Lamb, Feta and Sumac Piroshki

Piroshki is a blanket term for little Russian pies that come with various fillings and can be baked, fried or poached. My filling is inauthentic, I've gone for Middle-Eastern flavours, but the pastry is traditional. I've justified the feta and sumac with some stretches of geography, Georgia borders Russia, Georgian food has influences from the Middle East... but really, they taste so good, so that should be reason enough to make them.

I first came across the idea for these pastries in Meat by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, as a way to use up leftover roast lamb, it does make a change from the usual shepherd's pie. When I came to make them this time, I only had about 1/2 the amount of suggested meat, so made up the remaining weight with crumbled feta. That inspired the use of sumac, a tart red spice that is favoured in Turkey and the Middle East.


Ingredients
For the pastry:
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
a little beaten egg, to glaze
For the filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
100 grams leftover roast lamb, finely chopped
a little liquid- stock, wine or water
1 tsp sumac
pinch chilli powder
100 grams feta, crumbled
 
Method
Start by making the pastry: sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre. Whisk together the oil and eggs, then pour into the well. Gradually draw in the dry ingredients to the liquid with a wooden spoon, then beat until smooth. You are looking for a soft but not sticky dough, add a little cold water if you need it. On a lightly floured surface, knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, and leave for around an hour while you get on with the filling.

Heat the olive oil over  medium heat, and add the spices. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the onion and garlic. Let them cook gently until they are softened. The turn up the heat and add the lamb. Let it brown slightly, then turn the heat down, and add your chosen liquid, jut enough to lubricate it, not so much as to drown it. Let it cook for another 3 minutes over a low heat, then remove. Stir in the sumac and chilli powder and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool, then mix in the crumbled feta.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking tray Roll out the dough on a floured surface, and cut out 8cm rounds with a cutter. Put a spoonful of filling onto each round, slightly off-centre. Moisten the edges with a little water and a pastry brush, and fold the dough over to meet the other side, pressing down to seal. Using your hands, shape them into a crescent. Transfer to the baking sheet, and brush with beaten egg. Bake for 10-15 minute until the piroshki are nicely browned, and serve warm.

Cow Pie

Really, casseroles and stews don't need dressing up when you are reheating them as leftovers. Most slow cooked dishes like that will improve with a day or so sitting in the fridge, so simply reheating makes for a very gratifying supper. I can't resist some extra cooking though, so I did a Desperate Dan-esque pie with the last of the Beef and Guinness Casserole as the filling. Only pastry horns though.

Any similar dish can be given the same treatment. If you need a shortcrust pastry recipe, one can be found here. It's best if the filling goes in a room temperature- if it's hot the steam will make the pastry soggy.

Braised Lamb, Take two.

Should I have any close followers, you may remember that I didn't end up eating the braised lamb with fennel and olives. Tonight I needed something that I could eat curled up on the sofa with just a spoon- I've hit the midweek slump. Here's what I did:

Slowly reheat the entire dish, with the lid on. When it starts to simmer, throw in a handful of soup pasta, in this case, orzo. Let it cook uncovered until the pasta is cooked through. Pick out any flavourings, and discard (bay leaf, lemon peel), or eat (carrot). Ladle the soup-stew into a bowl, grate over a little Parmesan and sprinkle with some extra chopped oregano leaves.

The creation of tonight's meal was somewhat organic, but I liked the end result so much I would make something similar again. Probably not using lamb shank, more likely something I wouldn't feel extravagant shredding and bulking out with starch, such as some bony cuts from the neck. If you like, you go about making this the same way I did, maybe in a more direct fashion, however think of this as more of a blueprint. Use any soup pasta shape you like, or not. Throw in some rice, or cubed potatoes, or lentils. If you braise a larger joint of lamb (shoulder would be perfect), save the cooking juices and give it a similar treatment. It's not the prettiest dish, but it manages to be both comforting and restorative, and certainly worth eating.

Leftovers, Day 2- Chicken, Bacon, Leek and Thyme Pie

Making a pie from the leftovers of a roast chicken is something I have internalised the recipe for over the years. I started, I expect, following a recipe to the letter, moving through to the odd consultation and adding my own touches, and now it is just something I do without thinking. It certainly helps that the component parts all feel very familiar to me. The first thing I ever learnt how to make was Béchamel sauce, adding milk whilst my Mum stirred. I also used to watch her make pastry, which is probably why I don't have a pathological fear of making it, like some perfectly competent cooks do. Yes, the ingredients have slightly changed-I don't recall her ever infusing milk to make the classic white sauce- but my 'feel' for making it all stems from her instruction.

There are many variations on the chicken pie theme. Bacon can be used or not, use mushrooms instead of leeks, or neither. Whatever you decide, remember to keep the chicken as the main character. Herb-wise, tarragon is wonderful, maybe better, than thyme. If you do decide to use tarragon, use the stalks to infuse the milk instead of the thyme. And have a light hand with the amount of chopped leaves you use, a little is wonderful, too much will overpower the dish with an unpleasant level of aniseed.

I occasionally borrow an idea from the Domestic Goddess herself, and crumble in a third of a chicken stock cube in with the flour when making the sauce, and it certainly adds to it. This time, I stirred in the (now jellied) winey-Marsala-y-chicken juices at the end, and it was the best pie yet. But I don't expect anyone to make the same meal in order to create the goods for what is a leftovers dish, even an especially delicious one.

Ingredients
For the milk:
2 bay leaves
1/2 onion
1 clove
1 blade mace/  nutmeg
Parsley stalks
Few Sprigs thyme
300ml full fat milk.

Put all the above except the nutmeg, if using, in a heavy based pan and bring just to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. If you are using nutmeg, grate a little over the milk and stir in before you leave it to infuse.

For the pastry:
125 grams unsalted butter, cubed
225 grams plain flour
pinch salt
1 egg yolk
a little milk, if needed.

Put the butter, flour and salt in the freezer together for 10-20 minutes, beat the egg yolk with 1 tbsp cold water and refrigerate. Put the flour, butter and salt into the processor, and pulse till you have a flaky mix. Pulse in the egg, and add the milk if you need it to bind the mix together. I keep pulsing until it looks like it is just about to form a cohesive mass before pushing it together with my palms, in order to handle it as little as possible- the less you work the dough, the better result you will get. Pat into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour. I have made this up to a day in advance with no ill effect.

For the filling:
Cooked chicken,enough to just fill your pie dish
Bacon, pancetta or ham- enough so that is more of a seasoning, not the whole point of the dish, diced (or use lardons or ready cubed pancetta)
 1 leek thinly sliced
Thyme leaves
30 grams unsalted butter, plus a little extra for frying and greasing
15 grams plain flour
1/3 chicken stock cube, or leftover juices from cooking the chicken (optional, see above)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees centigrade, put a baking sheet in the oven to heat on the middle shelf. Butter a medium pie dish.
Strain the infused milk into a jug. Melt the butter in heavy bottomed saucepan, then stir in the flour and crumble in the stock cube, if using. Toast the flour-butter mix over the heat for a minute. Add a little of the milk to the pan, stirring. Continue to add the milk, bit by bit and stirring all the time until it is all used up and you have a creamy sauce. You may need to add a little extra milk. If you have leftover cooking juices from roasting the chicken, stir them in now. Set aside to cool.
In a frying pan, cook the bacon over a high heat, then set aside in a bowl large enough to hold all the filling. In the same pan, sweat the sliced leek in the butter till soft. About a minute before the end of cooking time, add the thyme leaves. Add this mix to the bacon, along with the chicken. Stir in your Béchamel sauce.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Flour the surface where you are going to roll it out. Roll out 2/3rds of your pastry to fit the base and sides of the pie dish, with a little overhang. Line the dish with the sheet of pastry, and spoon in the filling. Brush the edges of the base part of the pastry where the lid will meet. Roll out the remaining third, and cover the filling. Press the edges together. Put a few slits in the lid with a sharp knife to allow steam to escape. You can use any excess pastry for decoration, if that's your sort of thing. Brush the top with more beaten egg, and bake for about 25-30 minutes, till golden brown.

Leftovers, Day 1

And now for something altogether more low-rent. The leftover mashed potato, bound with a little egg, shaped into discs, and fried over a low-medium heat till golden. The gravy from the night before, heated and poured over. Gravy, like soups and curry, it tastes even better after a night in the fridge. This, with some bacon fried alongside the potato cakes, makes a Monday almost bearable.

Salt Beef Hash

Only halfway through the salt beef, I decided to make hash. It was perfect for a late Sunday night supper, but then it is also perfect for lazy morning breakfast. The really nice- and convenient- thing about it is that the best sort of hash is an imperfect one. That is to say, don't worry about cutting up the component parts nice and even, a mixture of sticky crispy brown bits with softer melting parts is the whole point of the dish.

Potato-wise, leftover cold potatoes are ideal, but you can boil uncooked ones if you are starting from scratch. My preference is for floury potatoes, as they crumble in the pan, soaking up more fat to give a crunchier finish. New potatoes cook more neatly and evenly, but have less charm.

I added some thyme leaves, as I had them in my fridge, but they are a mere suggestion, not an instruction. The tougher herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage) would all go well if you have them, but don't rush out to buy extras, thus starting an endless cycle of leftover ingredients. For similar reasons, I haven't specified exact quantities. Use what you have to hand. Obviously you don't want a dish that is all mostly just meat or just potato, just go with what looks right and what you feel like eating.

A fried egg is not actually part of the hash itself, but for me it completes its, as does ketchup and a good shake of Tabasco.


Ingredients
Oil, dripping or lard
Cooked potato
Onion (I reckon 1 large onion for 4 people is about right)
Cooked meat (in this case, salt beef, but you can also use leftovers from a roast or corned beef)
1 or 2 eggs per person (if you like)
salt and pepper.


Method
Heat your chosen fat in a large, heavy based frying pan. Dice up your potato into a size that pleases you, and once the oil is hot, add the potato pieces to the pan. Even out over the pan so they get browned on one side. Meanwhile, chop the onion and meat. Turn the potatoes over when they are nicely coloured, making sure to scrape the browned bits off the base of the pan. When all the potatoes have a golden colour, add the onions and cook for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add the meat and allow to crisp slightly- you may need to turn the heat up towards the end. If you are having eggs, push the potatoey mix to one side of the pan and fry them alongside. Done.

Cooked Hash