JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's Sunday, so of course that means another delicious recipe from our chef de maison, Celia Wakefield. Today she has the perfect luncheon or dinner dish for these cooling days, and as someone who got to eat (two large helpings!) I can assure you it's well worth the effort.
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Good morning my dear Reds and Readers, after missing Julia’s last
turn around the internet, here I am again and most grateful for so many things.
I will list a few as this is Thanksgiving week. For your friendship, whether we
have actually met or not. I promise I will get to a mystery con one day. For
open discussions which help understanding and lead to friendship. For the
beauty that surrounds me in Maine together with the quirkiness that identifies
a Mainer. There’s more but on to the real topic of the day.
And my question for you: Other than our obvious gratitude, family, security, peace, etc.,
What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?
Is there anything more delicious than a meat pie covered with golden puff pastry. The smell alone can be enough, releasing the savory steam as one cuts into the pastry. Eating it seems almost unnecessary.
I have always advocated that an important part of cooking skills is making pastry. When I opened my catering company, many years ago, I gave myself a stern talking to and declared I would learn how to make pastry well. And I did. I’m not a real expert but I can put a pie together without a soggy bottom.
With the weather growing colder and the night closing in earlier
I felt we needed a warming meal. Plus I have lots of lamb in my freezer
therefore why not a meat pie? Now I am inclined to go down many different paths
or tangents when writing but for now let us concentrate on lamb, delicious
roast lamb, lamb burgers, spiced meat balls, lamb wrapped in filo pastry. But
what about lamb and climate? Lamb is expensive, but with the addition of air
travel lamb can fly a long, long distance just for our enjoyment. How can I
with my environmental conscience buy New Zealand or Australian lamb knowing the
distance it is flown to feed me? Moving to Limerick, Maine gave me the
opportunity to have my lamb without feeling guilty. One of my friends here
raises lamb and I buy a half lamb each autumn - that’s roasts, stewing meat,
ground lamb and other little goodies. Did someone say kidneys?
I grew up with a leg of lamb being Sunday lunch. Such an important family meal set in my grandparents big dining room (imagine it about half the Downton Abby dining room size; any children misbehavior was not tolerated). The roast lamb was served with roast potatoes, at least two green veggies, one of which would be Brussels sprouts, real mint sauce and of course gravy. So delicious. But a meat pie? That’s work. Considering our various food needs at this time I felt using ground lamb would be gentle on the digestion. And as there’s generally not enough time perhaps I should just buy a packet of puff pastry. Now that is a radical idea, or as my daughter said, “No, that is smart Ma!” Plus consider it research as I have never used store bought pastry.
Let’s take a step back to catering days. I catered several parties for a client who loved meat pies. Making pastry covered pies for an evening of 20-50 people is challenging. But I came across an awesome hack. Make the pastry, measure, then roll it out the size of the pie, but BAKE it separately at the last minute and carefully slide it on top of the pie filling. Serve immediately. This works well.
A second important hack is to use dried mushrooms, I used Porcini. I consider this important because the liquid from soaking the mushrooms gives the pie a boost of umami and adds so much flavor hiding the fact that I am using no regular salt due to my low salt diet. Although dried mushrooms are expensive to buy, a small amount goes a very long way. There are 1.25 oz in the photo which was enough when soaked to flavor the whole pie. If you choose to use fresh mushrooms I recommend baby Bellas, however you will need to add some stock to compensate for the loss of the dried mushroom liquid.
Celia’s Lamb Pie
These weights and directions are general, as we all have a different meat pie in mind:
Ingredients:
1 1/2# ground meat, if using chicken I would recommend boneless
thighs
1 red onion sliced into small cubes
1.25 oz dried mushrooms (see soaking directions)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Olive Oil for sautéing
1 Tbsp Butter
Herbs, pepper as required
1 cup frozen peas added before baking
The meat filling:
1) Break the
mushrooms into smaller pieces and place in a glass or stainless bowl, then add
hot water to cover.
Press the mushrooms down to assure that they are covered completely by water.
Leave to soak for at least a half hour then pour off the mushroom liquid through a sieve into a clean bowl and reserve.
2) Coat a frying pan on medium heat with olive oil.
3) Add chopped onions with chopped garlic and saute till transparent over a low heat.
4) Chop the mushrooms and add to the onion mix with the butter, saute gently
5) Scrape the onion mixture into a bowl and set aside
6) Using the same
pan add more oil if necessary and saute the meat until the raw pink is cooked.
7) Mix in the onions, garlic and mushrooms, add herbs of choice, pepper etc
8) Strain the
mushroom liquid a second time using a fine sieve, coffee filter etc. to remove
any dirt left in the bottom of the bowl.
9) With the meat and onion mixture well combined add enough mushroom water to moisten but not drown it and bring to a light boil stirring and mixing well.
The meat is now ready. Blanch the frozen peas and add to the mix.
If not using immediately remove from heat and store in the fridge or freeze for future use.
Baking the pie
If using the store bought puff pastry, read the directions very carefully re defrosting and baking temperature.
Try not to open the oven as that lets heat out and can deflate puff pastry. If the pastry is cooking faster than the pie filling arrange some foil strips over the areas which are getting too brown.
Every oven is different and convection ovens usually take less time than regular ovens. But you know your own oven.
If baking the pastry to add to the filling, again follow the instructions on the packet and after rolling the pastry to your desired size place it on a sheet of baking parchment and on to the baking sheet.
One final thought. Do you remember the sugar plum recipe I did last Holidays, Julia will supply the link and here you can be ahead of the holiday gift list with a different sweetmeat. Just remember the recipe makes a large amount of sugar plums so consider halving it. I do.
