Beef Bourguignon Pie with Blue Cheese Pastry - By Sarah MacKay

This hearty pie is a real winter warmer. The filling gets better and better with a day or two in the fridge, so don’t be afraid to prepare it ahead of time. The recipe makes enough filling for you to freeze half of it for another pie later, or to serve half of it as a casserole another night with a creamy mash.

If you aren’t confident with making pastry you can buy some ready made pastry; but once you’ve tried making it, you’ll realise it isn’t difficult, and you can’t beat the buttery-ness of homemade pastry, or the accolades you’ll get for making your own!

BEEF BOURGUIGNON FILLING: 1/4 c olive oil 250g streaky bacon, chopped 12 baby onions, peeled and halved 1.2kg (or etc), cut into 2cm cubes salt & lots of freshly ground pepper 1/4c flour 500ml good red wine 1 Continental Beef Pot (28g) (or 2t beef stock powder) 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 2 bay leaves 1 small sprig of rosemary 1 sprig of thyme 3 stalks of parsley 1 large peeling of an orange 250g portobello mushrooms, thickly sliced 20g melted butter 2T flour extra

METHOD: 1. Use a large cast-iron (stove top to oven) casserole dish. Heat 1T of the oil, and sauté the bacon. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat behind. 2. Sauté the onions in the pan until starting to golden. Remove and add to bacon, leaving the fat behind. 3. Place beef in a plastic bag with the first measure of flour and the salt and pepper. Shake to coat. 4. Add remaining oil to pan as necessary, and brown the beef in batches. 5. Once all the beef is browned, and has been removed from the pan, add the red wine to the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan to release any delicious browned bits. 6. Add the beef stock to the red wine, and stir to dissolve. 7. Add the garlic, bacon, onion and beef. Stir gently to combine. 8. Make a with the herbs and orange peel (i.e. tie them together with string) and add to the casserole dish. 9. Place lid on the casserole dish. Place in an oven, preheated to 170 deg C. Cook for 2 hours or until meat is beautiful and tender. 10. Add mushrooms, and return dish to oven for another half an hour. 11. Remove dish from the oven and place back on stove top with the lid removed. 12. Whisk the butter and extra flour together. Ladle off some of the casserole liquid and whisk into the butter/flour mix. Add this mix back into the casserole to thicken. 13. Simmer on stove top for 10 minutes to thicken. 14. Cool casserole in a suitable container and then refrigerate for a day or two. (At this stage, half of the mixture can be frozen for another time if you wish.)

BLUE CHEESE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY: 2c flour 200g cold butter 1/2 t salt 3/4 c ice cold water Squeeze of lemon juice 100g blue cheese, sliced 1 egg yolk + 1T water for egg wash for pastry

METHOD: 1. Place flour, butter and salt into food processor. Pulse briefly until butter is chopped and pea-sized. 2. Combine lemon juice and water and add to food processor. Pulse briefly, only until flour is wet (but before it all comes together in a ball). 3. Turn onto floured bench, and bring mixture together into a ball. 4. Roll out to approximately 30-40cm round. Fold in thirds lengthways. Turn a quarter turn, then fold into thirds the other way. 5. Roll out and repeat this rolling/folding process three times. Before the final folding cover the pastry with the blue cheese. 6. Cover the final folded pastry with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 7. Roll out pastry according to the size of your pie dish/es - either four individual pies or one family sized pie - top and bottom. 8. Lay pastry in pie dish/es and return to fridge for 10 minutes. 9. Fill pie dish with a generous amount of cold pie filling. 10. Use egg wash around the edge of the pastry and adhere pastry lid. Crimp edges or pattern as desired. 11. Make a few cuts in pastry lid for steam to escape. Brush top of pastry with egg wash. 12. Bake on the lowest rack of an oven preheated to 220 deg C for 25-35 minutes or until pastry is golden.

The Ultimate Blueberry Pie - By Hiyam O’Donnell

PASTRY: 2x sheets short crust sweet pastry

BERRY FILLING : 5 cups blueberries 1 cup sugar 4 tablespoons all-Purpose flour 2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHOD: 1. Preheat oven 375F 2. Roll out the pastry into a slightly greased inch pie plate. 3. In a large bowl toss gently all the filling ingredients. If you using frozen berry stand the filling mix for 45 minutes until the berry are thawed. (Don’t add to the filling the liquid from thawing the fruit as the pie will turn quite runny) 4. Transfer the filling into the prepared pie. Cover with the second pastry sheet then cut the edge of the pie and trim the edges.. Cut some slice into the top pastry then brush with some milk and sprinkle with sugar. 5. To prevent browning cover edge of pie with foil. 6. Bake for 25 minutes, remove foil and cook for additional 20-30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden. ENJOY .. very very yummy