Beef pie

Marinaded the beef overnight in red wine, rosemary, thyme, bay.
Then cooked onions, removed them from the pan, then tossed the beef in flour, and browned in the pan. Added marinade and herbs, some more wine and little water. And mushrooms. Cooked on the stove for about an hour.

I had some puff pastry in the freezer from making the sausage rolls the other week, so we defrosted that and it was ready to go. Brilliant.

I let the pie filling cool completely before putting the pastry over the top. Baked in a 200C oven for 40 minutes.
Unfortunately the bubbling gravy found a gap round the edge, and spilled out  a bit. No great horrors, but would have been better not to happen.

Served with some celeriac & potato mash and curly kale.

YUM.

Venison pie

This was partly a 'clear up the left-overs' pie - but with some choice venison from the game man at the market.
We used up the gravy from the partridges the other week, some small carrots we put in there whole, some shallots (often spelled shorlots at college) left over from the thai curry paste, paris brown mushrooms that we have a surfeit of as they looked great at the market, and remnant puff pastry from the tarte tatin. We had to crack open some red wine, which went down very well with it. Also used up half a celeriac I had lying about, which I had mashed up. Matt's a bit over celeriac mash and has retreated to plain potato. Unfortunately for him - its still my favourite - lifting the gag-worthy heaviness of just potato and adding that superb sweet and sour aniseed flavour. Absolutely cracking.

tarte tatin

This is another dish I've always wanted to do well. I was inspired by Rowley Leigh's recipe - which uses Cox apples, cored with a teaspoon, and cooked in a frying pan with lots of butter and sugar. Very pleased with the results - altho' i need a bigger plate which doesn't have sharply raised sides.

 Tasted really good. Apples weren't too sweet and had enough acidity, despite the sugar and butter :) Meant the dish was really well balanced. Also the coxs keep their shape, so you get pillowy texture but not overcooked or mushy apples.