Dear Tom
Good Grief!
So let me get this straight, you want me to help you to cook a traditional Christmas spread and the first recipe in, the first festive food and you find your fussiness switch. You have to be joking right?... Nope, I don't sense any chuckling *insert eye rolling sigh*
Now the question has to be, and I would like feed back, do I allow fussiness or is that giving in at the first hurdle?
Tom, mince pies or Christmas pyes / mutton pies as they used to be called have a tradition dating back to the 1500's and did indeed included minced meat. In fact a traditional recipe would have included beef/mutton, salt & pepper,vinegar, saffron, suet or marrow, raisins, prunes, dates, extra fatty broth, butter and egg yolk crust... They were a way of preserving meat and the spices came from travels to the middle east. Even the Romans had a version of them. They were banned during the civil war and were even linked to Catholic idolatry.
Basically they have stood the test of time.
I was only asking you to make pastry, and it's easy, then fill with ready made mincemeat!
I suppose you would like me to also give you an alternative, just this once... (Bet it won't be the last time really)and it's only because one of my boys has allergies and I get used to making alternatives that it crossed my mind.
The potato cakes are simple too, gently breaking you in I thought.
Apologies for taking so long to write with the recipes, but oh what a day! You don't need the details but in short it involved singing carols, trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid glitter and glue, a pipe cleaner in the eye, chasing assorted children around (not for sport but out of necessity), drinking coffee with friends and their children, lunch 2 hours late, shopping for school trousers at a time of year when they only have Christmas and smart clothes on the shelves, getting through the Christmas shoppers and traffic, then tea for 5 hungry boys (who just got pizza)! Finally sitting down to write I got two phone calls and a lap and table full of coffee knocked over by an energetic 2 year old!
I'll post the recipes, and sit back and wait for photos :)
Yours, some what nervously
Ruth
P.s Does this mean that you will only be serving your family food that YOU like rather than making food that THEY might like?
Plain and simple mince pies
200g/8oz Plain flour
100g/4oz unsalted butter
1 egg, beaten
A jar of mincemeat, (you will only use about a quarter of it I expect)
Method
•Oven on to 220'c/gas 7
•Rub together the flour and butter in a bowl until it looks like fine bread crumbs
(Tip - Use your fingers and not your whole hands to prevent the butter getting to warm and melting)
•Bring the mixture together using a dessert spoon of cold water at a time, it won't take much. Once the dough can be shaped into a firm ball it is ready. If it is sticky then too much water has been added so just rub in a little more flour to correct it.
•Wrap your dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. This gives it time to rest making a less chewy pastry.
•Once it is rested it's time to roll. Lightly flour your work surface and your rolling pinand roll out your fought to about 5mm thick
•Cut circles with a round cutter
•Beaten egg time. Use a pastry brush to egg wash the edges of half the circles. These circles will form the bottom of your mince pies. Place them egg side up into your bun tins
•Fill each bottom with a teaspoon of mincemeat
•Take the second lot of circles, your lids, place them on top of your previous ones and press the edges together, (the egg wash is like cooks glue)
•egg wash the tops and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar if you like
• make a small slit in the top of each pie, about 5 mm, this let's the steam out so they will have crisper pastry and are less likely to seep around the edges
•Cook for about 20minutes, until golden brown
Alternatives and Cheats
You could follow the same method, but use ready made short crust pastry or even puff pastry.
My friend Dannie and I tried out a few alternative fillings, and the best one was this;
Apple and cinnamon
Take one small eating apple, dice really small, mix with two dessert spoons of brown sugar and a level teaspoon of cinnamon. Make your pies the same way as traditional just add the alternative filling, these were very nice in puff pastry too
Alternative short crust pastry, once you have rubbed together the flour and butter, add the finely grated zest of one large orange and use it's juice to bring your pastry together
Would love to hear about other people's alternative fillings
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