Author: Gary @ BigSpud

A bit of a geek who loves food.

Categories
carrots chicken food sausages

christmas dinner pie

A Christmas dinner in a pie! What a novel idea. After seeing one on the shelves from Pukka Pies I thought it was worth looking into.

Not content with dominating the Christmas music charts, YouTube channel LadBaby have come out with a pie:

Pukka Pies have been around for ages so it sort of makes sense that these would be the guys to come out with such a pie. This is a fairly straightforward idea so I thought I would give it a go at making at home.

One downside of making the pie yourself is the charity missing out. Sales of the pie give a 10p donation to the Trussell Trust, an organisation that works with food banks in the UK. If you’re able, why not consider a donation by following the link or scanning the QR code?

Donate to the Trussell Trust

My version of the pie has chicken, carrots, stuffing, sausages and bacon, covered in gravy and wrapped in a flaky pastry. You could easily swap out ingredients as you prefer. Serve with mash and veg with extra gravy for a satisfying treat.

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christmas dinner pie

A simple and homely pie with all your favourites
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword pukka pie
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Resting time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4 pies

Equipment

  • muffin tin or pie dish

Ingredients

For the pastry:

  • 250 g butter refrigerated
  • 300 g flour

For the filling:

  • 1 chicken breast diced
  • 1 carrot large, peeled and diced
  • 2 chipolata sausages skinned
  • 65 g bacon diced, about 2 rashers
  • 80 g sage and onion stuffing made as per packet instructions, formed into small balls
  • pinch dried sage
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon cornflour

Instructions

For the pastry:

  • Grate the butter and mix with the flour. Add a pinch of salt and add small amounts of ice cold water until it comes together and clean away from the bowl (this will not be much, maybe 20-50ml). Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.

For the filling:

  • Bake the stuffing balls according to the packet instructions. You can cook the rest of the filling while they bake.
  • Cook the carrots until tender - I put them in the microwave with a splash of water in a covered dish for 4 minutes.
  • Get a pan over a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the bacon and fry for a couple of minutes. Squeeze the sausages into 4 pieces each and add to the pan along with the chicken. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, colouring on all sides.
  • Add the sage and stock to the pan, followed by the cooked carrots. Bring to the boil. Mix the cornflour with a teaspoon of water and then stir thoroughly into the pie filling. Once blended remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to 3mm thick. Cut out circles and line into a greased muffin tin. Add the pie filling and top with another pastry circle. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed up and golden.

Video

Notes

Can easily be frozen at any stage. Even the pie filling itself can be frozen separately for making another day.
Categories
almonds food orange

making heston blumenthal’s hidden orange christmas pudding

As part of a collaboration with BakeAcrossEurope we decided to have a go at Christmas puddings. She’s gone down the traditional route, making an Eliza Acton recipe, and I… didn’t.

In 2010 Heston Blumenthal released the ‘hidden orange Christmas pudding’ in conjunction with Waitrose. I wrote about it at the time and it’s bizarre to look back on it now. They sold out, they were on eBay for hundreds of pounds, and now if you look around all the supermarkets they all have versions of this pudding.

Where did the idea come from? Well most of us know the gimmick of having a sixpence coin buried in the batter, with the recipient being lucky, so that’s the idea of a hidden treat. We often have oranges around the house at this time of year, as well as the idea of having an orange in your stocking (which seems mean now, but was very typical in the post-war years right up to the 1980s). I also think Heston might have had the Sussex Pond Pudding in mind, an historical recipe he loves to reference, where a lemon custard flows from the dessert when cut into. So there’s many ideas coming together.

Heston tried to recapture this magic many times but it never quite resonated the same again. Earlier in 2023 Heston and Waitrose parted ways and it looks like this year Waitrose are offering a ‘Sicilian Orange & Whisky pudding‘.

Because it was a commercial product an official recipe was never released. So I’ve looked at other attempts people made, looked at the ingredient listing from an archive product, watched the factory videos… and I think I’ve made a good stab at it.

If I had a niggle, I’d candy the orange for longer. The commercial version candies it for 7 weeks! Mine was just an hour. I think a few hours so it starts to shrivel and break down would make it more delicious.

But otherwise I’m really pleased with it. It’s lighter than a traditional pudding like Heston’s was, but still rich and fruity.

Have you made Heston’s hidden orange Christmas pudding? Let me know in the comments!

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hidden orange christmas pudding

Course Dessert
Cuisine English
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 7 hours
Total Time 8 hours

Equipment

  • 1 pudding basin
  • pan big enough to comfortably hold the pudding basin, plus lid

Ingredients

For the candied orange:

  • 1 large orange
  • 250 g sugar
  • 10 g liquid glucose
  • 200 g marmalade

For the pudding:

  • 125 g suet beef or vegetable
  • 125 g breadcrumbs
  • 250 g brown sugar
  • 75 g self-raising flour
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon mixed spice any combination of sweet baking spices will do
  • 500 g mixed dried fruit such as currants, cherries, raisins, cranberries
  • 25 g mixed nuts
  • 50 g mixed citrus peel
  • 50 g glace cherries
  • 150 ml cider preferably orange flavoured, but any will do
  • 4 tablespoons Cointreau any booze will do but the orange liqueur seems appropriate
  • 2 eggs

Instructions

For the candied orange:

  • Prick the orange all over with a toothpick. Combine the ingredients in a pan with the orange and cover with water. Stir really well to combine. Cover and simmer gently for an hour. Turn off the heat and leave to sit, covered, for a further hour. Then reheat and simmer for yet another hour to really break the orange down. Remove the orange and set aside to cool.

For the pudding:

  • In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, stirring well. Then add all the wet ingredients, fruits and nuts and stir very well. You want something that will drop off the spoon slowly. Add a touch more flour or cider if needed.
  • Grease a 1 litre pudding basin well. Add about a third of the pudding mix, then nestle your orange in. Pack the rest of your pudding mix around the orange and press down with the spatula. Gently tap your basin to remove air pockets.
  • Add a layer of baking paper, then cover with foil. Tie around the neck with string. Put a plate at the bottom of a pan large enough to fit your basin, pop your pudding in and bring boiling water up along the sides and cover. Simmer for 7 hours, topping up with more water as required. Allow to cool. You can eat straight away, or microwave for a couple of minutes before serving.

Video

Notes

Serve with custard, ice cream, brandy sauce, or brandy butter. Scales up really well and difficult to get wrong.
Categories
beef cheese onion

philly cheese stack burger mcdonald’s style

Every so often, hamburger chain McDonald’s run special burgers for a limited time. For me most of these are missable and I don’t bother, but the one they are running Oct/Nov 2023 in the UK is delicious. The Philly Cheese Stack (note stack, not cheese steak!) is a double beefburger heavy on the cheese and onions. And I think it’s well worth recreating as it won’t last forever!

Here’s what it looks like:

According to the McDonald’s website it contains:

That’s beef patties, bun, cheese slice, cheese sauce, grilled onions, pickles, crispy onions. I had a go at recreating it and I think it’s a terrific knock-off!

Here’s how I tackled the ingredients:

  • Beef patties – many ‘fakeaway’ McDonald’s recipes are on the internet. You just need a fatty mince with salt and pepper. That’s it.
  • Bun – You can make your own bun if you like, I didn’t on this occasion. Whichever soft bun you like.
  • Cheese slice – I used standard cheddar ones from the supermarket.
  • Cheese sauce – I’m sure you could make one, but I found this one from Hellman’s tastes a lot like the one McDonald’s use. Easily found in Tesco’s and other supermarkets.
  • Grilled onions – I mean, grilled is an odd word to use. In the UK that would mean pop under the grill, whereas in the US it would mean ‘barbecue’. I think it just means gently fried here.
  • Pickles – either a great condiment or the devil’s food. You decide.
  • Crispy onions – These are definitely the ones you get to put on salads or from salad bars in restaurants.

Apart from cooking the onions and frying the meat this is an assembly job and dead easy. Please give this Philly cheese stack recipe a go and let me know how you get on!

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philly cheese stack burger mcdonald's style

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 1 person

Ingredients

  • 200 g 15% beef mince
  • ¼ onion
  • 2 cheese slices
  • 1 tablespoon cheese sauce I use Hellman's
  • 2-3 pickle slices
  • 1 heaped teaspoon dried onions

Instructions

  • Season the mince with about ½ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Tumble and mix loosely (don't overwork this mix). Split the beef and form into two 100g balls and refrigerate for a few minutes while you prepare everything else.
  • Get a shallow pan over a medium-low heat. Peel and slice the onion into rings. Add a splash of oil and fry the onion gently for about 10 minutes until softened and starting to gently colour. You're just breaking the onion down a bit.
  • Wipe out your pan with kitchen roll and put the heat up to high. Take your meatballs and put them in the pan, pressing down hard with a flat tool like a fish slice to squidge them into patties just under a centimetre thick. Leave undisturbed to colour for 3-4 minutes. When browned flip to complete cooking for another minute or two. The patty should be thin enough it won't take much cooking by the time it's coloured.
  • While the meat cooks, split and toast your bun as desired. When everything is ready it's time to assemble. From the bottom up: bun, beef, cheese slice, beef, cheese slice, grilled onions, crispy onions, cheese sauce. Eat immediately.

Notes

This recipe is a great knock off of the McDonald's limited edition burger you can make at home. You can make the patties in advance and freeze.
Categories
food porridge snails

heston blumenthal’s snail porridge

Ask people to name a dish by Heston Blumenthal and you’ll hear things like egg and bacon ice cream, Sound of the Sea, …and probably snail porridge.

If you want to see a video of me making this, I filmed a livestream of it. Click to watch!

One of Heston’s chefs went on honeymoon and had ‘fish porridge’ in New York. This odd combination sent Heston’s mind reeling. He was working on a snail cannelloni recipe for the Fat Duck and realised that if he could combine snails with tasty ingredients like ham, mushrooms and butter he could make the dish more palatable. There is a long history of eating snails in England – Mendips wallfish is an absolute delicacy – but snails have a real issue with PR. Really are they any different to cockles or mussels, which sure have their detractors but look pretty similar?

With a little tailoring Heston made this dish a Fat Duck speciality and is now one of his most famous dishes. It’s taken me far too long to attempt it. There’s two recipes, the deluxe restaurant version from the Fat Duck cookbook and a more homely version here. I was aiming for the latter.

The hardest part was obtaining snails without paying a fortune. It’s possible to do it yourself and purge at home (such as my mate Danny did) but I just know I’d do it wrong. It seems very difficult to buy just a few. If you want 24 400g cans, no problem. Eventually I got some from Ocado and just enough to make this.

There’s three components: a stock, a butter, and the assembled porridge dish. As often the case with Heston home recipes they’re not difficult but they take a little while. And really… I’m not sure it’s worth it. The porridge is excellent, packed with flavour and full of savouriness. And the butter! It’s absolutely delicious and worth making to have in the freezer. Topped with the zingy fennel salad it’s a powerful combo. But the snails are just kind of there. Not horrible, not amazing, a little slightly-chewy things. But yeah, savoury porridge.

So give it a go, but you don’t really need snails.

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snail porridge

Course Main Course
Cuisine English
Keyword escargot
Servings 1 person

Ingredients

For the stock:

  • 150 g chicken wings
  • 6 snails
  • 1/2 onion peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 fennel bulb finely sliced
  • 1 stick celery finely sliced
  • 50 g button mushrooms finely sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • Bouquet garni of bay thyme and rosemary

For the butter:

  • 12 g whole garlic cloves peeled
  • 50 g button mushrooms
  • ½ onion
  • 100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 10 g Dijon mustard
  • 2 g salt
  • 50 g flat-leaf parsley chopped
  • 20 g Parma ham
  • 6 cooked snails
  • 1 slice Parma ham
  • fennel slices

For the porridge:

  • 10 g porridge oats
  • sherry vinegar
  • walnut oil

Instructions

For the stock:

  • Put a pan of cold water with the chicken wings over a medium heat. Bring to the boil and add the rest of the stock ingredients. Simmer very gently for an hour. Remove from the heat, leave to cool a little. Strain off the stock, reserving the liquor and the snails.

For the butter:

  • Finely chop the mushrooms, onion and garlic. Heat half the butter in a frying pan and sweat for five minutes, until softened. Tip into a food processor, along with the remaining ingredients, then purée until smooth.
  • Tip on to a sheet of clingfilm and roll into a cylinder. Store in the fridge or freezer until required.

To serve:

  • Heat the stock in a pan over a high heat and once simmering, add the oats. Stir until all the liquid has been absorbed (this will only take a couple of minutes). Remove from the heat and beat in the snail butter and the snails. Season generously.
  • Finely shred the ham. Slice the fennel as thinly as possible. Spoon the porridge on to plates and top with ham. Toss the fennel with vinegar and walnut oil to taste, season, place on porridge and serve.

Video

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