Darina Allen – love those trainers
Picture courtesy of Ballymaloe Cookery School
A British newspaper recently published a sympathetic, even enthusiastic profile of Irish cookery guru Darina Allen, but whoever wrote the headline needs a good slap.
It described her as “the chef you’ve never heard of”.
Oh really? Famous chefs fly in from all over the world to guest star at her Ballymaloe cookery school in the West of Ireland, she’s written reams of books, won heaps of prizes and she’s a household name in her native country.
The article also described her as Ireland’s answer to Delia Smith. Well, they’re both famous enough to be known only by their first names but much as I respect Delia, I think Darina knocks spots off her.
I’ll probably have to go into hiding now I’ve said that, Delia lives a few miles up the road from me. But really, Darina is one of my cookery heroines.
All this is a preface to sharing my favourite new game pie recipe. I say pie, but you can skip the pastry lid and just serve it as a stew.
Darina probably wouldn’t overcook the edges
And if you don’t have any pigeon you could make it with beef alone, although I think you’d be missing out.
I know some people are nervous about eating game, probably because they’ve heard all those stories about hanging pheasants until they’re so ripe the tail feathers pull out, but this is a good dish for game first-timers. It’s full-flavoured but not “gamey”.
The recipe comes from Darina’s Allen’s cookbook, Ballymaloe Cookery Course, and I use it here with her permission.
She makes her own home-made tomato puree and puff pastry. I use home-made shortcrust or sometimes cheat and use bought puff and ready-made tomato puree. It’s still a fantastic dish.
Beef and Pigeon Pie
Ingredients for pie filling:
4-6 pigeon breasts
Their weight in lean stewing beef
Half their weight in streaky bacon
Bacon fat or olive oil for frying
8 baby carrots or sticks of carrot
10-12 button onions
1 clove garlic
1-2 tspn plain flour
230 ml red wine
230 ml good stock
150 ml of tomato puree, home-made or made from tinned puree or paste thinned down with extra stock (don’t use 150ml of commercial tomato puree without watering it down or its flavour will dominate the finished dish)
Roux or cornflour to thicken (optional)
2 tspn fresh thyme and parsley, chopped
225g Mushrooms a la Creme (see below)
A pack of puff pastry
Method:
Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2-3
Remove the rind from the bacon, cut into lardons about 2.5 cm (1″) wide and cut the beef and pigeon into similar sizes.
Heat some bacon fat or olive oil in a pan and fry the bacon until crisp and golden. Remove to a 2.3 litre (4 pint) casserole.
Add the beef and pigeon a little at a time to the frying pan and toss until the meat changes colour. Add to the bacon in the casserole.
Turn the onions and carrots and crushed garlic in the fat and add them to the casserole.
Stir the flour into the fat, cook for a minute or two then stir or whisk in the stock, wine and tomato puree.
Bring to the boil and thicken, if necessary, with roux (equal parts of butter and plain flour: melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally) or with cornflour mixed with a little water.
Pour over the meat and veg in the casserole, season with salt and pepper and add the thyme and parsley.
Bring back to the boil, cover and cook for 1-2 hours, depending on the age of the pigeons. When it is cooked add the Mushrooms a la Creme.
Allow it to get cold. The flavour will improve overnight. You can eat it at this point as a stew or put the cold filling into a pie dish, cover with a puff pastry lid, decorate with the pastry trimmings and brush with egg wash.
Bake it for 10 minutes at 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8 then for about 20 minutes at 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
Ingredients for Mushrooms a la Creme:
15-30g butter
75g onion, finely chopped
225g mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice
125 ml cream
Freshly chopped parsley
1/2 tbsp freshly chopped chives (optional)
Method:
Mushrooms a la Creme
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan until it foams.
Add the chopped onions, cover and sweat gently for 5-10 minutes until the onions are soft but not coloured.
Cook the mushrooms in a separate pan, in batches, and season each batch with salt and pepper and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice.
Add the mushrooms to the onions in the saucepan, add the cream and allow to bubble for a few minutes until it thickens.
Taste and correct the seasoning then add the herbs.
This keeps well in the fridge for 4-5 days, freezes perfectly and, thinned down with a little more cream or stock, makes a lovely sauce as well as a great addition to stews and pies.
I would love to sample that pie…..looks wonderful, I can almost smell it from here.
If Si shoots the pigeons, I’ll cook them for you!
I wouldn’t like to be a birdy wandering through your garden – another one bites the dust 😉 Lovely-looking pie. I love the Britishness of your dishes, there is something very timeless about them. I do need to tackle my game fear. You wouldn’t believe I grew up on a farm; I’ve turned into a right urban jessy.
Was it an arable farm?! Or a dairy?
I didn’t actually murder these particular birds myself (I’ve only ever shot those two pheasants, to be honest) but I’m lucky enough to have been given quite a lot of game recently.
I was brought up eating it – my parents never turned down free food either – so I suppose I got a taste for it early.
This pie isn’t at all strong-flavoured in that way though – if you like steak pie I think you’d like this.
It was a mixed farm but, yes, a lot of cows. That’s probably why I’ve started lurking about round dairies and gorging myself on raw milk products…some sort of childhood-memory-connected mid-life crisis… 😉
There has to a 21st century version of the Good Life in there – a TV series where people live in south London but make cheese in their cellars ….
To compare Darina Allen to the chef who tried to revitalise her career by cooking frozen chips and such like is really not on. As you rightly point out, Darina is a culinary Titan.
Nice pie too. Take all the free stuff you can get.
Best,
Conor
I’d give my eye teeth to stay at Ballymaloe but it’s a bit out of my reach.
I’ve always made mixed game pies the traditional way – lots of red wine, juniper berries and ages in a marinade – which I’ve come to the conclusion means all the meat ends up tasting exactly the same.
This is quite different and really delicious. Darina for President!
I have eaten the pie and it was fantastic – with cabbage cooked with caraway and celeriac mash. Perfect. Rich and very tasty.
Keith n(aka the red chef – http://theredchef.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=156&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2
Thanks Keith, glad you enjoyed it. I’m doing another pie with beef and pheasant for Christmas Eve but I think I’ll go down the red wine and juniper berries route this time.
What’s on the menu for Christmas at Red Chef HQ?
Tonight it’s pork belly slow roasted with honey and chilli, with courgettes grilled with lemon and balsamic vinegar and egg fried rice.
Christmas Day will be a huge roast Cobb Chicken stuffed with Fruit Pig pork, red onion and apricot stuffing, pigs in blankets, sprouts, buttered carrots and crunchy roast potatoes, washed down with Prosecco.KS
Crikey, I wish I lived nearer your house! We’re doing the traditional Crimbo turkey (one of these days I’m going to cook a goose too, just for me) with (colour me poncy) an 18thC chestnut stuffing and all the usual bits and bobs.
Pingback: Game On! | Mrs Portly's Kitchen
The recipe looks grand. My only worry is the cooking time for the pigeon. It goes rubbery
very quick;y with overcooking. Nevertheless will definitely try.
I think you can trust Darina! I’ve made this pie any number of times and it’s always worked for me. Hope you enjoy it, Christopher.