Granny Lawson - thank you!

How to turn a delicious if homely looking meal into a rather ugly lump? Ask me to make pastry. I can't make it look pretty, but I don't really care as long as it tastes good. Here is a case in point. A delightfully wet, cool day (I mean that sincerely, I love this weather and rain is so rare these days) drew me to the kitchen and to pastry making. Love a bit of pastry, but it's a rare treat. Nigella Bites from my favourite Ms Lawson was where I selected the recipe. I had to mess about with it a little, and it was grudgingly. I adore olives, and the kidlets like them too, but The Lovely Man is less than keen. Nevertheless, I went ahead with the dish, deciding it was still worth making.

*Laughably sad it is that I admit to this, but where it comes to divvying up the pastry, I broke it in to what I guessed was half then I weighed it (to ensure it was fairly accurate) and lo and behold, they were exactly 212g each! Well chuffed with myself I was, and remain. Small things, I know!

You can find the recipe here in US measures,

Granny Lawson's Lunch Dish


250g flour, preferable Italian 00
50g vegetable fat (I used lard here)
75g cold, unsalted butter
60ml or thereabouts chilled, lightly salted water
1 egg beaten with pinch of salt, for brushing
325g tomatoes or same amount of drained, chopped, canned ones
200g (1 medium/2 small) onions
2 hard boiled eggs
90g pitted black olives (I replaced these for same amount of cornichons)
2 tablespoons olive oil, not extra-virgin
250g minced beef (I had about 320g on hand, so just used this)
Fat pinch allspice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


For the pastry:

Measure the flour into a dish (metal helps things along) that will fit into the freezer (it doesn't need to have a lid) and cut the shortening and butter into small - approximately 1cm dice and toss them in the flour. Put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

In your food processor with the double-bladed knife in the other - mix until you have a mixture that resembles coarse porridge oats. Now, dribble in the chilled salted water, slowly, with the motor still running, until the dough looks as if it's about to clump together in a ball, but stopped short of its actually clumping totally. Turn out and squish together with your hands until all the pastry forms smooth, silky ball.

*Divide into 2 pieces of equal size and form it into fat disks. Cover with cling wrap and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes or a few days ahead if you need to.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Cut a cross in the base of the tomatoes, just through the skin, and remove the core. Put the tomatoes in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for 5 minutes. Drain, run under the cold tap, then peel, seed and chop roughly (or use canned tomatoes, chopped and drained).

Peel and chop the onions - in the food processor if you like -roughly chop the hard-boiled eggs and olives (or cornichons), too.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Cook the chopped onions with a little salt until softened. Turn the heat to medium and add the chopped tomatoes and cook, stirring for a minute or so before adding the beef. Stir well, breaking up the clumps of meat with your wooden spoon as you go, then when the meat's browned, stir in the chopped eggs and olives/cornichons and season with the allspice and salt and pepper. Cook over gentle heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Get a baking sheet out, and flour a surface and rolling pin. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out 1 of the disks until you have a thin, but not exaggeratedly so, rough square that will fit on the baking sheet (mine was more rough rectangle), then place it on the baking sheet. Now roll out the second disk and leave it there while you cover the layer on the baking sheet with the beef mixture, leaving a margin of about 3cm all around. With a bit of cold water and your fingers, dampen this edge (I used some of the egg from the egg wash). Place the second square of pastry on top and press the edges together to seal. Now, what Nigella suggests is to roll these edges back on themselves once or twice, then get a fork and press it, the tines curved side down, against this rolled border, I pulled the base up around - so the edge wouldn't be too thick, personal choice.

Prong the top of the pastry to make air holes and then beat the egg with a generous sprinkling of salt and brush the top and edges of the pie with it to glaze.

Put it into the preheated oven for 20 minutes, by which time the pastry will be golden and cooked.

Slice it into fat oblongs and eat warm with a vegetable or salad or tomato sauce as we did, or room temperature.

Not purdy, but absolutely scrummy!

The children really tucked into this, I gave them a modest serve which didn't last long at all.