Tax Free Pasties

Shortcrust Spiced Lamb and Pine nut Pasties and Filo Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta Pasties

This weekend saw a spot of topical cooking, I made mini pasties, although my 'freshly baked goods' didn’t come with an extra 20% VAT and were perhaps a little bit better for you than a trip to Greggs... I did heat them for the customer, so should have charged extra according to Mr. Osborne... But served them in various states of cooling, so perhaps not according to Greggs chief exec, Mr. Ken McMeiKan. It's a complicated business these days all to do with ambient temperatures. So in winter a warm pasty would be chargeable but last week in our little heat wave when its boiling outside it wouldn’t be...

Thankfully The Blonde and her fella, Boozer and the other characters didn’t have to stump up any cash and everyone tucked in to piles of steaming pasties... There was a modest supply of flat breads to accompany the little hot pasties, along with smoky aubergine dip, toasted cumin hummus, spicy tomato sauce, tzatziki to start... Followed by slow cooked Moroccan lamb, couscous, apricot jam and garlic green beans... and perhaps too much wine...

The limited supply of flat breads was due to a little fire incident as I tried to speedily make my own. I had pre rolled them and left them between layers of grease proof paper, thinking I was being super organised... It turned out that they didn’t really want to come off the grease proof paper and as I faffed around peeling paper and getting stressed I managed to stick some of the said greaseproof paper under the hob that was in use! Thankfully the back door was already open so as the flames leapt up I had to throw the whole lot out of the back door... So we were a few flat breads short on starting, but everyone still had a fine time... It all added to the excitement.

There were two types of pasty, Spiced Lamb and Pine nut in shortcrust pastry and Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta in filo pastry. The sweet potato ones were so simple. Peel and chop into inch sized chunks 2 sweet potatoes, add to a roasting tin with salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 200°C, roast for 30 minutes, adding 5 or 6 cloves of garlic still in their skins after 15 minutes. When they are done take them out of the oven to cool, squeeze the garlic out of their skins and mush everything with a fork. Test for seasoning and add some salt and pepper if needed, then crumble in about half a pack of feta cheese. I also added a few cheeky bits of manchego.

I used filo pastry, brushed with melted butter and folded them into little triangles, I made about 20 of them in total, they were voted the favourites by the visitors. But at that point they had survived a kitchen fire and had quite a bit of wine so who knows...

The lamb pasties were a little bit more effort but by no means complicated... Chop an onion and cook in olive oil with a little salt until soft and golden, add ½ teaspoon of allspice, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of sumac. I brought my sumac back from a holiday in Turkey, you can get hold of it here, but it would also be fine to leave it out if you can't find any. Cook the onion and spices for a few minutes. Add 300g of lamb mince and cook until it is browned all over, then stir in 1 tablespoon of tomato purée, add 2 chopped vine tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Mine dried out more than I expected in the oven so don’t cook it away entirely. Finally season and add a handful of toasted pine nuts and a handful of chopped mint, and leave to cool to room temperature.

I then used shortcrust pasty cut into circles and folded over into little crescents with a teaspoon of lamb mixture inside, sealed with a fork and brushed with egg wash. I baked both types of pasties at 200°C for 20 minutes, keep checking them though as they may brown at different rates depending on your oven and you don't want burnt pasties! The spiced lamb ones were lovely with the spicy tomato sauce, and the sweet potato even more delicious with buttery crisp pastry, mellow garlic, sweet potato and tangy melted cheese...

I'm thinking about trying out ones with roast apple and black pudding next perhaps or creamy chicken, capers and bacon...

Sweet potato, pecan and herb salad

I thought by loading up on this on Sunday I could keep away an incoming cold, it's full of orange juice and lemon juice and ginger and herbs and nuts and vegetables... But no it didn't work and I'm fully struck down by the cold. It still tasted nice though...

It is a bit of a flavour explosion salad, in a good way though. The dressing is the key component, it is sweet but spicy with ginger, sharp lemon, silky honey and sweet sherry vinegar. It's an Ottolenghi recipe, a lot of their recipes are very full on flavours so you have to be careful what you serve them with, as it can all become a bit too much sometimes if you put a few of their salads together.

Chop the sweet potato into 2cm cubes, with the skin still on. Drizzle over a glug of olive oil and some salt and pepper and mix it all up so that they are covered evenly with oil.

Put them in the oven at 190 C for 30-40 minutes to roast. Check them once about half way through, turning them over gently. At the same time put 35g of pecan nuts onto a roasting tray and toast them in the oven for 4-5 minutes, be careful to watch them as they burn quite quickly. Leave them to cool when they are done.

While the roasting is going on you can make the dressing. Use a medium sized bowl, there is quite a lot of dressing. Pour in 4 tbsps of olive oil, about 60ml. Add 2 tbsps of clear honey, the recipe actually asks for maple syrup, but I have preferred it when I've used honey in the past. Add 1 tbsp of squeezed lemon juice, 1 tbsp of sherry vinegar and 2 tbsp of squeezed orange juice.

Whisk these all together. Finally add 2 tsps of grated ginger and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. It seems like quite a lot of dressing, but the roasted potatoes will soak it up while they are still warm.

Chop up 4 spring onions and the toasted pecans, not too fine for either of them, the crunchy bits of nuts with the soft potato is really good.

Now chop 4 tbsp of flat leaf parsley and 2 tbsp of coriander. I just ordered my herb seeds today, so hopefully will be able to grow enough to keep me supplied over the summer. I think it might be a hard job though as things like this would wipe out an entire plant...

Add everything into a big bowl. The herbs, spring onions, chopped pecans, a good pinch of chilli flakes, 35g of sultanas and the still warm sweet potatoes. Mix it all together.

Finally pour over the dressing and stir it though all of the ingredients. The potatoes will soak it up as they are still warm. Serve it at room temperature.