Meal Planning Monday - the last leg (of January!) edition

It's finally here (well nearly) - the end of January and the nights are beginning to feel a little lighter. Hurrah, I say. Our usual busy week is ahead of us - children singing, dancing, swimming (thankfully not all at once) and a busy work week for me as a quarterly deadline approaches.

The week is made up of a soup to use up leftovers, an easy meal to cope with the fact that I am watching them sing in Asda on Tuesday after school, a slow cooker meal and some random other stuff chosen by me or Monkey. Nothing outrageous.

This is it then.

Monday - Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup
Tuesday - Meatballs, mash and gravy
Wednesday - Lamb and lentil crumble
Thursday - Slow cooker Caribbean chicken with rice and peas
Friday - Chilli with cheesy cornbread
Saturday - Mushroom stroganoff
Sunday - keeping free for now

Enjoy your week. Don't forget to visit Mrs M's place by clicking the badge above and seeing what others are having this week.

Getting my goat

No, I'm not annoyed at anything. Far from it. I mean, someone sent me some food to try!

Those people were from St Helen's Farm, who despite the name are in Yorkshire, not Merseyside. They sent me lots of different goat products to try out. Now, in this house, we don't really need them as none of us have any dairy allergies but I thought I'd give them a try out as there are a lot of benefits of trying a goats milk diet which husband sometime mentions.

When the box arrived, there was a slight problem with one tub of yogurt which had got squashed in transit but we were able to try what was left in the pot and everything was pretty unscathed. I didn't expect that I would be sent so many different varieties - whole milk, semi-skimmed, skimmed, butter, yogurts and a hard, not soft, cheese, just like cheddar, but cream in colour rather than yellow.

There is no doubt that goat products do have a strong taste to them. Personally, I found that the goat's milk was fine for putting in tea - although I have very little milk in tea - but not for coffee; well, I largely have cappuccinos which are very milky. I could definitely pick up the taste of it and personally, I don't find it pleasant. The yogurts have been used in cooking and mixed with fruit puree for the children to eat and we find that palatable. The butter has a strongish taste too, but I'm yet to try it in cooking.

What I did really like was the cheese. I like the taste of goats cheese, and it was fabulous in toasties with some sliced spring onion. However, I thought I would try this polenta dish out and adapt it - because let's face it, plain polenta doesn't taste of much and is pretty bland so I thought adding the goat's cheese would pack a punch. I have upped the cheese slightly compared to what I actually made as husband made the comment that it could do with being a slightly stronger taste. Of course, with the polenta - which is corn meal - this is wheat free and cow's milk free so it's a nice meal for someone with two of the most common allergies.

This is a very informal dish and can be served as an appetiser, with antipasti, for a larger meal with friends. However, we just had it for tea, sat around the table with spoons scooping it up. It's adapted from a Gennaro Contaldo recipe that I found and have been meaning to try for ages. I changed it because there was loads of oil in the recipe, and I didn't use wild mushrooms; I just used a mixture of chestnut mushrooms and the usual sort you get in the supermarket. It's also pretty quick to make.

Goat's Cheese Polenta with Mushrooms

Serves 4 as a main course, 6-8 as an appetiser

For the mushroom sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped (I use frozen mostly!)
1 tsp thyme leaves, fresh or dried (optional)
600g mushrooms of any sort, sliced thickly
1 tbsp tomato puree
100ml veg stock


For the polenta
1 litre water
200g quick cook polenta
25g butter
150g hard goats cheese, cut into 1cm cubes or roughly grated, plus a few shavings.

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the garlic and thyme (if using) and cook over a low heat until softened. Add the mushrooms, turn up the heat, and stir fry for a few minutes until the mushrooms start to brown.

2. Stir in the tomato purée, followed by the stock. Cook for a few minutes to reduce the liquid and make a sauce. If the mixture looks too dry, add a bit more liquid but the liquid from cooking the mushrooms should help.  Set the sauce to one side whilst you make the polenta. (This can be done in advance and heated through gently when you are ready to make the polenta.)

3. Now, make the polenta. Place the water - and a good pinch of salt - in a medium saucepan, and bring to the boil. Pour in the polenta in a steady stream, stirring with a wooden spoon all the time to avoid lumps. If lumps do form, beat well and the lumps should break up. Keep stirring until it starts to come away from the side of the pan - this should take around 5 minutes. Stir in the butter and then add the cheese, stirring to distribute.

4. To serve, you need a lightly oiled wooden board. If you don't have one, try a pizza stone or similar, which is what I used. Pour or spoon the polenta onto the board - you want to spread it out to a circle around 20cm in diameter, about 2.5cm thick. Place the shavings on top of the polenta, then top with the mushroom sauce.

5. Place the board in the centre of the table and allow everyone to take their share. If liked, you can serve with a plate of Italian antipasti.

Meal Planning Monday - the is it really June edition!

Well, is it? The weather has been very strange of late. Our holiday was interrupted by a few days of terrible rain and the same has been happening since we returned. One day, it might be nice and then it's awful. Saturday was one of those days so it was a good job we were planning to spend most of it inside, what with Missy Woo's dance show.

So, I'm planning for another week and I'm not entirely sure what to expect. Normally, I'd be cracking out the salads and stuff, but I am really not sure what is going to happen so I'm still planning to cook. Apart from that, I don't think we have much on this week, apart from Saturday when husband and I both have separate commitments in opposite directions at roughly the same time so the children are going to Granny's until I get home, so no cooking will be planned.

Here's our week anyway. Monkey has requested honey and mustard pork for today but I've decided to try something new to go with it.

Monday - Honey and mustard pork, slow cooker garlic mash, broccoli
Tuesday - Smoked haddock and leek baked risotto
Wednesday - Goat's cheese polenta with mushrooms
Thursday - Sandwiches (yawn.... )
Friday - Sloppy Joe bake
Saturday - free
Sunday - One-pot chicken and chickpea pilau

So that's our week. How is your week shaping up? Do tell me, and then head over to Mrs M's to find the other MPM entries this week. May the rain on you be brief and the sun be warm and plentiful.

Slow cooker risotto - a recipe for success

I love my slow cooker. Regular readers of my ramblings will not be surprised by this revelation as I might have mentioned this before. They are so useful if you want to save money and time, once you learn a different way of cooking - it's not massively different but you do have to adapt recipes for the slow cooker, generally needing less liquid as less evaporates during cooking.

Until recently, I have never considered cooking risotto in a slow cooker. In theory, it should be a prime candidate for slow cooking to save time as risotto does require a lot of attention - constant stirring means you're stood at the hob from the moment you start cooking. After all, I make very passable rice pudding in a slow cooker and the basic ingredients are the same - rice and some liquid. However, I couldn't get over the thought that risotto does need so much attention for a reason - because that attention is what makes it so nice. I'd always steered clear of oven baked risotto recipes for the same reason but people do rave about them.

Putting my prejudices to one side, I decided to give it a go and trawled around some recipes. The first thing that struck me was how many used brown rice, not risotto rice. Maybe I'm a food snob ("Yes!" I hear you shouting at your screen) but I want my risotto to be as authentic as possible and I couldn't see how brown rice could give a risotto that lovely creaminess. Eventually, I found a recipe using risotto. The cooking time  was 2 hours - rice pudding often takes 2 to 3 hours so it sounded right. I put it on one day just before the school run, and checked it after one hour. There was very little liquid that hadn't been absorbed and rice was already well cooked. Overcooked, in fact. By the time it was actually tea time, it was very overcooked. It tasted nice though but the rice needed some work.

I decided to give it another go but keep a closer eye on it to see just how long it needed to make rice that wasn't overcooked (or undercooked, for that matter) because it was obvious to me that it needed much less time. The result I got was pretty much near perfect for my tastes. Husband said it was still slightly different to conventional risotto but the children both loved it and asked for it again!

I use the high setting on my slow cooker. If you want to leave the risotto longer, then do cook it on a lower setting but it can take anything up to twice as long to cook. It might be a case of knowing your own slow cooker to get it right.

I'm making my risotto with leek and mushrooms because that's what we had in. Raw meat should be cooked before you add the onions or leeks.This serves 2 adults and 2 children - if you have 4 adults to feed, or very very hungry children, increase the rice to 300g and stock to about 800ml. The stock doesn't need to be boiling - it will cook quicker that way so only use boiling stock if you really are in a hurry.

Slow cooker leek and mushroom risotto
Serves 4

Ingredients
knob of butter
1 tsp olive oil
3 leeks, thinly sliced (or 1 onion, finely chopped)
200g mushrooms, sliced
250g risotto rice
650ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
50g parmesan, grated


1. Melt the butter in a large pan and add a splash of olive oil so it doesn't burn. Add the leeks or onion and the mushrooms and cook over a medium low heat until the leeks or onions are soft but not coloured, which takes about 3 -5 minutes.

2. Add the rice and stir until it starts becoming translucent, about another 3 minutes. Tip everything in to the slow cooker.

3. Pour in all but 50ml of the hot stock and give everything a quick stir, cover and cook on high.

4. Give it a quick stir if you can after about 20 minutes. After 40 minutes, check the rice to see if it's done  - much like pasta, risotto is best slightly al dente, with a little bite to it. If it's not cooked, test it again after another 5 minutes. When the rice is done, turn off the slow cooker, and quickly stir in remaining stock and most of the parmesan, reserving some for a garnish. Put the lid back on and leave it for 2 or 3 minutes.

5. Spoon into bowls and top with a little parmesan before serving immediately.Buon appetito!

My birthday treat - and review - at The Longridge Restaurant

As you know, it was my birthday on Thursday. I managed to secure a babysitter to look after the children and planned a trip out. After looking around at the local eating establishments on various review sites, an old favourite stuck out at me - The Longridge Restaurant. We'd been there a few times over the last nine years but hadn't been for ages - children and the more limited funds that part time working brings put paid to that. They had an offer for a 3 course meal and wine for £50 so I rang to ask if it was still on. Unfortunately, I got an unsatisfactory response and was told to ring back on Thursday! I fired off an email to them saying I wasn't happy with the service. Imagine to my surprise, a couple of hours to receive a call from the head chef, Chris Bell, ringing from his holiday in Ireland to apologise for the confusion and offering to sort it out. An email exchange a few days later with a lovely lady at the restaurant and we were booked in for the night of my birthday.

Off we went on the night up to Longridge. The restaurant is never going to get much passing trade - it's not located on a main road, more of a side road (although there is a brown sign directing you to it from a main road) so really, you have to know it's there - and its reputation - to make the trip. The situation is odd, a 19th Century stone cottage, surrounded by houses and just by the exit of a large holiday park; incidentally, where the children spent a happy week with grandparents in August. The restaurant is the original restaurant opened by Paul Heathcote in the 1990s. It used to have a Michelin star and everything, but more recently has fallen on harder times and lost its star in 2007. Paul Heathcote had even put it on the market to sell it when the head chef that rang me returned after running a local pub with his wife, who runs front of house. The place has been done up since we were last there but remains in character with the building. The style is what they call modern British with a distinctly local twist - lots of black pudding, Goosnargh chicken and duck, that sort of thing.

It was busier than it has been in other visits when it arrived, which is good for the first Thursday in January. We sat down in the bar and perused the menus. The lady serving us - who was the lady I'd been emailing, it became obvious - told us we could have 50% off anything off the main menu. And that included the gourmet menus.

All of a sudden, we had a sudden rush of blood to the head and decided to have the ten course gourmet menu. Yes, that's right - ten. From being an evening when we were out to have a quiet meal to celebrate my birthday, we were looking forward to a very special evening. Trying a gourmet or tasting menu is something I had always wanted to do but the cost was seemingly beyond us. I think my husband thought it was the price on the menu was per table, not per person (!) but still, he stayed true and didn't tap me up for some of the bill at the end.

The first course arrived whilst we were still sat in the bar. Two canapes each; a Lancashire cheese fritter with apple jelly and a Morecambe Bay shrimp tartlet. The tartlet was absolutely outstanding and flavoured with a little dill, one of my favourite herbs. I'd taken the photo of this before we had decided on the gourmet menu and luckily, I'd snapped it on my phone. Apologies for any of these photos being a bit on the blurry side.

We were then taken through to our table and this is the view that greeted me when I sat down:

All a tiny bit intimidating. We were muttering "start from the outside, work in". We were a bewildering array of bread. I chose brown bread with onion, husband chose white bread with brie. I made the better choice - my bread smelt and tasted oniony and the crust was beautifully crunchy against the softer crumb.

Next to arrive was the soup. On the menu, it was billed as butternut squash soup, which I know the husband was looking forward to as he had that very dish, with truffle oil, there once and it is one of his abiding food memories. What we were presented with was a jug of mushroom soup, and a tiny soup bowl containing artichoke purée and toasted pine nuts. I only took a picture once I'd poured soup in.

This didn't disappoint. I love mushroom soup anyway but it was really nice with the artichoke purée stirred into it. The pinenuts made a real difference to the flavour - they were what I called just the right side of burnt - in that they were browned but not bitter. There was still some left in the jug so I had some on its own; still nice, but better with the accompaniments.

Our next course was a fish based course. Gravadlax of salmon, Morecambe Bay shrimps, horseradish (I think), creme fraiche, dill and marinated cucumber with a pear and apple chutney.

I've made gravadlax before but this, of course was so much better than mine! (Funny, that..... ) The salmon was so tender, It didn't need to be cut, it just pulled apart. We worked out the horseradish flavour; the husband said he thought he didn't like horseradish but I'd seen Nigel Slater saying only a few days before that if you think you dislike it, try the fresh root rather than the stuff out of jars. This was far more subtle. The pear and apple chutney was a nice change - much spicier than anything else on the plate but also lending a sweetness to the dish. I liked it but husband didn't rate the chutney as part of the dish.

Toddling along nicely now and yet another fish based dish arrived. Here was where I nearly failed you. It was scallops which I adore and I was just about to plunge my fork in the dish, when I remembered I was meant to be photographing it and grabbed my phone.

So, this is seared scallops with wilted spinach, artichoke purée, cranberries and pickled celeriac. Now, I've had scallops with apple before now, but never cranberries (they were cooked, a bit like cranberry sauce). The sweetness went well with the scallops. The pickled celeriac added a sour note. I loved it but husband didn't like it as much as the previous courses. A qualified success, I think.

Then, we had the proper fish course, proper fish knives and forks and all.

This is roasted turbot, an it's on top of some little gem lettuce and slivers of Cumbrian ham, topped with a slow cooked duck's egg. The yellow you can see at the top is the yolk oozing out of the egg. The turbot was much firmer than I thought it would be, but then I guess that's because of the roasting. I don't think I'd ever had turbot before so it could very well be that it has a firmer texture. The ham made things salty but the real star was the egg. Runny oozy, only just cooked and a really rich flavour. This wasn't something I had expected to be wild about but it was incredible.

Then we got a risotto. Again, we deviated from the menu which had advertised a Morecambe Bay shrimp risotto but instead they brought us this:

It's a mushroom risotto, with shavings of Parmesan, toasted hazelnuts and truffle oil. Now, I'm always impressed by a good risotto. I always manage to colour it slightly but this was perfectly creamy - almost like a savoury rice pudding. The smell from the truffle oil was amazing. I'd never thought of putting hazelnuts on a risotto and didn't think it would work but it did and added to the earthiness of the risotto. The shavings of Parmesan were seriously good too. The truffle oil lingered in the mouth for quite some time, even after the risotto was long gone.

I didn't feel too bad by this point but realised the main event was coming up next and I was feeling slightly full. A slightly bigger portion this time - the main course.

 

This was duck breast with seared foie gras, celery and celeriac, potatoes, cherries with a cherry reduction. Now. I hadn't expected to get foie gras with this dish and I've never had it before, to my knowledge anyway. I'm not sure if it was mentioned on the menu, but if it was, I didn't notice it. I do have issues with the way that a lot of foie gras is produced (and I've since tried to find out how the foie gras used here is produced, but so far, no word) but I thought I would try it anyway. And you know what? I liked it. It didn't taste livery at all to me, just meaty with a really light texture. The duck was pink, as you can tell, and melted in the mouth, it was so tender. I could however feel myself filling up fast so I decided to leave some of the dish although I ate all the duck and the foie gras. Husband, who likes to eat things together in a set combination, nicked some of the celeriac and celery me off me. I didn't feel the potatoes added too much here so I left one of those too.

Phew, we were getting there. I remembered at this point to text my babysitting friend to let her know we might be later than planned - after all, it was 10.15pm by this point and they'd sat us down nearly two hours before. We were then given a little pre-dessert.

It was coconut mousse, topped with cherry sorbet. The mousse was extremely light and a lot more subtle in flavour than I imagined it would be whereas the sorbet was really fruity and sweet. It was a lovely combination (and I don't normally like cherries that much) and it was lovely to have something so light at this point.

Nearing the end now, after the pre-dessert comes..... dessert of course. We knew it was chocolate tart and we'd seen some other diners eating fairly large slices of it, but thankfully they were eating off the main menu and when ours arrived, it was substantially smaller. Good job, or I might have burst.

The tart came with a passion fruit sorbet and the smear is a rosemary caramel. The caramel was salty and I thought quite subtly flavoured with rosemary, which I couldn't necessarily taste combined with other parts of the dish. The passion fruit sorbet was fruity but had a citrussy edge as it tasted a bit like lemon curd to me. You really needed to eat the tart with either the sorbet, the caramel or both as it was like eating solid chocolate and thus, was not particularly sweet and very rich. I'm so glad the portion was relatively small. Not being a chocoholic - although I do appreciate good chocolate - I would be happy with a portion of this size after a meal off the main menu.

We were, at last, on the home stretch. Cheese and biscuits. Having seen it on the menu, I hope that it included my favourite blue cheese, Blacksticks Blue, which is produced a few miles away from Longridge.

I wasn't disappointed! A sliver of Blacksticks Blue, the round one is Kidderton Ash (made by the same producer as the Blacksticks) and finally, there was some Cornish brie. There was also some celery, grapes and some fruitcake as well as the biscuits. Husband doesn't like any blue cheese but he did try the Blacksticks and then donated his to me. Hurrah! He said it was the best blue cheese he'd tasted in the same way that it was the best kick in the teeth he'd had! The brie didn't taste of much, but I put this down to the temperature at which it has to be stored and thus can't be ripened.

Phew, we were done. But were we? We ordered a couple of coffees and oh no, they brought out some petits fours!

Left to right, there was cocoa-covered candied peel, chocolate truffles with a white chocolate covering, a prune and armagnac tart, and some fudge. I tried all of it - the truffles and fudge were gorgeous but I wasn't wild about the prune and armagnac tart. Strangely enough, we didn't really finish these - but this was technically our eleventh course and we were fading fast. 

Whilst we were waiting for our coffees, the head chef Chris came to speak to us to apologise again for the mix-up and to check we had enjoyed the meal. I thought it was a nice touch for him to make an effort at the end of service to come to see us. Big thumbs up to him and his team for producing some outstanding food and a birthday experience I'll never forget. 

So, that was my birthday treat. Dull, wasn't it?! I was trying to think if I had a favourite dish and I really can't choose one! It was all good. Some of the combinations were definitely not ones I'd have normally tried but it was good to put ourselves in the hands of the chef and eat things together we might not have otherwise selected from a menu, and found that they worked. I'm glad I took pictures of everything, even if I did look a bit of a nerd snapping with my phone every time food arrived. I had intended to tweet the odd bit but I was worried about my battery so I saved it all up until we got home when I twitpicced them all to twitter. 

(I have not been paid to write this review. I have chosen to do this off my own back, because I enjoyed the experience so much)

Kids food - Quick Quesadillas

Wraps. My kids love them, but they haven't worked out the right way to eat them so they make the unholiest of messes, particularly as they like cheesy beans in them. When they want wraps, and I have leftover stuff to use, I offer them quesadillas because it's a cross between wraps and pizza - which they also love - and makes less mess (nothing my kids eat makes no mess).

Pretty much anything that can be chopped up and cooked in a pan can go in the filling. I add chicken, sometimes minced beef, but frequently, it's just veg and cheese. It helps get certain veg down them that they sometimes won't eat in other things. Beans are a a nice vegetarian addition to make it more substantial.

How much this feeds will depend on the size of the wrap you use. This time, I used Asda ones which are small so it fed 2 but the Discovery ones are much bigger; you need a lot more filling and I can feed 4 small children with those. Alternatively, make your own. My children are quite good with spices as long as they are not too hot. Rein back the spices as you see fit.

Here's the recipe for the specimen as featured on this post. It takes 15 minutes to do so great if you're short of time.

Quesadillas

Ingredients

2 wraps
1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp mild chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Large handful of button mushrooms, sliced
1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced into strips
1 small courgette, halved then sliced
1 tbsp tomato puree (optional)
1-2oz cheddar cheese, or to taste (I use extra mature)

Method

Start by turning your grill onto medium high.

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the onion and garlic and fry until softened. Add the spices, and stir for about a minute. Stir in the veg, allowing the oil and spices to coat everything and cook for up to 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute. Taste and season.

2. Place one of the wraps on a baking sheet. Spread the veg mixture evenly across the wrap and grate over two thirds of the cheese. Place the other wrap over the top, and grate over the rest of the cheese.

3. Place under the grill until the cheese is melted and slightly golden; this rarely takes more than a couple of minutes so keep an eye on it. If you have a griddle pan big enough, you can place it in a hot griddle pan for a couple of minutes per side. I don't bother as it involves turning the whole thing over but it does mean you get those pretty griddle lines on it.

4. Remove from the grill and cut into wedges.

I like to do carrot sticks, cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes for the children to eat with it but as you can see, we only had cherry tomatoes in the day I made this! Don't make the filling too wet and work fast once you put the veg on the bottom wrap otherwise it can go soggy. Using a griddle pan would probably solve this but it's too fiddly for me - I reckon the filling would fall out turning it.

If I do add chicken and using raw meat, I slice it thinly and cook it through before the onions,  remove it and add it back in with the veg, which is the same point at which I would add cooked chicken or other meat.

Feel free to make up your own variations. Have a go and I'd love to see your efforts if you try. Happy cooking!

Chicken Pie!

Pie is not often on the menu in our house due to my husband's wheat avoidance. He was reacting to wheat and has avoided it for around 8 years but recently, has eaten some things with wheat in and not suffered any reaction so he has been widening the range of foods he now eats.

I have really wanted to make a chicken pie for a while so last weekend, I bought some ready rolled pastry. I don't generally do pastry and most recipes just recommend buying it, so that's what I did. I hunted around for a decent recipe and found this on the BBC Good Food website, which is a source I use quite a lot for simple but nice recipes.

I liked this because it included vegetables so it meant everything cooked together. We actually just had mash with this - I was running out of time to do veg, the children were "helping" me, I decided to make it today quite late on and that required a quick trip to the supermarket. This would be great made with leftover roast chicken as you start with cooked chicken.

Crumbly Chicken & Vegetable Pie
Serves 4-6 (you'd have to be pretty hungry for it to serve 4)

Ingredients
1 onion
40g butter
100g button mushrooms
40g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
400ml milk, warmed
1 chicken stock cube or 400ml fresh chicken stock
pinch nutmeg
pinch mustard powder
1 bay leaf
250g cooked chicken
200g mix of vegetables - sweetcorn, peas, carrots, broccoli, peppers chopped or any veg you have
250g shortcrust pastry
1 egg beaten or milk, for glazing

1. Heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 4. Peel the onion and chop as finely as possible. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and leave to cook for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Finely slice the mushrooms and add to the pan.

2. When the mushrooms and onions are nearly cooked, add the flour to the pan and stir to make a roux. Crumble in the stock cube and stir well for 2 minutes to cook out the flour.

3. Slowly add the milk to the pan, stirring all the time. (I didn't warm the milk and it didn't seem to matter). Then add the stock, season and add the nutmeg and mustard powder. (It doesn't mention what to do if you're using the stock cube, so I just used more milk to get the right consistency) Add the bay leaf and bring to the boil, stirring all the time to stop it becoming lumpy.

4. When the sauce has thickened, place on a very low heat. Chop the chicken into even sized pieces and add to the sauce. Stir in the veg and pour into the pie dish. (I used a deep but small lasagne dish).

5. Put the pastry on a clean, floured surface. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry until just a bit bigger than the pie dish. Lift the pastry onto the dish. Trim the edges hanging over the edges. Press the outside edge of the pastry with your fingers or a fork.

6. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg or milk. Make a small hole in the centre to allow steam to escape. Left over pastry can be used can be used to decorate the top. Place the pie in the oven for 25 mins. It will be done when the top is golden brown.

I made a few changes to this. We got a bay leaf from the garden as we have a tree but then it disappeared. So I added some chopped fresh tarragon as it is a favourite of mine. And because I had ready rolled shortcrust, I just unrolled it and put it on the top of the pie dish and it just about fitted. No faffing with rolling pins - result! (Why am I so bad at rolling out pastry and how do I get better at it? Answers on a postcard.) The veg I used were - peas, sweetcorn, carrots, and courgettes.

The children were very excited when I told them I was making pie. Missy Woo butchered the mushrooms and the courgettes for me. Then she had a go at peeling potatoes as did Monkey - and he got very good at it. That's one more job I don't have to do! And then they devoured the pie with enthusiasm. The carrots were quite crunchy so I think they need to be cut up quite small - or you could use leftover cooked ones. I loved the tarragon flavour, and no-one else complained about it and it was lovely and creamy.

It would definitely feed 6 people easily. This is most definitely NOT a small pie and the veg helps to bulk it out. I have to admit, I always thought that making a pie was more difficult than it was for some reason. I guess ones with a pastry base probably are but this was very simple. And everyone just loves pie, don't they?

I did take another pic of the pie cut open but on looking at it, it's not very good quality so you'll have to make do with just the pic of the finished pie as it came out of the oven. Yes, I know - my food blogging is very amateurish but I never said I was a professional, did I?! Trust me when I say this was good, and you should try it too.