Great British Food Christmas 2024

Recipes extracted from River Cottage Great Pies by Gelf Alderson, published by Bloomsbury. Photography by Emma Lee little by little, into the pie through the hole in the pastry lid. Once full, allow the liquid to settle and repeat the process; keep doing this until you have got every last drop you can into the pie. Refrigerate for 5–6 hours to chill thoroughly. Remove the pie from the tin and cut into slices to serve. Individual pork pies 11. Roll out the pastry to a 5mm thickness and cut out six 18cm rounds. Gather the pastry trimmings, re-roll and cut six 6cm rounds for the lids. Brush the edges of the larger pastry rounds with egg wash and place a couple of heaped spoonfuls of the filling in the centre. 12. Bring the pastry up around the sides of the filling and place the smaller pastry rounds on top. Press the edges together to seal all the way around and crimp them. 13. Make a 1cm hole in the centre of each pie lid. 14. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven at 190°C/170°C Fan/Gas 5 for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 45 minutes. The cooled pies can be filled with jelly, as above. Plum, Chocolate& Orange LatticeTart This is an indulgent, rich dessert packed with fruit that loves to be pairedwith chocolate and a nice hit of rumand subtle spice. The key is to use flavourful ripe fruit and great chocolate. Applying a lattice of pastry allows you to keep an eye on the delicate filling as it cooks – youwant it to just set and not risemuch. Serves: 6–8 Prepare: 30minutes Cook: 1 hour 400g sweet pastry Butter, to grease Flour, to dust Eggwash (beaten egg) 500ml double cream 2 oranges 3 star anise Apinch of sea salt 250g good-quality dark chocolate chips (70% cocoa solids) 3mediumeggs 50ml rum (optional) 5Victoria (or similar) plums, halved and stoned To serve: Crème anglaise or vanilla ice cream 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and flour a 22cm tart tin, 3cm deep, and place on a baking sheet. 2. Roll out 300g of the sweet pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line the tin. Prick the pastry, line it with baking paper and baking beans and bake blind, then trim and seal. 3. Turn the oven down to 170°C/150°C Fan/Gas 3. 4. For the filling, pour the cream into a medium saucepan and grate the zest from the oranges directly into the pan. Add the star anise and salt. Heat gently over a very low heat to infuse the cream with the flavourings for 5 minutes or so, then pass through a sieve into a bowl. 5. Add the chocolate to the warm infused cream, whisking as you do so, and continue to whisk until the chocolate is melted and smoothly combined. 6. In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs and then stir in the warm chocolate mixture and the rum, if using. Set aside. 7. Stand the oranges on a board and cut off all the white pith. Now, holding the oranges over a bowl to catch the juice, cut in between the membranes to release the orange segments; set aside. Squeeze the orange pulp over the bowl to extract the juice, discarding any pips. Whisk this orange juice into the chocolate mixture. 8. Distribute the plum halves evenly in the pastry case and scatter the orange segments around them. Carefully pour on the chocolate mixture. 9. Roll out the remaining pastry to a rectangle, the same length as the diameter of your tart and about half of the width. Run a lattice roller cutter along the length of the pastry and then carefully stretch the pastry widthways, to open out the lattice. 10. Brush the pastry edge of the tart case with egg wash and then carefully drape the pastry lattice over the filling. Press the lattice ends onto the edge of the pastry case. Gently brush the pastry lattice with egg wash. 11. Place the tart in the oven and bake for 40–50 minutes until the chocolate filling is just set in the middle. 12. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. Serve at room temperature with crème anglaise or ice cream. “This is an indulgent, rich dessert packedwith fruit that loves to be pairedwith chocolate and a nice hit of rumand subtle spice” RECI PES | RIVER COTTAGE 23 greatbr i t i shfoodawards.com