Waitrose purple sprouting broccoli & sausage puff pastry tart

Really enjoy this recipe – a fun one to make with the kids, tasty and works well for lunch or dinner with a side salad.

My wife hates aniseed so I left out the tarragon and fennel and went with thyme instead.

You can get the recipe at Waitrose

John Torode mini sausage rolls

Lovely and simple sausage roll recipe by John Torode on BBC Good Food. This was very basic but tasted really nice. The pastry was crisp and the filling juicy.

You can get the recipe here: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mini-sausage-rolls

Waitrose cheese, prosciutto and asparagus puff pastry tart

This is a beautiful recipe. Really impressive to look at, and incredibly simple to make. The goats cheese flavour is a classic combo with asparagus and prosciutto and everything works so nicely.

The one thing to note is the recipe does encourage you to blind bake the pastry. I would recommend you do that as the cheese mixture is very wet and you’ll end up with a soggy pastry if you don’t blind bake it.

Beautiful recipe with a crisp salad dressed in balsamic with a glass of white wine. You can get the recipe at Waitrose here.

Marcus Wareing’s salmon pastry

Salmon en croute is a classic French dish, and a crowd pleaser with a touch of luxury. These individual ones by Marcus Wareing are a great way to put something impressive together, using the pre-fileted salmon fillets routinely available.

As with Marcus’s excellent new book, there are basic levels of process above what you’d usually do (coating the salmon in toasted fennel seeds and salt to impart for flavour for half an hour before rinsing off).

Of course, mine don’t look as perfect as Marcus’, but I was really pleased with how these turned out. Beautifully cooked salmon with cream cheese, flakey pastry alongside steamed potatoes and green beans. A delicious, easy, and luxurious midweek meal.

You can find out more about Marcus Wareing’s ‘Marcus Everyday’ here.

Hairy Bikers’ Mediterranean tart

My first go at One Pot Wonders by the Hairy Bikers, and was really impressed. I’ve done similar before with a pizza theme, using a pizza sauce base, chillies, and pepperoni. I’ve always found while nice enough, those are always a bit harsh and strong. This recipe using ribbons of courgettes, oregano and less aggressive red pesto make for a much nicer dish. This is really quick and easy.

 

Large classic sausage roll

Everyone likes a sausage roll – warm straight from the oven packed full of herbs. This is a basic, classic sausage roll filling, but you could add in other ingredients if you wanted.

Large sausage roll

• 500g finely minced pork or sausage meat
• A small bunch of chives, finely chopped
• Half a tsp chopped thyme leaves
• Half a tbsp chopped sage leaves
• Small tsp garam masala
• A small pinch of cayenne pepper
• 100g white breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Roll out 375g short crust pastry
• Fennell seeds

Method

• Pre heat the oven to gas mark 6
• For the filling, mix the pork with the herbs, spices, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. More herbs could be added or perhaps more cayenne if you like it hot.
• Unroll the pastry sheet on your baking tray. Pile the sausage mixture onto one side of the pastry – along the longer side – leaving a gap of 4cm around the edge. Try to make the sausage mix into an even shape. Brush a little of the egg around the edges, then fold the pastry over the filling. Press the edges together with a fork and score a few air holes through the top with a knife (to let steam escape). Brush with the remaining egg, scatter with some fennel seeds and bake for 40 mins.
• Remove the sausage roll from the tray to a wire rack to cool. Eat warm or leave to cool before serving. They can be kept in the fridge for a day or two.

Tips

• If you’ve not mad this, or much other pastry before, then don’t ignore the step of properly crimping the pastry. As the pastry gets hot, if it isn’t crimped it will open up, and you’ll end up with an open sausage meat pie!
• I saw a tip that said only use the yolk for egg wash. I tried it for this and it worked much better

 

Jamie Oliver’s quiche leekraine

Jamie’s ‘quiche leekraine’ is a great recipe for a lunch or dinner, which can then be taken to work for lunches the next day – brilliant!

It’s really simple, tastes good, and can even be frozen (well I did).

I suspect quiche purists may suggest it isn’t the traditionally correct recipe, but if you’re after a relatively healthy quiche will all the elements, this is a great place to start!

Novice pepperoni pizza tart

I love a pizza, but it isn’t always practical to make the dough from scratch.

By getting yourself a packet of ready made puff pastry, you cut down so much time, and it’s really easy to divide the tarts into the sizes you want.

For this recipe, we made two tarts out of one pastry, and topped with the ingredients we wanted to replicate a pepperoni pizza – but you can fill it with whatever combinations you like!

Ingredients

• x1 ready rolled puff pastry sheet
• Basic tomato sauce for the base
• Half a red onion diced
• Half a standard Mozzarella ball
• Six-eight slices of pepperoni (or as much as you want!)
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• Chilli flakes options

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200c
• Roll out the pastry, leaving it on the paper it comes with, and place it on a baking tray.
• Slice the pastry in half (or quarters if making four)
• Score (but don’t cut clean through) around a one CM boarder on each tart
• Now build…
• First spoon on your sauce (maybe some pasta sauce you made yesterday) and next add the onions
• Dot on the mozzarella
• Finally add the meat so this crisps up a bit
• Add a little salt and some pepper and the chilli flakes if using
• Cook in the top shelf of the oven for around 15 minutes but keep an eye on it
• After 15 minutes, use a spatula to gently lift under the pastry to see if it feels cooked.

Novice sausage rolls

Sausage meat and pastry, brilliant – everyone loves a sausage roll, perfect Christmas party food. The below recipe will make around 20 sausage rolls, depending on how fat you cut them!

Ingredients

• 400 sausage meat
• 375g ready-rolled puff pastry
• Handful of fresh parsley
• Half a clove of garlic
• 50ml cold water
• One egg

Cost

A deep sea diver, maximum (that’s a fiver in rhyming slang)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180c
• In a blender, add the parsley, garlic and sausage meat and blend so the consistency is smoother like a rough paste.
• Add the paste to a bowl with the cold water and season with salt and pepper – mix all together, set aside
• Roll out your pastry, on greaseproof paper, onto a baking tray. Cut the pastry in half lengthways so you have two long skinny halves.
• Run the mixture in a line down the length of the pastry, leaving a gap of 1CM from one of the edges.
• One this is done, fold them over and press together
• Cut the two tubes into little rolls.
• Beat the egg and brush over each roll
• Back for 25-35 minutes until puffed up and brown.
• Eat warm or leave to cool and then remove from the grease proof paper.

Novice notes

• Make sure you use grease proof paper so that the roles don’t stick to the baking tray
• The added water helps the pastry fluff up, so it’s worth doing.