Russian chicken and mushroom pie

A chicken and mushroom pie with the addition of sour cream and fresh dill. Much better than the British equivalent, in my opinion. It still has the same, lovely, creamy taste, but with added kick and character. Bon appetit!

Ingredients:

• 125g long grain rice
• 50g butter
• 300g mushrooms, quartered or roughly chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 300ml milk
• 500g chicken breasts or thighs, chopped into chunks
• juice of ½ lemon
• 150ml of soured cream
• a bunch of fresh dill, finely chopped
• 250g pack ready puff pastry
• 1 egg beaten with a splash of milk, to glaze

1. Boil the rice until it's al dente – about 10 mins.
2. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Fry the chicken, mushrooms and onion until the meat is browned and the onions are glossy. 
3. Add the garlic and stir in the flour. Cook for 1-2 mins. 
4. Now take the pan off the heat and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Put the pan back on the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time until the sauce thickens. 
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the lemon juice, soured cream and dill.
6. Spread the rice in the bottom of a pie dish, then spoon the meat and sauce on top. 
7. Roll out the pastry to the size of your pie dish and cover the pie. Make several incisions for the hot air to escape. Glaze the top of the pastry with the egg wash.
8. Heat oven to 180C (fan). Bake for about 30 mins, or until the pastry is golden.

The pie is freezable, so you can split it into portions and store in the freezer until needed for a cheeky quick lunch or dinner.

Spcied Pumpkin and Carrot Soup

I'm normally not a massive fan of pumpkins, but this soup it seriously delicious!




Ingredients:

• 600-700 grams chopped pumpkin
• 4 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp chilli powder
• 600 ml chicken stock (made with 1 stock cube)
• a bunch of fresh coriander
• 150 ml double cream

1. Place the pumpkin, carrots, and potatoes in a pot, add ground coriander, cumin, chilli powder and stock, and bring to boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft.
2. Blend the soup with a hand blender or a soup blender until completely smooth.
3. Add the fresh coriander and cream and them stir in. Et voila! It's perfect for freezing :)

Celeriac, blue cheese and white wine soup

This is a brilliant recipe for using up all that leftover celeriac or blue cheese from your fridge (you f*ckin weirdo). It's very simple to prepare, but very sophisticated in flavour. The soup is so rich and thick I would strongly recommend against making it the main course. It is ideal as a starter, though. Or amuse bouche, if you like to pretend you're middle class.

Ingredients:

• 1 large celeriac, peeled and chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4-5 tbsp of sunflower oil
• 1l of water
• 300g of blue cheese, broken up into bits (I used Stilton)
• 500ml of double cream
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of salt
• 100ml of white wine

1. Gloss the onions in a large pan with sunflower oil.
2. Add the celeriac chunks and water. Leave to gently simmer for 40 minutes
3. Once the celeriac has softened, take the pan off the heat and blitz the soup with a food blender until it's completely smooth. Season to taste with sugar and salt.
4. Return the pan to heat and bring to a simmer. Add the blue cheese and stir until it melts. Add the double cream and season again if needed.
5. Add the garlic and white wine and bring back to the boil for a couple of minutes.