Stir up Sunday and mince pie recipe

 

Today is Stir up Sunday. In all honesty I had no idea there was a day called Stir up Sunday. So when Asda invited me to an event for the same, I was a bit confused. Thanks to Google, all my doubts were cleared and here's what Stir up Sunday is all about. Its the last Sunday before the season of Advent and its on this day that you prepare (stir-up) your Christmas puddings so that there is enough time for the flavours to develop. The whole family gets together and takes their turn at stirring the pud and while they are at it, each of them would make a secret wish. Also, the pudding is stirred from East to West in honour of the three wise men who visited Baby Jesus. I was thoroughly amused by these findings and it did make me look forward to the event.

Asda in collaboration with the Leiths School of Food and Wine invited some of us lucky food bloggers for some hands on experience with Christmas baking. The evening was so much fun, with the highlight being the fabulous spread from the Asda Extra Special Range. I was thoroughly amazed at how good they tasted and my personal favourite- the dim sum platter - was to die for. I cant wait for them to appear in the market so I can start gorging on them religiously. We socialised over mulled wine and champagne and then was given a brief by the talented chefs about Stir up Sunday and Christmas puddings after which we were all lead to the kitchen to do a blind tasting of three different Christmas puddings, all matured for different durations. We also got to taste the absolutely delicious Jewelled Yule Pudding which was moist and laden with fruit, nuts, brandy and spices...sooo very Christmassy. It was perhaps my favourite.

We then went on to try our hand at some baking. Started off with mince pies and although I'm paranoid when it comes to handling pastry, I somehow managed it and was not as intimidated as I thought. While the pastry was chilling in the fridge, we went about making our pudding mix. This was quite exciting for me, since it was my first experience and in spite of trying to concentrate really hard I kinda messed up a bit. I added the entire egg mix at one go instead of slowly adding and stirring, but thanks to a helpful Head Chef, I still managed to bring it all together after the soaked fruits were added. We transferred the mix into a pudding dish and did the ritual of covering it up (which I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do without some help). It has to be steamed for 10 to 12 hours (yes you heard it right) after which it can be stored in a cool dark place for as long as you want. So yes, now I have to get around to doing the steaming business if I want it ready for Christmas.

We also decorated some all butter Christmas tree cookies with orange chocolate and nuts. These, if tied with a string can be so adorable on Christmas trees. Sadly mine got over soon after i brought them home and so will have to do a fresh batch and resist the urge to eat them, if i have any plans of hanging it up on a tree:). While the goodies were being baked and set, we continued gorging on the yummy food and catching up with each other. It was such a fun night out, and we all got back home with bags full of goodies from the Asda Extra Special Range and enough Christmas puddings to last for a while :)

Star topped mince pies (recipe adapted from the Asda, in collaboration with the Leiths School of Food and Wine)

Shortcrust pastry

Plain flour- 170 gms

Salt- a pinch

Butter- 100 gms, unsalted

Caster sugar- 2 tbsp

Egg yolk- 1

Iced cold water- 2 tbsp

Filling

A jar of Asda Extra Special mince meat (refer notes)

Sift the flour with salt into a large bowl.

Rub in butter till the mix resembles bread crumbs

Add the sugar and mix through followed by the egg yolk and water.

Mix it all together to form a firm dough. May need a bit more water, but remember, a crumbly dough, although difficult to handle, will result in a shorter, lighter pastry, as opposed to a damn dough.

Divide your pastry into 2, approx. 2/3rd to 1/3rd.

Roll out the larger disc to a 3mm thickness and cut out 12 circles, a little wider than your pie tray hole.

press the circles into the  lightly buttered pie tray.

Roll out the smaller half of the pastry dough and cut out 12 stars. 

Transfer on to a baking tray and chill both trays in the refrigerator for about 20 to 30 minutes.

When ready to bake, pre heat the oven to 200C.

Place a spoon and a bit more of the mince meat filling into each pie shell ad top each of them with a star.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the pie from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.

Just before serving dust with some icing sugar.

 

Notes: We were given two mince meat filling- one a whisky and orange and the other port and brandy. I did a half and half. 

Also, don't fill your pies with too much mince meat, they may bubble up when cooking and spill over, causing the pies to stick to the tray.

With thanks to Asda for having me over as a guest for the event

Read more »

Banana-passion fruit meringue tarts

'Hi, my name is Nisha and I'm a passion fruit addict' would be my opening line at an AA equivalent meeting, but for food addicts.

If I'm not mistaken, I went through a bout of passion fruit love sometime last year as well. Yes, just after summer is over and the fruit is fading from the market, but is ridiculously expensive. I thought I was over that whole passion fruit obsession, and that's when a couple of us food bloggers (Suchi, Nupur, Sonal, Nayna and Jagruti) ended up going to the Cake & Bake Show last month and had a passion fruit and banana tart made (right in front of us) by none other than Edd Kimber, the Great British Bake Off winner, 2010. It was so good, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I HAD TO MAKE IT!

So I came back home, did a thorough check of where I could get passion fruit purée and was truly disappointed. None of the local stores sold it and my only option was to pick it up online...and I would have if it wasn't so bloody expensive and came in large quantities. So the ordeal was soon forgotten until I dropped into Ottolenghi one day and had the infamous passion fruit meringue tartlets. Ok new idea brewed and I HAD TO MAKE IT. So chucked the whole plan of purée, instead decided to improvise using passion fruit juice and some pulp. The outcome was brilliant and I finally made the tartlets. 

 

I always stayed away from lemon curd and lemon/ lime based desserts because I was not a fan of the tangy stuff (in desserts, I mean). With the fear of passion fruit curd being something like that, I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it tasted, albeit the slight tanginess which was clearly balanced by the sweetness of the curd. Its heavenly to dab it on a piece of warm toast or, if you cant wait, spoon it right out of the sauce pan and eat while still warm. Somehow, the banana and passion fruit come together, and is a match worth exploring again in the future. If there was one fault. id say it was a bit too much on the sweeter side when it all comes together. Reduce the sugar in the meringue and curd and you should be fine.

Basically I have Edd Kimber to thank for this brilliant idea. The recipe, he said, would be in his new book, but obviously I had other plans....Google. I made the curd a day ahead, since everything together might have been hectic. Also, the lighting was bad on that day and I didn't want to take a chance and make the tarts only to be disappointed by lighting. Not that lighting was any better the day I actually made the tarts, but I had no patience to wait further. The entire process may look torturous, but if you spread it across 2 days, its really no hassle. So here you go, the recipe for a delightful tea time tart.

 

Banana-passion fruit meringue tarts (makes 6 tartlets)

Short crust pastry- 1 sheet (recipe below)

passion fruit curd- a little over 1/2 cup (recipe below)

Caramelised bananas- 1/2 cup

Meringue- around 2 cups

Short crust pastry

Plain flour- 200 gms
Baking powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp (optional)

Cold butter- 100 gms, cut into cubes

Cold water- 3 to 4 tbsp/ as required

Mix together the flour, baking powder salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add the cubes of butter and rub it into the flour, using your hands. It should resemble coarse bread crumbs.

Add the cold water bit by bit till it all comes together and you get a soft pliable dough.

Cling wrap it and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
(I used ready made all-butter short crust pastry shells, but have tried making pastry with the above recipe and it works fine. Have also tried with ready rolled pastry and its even easier)
Meanwhile, butter your tart tins and pre heat oven to 180C.
When ready to use, roll out the dough on a slightly floured surface and cut into rounds to fit your tart tin. You can also butter a muffin tin and use that instead of the tart tin, in which case you would get around 10 to 12 mini tarts.
Blind bake the tart shells for about 20 minutes or till golden brown. I didn't have any baking beans so I placed pieces of baking paper on top of the shells and filled them with enough rice. I kinda messed up here because in spite of filling them to the brim, the tarts still rose a bit in the middle. So use beads if possible.
When done, place on rack to cool completely.

Passion fruit curd (recipe adapted from here)

 

Passion fruit- 3, scoop out the flesh but discard the seeds (or eat them)
Passion fruit juice- approx. 1/4 cup
(The passion fruit you have may not be fleshy, in which case mix together the flesh and juice to make 125ml of pulp or just use 125ml of passion fruit juice alone but reduce sugar)
Eggs- 2, well beaten
Caster sugar- 80gms
Butter- 60gms, unsalted

Mix together the pulp, juice, caster sugar and butter in a saucepan placed over medium heat.
Stir till the sugar melts and the mixture comes to a boil.
Remove from heat and keep aside for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Gently pour in the beaten eggs, whisking continuously, or you will end up with curdled eggs.
Place the sauce pan back on low heat and keep whisking till the mixture becomes thick and smooth.
Pour into sterilised jars/ air tight container and keep refrigerated. The curd becomes a bit more thicker once it cools.

 

Caramelised bananas

Banana- 1 large ripe one, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds

Brown sugar- 1 tbsp

Butter- 1/2 tbsp + enough to grease the tins 

Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan. It should be all dark and bubbly.
Throw in the sliced bananas and toss around to coat it well, taking care to not break them up.
Remove from heat and keep aside to cool slightly.

Meringue 
Egg whites- 125ml (or half cup)
Sugar- 150gms
vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Whisk the egg whites in a free standing mixer (with balloon whisk attachment), on medium speed, till it doubles in volume.
Add the extract.
Increase speed to high and slowly add the sugar.
Continue whisking till you get stiff, glossy peaks.
Be careful to not over whisk and make it too dry.
Fill a piping bag (with round tip nozzle preferably) with the meringue and keep ready.
The above mentioned measure make a large batch. I made meringue cookies with the remaining. Feel free to halve and also reduce sugar as per choice.

 

Assembling
Place the tart shells on a baking tray and layer the bottom with the caramelised bananas...say around 4 to 5 slices per tart (of course adjust it according to your tart shell size)
Pour around 2 to 3 tsp of passion fruit curd over the bananas, say till about 3/4th full of the shell.
Pipe the meringue on top of the curd in whichever design you like, but make sure the tips are not too pointed or else you might end up with burnt tips. (You can also just slather with a spoon and swirl designs)
Place in an oven pre heated at 180C and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or till the meringues are cooked through and brown in colour.
If you have a blow torch then omit this step and just brown them.
Next time I would place it under the broiler. I was too much of a chicken to do so this time.
Keep the tarts to cool for a while and then dig in.
You can also refrigerate it till further use.

Read more »