Old fashioned English food with a modern twist!
Meat pies in England are one of the oldest forms of street vendor cuisine. Small pies with meat fillings are sold at small shops to people on the go nearly everywhere in England. Meat pies at modern English pubs can be a bit fancier. Refined fine English restaurants also offer elegant versions of meat pies. Mushy peas are a tradition in England. I ran an English pub kitchen for 2 years and the coworkers from England called mushy peas by the name mashy peas. Mushy, mashy, same thing! Marrowfat peas are soaked overnight and then made into a thick rich pea soup. The soup can look like the consistency of regular pea soup or it can be made so thick, that the mushy peas can look like a paste and up in a spoon. Mushy peas are traditionally served with fish and chips. Mushy peas are featured in a traditional peas and pie entree. Dried marrowfat peas for mushy peas are almost always tinted with green food coloring. Dried marrowfat peas can be hard to find outside of England. If you have access to marrowfat peas and make your own mushy peas, then by all means use an organic green food color to tint the color of the mushy peas. Canned mushy peas are a nice quality product that can be found at imported food markets. Canned mushy peas usually have green food coloring already added. I found a can of mushy peas at an Indian market in Las Vegas of all places. Sharp Indian food market managers realize that the British like curry style masala spice mixes. Where the British shop for curry spices is a good place to market British goods like mushy peas! Mint is commonly used to flavor mushy peas. Mint and mushy peas is a nice flavor combination. For today's peas and pie entree, I decided to go a bit fancy. A mint gelée is used to paint the plate! Jelly fruit spreads are thick and rich most times. A French gelée can have a variety of textures. The definition of gelée is food particles in a gel suspension. The gel can be thin for coating or the gel can have more body. The food that is in a gelled suspension usually refers to very finely minced vegetables, minced herbs, minced chile peppers, spices or fruit. Some of the chefs in Las Vegas go as far as adding food grade pure gold dust to a gelée to give the gelée and elegant sparkle. I usually make pectin for my fruit chutneys as part of the masala. Apples and onions are good sources of pectin. Dried powdered pectin is not difficult to work with. Liquid pectin products are easy to work with too. I used a liquid pectin to make the gelée in the photographs. The trick to making a gelée is to not think that the gelée has to be thick, while it simmers and is hot. If the gelée is thick during the cooking stage, it will cool and gel to a solid mass like state. After refrigerating for 24 hours, a gelée will be at its final consistency. It can take 24 hours for the pectins in a gelée to set up and fully gel. To gauge when the consistency is correct when cooking, just cook the gelée, so it looks like a thin glaze. After chilling and after it gels, the gelée will have a thin paintable consistency. For a thicker gelée that has more body, the simmering gelée should look like a medium bodied glaze in the pot. A medium glaze is a little bit thinner than honey. There are recipe formulas for calculating the gravity and consistency of a finished gelée. Molecular gastronomy cookbooks have some of the best gelée making information. Fine modern French cookbooks also have gelée making instructions. The first gelée that I made was as a garde mange apprentice at a Northern Italian restaurant over 25 years ago. I made a mint lime gelée as an accompanying sauce for rack of lamb. I apprenticed with chefs that were slightly ahead of their time. Recently I featured a restaurant review of Jean George Vongerichten's Jean Georges Steakhouse at the Aria Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Jean Georges Steakhouse at Aria is run by Executive Chef Robert Moore. I ordered the pre fixe tasting menu for dinner that night. The appetizer course was a Meyer Lemon shell filled with Meyer Lemon Gelée and topped with Granada Sturgeon Caviar and Creme Fraiche. The Meyer Lemon Gelée had a thick enough body for the caviar and creme fraiche to stand on. By judging these gelée descriptions you can see that a gelée can have a variety of consistencies. It is up to the chef to decide how the gelée should be made, so it best fits as a component in the theme of the entree design. The color effect is something to ponder upon too. For the mint gelée in this recipe, I wanted darker mint flecks suspended in a very light green translucent thin gelée medium for painting a plate, so a very nice dried mint from Lebanon was used. As it turned out, this gelée was perfect for garnish painting!
Mint Gelée:
This recipe makes a small amount of thin mint gelée!
Heat 1/2 cup of water over low heat.
Bring the water to a gentle simmer.
Add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Add 1 ounce of liquid pectin.
Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
Rub 4 pinches good green colored dried mint with your fingers into a small bowl. The mint should look like fine flecks.
Add the rubbed dried mint to the gelée.
Add 1 or 2 drops of organic green food color.
Simmer the gelée for 5 minutes.
Pour the gelée into a small ceramic bowl.
Chill the gelée for 24 hours.
Note: Not all liquid pectins are created equal! This mint gelée should have a thin consistency, but it should not be watery or overly runny. The fine flecks of mint should remain in suspension. If the gelée is too thick after chilling, gently heat the gelée over low heat and add a few teaspoons of water. Allow the jelly to cool to room temperature, before using.
Place the finished mint gelée in a small plastic squirt bottle and set it aside.
Pate Brisee Recipe:
Place about 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt.
Add 3/4 tablespoon of sugar.
Rice the flour by adding a few drops of ice water at a time while stirring with a whisk. (The flour should look like grains of rice.)
Cut 1 1/2 ounces of unsalted butter into pea size pieces and drop them in a bowl of ice water.
Gently add a few pieces of the chilled hard butter at a time to the riced flour.
Work the dough lightly with your fingers and for a minimal period of time leaving exposed small pieces of butter.
Chill the dough, till it becomes very firm.
Roll the pate brisee into a thin sheet on a floured counter top. (The sheet of pate brisee should show streaks of butter! This is what will give the pate brisee a flakey crusty texture.)
Refrigerate the sheet of pate brisee, till it becomes firm again.
Beef Steak Pie Filling:
Cut 6 to 8 ounces of lean beef into bite size pieces. (Sirloin, top round or chuck steak is good for this recipe.)
Dredge the beef pieces in flour.
Heat a wide sauce pot or sauteuse pan over medium heat.
Add 6 pats of unsalted butter.
Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of small chopped onion.
Saute till the onion starts to turn clear in color.
Add the floured beef.
Add sea salt and black pepper.
Saute till the beef and onions become browned.
Add just enough rich beef stock to cover the beef.
Add 1 pinch of marjoram
Reduce the temperature to very low heat
Gently simmer and reduce, till the flour on the beef turns the liquid into a medium thick gravy. By this time, the proportion should be about twice as much beef as there is gravy.
Remove the steak filling from the heat and let it cool.
Refrigerate the steak filling till it gels and till it is well below room temperature.
Beef Steak Pie:
Lightly brush a 6" pop-ring tart pan with melted unsalted butter.
Cut 2 round shaped sheets of the pate brisee that are 8" wide.
Drape one round sheet of pate brisee over the tart pan an press it into place.
Roll a rolling pin over the rim of the tart pan to trim off the excess dough.
Mound the chilled gelled steak filling on the center of the pate brisee lined tart pan and try to keep the filling away from the the edge of the tart pan, till the top of the pie is sealed in place.
Lightly brush the exposed pate brisee around the tart pan rim with egg wash.
Lay the second 8" round sheet of pate brisee over the tart.
Press the two edges together, while letting any excess dough pinch against the rim of the tart pan, till it is cut off and freed.
Discard the excess dough or save it for another recipe.
Lightly brush the top of the sealed pie with egg wash.
Poke a few steam vent holes through the top of the dough.
Place the tart pan and pie on a baking pan.
Bake in a 375 degree oven, till the crust becomes fully cooked and golden brown.
The mushy peas and chips can be prepared while the pie is baking!
Mushy Peas:
Place 5 to 6 ounces of canned of mushy peas or soft cooked mashed marrowfat peas in a sauce pot.
Add 1/4 cup of water.
Add sea salt and white pepper.
Add 1 pat of unsalted butter.
Place the pot over low heat.
Gently heat the mushy peas and stir them occasionally.
Simmer till the mushy peas become a thick consistency.
Keep the thick mushy peas warm on a stove top.
Pont Neuf Chips:
Pont Neuf Chips are French Fries! Pont neuf is a French precision cut dimensions are 1/2"x1/2"x 2 1/2"- 3". Many chef suggest a pont neuf length of 4" to 5" for French Fries, but the standard pont neuf size is good for fancy English chips that are used for a presentation of an entree.
These pont neuf chips are gently pan fried, rather than deep fried!
Cut 4 precision pont neuf shapes out of a russet potato. (Cut a rectangular block of peeled russet potato that is 2 1/2"-3" in length is the proper way to start this type of precision cut.)
Blanch the 4 pont neuf potatoes in salted boiling water for 1 minute.
Drain the water off of the potatoes.
Place 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a seasoned small saute pan.
Add 2 pats of unsalted butter.
Heat the butter and oil over medium/medium low heat.
Add the blanched pont neuf potatoes.
Gently pan fry (saute) the potatoes on all sides, till light brown highlights appear and till the potatoes become fully cooked.
Season with sea salt and black pepper.
Keep the pont neuf chips warm on a stove top.
Peas and Pie with Mint Gelée, Chives and Pont Neuf Chips:
After the beef steak pie finishes baking, allow it to cool for 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove the tart pan ring and slide the pie off of the tart pan base.
Use a spatula to place the steak pie on the center of a plate.
Spoon the thick mushy peas over part of the back half of the pie.
Garnish the back half of the pie by placing the 4 pont neuf chips on the plate, so the chips fan out from the pie.
Use the plastic squirt bottle of mint gelée to paint a simple zigzag design on the plate on both sides of the pie.
Sprinkle a generous amount of thin sliced chives over the mushy peas and sprinkle some of the chives over the plate.
This plate of Peas and Pie with Mint Gelée, Chives and Pont Neuf Chips is what modern gourmet English pub cooking is all about! This is a nice clean presentation for peas and pie.
Exotic ingredients and fusion cuisine does not have to take first bid on a modern English pub menu. Fine presentations of traditional English pub comfort food is trendsetting and stylish! Yum! ... Shawna
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