Christmas Mince Pie Recipe

My family has used the same recipe for decades, probably. Lots of fatty goodness, this will make about 4 dozen pies, depending on how thin you roll your pastry.

Christmas Mince Pies

Fruit mince meat

1x large tin pie apples

225g currants

225g sultanas

225g raisins

120g mixed peel

675g sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp nutmeg

225g melted butter

Brandy to taste (about 1 wine glass)

Mince all fruit together.  Add sugar. Mix well with melted butter. Add spices and brandy.

Make this a few months in advance and store in the fridge. It should keep for a couple of years, if you keep the jars sealed.

Sugar free mince meat

Instead of adding sugar add sugar substitute.  Melt with butter.

Make fruit mince meat ahead of time. Place in airtight container and keep in fridge.

Pastry

250g margarine/butter

250g Holsum (vegetable fat)

500g flour

1 cup boiling water

Sieve flour.  Cut up butter/Holsum.  Mix well with water.  Will result in a sloppy consistency.  Place in wax proof paper and cool in fridge.

Roll out pastry on floured surface. Using a glass cut out pie “bottoms” and place in cookie baking tray; place teaspoon of mince meat on top of “bottom.  Use a slightly smaller glass to cut out “tops”; brush underneath with water and place on top of mince meat.  Seal edges.  Use a sharp knife to make 2 small vents in the top.

Cooking

Bake at 220° for 15 – 18 minutes in a pre-heated oven. Watch carefully – don’t overcook.

Chocolate Brownies

First and last recipe I'll ever use. Slight adaptation from that used on the BBC Good Food website, but pretty good anyway.

Makes lots.

You need:

185g butter
185g dark chocolate
40g cocoa powder
85g plain flour
275g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g milk chocolate

Preheat the oven to about 170C. Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a bowl over a low heat. Leave to cool to room temperature. Chop the milk chocolate up into little itty bits. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together into a separate bowl somewhere. In another, biggerer bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until it looks like a milkshake. Once done, fold in the chocolate and butter mix, then, once that's done, do the same with the flour and cocoa. Finally, mix in the chocolate chunks. Bake for about 25-35 min in a shallow dish (I used a 25x35cm dish with baking paper underneath, worked a treat). Check with a toothpick. If it comes out dirty, put it back in for 5 minutes at a time. It should be juicy, and the top should be crispy and look like paper and the like.

Very nice...

Mushroom soup

We had people over today, and the planned pumpkin soup didn't pan out, due to there being a dearth of ripe pumpkin in the shops for some reason. So we had a mushroom soup instead, which worked out quite well, in my opinion. The original recipe is for 4-6, but I doubled the quantities, as we had people in and out the whole afternoon (oh, aren't we popular?).

Anyway, here goes:

500g mushrooms, finely sliced (I used a mixture of portobello and white button mushrooms (champignons), but you could add others, like chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, etc etc)
2 onions, finely diced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
about 90g butter (2 tbsp)
2 tbsp flour
1 litre chicken stock
a bay leaf
1/2 cup cream (the thicker the better)
salt and pepper to taste

In a gigantic pot, fry the onion and garlic in the butter until translucent, then add the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes while stirring. Add the flour and make sure the mushrooms are well covered. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then add the bay leaf and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. When done, leave to cool for a bit, then blend using a food processor or handheld mixer thingy. Add the cream, mix in, season to taste, and serve, perhaps with some bread, or Tabasco, or tomatoes.

Enjoy.

Butternut soup

It's miserable here, so we made a good traditional South African butternut soup yesterday. Don't use pumpkin unless you absolutely have to: this is a butternut soup, with all the fun that entails. Here's the recipe:

Should serve about 6

1.5 kg butternut (muskaatkõrvits or pähkelkõrvits in Estonian), peeled and cut into 5cm blocks
2 large onions, finely chopped
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
a chilli (or to taste), finely chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
250ml cream
1tsp nutmeg, ground
1tsp cumin, ground
1/2 tsp mustard seeds, ground
salt and pepper to taste
coriander leaves to serve

In a large pot, melt the butter, and fry the onion, garlic and chilli at medium heat until transparent. Add the spices, and stir around a bit until everything is well covered. Add the butternut, stock, and lemon juice, stir again, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes or until the butternut is soft and ready. Puree it using a food processor or handheld mixer thingy, then add the cream and carefully heat it again. It should then be ready.

Serve with an extra dollop of cream and some coriander. And bread. And wine. And freeze the rest for winter.

Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya

I don't know when I first heard about this magnificent combination of stuff, but it's become one of my favourite dishes ever. Quick, simple, and filling. And it can feed you for a week or so. Enjoy.

Jambalaya (portions here will feed about 4)

You will need:

2 chicken breasts, cut up into wee little pieces
about 200g of chorizo, also in wee little pieces
an onion, diced
garlic to taste, crushed or finely sliced
One or two chillies, depending on tastes
2 sticks of celery, sliced
A pepper or two, diced
4 tomatoes, boiled for a minute then diced, or (if you're lazy) a 400-ml tin of tomatoes
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika
about 400ml of chicken stock
1 tbsp of Tabasco (again, to taste)
1 cup of long-grain rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop stuff up. Dry-fry the chorizo until somewhat cooked in a big heavy pot with a lid. Don't worry, there's more than enough oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Remove, then fry the chicken until browned. Take that out too and put it to one side with the chorizo, then add the onion, garlic, celery and chilli, fry until soft, then add the peppers and do like-wise. When that's done, add the chicken, chorizo, and tomatoes, mix it all up, add the rice, making sure that it's all coated in oil and stuff, then add the stock, bay leaves, paprika, tabasco, and salt and pepper as needed. I also sometimes add oregano. Ensure the stock is covering the rice, then leave to cook for about 30 to 45 minutes. Don't let it get too dry - there should be some juice.

Serve it in a bowl, maybe with some salad, definitely with some wine or beer.

Enjoy.

Banana Bread

I like banana-based desserts, for some reason. Here is a banana bread recipe I kind of patched together which worked wonderfully well. Enjoy.

You will need:

4 overripe bananas (should be about 400 ml when mashed) + 85 ml milk + 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
OR
5-6 overripe bananas (should be about 550 ml when mashed), no milk
285 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown/muscovado sugar
110 g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees. Grease a bread tin, about 20cm x 12.5 cm. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, in a smaller bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the sugar and butter, then mix in together with the eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and cinnamon (and milk mixture, if you're using it). Fold the flour mixture into the banana/egg/sugary mixture, then pour into the bread tin. Shove in the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through (poke with a toothpick or something thin - if it comes out clean, your loaf is ready). Take it out, put to one side to cool down for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the tin carefully and leave to cool on a rack. Serve buttered and delicious.

Enjoy.

Ceviche

Ceviche is a lovely South American dish of raw fish, coriander, and citrus fruit. And... that's about it, really. At least, the basics are really basic. But there are lots of possibilities to expand on the base. So go wild. This is the most recent, very basic, but quite fantastic version I used.

500g salmon, cut into 1cm-long strips
500g white fish (can't remember which type, since it was in Estonian), ditto
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 cup lime juice, ditto
1 chilli, seeded and finely diced
1 1/2 tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 small red pepper, ditto
Coriander to taste and serve
Dash of Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste, oregano
Avocado to serve

Combine everything in a non-metallic bowl or dish (glass or plastic) and leave to sit for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve with the avo and extra coriander.

I feel I should point out that this doesn't keep, so it should be eaten within 24 hours. These proportions should serve 6-8.

If you're feeling adventurous, substitute your fish for other fish, or even prawns or other seafood; or add grapefruit, pomegranate, garlic, basil, etc. Go wild.

Have fun.