Pies

I cooked dinner for my GF's parents. Did Duck Confit pie with duck breast, Red cabbage and roast potatoes.

Pie recipe makes 4-6 individual pies

Take one whole duck, cut off breasts and joint.

Make a stock from the carcass with peppercorns, bay leaf onions, celery and carrot.

Confit the legs, thighs, oysters, wings and all other meat from the carcass in it's own fat. should be done the day before but you can do it in about 5 hours. As soon as the meat has softened and there is no steam coming off, take all the meat off and leave in the confit, and turn the heat right down.

Pie filling:

Caramelise a finely chopped onion, and put to one side. take the puff pastry out of the fridge.

boil a small potato, and mash with the stock to create a fine soup, add the onion, some red wine, salt, pepper. herbes de provence, and a few dried cranberries

In another pan fry some Pancetta, and add the confit duck meat. when the pancetta starts to crisp, drain off all fat and add to the main pan.

let this simmer for 5-10 to really let the flavours infuse.

roll out your puff pastry to about the thickness of a pancake, then using one of the pie dishes create circles about the same size as the top of the dishes. let these rest for 5 min, then roll them again so they end up about a centimetre bigger around than the dish.

fill the dishes with mixture and leave a cm from the top of the filling to the edge of the dish. cover the dishes with the disc of pastry, using a fork to crimp the edges around the outside. pierce the pastry with 2 slits, to let steam escape. brush the top liberally with egg and milk, the crimp the edges again making sure the pastry sticks to the sides of the dish

Bake in a preheated oven at 220C for 18-22 minutes depending on how crisp you want the pastry and how good your oven is. Enjoy.