Delia: Not just for Christmas

Boxing Day pie - on Valentine's Day

It was the usual scenario - Monday's fridge was full of little bowls of cling-film wrapped leftovers from the Sunday roast.

"Could you make a Boxing Day pie?" asked H9 as I pondered possibilities.

Of course I could! Boxing Day pie is an institution in this household. I make it every year with the leftovers from Christmas Day. It is, to all intents and purposes, the Turkey Flan with Leeks and Cheese from page 214 of my very battered and adored copy of Delia's Christmas. My children have always called it Boxing Day pie because we don't have turkey at Christmas - usually a big chicken (or two) or one year a big salmon.

Why not make it on Valentine's Day? We all love it after all!

It's basically this. First you make a cheese pastry (175g self-raising flour, 75g butter, 50g cheddar, mustard, salt and pepper, water) which Delia rubs in and grates but I just blitz in a food processor. Line a 25cm quiche tin with the pastry and bake for 15 minutes at Gas mark 5/190 degrees C. I prop up the sides of the pie with foil and prick the base with a fork.

Into that you pile some leeks (cooked in butter on Boxing Day) or whatever green veg you have left over (I used steamed Cornish greens), bits of sliced chicken, leftover roast vegetables and about 400ml of thick Bechamel sauce to which you have added some grated cheddar and a beaten egg. Sprinkle cheese over that and bake again for 25 to 30 minutes.

It's lovely eaten warm or cold and is, to quote H9 "basically just a roast dinner in a pie".

SPICED BREAD AND APPLE PUDDING

A new Delia recipe wandered into my repertoire on Sunday, this time into the pudding department and from her recently refurbished Frugal Food book. I'm a big fan of bread and butter pudding (a good way to use up excess eggs from our enthusiastic hens).

This B&B pud is a layer of buttered wholemeal bread triangles on the base (butter side down), a layer of apple slices (I smugly used spiced ones I'd bottled last autumn - otherwise cook apple slices until soft in a little butter), then another layer of buttered bread triangles (butter side up). Dredge with soft brown or demerara sugar and cinnamon, then pour over 275ml of semi skimmed milk mixed with two beaten eggs. Leave to soak for a while and then dot with butter and bake at Gas Mark 4/180 degrees C until golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream or single cream.

It was delicious with a lovely custardy-appley flavour and golden crunchy spicy top. No picture because once it was cooked, we ate it!

Bread and butter pudding - again!

Now we have new enthusiastically laying hens my thoughts keep turning to things to do with all these lovely brown eggs we're getting.

I don't do weekday puddings, but a weekend wouldn't be a weekend without one (just as Sunday mornings aren't proper without pancakes).

So this weekend found me heading in the direction of the bread and butter pudding yet again, having plenty of eggs, various bits of sliced white from the local bakery and, serendipitously, a pot of double cream.

This time I did the jam sandwich method. You begin by rootling around in the fridge or the cupboard for suitable jam. Marmalade is also more than suitable and actually preferable in many cases, but not this one as I had marmalade-haters (who'd have thought there's such a thing?) to feed.

This time I found a pot of Andrew's strawberry and rhubarb jam, a jam of such stupendous deliciousness I did toy with the idea of not using it, but I knew it would be fabulous.

What you do is butter the bread and make rounds of jam sandwiches and cut into pretty triangles, enough to fill your dish in a single layer (squeeze them in like passengers in economy class - they don't need to breathe).

I put them pointy side up, but it's not really vital. If you like the crusty bits to be crusty try the other way up or alternate, whatever.

Next empty the 284 ml pot cream into a bowl or jug, fill the pot up again with milk and add that to the cream. Crack in three eggs and whisk it all together with two tablespoons of golden caster sugar.

Now add a tot of whiskey. This is fabulous in the marmalade version of the pud. Go mad and add two tots if you wish. I restrained myself to one as there were children present. Whisk the creamy whiskey mixture and then sniff. It smells like fabulous egg nog. Pour over the sandwiches in the dish and press down.

I hadn't enough of this lovely mixture to quite fill the dish and cover the sandwiches, so I whisked up another egg and half a pot of milk and poured that over too. It doesn't seem to mind this sort of treatment thankfully. I have been known to forget to add the sugar and then have to stir that in afterwards too. Press the sandwiches down into the creamy custard and leave it to stand for about an hour. It is vital the bread has time to soak up the yummy custard.

Heat the oven to Gas mark 4, sprinkle the pudding with a handful of soft brown sugar and bake until the middle is just set and the sugar had caramelised to a lovely crunchy golden brown.

Serve with single cream or ice cream.

Fish pie and Hot Cross Bun pudding

We had Easter again on the Preseli Hills on Sunday - not the actual choccy eggs day, more a culinary nod thanks to the freezer and a bag of Hot Cross Buns I found lurking in its murky depths.

Easter always means a fish pie and a bread and butter pudding made with hot cross buns. I'm not sure how it came to pass but it's one of those family traditions I have made which are now set in stone (but possibly only inside my own head!)

Anyway the fish pie first. Fish pie is one of those things that it is tempting to throw everything at. I've seen all kinds of fish, plain, smoked, flat, round, whatever, gherkins, capers, bells and whistles (not literally!) but the best advice I can give is KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid!

So just the one kind of firm white fish, some lovely prawns, a fabulous sauce, fluffy mash and cheddar cheese. Anything else is, in my opinion, de trop, but I'm willing to be proved wrong on that.

I begin with a couple of fillets of haddock. Lie them in a roasting tin on top of a couple of bay leaves, almost (but not quite) cover with full cream milk and pop in the oven, Gas Mark 4, until just about cooked (but not quite). The fish will finish cooking when the pie goes back into the oven, so err on the side of caution now.

Meanwhile, make mashed potato. Non-purists may prefer to leave this part, like Delia, to Aunt Bessie. I can't see what's wrong with peeling a few spuds, boiling them and mashing them with a bit of milk and butter, but then I have gardener's hands and nails. If I had a beautiful manicure, then perhaps I'd call on Aunt Bessie (but probably not!) Anyway the thing is the mash must be soft and fluffy, not big dry lumps (like school mash - ugh!). It must sit in big fluffy clouds atop the fish and sauce looking as if it might fall in at any moment. Or, in other words, it needs to be a bit sloppy.

Right. The fish should be done now. If you've got a bag of defrosted raw king prawns (from Tesco - natch!) put them into the hot milk around the fish and they will almost cook. Leave them for a few minutes and they blush a lovely pink. Then drain the milk off into a jug and pop the fish and prawns on a plate, covered, while you get on with the sauce.

Make a basic white sauce with a spoonful of butter (I just dig it out of the butter dish - it's about a heaped tablespoon) and the same of flour. Use the milk from poaching the fish and a little extra to make a nice smooth sauce. Again not too thick, it should be velvety and voluptuous, not so thick you can stand the spoon up in it. Next season with pepper and a little salt, then add the secret ingredient.

I'm not sure where I got this from, it might be my own idea or (more likely) I read it somewhere and assimilated it into the dark recesses of my brain. Anyway, the first time I added this it was to please my two little girls to whom pink is practically perfect, but it was an enormous hit with everyone, male, female, young and old. So add a goodly dollop of tomato puree and whisk it into the sauce. It turns it a pleasing corally pink, but also adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the flavour of the sauce too. It makes it more, um, saucy and I do love a saucy sauce.

Now, flake the fish and break up the prawns (I do this as I'm feeding small children with little mouths. If you've only got adults - or teeny prawns - skip this bit). Put into an attractive dish and pour over the pink sauce. Float clouds of mash on the surface. Astonishingly they don't sink. Smooth over with a fork. Rough it up again. Bits of pink sauce will peek through, but that doesn't matter. Finally grate some lovely cheddar cheese in a nice thick layer over the top, then pop back into the oven, Gas Mark 5, until all golden, bubbling and delicious.

I always serve this pie with a mix of steamed broccoli and cauliflower as they are perfect little vehicles for scooping up the lovely sauce.

For the pudding I use a pack of six hot cross buns. Split, butter and sandwich with some lovely jam. This time I used some of my friend Andrew's gorgeous greengage jam, but, as you probably don't get lovely homemade jammy gifts from Andrew, any good quality jam or marmalade will do.

Layer the buns attractively in your dish, cutting them in half as need be to fill up any gaps. Next grab one of those small pots of double cream, 284 ml I think they are, and pour it into a bowl. Fill the empty pot with some full cream milk and add that too, along with another splosh of milk for luck. Add three large eggs and two big tablespoons of golden caster sugar, whisk and pour over the buns. I sometimes add a tot of whisky to this mix, which is nice too.

Leave it to soak, pour over more of the creamy mixture and repeat until you can't get any more in. Put the dish into a roasting tray in the oven at Gas Mark 4, then pour boiling water into the roasting tin so it comes half way up the side of the bowl. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the custard is almost set. Serve with some cream poured over.