Another pie - this time a lamb one

[Paul]

Sweet lamb pie

Ingredients:

500g lamb cubed
Vegetable or olive oil
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp mace
1/2 tsp whole allspice
1-2 tsp flour
2 or 3 large onions
300ml stock
60g each dried apricots, prunes and raisins
1 lemon and 1 orange
Rough puff pastry and and egg to glaze


Preparation:

Salt the lamb and brown in oil in a frying pan
Grind the spices in the TMX on 9
Add some oil and fry for 2 mins on speed 2-3 at 100C
Add onions and chop on 5 until roughly chopped (not pureed)
Add dried fruits and cop for further 2-3 seconds on 5
Add juice of half lemon and half orange, and a bit of zest from each
Add stock, flour and browned meat and pan juices
Cook for 1 hour on 100C   

Test for seasoning when the mixture has thickened enough.  Put into pie dish and cover with pastry while hot.  45 minutes in the oven at 190 C

This is a recipe tweaked from the English cook and writer Jane Grigson, and is sometimes called Dartmouth pie.  Sweet lamb pies were very popular in the past, and why not?  Spices and fruit cut the fatty taste of lamb.  This one tastes like it has been cooked with home made chutney in it due to the fruits and spices, no need for tomato sauce.  Serve with mash potato and steamed veges.  I fry the spices, because this dish obviously has some Indian heritage, and I think the flavours come through better if the spices are fried.  I also think chopped onions give a nicer sauce than the sliced ones in the original recipe.  I guess you don't need to brown the lamb, but I think doing so gives it more flavour, maybe you could do that in the TMX as well.  Fresh whole spices make this dish, try not to use dusty old ground spices that have lived in your cupboard for years.  And it's another excuse to use the TMX, I love the way it grinds spices.

[Thermomixer]

Thanks Paul - the idea of a chutney mix with the lamb is really good.  Jane Grigson - a great researcher and so many woderful simple recipes.  Ta

[Paul]

Thermomixer, why doesn't anyone make cookbooks like that any more?  Paperback, no photos, just recipes and interesting reading.  Now it's all gastroporn and irrelevant photos.  Give me Jane, Elizabeth, Claudia any day.  I also bought some great books for a couple of pounds when I was in the UK by Michael Smith and Robert Carrier. 

[judydawn]

This was another choice I made for the current challenge. Posted over 5 years ago, it was ripe for bumping but I did do my own thing with it.

I used the list of ingredients pretty well as listed but added 1/2 tsp ground allspice and 1x 2.5cm piece of cinnamon as per the original recipe here. I had a few packets of lamb chump chops so removed the meat from them to get the 500g, cut the pieces into 3cm pieces (you could go slightly bigger).

Method

Grind spices 2 minutes/speed 9.  I then finished them off in a mortar & pestle to get them to the powder stage. Set aside.
Add 2 large onions cut into 1/4's - chop 3 sec/speed 5.
Add 2 tbs olive oil and the spices back into the bowl - cook 5 mins/varoma/reverse/speed 1.
Add meat evenly around the blades.  Cook 5 mins/varoma/reverse/speed 1/MC off.
Add dried fruits.  I used those named but had some apricot pieces so the only fruit to chop by hand were the prunes which I just cut in half after removing the seeds.
Add the juice of 1/2 an orange & 1/2 a lemon, a few gratings of finely zested peel, 1 tblspn home-made beef stock powder (you'd only need a teaspoon of bought stock powder) and 300mls water.
Cook 40 mins/100^o/reverse/speed 1/MC off and steaming basket in place
Thicken with 2 tsp wheaten cornflour mixed with 2 tsp water. Cook 1 min/100^o/reverse/speed 1.
Allow to cool for a few hours for the flavours to intensify.
I used filo pastry instead of rough puff pastry and baked one for my tea for 10 mins in a preheated 200^o air fryer.
It made 5 individual ramekins and I have frozen the rest for later.

It is very rich so you could cut down on the amount of apricots, prunes and raisins but I really enjoyed it.
This mixture would be nice for our pie makers or topped with mashed potato instead of pastry.

[Cornish Cream]

Looks delicious Judy

[judydawn]

Thanks Denise, I had all the ingredients in the house for this one apart from the filo pastry.  I did have some flaky pastry sheets I could have used but wanted to keep the calories down.

[cookie1]

A great choice of recipe to review Judy. I know all about those mean, nasty calories. 

[gertbysea]

It sounds like it would be quite sweet Judy. Was it? It is an interesting recipe. I am doing one tomorrow. I may not like but I had everything in the house so will give it a go. It is kinda odd. All will be revealed tomorrow arvo.

Then I have a tasty morsel to do.

Gert

[judydawn]

I think it would be described as rich rather than sweet Gert.  You certainly couldn't eat a huge serving of it so little pot pies are ideal for this recipe.