Vegetarian Cornish pasties

First things first, these may not be actual Cornish pasties, my understanding of a Cornish pasty is that it's the crinkle along the top that makes it a Cornish pasty,  I do the crinkle so am calling them Cornish pasties if this is not the case then I apologies whole heartedly. Phew now that's done I will crack on with the recipe.

Now I haven't eaten meat for.......18 years, There are obviously lots of meat substitutes around now and I think you can get these pasties, but I tried them and wasn't that impressed so here is my version.

ingredients

1 Onion
2 medium potatoes
1 carrot
( these should all be diced quite small)
1 pack of your preferred brand of vegetarian mince
Good handful of peas
1 pack of frozen short crust pastry ( I am with Jamie Oliver on this one, I think it's just as good, but if you prefer by all means make your pastry from scratch)
Vegetarian gravy
Cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry off the onions, potatoes and carrots until they start to soften, add the mince and cook until browned.

Whilst that is cooking make up your gravy, not too much as you don't want there to be too much liquid as this will give you soggy pastry, but anyone who cooks with veggie mince will know it drinks up water, I add my cumin to the gravy I like quite a lot but add as much as you require.

Now add your gravy and peas to the pan and let the mixture simmer until everything is cook through and piping hot.

While that's simmering prepare your pastry. You need to roll it out to about 5mm thickness, be careful not to roll too thin or all the filling will explode out of the pastry when cooking.

I use 2 different size plates for my pasties, an adult portion and a kids portion, side plates are perfect size for adult pasties and I use saucers for the kids.

The last point I would make is that you don't need lots of filling a good dessert spoon in the little ones and 2 for the big ones is perfect, don't over fill or it will just end up a mess. You will have loads of filling leftover but I just freeze it and then next time you have a quick homemade meal ready to go.

Put milk on half of the circumference of you pastry lift into the middle and squeeze and crinkle going out using your thumb and finger. Prick the sides of the pasty with a folk, these air holes will allow steam to escape without the pastry falling apart and glaze the outside with the rest of the milk

Cook in an 180 oven for about 20-25 minutes.

To do List

I always seam to have a list in mind of things I would like to try in the kitchen, however when I find time to bake I tend to do things that are tried and tested so I know I will have an edible finished product rather than trying out new recipes that may be a complete disaster and end up in the bin.

This year I have vowed to not only attempt, but perfect all the items on my cooking to do list, some are recipes that I have never tried before, some are things that have never worked in the past but I'm still determined that I can crack them (the dreaded potatoes dauphinoise being a case in point)

So here's the list, not massive but potentially hazardous!!

Custard
Know this is a tricky one because I don't actually like custard, however I think that is because I remember school custard which I am hoping mine will taste nothing like and that this will change my opinion, and if it doesn't I have 3 very eager testers that will be more than happy to give me there opinion on my cooking.

Cookies
These are 1 of my trouble areas, I have attempted these a few times over the years and never got them to the right texture, some have been so bad that they never made it to a plate, some tasted fine but where more biscuit than cookie, it's the soft centre that alludes me but hopefully not for long.

Gingerbread
More precisely a gingerbread house, but as I have never made gingerbread before I think I will try gingerbread men first then try to upscale to a standing structure.

Fresh Pasta
Have wanted to attempt fresh pasta for years but have never pushed myself to do it, I read recently that blogs are best used to help you achieve what you want by writing it down and sharing with others, so I am hoping this is the case and that now it is in black and white it will encourage me to take the plunge.

Potatoes Dauphinoise
This may well be my downfall, have attempted this on several occasions and they are normally inedible, my sauce is fine but no matter how long I cook the potatoes for they are always raw or extreme al dente. But I will persevere till the end of the year, but if at the end of this year they are still 95% disaster I will never attempt them again and will admit they are beyond me ( but with a heavy heart)

So that's my list, I will obviously make lots of other hopefully scrumptious things over the year and will try and blog as many recipes as I can but this is my challenge and I will keep you updated with my success as well as failure.

Winter warmer, Vegetable broth

I love soup, it's like a food group all on its own, I could eat nothing but soup, I don't, but I could.

Today I am making Vegetable broth, so the first thing to remember is to soak your broth the night before.

Now I don't normally follow a recipe for soup, I tend to just chuck in what I have, so will just tell you what I'm chucking in today, so anything is changeable or replaceable to suit your own tastes.

1 Onion
1 Good size Leek
3 Celery sticks
1 Large Potato
1 Large carrot
1 Parsnip
2 cups of broth ( soaked overnight )
1 Vegetable stock cube
Cumin

Chop your Onion, Leek and Celery finely, Dice the rest of the vegetables.

Put a good few glugs of oil into a pan and put on a medium heat, when hot add the Onion,Leek and Celery put the lid on to let them sweat but keep an eye on them and stir if needed.
Dissolve the stock cube in about a litre of boiling water add cumin ( I just add a good shake )

When your Onions are soft add the rest of the veg, your stock and your broth ( make sure you drain it and give it a good rinse first) now just pop the lid on and stir when needed. It should take between 20-30 mins.

Know I like to purée my soups, but with the broth I do like it to be a bit chunky so using a handheld purée'er whizz it up in a mashing motion until the texture starts to change but you still have lots of lovely diced carrots and potatoes, put back on heat till boiling and then enjoy. X

Me and my kitchen.

After looking through my Instagram feed and realising a good 80% of my posts were food related I thought I would extend this love to my blog that has been left dormant and unloved for an age.

As I am sure most of you do, I love cooking for my family (when I have time) and love baking too and with Christmas approaching fast I seem to spend most of my time at home in the kitchen.

I love sharing my recipes and finding new ones. So I will post mine if you will share yours.

Bloody Halloween Hearts

There not really that Halloweeny, but I just wanted a excuse to make them and try out my top tip for making heart shaped cupcakes.

So first you make your normal sponge cake mix

6oz Butter

6oz Sugar

3 eggs

6oz Self raising flour

beat your butter and sugar till light and fluffy and your eggs slowly then add your flour. lovely.

Now add a small amount of mixture to each cupcake case, then add a small blob of jam to the centre of each case

Then top the cases up with more cake mixture.

Now add a marble inbetween your tray and your case

Then bake as normal 180 for around 15 mins depending on your oven.

When there cooked, let them cool before dusting with icing.

Enjoy!

Button Biscuits

Recipe and instructions for button biscuits.

Made these with my 5 year old daughter this week, will definitely make them again probably as christmas gifts for the teachers threaded up with ribbon and a lovely gift tag on the top. I'm such a suck up.

Recipe ( from daughters Disney princess cook book )

215g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
140g unsalted butter cut into small pieces
115g soft light brown sugar (we used caster sugar)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg yolk

ok lets go, oven on at 180 c /350 f /gas mark 4

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into large bowl, rub in the butter using fingertips until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

 Job for your little helper.

Stir in sugar, cinnamon and egg yolk and using hands kneed into soft dough. flour work surface and roll out dough until 5mm thick.
Here you will need two round cookie cutters one slightly smaller than the other and I used a chop stick to make the holes but  whatever you have will do.

So using the bigger cookie cutter cut out your biscuits then with the slightly smaller one just push into the dough lightly to give a indented inner circle then push your chopstick or other object in the dough and give it a wiggle to make your 4 button holes in a square.

pop them on a greased baking tray and pop in the oven for about 20 mins. my top tip here is take your biscuits out after 10 mins and redo the button holes or they will close up and be no good.

to make into lovely gifts thread up with ribbon in little bundles and give to whoever you think deserves them. ( or eat them all up yourself as they are rather tasty )

Enjoy. x