Falkirk Fish Pie

For my fish pie I have used Paul Hollywood’s recipe for his luxury fish pie with saffron mash….it really was very nice. “A good fish pie, I think, always needs some smoked fish - or shellfish - to give it a real depth of flavour and what could be more luxurious than smoked Scottish langoustines? If you can't get hold of any, use giant tiger prawns instead, and replace half the plain haddock with smoked haddock.”

For the poaching stock 600ml fish stock 600ml water 50ml Pernod 1 small onion 1 small fennel bulb, roughly chopped 2 celery sticks 1 bay leaf Few parsley sprigs For the filling 500g haddock fillet (or other white fish of your choice), skinned 250g salmon fillet, skinned 250g langoustine tails (I used prawns)

For the saffron mash 1.5kg floury potatoes, such as King Edward (I used mackies), peeled and cut into chunks 100ml double cream Good pinch of saffron strands (the saffron really makes a difference, I am luck I have a friend who gave me lots of saffron so I was able to add a generous pinch to the mash) 50g unsalted butter

For the sauce 40g unsalted butter 40g plain flour 300ml reserved poaching stock 100ml double cream 2 tbsp chopped tarragon

Salt and pepper haddock with smoked haddock (I also used Salmon and king prawns too) 1. Heat your oven to 200°C/gas 6. Have ready a large ovenproof dish, 1.5-2 litres capacity. 2. Place all ingredients for the poaching stock in a large pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the haddock and salmon. Poach the fish for a few minutes, until it is just cooked. Strain the mixture, reserving all the liquid. Pick out and discard the stock vegetables. Leave the fish to cool. 3. Put the poaching liquid into a clean pan. Bring to the boil, and boil until the liquid has reduced by half. You will need 400ml of this reduced liquor. Set aside. 4. For the saffron mash, put the potatoes in a large suacepan, cover with cold water, add a little salt and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until tender. 5. Meanwhile, to make the sauce, melt the butter in a pan. Stir in the flour to form a roux. Let this cook over a medium heat, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat down very low and gradually add the reduced poaching liquid, a ladleful at a time, beating well after each addition to create a smooth sauce. Return to the heat and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream, tarragon and some salt and pepper. 6. Drain the potatoes well. Heat the cream, saffron and butter gently in the potato pan, until the butter has melted, then take off the heat and pass the potatoes through a ricer into the pan (or just tip them in and mash). Season well with salt and pepper and stir to combine. 7. Flake the cooked fish evenly over the base of your oven proofdish, checking for any bones as you go. Scatter over the langoustines. Pour over the sauce. Top with the mash, spread it evenly and then mark decoratively with a fork.

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and bubbling all the way through. If your assembled pie has cooled down, it may take longer.

Parmo (falkirk style)

Parmo, or Parmesan, a breaded cutlet dish originating in Middlesbrough, is popular in the North East of England. Similar to a schnitzel, it typically consists of deep-fried chicken in bread crumbs topped with a white béchamel sauce and cheese

Its easy enough to make… For the béchamel sauce: 5 tbsp butter 4 tbsp all-purpose flour 1l (1¾ pints) milk ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

4 chicken fillets 1 egg 150g (5½oz) breadcrumbs approx 1.5l (2¾ pints) vegetable oil, for frying 110g (4oz) cheddar cheese (I used red leister for mine)

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat. Add the flour and stir continuously until smooth. Heat the milk in a separate pan until it is just about to boil. Gradually add this to the butter and flour mixture, whisking continuously until very smooth. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Season with 2 tsp salt and the nutmeg Pound the chicken fillets between two sheets of greaseproof paper until they are flat and thin. Beat the egg in a shallow bowl. Season the breadcrumbs and pour on to a large plate. Coat the fillets with the egg, then dip into the crumbs, covering them evenly. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan or deep frying-pan to 160°C and deep-fry the chicken fillets until they have turned golden brown. Leave to drain on some kitchen paper.

To serve, pour the béchamel sauce over the chicken fillets then sprinkle over the cheese. Place under a medium grill until the cheese has melted.

Carrot Cake

My first attempt at baking a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting went well and was very tasty I will add :)

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside. Place the eggs, sugars, oil, and yogurt in a large bowl and whisk until the eggs are broken up and the mixture is thoroughly combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the carrots until evenly mixed. Pour the batter into a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish (no need to coat with butter), smoothing it into the corners with the rubber spatula. Bake, rotating the dish after 20 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out dry with just a few crumbs, about 40 to 50 minutes total. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting, at least 2 hours.

For the frosting: Place the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until light, fluffy, and fully incorporated, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with a rubber spatula. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low and mix until the sugar is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle again. Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and mix until the frosting is creamy and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Spread all of the frosting in an even layer over the cooled cake and evenly sprinkle the toasted nuts (or as you see from my pictures I used little chocolate hearts )over the frosting. If you don’t plan to eat the cake within 4 hours, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Before serving, let the cake sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes to take the chill off.

I used two trays with mixture in the oven so I could have a split cake with that extra spread of yummy cream cheese frosting

Raised Game Pie

Old-fashioned Raised Game Pie is something a bit different for me to make. It’s the first time I have made hot water crust pastry with lard and the pressure in on once the pastry is made as you need to work with it when its still warm, as it cools it tends to crumble and you can see the wee patch I had to do on the top of my pie due to a tear appearing when I was sealing the pastry lid. Looks like something you maybe served at Downton Abbey....well...perhaps not mine

I used chunks of venison for my pie and as I could not get my hands on some pheasant I used some ostrich meat instead which I found in Tescos.

500g lean pork shoulder, diced into 1cm cubes 375g minced belly of pork 100g smoked streaky bacon rashers, finely sliced 8 breasts of partridge, or 4 of pheasant or guinea fowl, skinned (I used 600g of cubed venison and 300g of Ostrich meat. 2 blades of mace 12 sage leaves, finely sliced 1 egg, beaten Starting with the pastry, pour 300ml of water into a stainless-steel saucepan, add the lard and salt and bring to a simmer over a medium heat. When the lard has completely melted, add the flour and icing sugar and beat it in thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Turn the warm dough out onto a clean surface, make a well in the centre and break in the egg. Knead the egg into the dough by pulling in the sides of the pastry over the eggy surface, pushing down, turning and repeating. It will incorporate quite quickly so continue kneading until the dough is smooth, about 3 minutes Remove a quarter of the dough, pat it into a disc and set aside to cool. Form the remaining dough into a large disc, place that into the bottom of a 24cm spring form tin and slowly and carefully work the pastry up the sides of the pan with your finger tips, making sure there are no holes or gaps. Cover and chill for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 200˚C / Gas Mark 6. Place the pork, bacon, mace and sage into a large bowl, season with a good pinch each of salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix together until all is well combined. Place half the meat filling into the pastry shell, but don't pack it in too tightly – leave a little room around the edges. Season the meat and lay them overlapping the pork and then top them with the remaining filling, dome like, leaving a small gap around the sides to tuck the lid into.

Roll out the remaining pastry into a 25cm disc, and drape it over the top of the filling. Dampen the pastry edges with the beaten egg and pinch together to seal well all around. Make a hole in the centre of the pie, brush the top with the beaten egg and place onto a baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180˚C / Gas Mark 4 and cook for a further 45 minutes. If the pie begins to colour too much, cover it with a sheet of foil.

Remove the pie from the oven and leave to rest for 5 minutes before removing the spring form ring. Brush the sides of the pie with a little more beaten egg and return to the oven for 10 minutes more. It should be crisp and a lovely golden brown all over.

below is a picture of some raised pies with seventeen century designs....real works of art

A Pale Blue Dot

This excerpt from Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.

I find this "ode" from Sagan very calming, as much so as when I stare across the road from where I live there is a big house, an old church manse which tall leafy trees, I watch them sway in the wind, it calms the heart, rests the soul then reading this over and over puts any woes I have into perspective as to measure what we are in this life "a mustard burp, momentarily tangy and then forgotten in the air" But yet I struggle like Sisyphus attempting to gain what an other will deny and as I near the top the boulder rolls back down again but just like Sisyphus I will keep trying even if its for an eternity which it already feels like. Mayflies have the shortest lifespan on Earth. Their life lasting only for 24 hours. In fact some mayfly die within few hours. So mayflies spend most of their lifetime as nymphs. Within this short period of life they form groups and dance together on all available surfaces, I guess my point is (if I have one) is life is too short, yes do put things in perspective but keep fighting for what is right, Karma will deal with the haters and abuser, there is a natural balance to things, to cradle your child in your arms, to hear his first words and reach out to receive his little hand when its offered, to hear him say that he loves you...these are the special moments no one can steal, no one can make you forget...these moments are your universe...the ones who cause you the problems will fade out over time but your loves such as family are eternal. “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known” but always remember another great speech from another great man "We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special"