the sausage meat and mustard (and any other herbs you feel like adding - sage would go nicely) and spread thickly and narrowly down the centre of the bottom half of the pastry.
• Top the sausage meat with a layer of the onion marmalade.
• Dab some of the egg wash along the bottom edge of the pastry and fold the top half over to create a casing. Press down firmly to seal.
• Brush the egg wash all over the top of the pastry, place on non-stick baking sheet or some greaseproof paper and place in the middle of the oven.
• Cook for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let it rest for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (the pastry with de-puff as it cools).
• Cut when cooled and serve up immediately.

Orange Blossom and Honey Scones

225 g self-raising flower
1 tsp baking powder
60 g butter
1 large egg
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp orange flower water
1 generous tbsp honey

• Preheat oven to 200 C
• Sift the flour and baking powder together and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Beat the egg, orange blossom water, honey and milk together with a pinch of salt and pour into the flour mixture - it may be a little dry so add a dash or so of milk.
• Combine until you have a smooth but fairly dry dough.
• Turn out onto a floured surface and press flat until a good inch thick.
• Using the rim of a glass cut out the scones and put them flour-side up on a prepared baking sheet.
• Brush the tops with a little milk and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes (I find they are done much closer to 10 than 15, but you could have a slow oven).
• Turn out onto a cooling rack and serve cold with clotted cream and cherry jam.

Smoked Mackerel Open Sandwiches

Now before you all skip to the next post, give these little beauties a try, they surpass cucumber sandwiches in every aspect! I am newly introduced to this fish myself and am very grateful to the insightful person who first brought them into my diet. It is a cheap fish to buy as well as good for you so it's silly not to try it...

All you need is:

• A fillet of the fish (I recommend the easily found peppered one for this sandwich).
• A few handfuls of washed watercress
  
• Dijonaise - Maille is my preferred kind or you can make a basic one of your own combining wholegrain mustard and mayonnaise in a ratio of 2:1.
• Some (preferably home made) wholewheat granary bread.

Thinly slice and toast the bread - let it cool before you put on the dijonaise. Pick some leaves off the stems of the watercress and load them onto of the bread. Delicately remove the fish from the skin and make sure you don't have any bones. Finish with some freshly ground pepper and a slight squeeze of lemon.

Like all good sandwiches it is simple but great due to the strong yet complementary flavours. You can also substitute the dijonaise with some horseradish mixed with creme fraiche.



After all this hard work no one would begrudge you the odd store-bought cake or tart slipped in there. I love battenberg cake and think it looks as good as it tastes - making any tea spread look pretty.

Pesto Curls

150g (5.3 oz) parmesan, finely grated

80g (2.8 oz) almonds, toasted

1 clove of garlic

4 handfuls of greek basil

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 pack of puff pastry

sea salt and pepper for seasoning

flour for dusting

• place a frying pan over a medium heat and toast the almonds for 5 minutes or so, tossing often to ensure they do not burn
• in a small food processor blitz the almonds and garlic clove until crumb size
• then add the basil, parmesan, salt, pepper and olive oil, continue to blitz until a paste
• on a floured surface layout of the puff pastry, run a rolling pin over it a few times, just to stretch it out a little as pack pastry can often be quite thick
• spread the pesto over the entire sheet of pastry
• roll the opposite sides towards each other until the two rolls meet in the middle (try and roll it as tightly as possible without mutilating the shape)
• place in the fridge for an hour/hour and a half to let it rest
• preheat the oven to 180 C
• once chilled cut the roll into 1cm (2cm is fine as well) segments and lay out flat on a baking sheet
• place on middle shelf and check on them after 15 minutes
• transfer onto a wire rack to cool fully

I found this alternative recipe for pesto in Jamie Oliver's Italy cookbook and thought it would work great as this pastry morsel. These are always a crowd pleaser accompanying drinks, however, you can use the pesto recipe in it's own right with pasta. Reserve a little of the pasta water to loosen it up, or add some olive oil to bulk it up and you can always use the old pine nuts instead, if you don't like almonds.

This form of pastry is also really versatile and you can add chopped sun-blushed tomatoes to the pesto, or crumble in some goat's cheese. Always be wary on how much salt you use as parmesan does a lot for seasoning.