Chicken, leek and chestnut pie

This is a brilliant way to use up leftovers after a Sunday roast and it looks like you’ve put loads of effort in when actually, it’s very easy to make.

I made this pie for the first time in the days following Christmas when we had turkey and ham to use up (instead of chicken) and it went down a treat. Feel free to substitute any of the ingredients for whatever’s in your fridge, I’ve also added broccoli florets instead of the chestnuts before and mushrooms would work well too.

Serves 4, or 2 with leftovers for the next day

Ingredients

• 1 pack of ready rolled butter puff pastry- I get frozen sometimes and defrost it before making the pie
• Approximately 300gms leftover roast chicken or whatever meat you prefer to use
• 2 large leeks, washed well and finely sliced
• 100gms cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
• ¾ pint of chicken stock made with one stock cubes
• 3-4 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp crème fraiche
• Salt and pepper
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 beaten egg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. In a large saucepan or wok melt the butter, add the leeks and sweat them over a low heat for 10mins- you don’t want them to brown, just soften.
2. Add the chicken and chestnuts. Sprinkle over the flour and stir well until it has coated all of the ingredients.
3. Add the stock and bring to the boil, it should thicken up nicely thanks to the flour. Simmer gently for 5mins to get rid of the floury taste, then add the crème fraiche, thyme and season to taste.
4. Pour the pie filling into a large, shallow oven proof dish. Unroll the pastry and lay it over the dish. Tuck the excess pastry in around the filling and cut a cross in the top to let the steam out.
5. Brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and, if you’ve got a bit of pastry leftover, cut out some pleasing shapes and decorate the top.
6. Bake the pie in the oven for about 40mins or until golden and puffed. Serve with piles of buttery mash and green beans.

Tuna, borlotti and basil salad

This is a big, joyous throw-together of delicious ingredients which I break out every summer for lunch boxes. I think I originally had a proper recipe, one which came from a book, but many years have passed and this salad has evolved to suit my tastes and which ingredients I can remember when I hit Sainsburys.

The quantities given here make enough for three lunches. I make the salad in a big bowl then divide it into three separate plastic pots ready to be taken to work. I was a bit worried about the salad going soggy by day three at first. However, I think it actually gets better as the flavours mingle. See what you think.

Ingredients

• 1 tin of borlotti or cannellini beans
• 1 small can (120g) of tuna steak in brine
• Approximately 100gms sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
• Approximately 100gms green or black olives- I’ve found that some supermarkets sell little bags of herby olives with their antipasti- these are perfect
• Approximately 1/3 of a large cucumber cut into small cubes
• Zest and juice of ½ a lemon
• Small bunch of basil finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 2tbsp good quality olive oil

Method

1. Empty the beans into a sieve over the sink and give them a good rinse. Once they have drained put them into a large mixing bowl with the cucumber.
2. Drain the tuna, break it up into small flakes with a fork and add it to the beans.
3. Drain the tomatoes of their oil, chop them roughly along with the olives and add to the salad with the basil.
4. Grate the lemon zest (use the finest grater blade) over the salad and squeeze over the juice. Add the oil along with a good pinch of salt and pepper and mix well. Serve.

P.s. it really doesn’t matter in which order you add the ingredients- just chuck it all in the bowl.

Pork with ginger

This recipe requires a bit of preparation before you start cooking but don’t let that put you off. Once the ingredients are ready it only takes ten minutes and it’s a fantastic week night dinner. Because the meat is so lean and there’s hardly any oil involved, the dish is actually quite low in calories and the ginger is great if you’ve got a cold or are just recovering. 

If you’re feeling thrifty, buy a big pack of pork loin steaks from the supermarket (it’s cheaper that way) then freeze them in bags of two. All you have to do in the morning is take a pack out from the freezer and they’re ready to go when you get home. Also, if there’s just two of you eating, still make the full amount- the other 1-2 portions can be potted up and taken to work for lunches the following day.

Feeds four with moderate sized portions, three if you’re greedy like me

Ingredients

• 2 pork loin steaks, fat removed and cut into thin slices- about 2-3mm thick
• 1 small onion sliced finely into half moons
• 4 spring onions finely sliced
• 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms washed and finely sliced
• A large thumb sized piece of ginger, skinned and chopped into matchsticks
• 2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
• 200ml chicken stock made with one stock cube
• 3tbsp oyster sauce
• 1tbsp sesame oil
• Enough rice for 3-4 people

Method

1. Put the rice on to cook and prepare all of your meat and veg.
2. After about 10mins of the rice bubbling away, put a large wok on to your largest hob to heat up- it needs to be screaming hot before you add the oil so be patient.
3. After about 3 mins or when you have reached the limits of your bravery, pour the oil into the wok, add the pork and stirfry hard for 2-3mins or until the pork has browned. Be careful, it will spit.
4. Add the garlic, both types of onion and ginger and stirfry for a further 2 mins. Add the mushrooms and keep stirring until they start to wilt down.
5. Add the stock and oyster sauce and allow the sauce to reduce slightly- no more than 2 mins.
6. Your rice should be ready by now so serve it up and top with the stirfry. Guzzle.

Warm spinach salad with feta and roasted tomatoes

I arrived back in the UK last week following a two-week jaunt to Thailand. The bank holiday seemed like the perfect excuse to do a BBQ and catch up with friends and family. I asked my mum to bring a salad and this is what she made. Simple but very effective.

Ingredients

• 4-5 handfuls of raw baby spinach leaves
• 4 whole garlic cloves
• 2 red peppers halved and deseeded
• 1 pack feta cheese (or any other kind of goats cheese you fancy)
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes on the vine
• Balsamic vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Place the pepper halves on a baking tray. Place the garlic cloves inside the peppers (keep the skins on the cloves), drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper then bake for about 25mins. After this time, place the tomato vines on top of the peppers and bake for a further 10mins.
2. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the peppers and tomatoes to cool for a few minutes.
3. Meanwhile, wash the spinach leaves, dry well and put them into a nice salad bowl. Remove the feta from its packet and crumble it over the leaves.
4. Cut the peppers into strips and place them on top of the spinach. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins (they should be soft and juicy) and add them to the salad.
5. Drizzle over the salad about 2tbsp of olive oil and 1-2tbsp of balsamic vinegar depending on your taste (I like more but some prefer less). Mix carefully with your hands so that all of the ingredients are dressed.
6. Place the tomatoes still on their vines on top of the salad. Grind over a little black pepper and serve.