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What's that daddy? (to a plastic container in the freezer)
Heart, Rory.
I want heart Daddy.
How could I refuse. We'd had this a few weeks back, chunks of heart
stewed in red wine with a pigs trotter to add richness. Even though it
was cooked enough for the trotter to be edible, the heart really wasn't
that palatable, the texture too dry and resilient. I'd thought I would
mince it and adapt. So, I was thinking something beany, and Shona
pointed out the aduki beans in the freezer which she had used to make a
beef red dragon pie, based on the red dragon pie from leathery
vegetarian one (not Linda). So, finely minced the heart combined with
the aduki and a layer of mash, and lots of butter spread on top, baked
at 175C for 90 mins or so. Cabbage, Dijon mustard and Chateau Meaume
2005, hazaa. |
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...and a partridge in a pork pie'
1lb coarse minced pork from Wark farm, 6
partridge breasts, 2 rashers of very fatty Berkshire back bacon, a wodge
of Pata negra fat, sage, hot crust pastry (1lb flour 6oz lard), jelly |
This was the finest ever pork pie, not
surprising given its' kick ass credentials. Andy the ex-punk, miner,
angler, now paeds care assistant gave me some partridge breasts which a
pal had supplied him at what sounds like the cost of the bloody
cartridges. Though obviously preferring the whole bird, this was not to
be a nose upturned, and the thought of a ham and chicken raised pie
was a stepping off point to a higher level of pie that included
perdix perdix. A couple of months later and finally the creation
materialised. Jane G gives a recipe for hot crust pastry with 1lb flour
to 7 oz fat, whilst Constance spry states a mere 4oz, so I went for a
fraction under 6, thinking that the reason for previous difficulties
might have been the high fat content. Having previously floundered with
Jane Grigson's instructions to mould the hot crust pastry to a jar I of
course tried again, but still no luck, the vacuum formed made it
impossible to separate the jar from the pastry. Having slid off the
pastry on to a saucer, the idea of just forming the pastry around the
meat mixture dawned, recalling the smaller pork pies occasionally seen
in Scottish butchers. So, on went a layer of the coarsely minced pork
(and bacon/ fat/ sage), 3 partridge breasts, another layer, a wee hat of
pastry and then the sides pulled up to make a join as shown above.
2hours in the oven, and only slight leakage, but this does allow that
stupendous caramelised goo to form around the base of the pie, though it
also allowed jelly leakage, (I had also cooked a trotter in water with a
slug of Gorse wine. |
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I can't remember when I last tried to create a
mole, but I do recall it didn't work. I did bring back a pot of sauce
from Oaxaca which was very good, though I recall burning the pan when I
used it with venison. An old Sainsbury's 'cooking the Mexican way'
(Lourdes Nichol) gave a pretty authentic sounding recipe. The main
concept seems to differs from a stew, and has more in common with an Indian
curry i.e. the creation of a relatively fresh sauce to have with the
cooked meat. Essentially the sauce consisted of; lots of soaked peppers
and a couple of hot chillies (overnight), toasted cashew nuts,
liquidised with an onion, garlic, some spices (I used a home made garam
masala), some grated chocolate (Willies) and a very toasted tortilla all
put though a mouli post liquidiser. Had I removed the seeds and stalks the mouli
wouldn't have been necessary. I cooked some belly pork pretty plainly in
water and an onion. When the meat was cooked the sauce went in with the
meat and water, and cooked for 45mins or so, though the shorter the
better I think, just to retain that fresh hit. As I said, it ain't a
stew.
Next time I might try the Mole negro which seems to
require that the chillies and tortilla are pretty well charred before use.
Incidentally, the tortilla I made by making a paste with fine maize
flour and water, and rolling thinly, then cooking on a griddle. Pretty
easy, and actually didn't stick to everything as you might imagine.
I also augmented a portion with some fried squid,
which was very fine indeed. |
Arctic
Hare Glenshee
Roadkill