Asparagus and Cheese Tart

I’m not someone who slavishly buys and eats ‘locally’ and ‘seasonally’; if something is in the shops, and I like the look of it, I really don’t care if it’s been flown from Timbuktu or from the Moon, quite frankly.

There are a few things though, that are so much better when they’re grown in season in the UK: strawberries and asparagus spring immediately to mind, closely followed by Victoria plums. I’ll have to wait a while yet for the strawbs and plums, but I found the first of this year’s English asparagus available at the end of last week. Yum.

The timing was brilliant because we had DS, DDIL and Gorgeous Granddaughter coming for lunch on Sunday, so I made this Asparagus and Cheese Tart served with new potatoes and a mixed salad; I have to say it went down very well. It must have done - we ate the entire thing!

I used a 14” x 5” rectangular tin (which I bought years ago in a fit of baking enthusiasm, but had only used once!) but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use an 8” round tart tin – the amounts would be roughly the same, give or take.

I'd planned to use soft goat's cheese in this recipe but I couldn’t lay my hands on a vegetarian one for love nor money; yes, I know, you wouldn’t think it’d be too difficult but there you go… however, if you’re luckier than me I think goat’s cheese would work really well. I used a mature cheddar but any well-flavoured cheese would be fine.

Apologies for the slightly iffy pic…it was the result of a lethal combination of a new camera and being in a hurry.

500g block of ready-made shortcrust pastry
300g asparagus, trimmed
100g mature cheddar (or goat’s cheese)
3 eggs, beaten
250ml milk
a few grinds of black pepper
1 tbsp snipped chives

Turn the oven on to 180C.

Roll out the pastry to fit your tin, line the pastry case with baking parchment weighed down with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake for 15 minutes.

Take off the paper and beans then brush the surface of the pastry with a little of the beaten egg. Return the pastry case to the oven for 5 minutes.

Mix the remaining egg with the milk and a few grinds of pepper. Lay the asparagus spears in the tin, cutting to fit if necessary; sprinkle with the grated cheese and chopped chives then strain the egg mixture carefully over the top.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the filling is puffy and golden.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Potato, Red Pepper and Spinach Pithivier

I feel as though I’ve been AWOL for ages! We’ve certainly been eating but I haven’t cooked anything new for a while. To be honest I got into a bit of a rut and just couldn’t be bothered, so I fell back on old favourites and things I could cook almost with my eyes shut.

I’m still not firing on all cylinders yet, but I did drag myself into the kitchen at the weekend to cook this rather fetching Potato, Red Pepper and Spinach Pithivier. It was inspired by a recipe I saw on the BBC pages from the Great British Bake Off.

I have a confession to make here: I have never watched Bake Off! Yes, I know…shocking, isn’t it? I realise Mary Berry is supposedly a national treasure but she irritates the life out of me and, frankly, I think Paul Hollywood is just creepy. I don’t like cookery programmes much at all, really, and I very rarely watch them; I just don’t see cooking as a spectator sport. It’s OK if you think I’m odd – I don’t mind!

Anyway…. having never seen the programme I have no idea whether my modified effort would pass muster or not, nor do I care, but I think it was pretty good and we enjoyed it. There’s nothing very tricky about it and no fancy ingredients, but the flavours seemed to go together really well and, as a bonus, it was just as good cold the next day.

In making this I'm sure you won’t be surprised to see I’ve used ready-made pastry – I’m making no apologies; life’s too short and I’m far too old to faff about making puff pastry.

250g new potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
150g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp thyme leaves
150g baby leaf spinach
1 large egg
100g feta
500g puff pastry

Boil or steam the potatoes until tender, allow to cool, then cut into 5mm thick slices.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil and fry the onion and pepper until softened and starting to colour; add the garlic and fry for a minute more. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.

Add the other tablespoon of oil to the same pan along with the thyme leaves and fry the mushrooms until golden; take the pan off the heat and add the spinach leaves. Stir the spinach around in the hot pan until wilted. Set aside.

Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin and cut out two circles – one of 20cm and one of 25cm – I cut around a saucepan lid and a plate.

Turn the oven on to 220C.

Put the smaller circle of pastry on a baking tray lined with bakewell paper; place the potato slices in overlapping circles on the pastry, leaving a border all round of about 2cm, then cover the potatoes with the onion and pepper mixture.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and add most of it (keep a tablespoon back to use as egg-wash) to the mushrooms and spinach; stir well then pile this mixture on top of the onions and pepper.

Crumble the feta on top then brush the border of the pastry with a little of the reserved egg; cover with the larger pastry circle, smooth down, and press the edges together to seal. Crimp the edges of the pastry with a fork or the handle of a spoon.

Make a small hole in the centre of the pithivier to allow the steam to escape, and poke a few extra holes around the sides, then brush all over with the reserved beaten egg. Make a sunburst pattern radiating from the central hole by lightly scoring the pastry with a sharp knife but DON'T cut all the way through, for goodness sake, or you'll find all the filling on the baking tray!

Bake at 220C for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200C and bake for another 15 minutes or so until a deep golden brown.

Place on a wire rack to cool a bit and serve warm.

Serves 4.

Leek, Goat's Cheese and Walnut Tart

I think we’ve finally seen the last of the really cold weather, although even last week we were having overnight frosts! The Bank Holiday weekend was lovely though and we really took advantage of the weather; the raised beds in the garden are finally planted up with potatoes, sugar-snap peas, French beans, carrots, beetroots, courgettes, red and white onions and plenty of herbs; the tomato plants are sitting snugly in their propagator in the shed waiting to be put out when they’re a bit bigger.

I’ve already picked loads of rhubarb but we haven’t had a single blossom on the plum or greengage trees, however the damson has had plenty and the apple tree is absolutely covered in the most beautiful pink and white blossom as I write, so hopefully we’ll have a better crop on those than last year.

It’s been so nice to have a few days of eating more summery food again; I was beginning to think I’d be cooking soup, curries and chilli sans carne forever! My sister and BIL came to us for lunch on Sunday. My first thought was a tagine but then the weather warmed up a bit so I ditched that idea and went for something a little more spring-like – a lemony leek and goat's cheese tart served with rosemary-roast new potatoes and a warm spring salad.

A couple of things I changed in the recipe for the tart: I doubled the amount of leeks because I love them and I halved the amount of cheese. People always tend to overdo the cheese in vegetarian recipes – I think they’re afraid we’ll go short of protein!

Leek and Mushroom Pie

Last night’s dinner was a special request by Mr Simply Veg; a few days ago he asked for a pie with a puff pastry top. When I enquired what sort of pie, he said “Leek and something…?” He’s helpful like that…

Now, I have made tarts, flans, quiches, pasties and turnovers; I’ve made mince pies, homity pies and even shepherd’s pies but I don’t think I have ever made a ‘proper’ pie. I am clearly not an experienced pie-maker because I don’t even possess a pie plate/tin/dish/whatever, so off I went to Lakeland and bought an enamel pie tin - the sort of thing that used to be around when Adam was a lad and looked like it meant business!

I looked on the net for some tips, grabbed a trusty roll of puff pastry from the freezer and set to. This was the outcome and, for a first attempt, I thought it wasn’t too bad; just goes to prove even an old dog like me can still pull a few new kitchen tricks. Mr Simply Veg was a very happy chap indeed.

200g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
3 medium leeks, cleaned and chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
350ml milk
25g butter
30g plain flour
1 tsp Marigold Bouillon stock powder
100g cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp crème fraiche
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry
a little milk

Sauté the mushrooms and leeks in the olive oil until cooked and barely golden; set aside.

Put the milk, butter, flour and stock powder in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly; simmer for 5 minutes then take off the heat and stir in the grated cheese followed by the crème fraiche, mustard and parsley. Mix in the cooked mushrooms and leeks then turn the whole lot into a medium pie tin or dish with a rim and allow to cool.

Turn the oven on to 200C. Cut a piece of pastry about 2cms bigger all round than the top of the pie tin; dampen the rim of the tin with water then lay the pastry over the tin and tuck the excess pastry under to form a double thickness rim; cut a couple of slashes in the top of the pastry and brush all over with milk.

Put on a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.

Serve with veg of choice (we had broccoli and carrots).

Mince Pies

If you’ve read this blog before you will know that I am completely unable to make pastry. It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s just that it doesn’t work for me….So why, you may ask, did I find myself standing in the kitchen this afternoon having yet another try at this seemingly impossible task?

Well, I was flicking through a couple of my old Christmas recipe books, which haven’t seen the light of day for about 20 years, when I came across one by Nanette Newman (!) which was published in 1984! Don’t ask…I have no idea why I bought it, but it probably seemed like a good idea at the time; anyway, there was a recipe in there for mince pies with this amazing sounding orange and almond pastry. I’m a fool to myself but, with much trepidation, I decided to give it a go.

I am astonished and very pleased to report that not only were the pies edible, they were really good! I think it had something to do with the pastry being more like shortbread than shortcrust. It didn’t mind my heavy handedness and it even put up with having the trimmings re-rolled. Result! Eat your heart out Heston, mine tasted better than yours!

I’ve reproduced the ingredients list here but I’ve had to re-write the instructions in my own words for copyright reasons, which is just as well, really, because I used a food processor and Nanette allegedly made the pastry by hand. No chance of me doing that; I've failed too many times before!  

275g plain flour

25g ground almonds

175g butter, chilled and diced

75g icing sugar, sifted

grated zest of ½ an orange

1 egg yolk

3-4 tbsps of orange juice

450g mincemeat

a little milk

Put the flour, ground almonds and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs; add the icing sugar and orange zest then pulse again briefly; mix the orange juice and egg yolk together, add it to the mix and pulse until the mixture forms large clumps.

Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly just until it comes together; wrap in cling-film and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin on a lightly floured surface and stamp out circles for the pie bases; lightly knead the trimmings into a ball, re-roll, and stamp out smaller circles for the lids. Press the bases into a bun tin, put a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each then press on the lids. Brush with milk and make a couple of slits in the top with a sharp knife.

Bake at 190C fan for 15 minutes until golden and sprinkle with sifted icing sugar before serving.

I made 21 pies from this, but I think you could probably get the full two dozen if you're braver than me and you roll the pastry a little more thinly.

Lovely served warm and if you happen to have a small spoonful of brandy butter to hand to tuck under the lid, so much the better.

Nut Roast Wellington

I’m planning to do this rather spiffing Nut Roast Wellington as the centrepiece of our Christmas lunch this year. Having never made one before the last thing I wanted was to put the whole thing together on Christmas morning only to find it didn’t work…! Nightmare! So, a couple of weeks ago, before I went down with the dreaded lurgy, I decided to have a trial run.

The thing I was most worried about was the pastry splitting, allowing all the filling to fall out, but I needn’t have worried; it all held together nicely and went surprisingly well.

Although the instructions look lengthy, it’s actually not as fiddly to do as I expected; it sounds much worse than it is. Now I’ve done it I feel quite confident about doing it again; in fact, I’m looking forward to it.

I shall be serving this on Christmas Day with roast potatoes, maple roast roots (parsnips, carrots and celeriac), sprouts with chestnuts and proper homemade gravy. Lovely!

Incidentally, if you're looking for something to serve with the leftover Wellington, can I suggest this Root Vegetable Gratin? It tastes brilliant and it cleverly uses up any leftover roasted roots from Christmas Day.

Nut Roast mixture:

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

200g whole mixed nuts

175g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

75g mature cheddar, grated

200ml stock

1 egg, beaten

½ tsp Marmite

1 tsp dried oregano

25g dried cranberries

Mushroom Duxelles:

250g chestnut mushrooms, very finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

few fresh thyme leaves

25g butter

500g pack of ready-rolled puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

For the Mushroom Duxelles:

Sweat the mushrooms, thyme and chopped shallot in the butter over a very low heat until all the liquid has evaporated and you are left with an almost dry mushroom pate. Set aside to cool.

For the Nut Roast:

Sauté the chopped onion in the olive oil until golden and set aside to cool.

Grind the nuts in a food processor until reasonably fine, but still with some texture. Place the ground nuts in a large bowl; add the breadcrumbs, grated cheddar, oregano and cooled onion; mix well. (At this point you can put it in the fridge and finish it off next day, if you want.) Whisk the stock together with the beaten egg and Marmite; add this to the bowl and mix with a fork until the mixture starts to hold together. Remove about 1/3 of the mixture to a small bowl and stir in the dried cranberries.

Assembling the Wellington:

Unroll the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll lightly with a rolling pin to make it a bit larger.

Put the nut roast mixture with cranberries in the centre of the pastry and form into a rough rectangle about 8cm x 12cm. Spread the mushrooms duxelles over the top, then cover with the remaining nut roast mixture.

Now the fun begins! Fold the edges of the pastry over like a parcel, to completely enclose the nut roast, using the beaten egg to seal all the edges. You may need to cut off a bit of the pastry to avoid the seams being too thick. (I cut some little Christmas trees from the trimmings and stuck them on top but, quite frankly, that was a waste of time!)

Line a shallow baking tray with non-stick baking paper and, very carefully, turn the Wellington over and lay it, seam-side down, on the baking tray. Brush all over with the rest of the beaten egg and bake at 210C for 20 minutes then turn the temperature down to 180C and cook for a further 35-40 minutes until deep golden brown and cooked through. (I have a fan oven so you may need to adjust timings or temperatures a bit).

It looked a bit like a rather gorgeous loaf of bread when it came out of the oven! Allow to cool for about 20 minutes before cutting in thick slices to serve.

Serves 4 with lots of lovely leftovers to pick at later! It's also fabulous cold with chutney and salads on Boxing Day.


Quick update:  Last year I decided to go down the route of making a plait. To be honest, it was much easier and quicker than the original version and it was just as yummy.

All I did was lay the ready-rolled puff pastry on a floured baking sheet, put the same filling as above length-ways down the centre third, then cut the pastry either side into an even number of strips slightly on the diagonal; brush the strips with beaten egg then fold over the filling, making sure you tuck the ends in neatly. Brush the whole thing with more beaten egg and bake as above. 

And there you go - you have yourself a gorgeous golden Christmas Nut Roast Plait!

Moroccan Veggie Parcels with Aubergine Sauce

I made these little parcels last Sunday; we had three people round for lunch and I didn’t want to do a nut roast or similar – I was after a lighter, more summery type of thing. For some reason I broke my golden rule, the one I’ve stuck to all my life, and cooked something that I had never cooked before! I always have a dry-run of a new recipe before I unleash it onto guests but, in this instance, I can only assume I had a rush of blood to the head or possibly a severe attack of over-confidence….whatever it was, I must be mad!

In the event it all turned out rather well; I chose a Simon Rimmer recipe, which used to be on the BBC website but which has now been deleted (grrr!), but luckily I have a crafty copy on Word. I served it with tomato, olive and almond couscous and a leafy salad.

Moroccan Veggie Parcels

For the filling

1kg/2lb 3oz cooked sweet potato, cut into cubes

100g/3½oz chickpeas

100g/3½oz spinach

2 onions, sliced, fried in a little oil until softened

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

pinch chilli flakes

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp paprika

1 tbsp runny honey

1 tbsp chopped dried apricots

1 tbsp flaked toasted almonds

300g/10½oz ready-rolled puff pastry, cut into 6 x 15cm/6in squares

2 free-range eggs, beaten

flour, for dusting

For the aubergines

2 aubergines, cut into 1.5cm/½in thick strips

100ml/4fl oz olive oil

1 tbsp tomato purée

3 tomatoes, chopped

1 garlic, crushed

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 and dust a baking tray with flour.

2. Mix all of the filling ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Shape the mixture into six equally-sized balls. Place a ball into the middle of each square of pastry and wrap the pastry around the filling. Flatten slightly, brush with the egg wash and chill in the fridge for ten minutes.

3. Place the parcels onto the floured baking tray and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden-brown.

4. Meanwhile, heat 50ml/2oz of the olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the aubergine pieces for five minutes.

5. Stir in the tomato purée, tomatoes, garlic and cumin and cook on a low heat for 25 minutes.

6. Add the rest of the olive oil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for a further five minutes, stir in the parsley and serve alongside the pastry parcels.

Now, far be it from me to criticise Simon, but I think when I make it next time I’ll give it a few refinements:

• Double the chilli flakes in the filling to give it a bit more zing
• Halve the amount of sweet potato, it made far too much filling for only six parcels
• Double the chopped apricots because they got a bit lost in amongst all the other flavours
• I should point out that I used a tin of chopped tomatoes because I thought the sauce would be a bit dry with just three fresh toms to provide the ‘sauciness’ and I also chopped the aubergines into chunks rather than strips

None of this is meant to suggest that they weren't fine as they are, it's just that I always mess around with recipes when I've made them once, to bring them into line with our particular taste. Our guests are omnivores, but they were very complimentary and I don’t think (?!) they were just being polite. On the whole I’d say it was very successful and definitely one to do again. The aubergine sauce was brilliant; I think it would make a good filling for lasagne...must give it a try.

Serves 6

Aubergine, Pepper and Feta Quiche

It’s a hot one here today – 30C – and I’m bad tempered, tired, fed-up and thoroughly brassed-off! I absolutely hate hot weather, but I'm very grateful I live in a country where we only get a few days like this a year.

Nothing too strenuous today, it's too hot for fiddling about; quiche for lunch with a rather nice potato salad, made with the first ones we’ve dug from the garden this year, and a green salad.

a 20cm blind-baked pastry case (I used ready-made pastry)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small aubergine, chopped into 2cm chunks

1 red and 1 yellow pepper, chopped into largish chunks

1 red onion, peeled and cut into eighths through the root

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled

200g feta

3 eggs

250ml milk

½ tsp dried oregano

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the prepared vegetables, garlic  and olive oil in a large bowl, mix well with your hands and turn the whole lot into a large roasting tin; roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the edges are beginning to char.

Once the veg are cooked, allow to cool then squeeze the garlic out of its papery skin and add it, along with the rest of the veg, to the pastry case; crumble over the feta then strain over the whisked eggs and milk and sprinkle with the dried oregano.

Bake at 200C for about 25 minutes until the top is puffed and golden.

Cool for 15 minutes before eating.

Homity Pasties

I’ve been thinking about picnic food; (that'll be the kiss of death, of course, in terms of the weather; it'll do nothing but rain solidly for the next three months, now!) in particular, I’ve been trying to think of a pasty filling that wouldn’t fall out all over me as soon as I took a bite and it also had to taste good eaten cold and be easily transportable. Well, it was so obvious, it was staring me in the face....Homity Pasties! Brainwave! 

I used shortcrust pastry to wrap up almost the same filling I use for Homity Pies and that was all there was to it. If I’m honest I should have sealed the edges a bit better or maybe I should have put a bit less filling in; you can see a bit of leakage on one or two of them, but I think it adds to the nice rustic feel of them and anyway, who expects perfect food on a picnic?

225gm potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks

2 large onions, peeled and chopped

1 cloves garlic, crushed

1tbsp olive oil

small handful of parsley, chopped.

75gm grated mature cheddar

ground black pepper

450g block of shortcrust pastry

1 egg, beaten

Boil or steam the potatoes until tender. Chop onions finely and saute in the olive oil with the garlic until lightly browned. In a large bowl combine the cooked potatoes and onions; add the parsley and the cheese. Mix well, season with black pepper and leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry to a large rectangle and, using a large saucer or small plate, cut out six circles. Put a heaped tablespoon of the cooled filling on one half of each of the circles then fold the pastry over and crimp the edges together with a fork.

Make three slashes in the top of each pasty then brush well with beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 200C until golden.

Makes 6.

Homity Pies

What’s your favourite comfort food? What do you eat when it's been 'one of those days'? Well, some folk dive into a large bar (or two!) of Green & Black's or a tub of Haagen-Dazs, but as it happens I'm not that keen on either chocolate or ice-cream; for comfort eating I need serious carbs and plenty of 'em. Bring on the Homity Pies; pastry, potatoes and cheese....ooh yes, I'm feeling better already!

Now although this is quite obviously not health food, it is good for you in other ways; it's inexpensive, it's simplicity itself to make and it is guaranteed to give solace to the most battered heart and soul.

Homity Pie is a traditional English dish that was popular when times were hard and people couldn't afford to eat meat - perfect food for a veggie, in fact! There are probably 1001 recipes for it on the net but this is my version. If you don't manage to eat all 6 at once (!) the cooked pies freeze really well - just defrost and refresh in a moderate oven for 10 minutes.

I usually serve these with lots of fresh veg in order to kid myself that I'm offsetting the carb and calorie overload. However, if things are really dire, forget the veg and just have another pie...


450gm potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
3 large onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1tbsp olive oil
25gm butter
Large handful of parsley, chopped.
150gm grated mature cheddar
ground black pepper
6 uncooked 10cm pastry cases (I use ready-made)


Boil or steam the potatoes until tender. Chop onions finely and saute in the olive oil with the garlic until lightly browned. In a large bowl combine the cooked potatoes and onions; add the butter, parsley and half the cheese. Mix well and season with black pepper. Cool, then fill the pastry cases and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Place pies on a baking sheet and bake at 200C for about 25mins until golden.

Makes 6 individual pies or a 20cm pie if you prefer.

P.S. I forgot to mention that today is National Pie Day in the USA. I just love the idea that a country can have its own "American Pie Council"? Priceless!

Tomato and Mozzarella Tart

I originally served this as part of a lunch in the summer - with a few buttered new potatoes and a mixed salad it was perfect. I’m posting it now because it occurred to me it could also be a handy thing to put out on a Christmas buffet table.

I made a similar thing a few weeks previous to this but, like the idiot I am, I forgot to take any pictures...duh! The earlier one had a bed of caramelised onions mixed with a spoonful of red onion marmalade, dotted with some crumbled goats cheese and a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves. Like I said, no pictures, but you get the drift.

1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry
2 tbsp pesto
6 tomatoes, thinly sliced
150g chopped mozzarella
a few chopped green olives

Unroll the pastry and lay it on a large baking sheet; score it with a sharp knife about 2cms in from each edge and prick inside the scored edge with a fork to stop it puffing up in the oven. Bake at 200C for 10 minutes. If the middle does puff up just push it down while it's still warm. You now have a nice little box-shaped tart case.

Spread the base of the tart with the pesto then cover with the sliced tomatoes and the chunks of mozzarella. Sprinkle with the chopped olives then bake at 180C for 10-15 mins.

Cut into 6 or 8 pieces and serve warm.

Mini Cheese & Onion Quiches

I’ve been trying to get ahead with bits and pieces of cooking for Christmas recently, so I’ve been doing a little something every couple of days. It’s not that I have masses of things to do, it’s just that I enjoy fiddling about and I like to spread the enjoyment over as long a period as possible!

Boxing Day chutney, red onion marmalade, mincemeat and cake are all sitting in the pantry, Not Sausage Rolls are in the freezer and today I made a batch of mini quiches, also for the freezer. They’re nice little bites, perfect for adding to a buffet, but also good for picnic lunches when the weather is a little less freezing!

I’ve already admitted to being rubbish at pastry, so needless to say I used ready-made; but if you’re better at pastry than me, use home made.

2 packs of ready-made shortcrust pastry
3 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
100gm mature cheddar, grated
few sprigs of fresh thyme
3 eggs
200ml milk
black pepper

Saute the onions in the olive oil until very soft and lightly browned. Unroll the pastry and cut out circles to line 2 12-hole bun trays. Put a teaspoonful of the cooked onions in each pastry case, then top with a few thyme leaves and a sprinkling of grated cheddar. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a jug; fill each mini quiche almost to the top with this mixture then grind over a little black pepper.


Bake at 190C for 15 minutes until puffy and golden.

Allow to cool on a wire rack then freeze in a rigid plastic box. Reheat from frozen in a moderate oven for 10 minutes and serve warm.

Makes 24

'Not' Sausage Rolls

I've heard it said that people are either good at making cakes or they're good at making pastry. Well, to my shame, I have to tell you that I am completely rubbish at pastry; I've tried, believe me, but I think I'm just too heavy-handed and impatient. Pastry I've made in the past has been successfully used by the local council as paving slabs - I think you get my drift...! However, my lack of skill in the pastry department does not deter me; I just cheat and buy the ready made stuff - thank goodness for Jus-rol!

I make these little rolls every Christmas and they're brilliant, if I say so myself; the 'sausage' filling is a tweaked nut-roast recipe. I've never yet met anyone who doesn't love them - they disappear as fast as you can bake them!

They couldn't be easier to make and you can freeze them uncooked and bake as needed; I've taken to keeping a few in the freezer to whip out for a quick lunch. Served warm with some spicy chutney or a few olives, you can't go wrong; they're also nice for a summer picnic or lunchbox.

This post is especially for my lovely daughter-in-law. She knows who she is!

(Not...!) Sausage Rolls

1 large onion, chopped finely

2 tbsp olive oil
200g ground mixed nuts
100g grated mature cheddar
75g soft breadcrumbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano (or any other herb you have to hand)
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
a 500g pack of ready-rolled puff pastry
a little milk

Fry the onion in the oil until softened and golden. Mix all the dry filling ingredients together in a large bowl, add the fried onion, then bind with the beaten egg and water. It may look and feel a bit dry but don't worry, it’ll be fine. Press the mixture together and roll it into three long sausage shapes. Cut the sheet of pastry into three equal strips and roll up the sausage shapes in the pastry strips, making sure that the join is underneath, dampen the edge of the pastry with a little milk and press firmly together. It'll be quite a tight fit to get all the filling in but with perseverance I usually manage it!

Cut the rolls into 3cm pieces and brush with milk, then bake on a greased baking tray at 200C for 15-20 mins. (I usually line the tin with baking parchment - it saves on washing up!)

If baking from frozen cook for 20-25 mins.