Food Heroes

Food Heroes

Keith Floyd - simply the best
Bruce Poole - great quality and skill personified
Rick Stein - for fantastic recipes, boundless enthusiasm, and for bringing an educated approach to food programming, that isn't always present.........
Nigel Slater - for a writing style that I don't think can be beaten
Giorgio Locatelli - because my wife fancies him, and he made her birthday by signing her menu, and coming out to say hello... (sometimes its the little things...)
Ross Hunter - owner of Surrey Hills Brewery - an old friend who followed his dream
Antonio Carluccio - his passion his food, and his country, are infectious
Eric and Sarah Guignord - who run the brilliant The French Table in Surbiton - my new favourite place! Great food and excellent service every time.


All of these are my food heroes, and many, many more

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Wednesday, 18 June 2014

World Cup Food - England v Uruguay - Pascualina

So here we go again - for the second match I have a Uruguayan pie! Pascualina is a typical Uruguayan pie - apparently it came to Uruguay with Italian immigrants. The Italian version is eaten during Lent only - but in Uruguay it is eaten all the time.
Make before and eat cold - or at room temperature. Good and filling - should soak up a few pints - celebratory this time!

Pascualina

250g plain flour
80g butter or margarine
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 pack chard 300g
1 pack spinach 200g
1 red pepper
2 onions
1 clove garlic
6 eggs
100g grated cheddar
100g ricotta

Before I start the recipe I should say this is a mixture of various recipes - some used only chard - some only spinach. Some used less cheese - some used different varieties. For a quick cheat you could use ready made pastry - I think puff pastry would be good.

1 Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and butter, first with a spoon and then with your hands, until it is as mixed a possible
2 Add water a little at a time t make a dough. Once it forms a fairly smooth dough put in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
3 Wash the chard and cut into ribbons. Discard the stalks.
4  Wash the spinach and cut any large leaves.
5 Chop the onions, garlic and red pepper into fairly small pieces
6 Heat the oil in a large pan, and add the onions, garlic and red pepper.
7 Cook until the onions are becoming translucent.
8 Add the chard and spinach and allow to cook down.
9 When the chard and spinach has softened take off the heat.
10 Put the mixture in a bowl, allow to cool a bit.
11 Drain off any excess liquid
12 Mix in one beaten egg, and add the grated cheddar.
13 Break the ricotta into small pieces - add the mixture and mix well.
14 Take out your dough. Cut in two - one 'half' slightly bigger than the other.
15 Roll out the larger to cover a 22cm cake tin with removeable bottom. - you want to line the tin, and leave a bit of an overlap. The height of mine was 8cm  - this was probably a little too high.
16 Gently add your filling to the pie.
17 Make four holes in the mixture, and add a raw egg to each one.
18 Roll out the remainder of the dough for he lid. Place gently over the mixture.
19 Crimp the edges of the pastry together.
20 Use the last egg, beaten, as an egg wash for the top of the pie.
21 Place in an ove at 180 until the top has gone golden - approximately 30 mins - but keep an eye on it from 20 minutes
22 Allow to cool to room temperature

It sounds like a lot of work - but it wasn't really - and makes a really filling pie.
Costa Rica to go - lets hope that is something to go with a celebration!