Beef pie with star anise carrots recipe

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Pie season has arrived.

“This is basically a braised beef stew turned into a pie,” says James Martin. “We get a lot of letters and emails from people complaining that a pie isn’t a pie without a base! But this is such a simple dish.

“For the beef, make sure you get big chunks – you don’t want the stewing beef that’s already cut up as the chunks are too small and they fall to bits in your stew. You want chunks and whole carrots, as you want to be able to taste everything.”

Beef pie with star anise carrots

Ingredients:

(Serves 6)

2kg shin of beef, cut into large dice

2 shallots, diced

250ml beer

500ml red wine

A few sprigs of thyme

2 bay leaves

500g ready-made puff pastry

1 egg yolk, beaten

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the carrots:

400g whole carrots, peeled, with 1cm green tops left on

100g caster sugar

5 star anise

100g butter

Method:

1. In a very large casserole dish, over a medium-high heat, fry the beef in batches until deeply coloured. Season with salt and pepper, then pop it all back into the pan with the shallots, cover with the beer and wine and add the herbs.

2. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for two to three hours, until the beef is very tender. Season with salt and pepper and allow to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 200C/180ºC fan.

4. Use the beef stew to fill a 20 centimetre ovenproof pie dish. Roll out the pastry to two millimetres thick and slightly larger than the dish. Brush the top edges of the dish with egg wash, then pop the pastry on, crimp and seal the edges and garnish with pastry leaves (cut from the pastry offcuts) and egg-wash these too.

5. Put the dish onto a baking tray to avoid any overspill and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the pastry is risen and deep golden.

6. Meanwhile, pop all the ingredients for the carrots into a pan, bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then simmer for 20 minutes until the carrots are tender. Serve with the beef pie.

Welsh rarebit with bacon and chutney

Credits: PA;

Perfect autumnal comfort food.

“One of the greatest chefs of the modern era was Gary Rhodes. People really underestimate how good he was and how he revolutionised the food scene using top-quality UK produce,” says James Martin.

“One of his trademark dishes was a smoked haddock Welsh rarebit with confit tomatoes. Bettys Tea Room in York does a Welsh rarebit on toast with tomato chutney and it’s bloody delicious!”

Welsh rarebit with bacon and chutney

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

8 slices of unsmoked back bacon

50g butter

500g Cheddar, grated

1tbsp English mustard

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

1tsp Tabasco

3 egg yolks

2tbsps plain flour

50ml beer

50ml milk

4 slices of sourdough

1 jar Bettys (or other good-quality) tomato chutney

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180ºC fan.

2. Place the bacon and butter in a large, non-stick, ovenproof frying pan and roast for ten minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat a non-stick saucepan over a medium heat and add the cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco and stir until melted. Beat in the egg yolks and flour and cook gently for a further two minutes, stirring. Whisk in the beer and milk and cook for five minutes until you have a thick, smooth sauce.

4. Toast the sourdough. Slide it underneath the bacon, top with the chutney, then spoon the cheese sauce all over and bake for five minutes until deep golden and bubbly.

Sticky toffee pudding with miso caramel sauce and clotted cream

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A classic dessert with a twist.

“There are loads of variations of sticky toffee pudding, and I love to put my own spin on it,” says James Martin.

“Miso is a brilliant savoury ingredient and when added to caramel it’s amazing, but it has to be high-quality miso!”

Sticky toffee pudding with miso caramel sauce and clotted cream

Ingredients:

(Serves 6)

290ml boiling water

200g stoned dates

50g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

175g Demerara sugar

1tbsp golden syrup

2 eggs, beaten

2tbsps black treacle

200g sifted plain flour

1tsp vanilla bean paste

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the miso caramel sauce:

200ml double cream

100g butter

100g dark muscovado sugar

3tbsps black treacle

2tbsps golden syrup

2tbsps white miso paste

To serve:

Clotted cream

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160ºC fan. Grease a 20 centimetre square, five centimetre-deep cake tin and line it with baking parchment.

2. Pour the boiling water over the dates in a bowl and leave to sit for five minutes, then blitz until smooth and pour back into the bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until pale, then fold in the syrup, eggs, treacle, flour and vanilla until smooth and combined.

4. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the blitzed dates, then mix into the pudding batter. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until springy to the touch. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out onto a plate to serve.

5. Meanwhile, to make the toffee sauce, put all the ingredients into a pan and bring gently to the boil, stirring until blended, then take off the heat.

6. To serve, cut squares of the pudding, spoon over the toffee sauce and top each portion with a dollop of clotted cream.

James Martin’s Saturday Morning by James Martin is published by Quadrille