Pets de Nonnes

And for my next recipe in the Interesting Name series, we have Nun's Farts, or pets de nonnes- it definitely sounds better in French. They are basically deep fried choux paste, and are very light and airy, which I believe is where the name comes from.

These are also a type of beignets- you can get the yeasted version, which I blogged about last year, and the choux pastry type- both are good, the latter are much lighter. Both benefit from a good dusting of icing sugar.

I really enjoyed making these- there is something slightly mesmerising about dropping teaspoons of dough into hot oil, and watching them get bigger than a tennis ball- this is something to bear in mind when choosing your pan size! I only did 2-3 at once, as they grow so large- the photos below show the at the start and end of cooking.

Looking at various recipes, some had plain dough, others flavoured it. I decided to add lemon rind and a touch of rum, as recommended by this recipe. It was quite a subtle amount of flavouring, and I would be interested to play around with different flavourings for these.

I used the recipe linked above, but I didn't use a piping bag, instead just used a teaspoons. You don't get as smooth a finish as you would with a piping bag, but having a more uneven surface means you get parts of the pastry that stick out and crisp enticingly, which I think is a bonus. Plus you don't have to clean out a pastry bag.

These make a nice weekend breakfast.

Chocolate Mincemeat Eccles cakes

The name is pretty clumsy, I'll grant you. I couldn't think of a better way to describe these, 'chocolate mincemeat in flaky pastry' sounds a bit dull. They aren't even Eccles cakes, but as I used the same sort of pastry and shaped them in the same way, I felt this title conveyed what they are reasonably well.

Proper Eccles cakes don't use mincemeat as a filling (let alone experimental chocolatey mincemeat), they use a less gloopy, less rich mix of currents, butter, sugar, citrus zest and spices. Mincemeat is an obvious substitution, especially if, like me, you make mincemeat in such large quantities you need a few different recipes to finish it up post-Christmas.

This was my first time cooking with the chocolate and sour cherry mincemeat, and I was really happy with the results. I was concerned the chocolate would take over and it would be too sickly, but the characteristic tang of the mincemeat still comes through, helped by the additional orange juice and the sour cherries. The chocolate is just another dimension to the mincemeat mix.

I used, as I always do for Eccles cake, this Delia recipe, using butter and not the suggested margarine.

Peach and Blackberry Galette

The blackberries growing near me seem especially good. A few years ago I went blackberry picking and the fruit I got were mean, sour little things with not much taste to them at all. But this year they have been delightful, big and plump, and nice to just pick off as a little snack when you happen to walk past a bush.

In How to be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson has a recipe for blackberry galette. This is the same recipe, but with one peach, sliced. I made the blackberry only version, and a week later made the peach and blackberry. I think I prefer the addition with peaches, but then I really enjoy baked peach. The contrast of late summer and early autumn fruit is lovely too- it captures that wonderful time of the year when it is still sunny and bright, but there is a chill in the air, and the promise of a warm pudding makes the dark evenings bearable.

I was a big fan of the pastry- the cornmeal gives it a slightly sandy texture, which is nicer than it sounds. It is also nice to work with, easy to roll out and handle.

The link to the recipe can be found here. But to make my version, just cut a peach into thin slices, and top the pastry with it along with the blackberries. Aesthetically, I think peaches under the blackberries is best. I didn't reduce the amount of blackberries, despite the addition of peach.
One thing I did notice was in Nigella's recipe is that after you have rolled out the pastry, she instructs you to:
'Sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons sugar, to taste, then dollop with creme fraiche'
It is better to spread the crème fraîche over the surface of the pastry than to dollop. I think she must have done this too, judging by the photos. Lumps of baked crème fraîche are OK, but its nicer to spread it all out under the fruit, so it mixes with the blackberry juices evenly.

This is a very easy recipe, and good if you have friends over. The pastry can be left for a few hours in the fridge, and rolling it out and topping with fruit takes very little time. In 25 minutes or so, you have a great hot pudding that you can serve with the rest of the crème fraîche from the recipe. And like many things, its really good cold for breakfast.

Best Apple Pie

Not my recipe, but another one from the BBC Good Food 'Ultimate' Series. Like the other recipes I have tried from this series, I have little interest in using any other recipe for the same dish. And unlike other recipes from this series, I think it has not been subjected to being madeover into a healthy version- I have already vented about this in my post on their ultimate cheesecake recipe.


To me it seems too far early in the year for Bramley apples to be falling off the tree, but despite this my mum brought me a bag full of them from the garden along with several yellow and green courgettes. On Sunday night we ate pasta with slow cooked courgettes, lots of basil and garlic and a little cream,   followed by apple pie- a perfect transition from late summer to autumn in one meal.

One of the things I really like about this recipe are the unconventional methods used in making it. The pastry is the only pastry I have made where the butter needs to be soft, so you can mix it quickly with the sugar. It's much easier than fussing about with hard lumps of butter, iced water and cursing your warm hands. For the filling, the apples are cut up, and left to go brown, meaning the apples don't leak once they are cooked and make the pastry soggy. Magically, they lose their unappealing brown colour once cooked.

We ate this with proper custard, I used Delia's recipe. The recipe suggests cream, but this was perfect for me.

Pecan Pie

                                         
Rewatching Twin Peaks has made me yearn for some Damn Fine Pie. Dale Cooper actually always had cherry or huckleberry pie, but I'm sure he would've approved. The Gumbo Pages has a rather lovely entry on pecan pie, which inspired me to finally get round to making it. I used the filling from the second recipe, but the recipe that follows has a few of my own touches that I needed to put in. A 9" pie crust is listed as one of the ingredients. I'm not sure if it is assumed the reader will know how to make a pie crust off the top of their head, or will just buy one from the supermarket. I didn't want to buy a ready made one, so I had to decide on what base I was going to make. Presumably shortcrust, and I think a pecan pie would usually have sweet pastry instead of plain. I decided to use the pastry recipe based on the one from Heston Blumenthal's treacle tart recipe, as I think of treacle tart as a kind of British version of Pecan pie. I have made the treacle tart before, and it was wonderful, as you might expect of any Heston recipe. Filling-wise, I didn't want to go on a special trip looking for corn syrup, so I used a mixture of maple and golden.

It took me three days to be able to try the fruits of my labours. I made the pastry on Tuesday, let it rest overnight, finished cooking it on Wednesday, but had to let it cool and set before I could eat it. So I finally got to try it today, and it was worth the wait. It won't take everyone 3 days, but it will if you insist on making it midweek when you're doing 9-5. Save it for the weekend, basically.

This was the first time I have made pecan pie, and it wasn't the smoothest cooking experience. But next time (and there will be a next time) it'll be far more pleasurable experience to make and I'll be a lot more confident cooking it. Below are the reasons why it was difficult, if you are going to make the recipe, read on.

First of all, the pastry. The standard recipe for shortcrust pastry contains a 2:1 ratio of flour to flour. This recipe takes it up to equal proportions of both, which is likely to raise the eyebrows of any long-time pastry maker. This is one of the few examples in cooking where lack of knowledge might be a bonus; when I saw that the recipe used 400g of butter and 400g flour, I assumed it would be difficult, whereas if I had never made pastry before, I wouldn't think anything of it.The procedure for making it is much the same, starting with the rubbing in of cold butter into the flour. I was fine until just over halfway in; the mixture resembled it characteristic 'breadcrumb' texture, but when I continued to add butter past the 'half fat ratio', it clumped up to a doughy paste. This is what I assumed would happen, but the recipe said it should resemble breadcrumbs when all the butter had been incorporated. Despite the wrong consistency, I decided to press on, adding the sugar and eggs. At this stage, it was unlike any pastry dough I have ever seen or made. It resembled a thick cake batter, far too wet to be able to roll out. Still, I didn't want to give up on it just yet, so I placed it in the fridge for the first resting period. During this time, I did a bit of research on other people's experiences making the pastry. I found that I should've chilled everything, instead of just the butter and eggs. And I mean everything, flour, sugar, mixing bowl. Possibly if I had not missed this stage I would've been able to rub all the butter into the flour without it becoming a dough.

I left the dough in the fridge overnight (the minimum time is 3 hours), by which time it had really firmed up. Aside from needing a bit of upper-arm strength to get the rolling out started, the majority of the next few stages went smoothly. More of Heston's innovation comes out here; you line the tin with the pastry and chill for half an hour. Then you prepare the case for blind baking by covering it with greaseproof, and baking beans or preferably coins. It's a great idea, because the metal coins conduct heat much better. It's probably better to use foreign currency that you aren't likely to need again. If you have some francs hanging around from holidays past then now is the time to use them. Then you chill it again before you can blind bake it.

From my online research, I found that others experienced the pastry leaking out butter as it cooked, and some shrinkage. So halfway cooking, I removed the pastry case, and dabbed up some of the excess butter. To deal with the shrinkage, I used the back of a teaspoon to press the sides of the pastry back up against the tin. Luckily, despite my doubts, it came out as a pastry case should.

Making the filling threw up far less issues, as its just the matter of chopping the pecans and whisking everything together. But I did make a few mistakes that you and I can learn from. Make the filling in a measuring jug, so you have more control when you pour it into the pastry case. I poured from a mixing bowl and got liquid filling over the top of the case, which made it look a bit messy even after I did some damage control with a spoon.

 Finally, when it comes out of the oven, the filling will still be very liquid and now molten. Be really careful when taking it out, you might find it easiest to slide it onto a chopping board or similar from the oven shelf. The last thing you want is burnt hands and a pie on the floor in place of dessert.

Ingredients
For the pastry (makes enough for 2 pies, either freeze remainder, halve pastry ingredients or double filling to make 2 pies):
400g plain flour
1 heaped tsp salt
400g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
100g icing sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

For the filling:
4 eggs
60g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
250g soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125ml maple syrup
190ml golden syrup
150g pecans, chopped

..............

Method
Please read above notes on the pastry making before proceeding!
Put the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Rub in the chilled and diced butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. You may have to add the butter in batches, given the quantity. Stir in the icing sugar, and then the eggs and yolks. Form into a ball, clingfilm and place in the refridgerator for at least 3 hours. As my dough was so soft, I just clingfilmed the bowl instead.

Grease a 9" pie dish. Dust a sheet of greaseproof paper with flour. Take about 2/3 of the dough out, and place on the greaseproof paper. Dust this with more flour, place another sheet of baking paper on top and roll out to 5mm thickness. Line the dish with the pastry, trimming off the overhang. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Take another sheet of greaseproof, scrunch it up, smooth it out again, and put on top of the pastry. Weigh it down with baking beans or coins. Return to the fridge, and leave it for another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 150C. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, take it out of the oven and remove the greaseproof and coins/baking beans. Soak up any excess butter with kitchen roll. If needed, use the back of a teaspoon to push the sides of the pastry back up against the tin. Remove and allow to cool once the blind baking time is done.

Turn the oven up to 180C. In a measuring jug, whisk together the eggs, then mix in the remaining ingredients. Pour into the prepared pastry case. Don't overfill it - you may have a little extra filling left over. Bake for 45 minutes. It will need to cool down before it is sliceable. Serve with vanilla ice cream  (my preference), or cream.

Update- 19/10/14

I revisited this recipe, but wanted to use a different pastry recipe- something simpler and less rich- the pie I made back in 2012 was delicious, but I felt a plainer crust would work better with the sticky sweet filling. I made a half quantity* of this simple sweet shortcrust, which is less rich than the Heston pastry, and much easier to work with. I also got rid of most of the chilling stages, only resting the dough between making it and using it to line the pie. I still used the same times and temperatures for the blind baking and baking as in the recipe above. I added in a step of using some foil to protect the rim of the pie crust, as it gets very dark very quickly.

Overall, I think I preferred this pie crust for a pecan pie- it allowed the richness of the filling to shine through, but was still had a wonderful short texture, and buttery flavour. It also makes making pecan pie so much easier and faster, without resorting to a pre-made pastry shell.

* a half quantity still made enough for two pies, so either quarter the link recipe, or make enough for more pies, freezing what you don't immediately use for a later date.

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.

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.