Welsh Lamb and Mint Pie

Another bake-along-with-GBBO success! I think that I am through to the finals, so to speak. Biscuit week was dodgy, but my cookies were good, just not as special as I wanted them to be-- and it was, after all, early.

S01E05 was pastry, and the signature bake was savory pies. I happen to love meat pies, and when I visited Wales the summer before last, I sampled several. I had some middling ones and at least one bad one (at the nicest restaurant of our visit)-- it was stringy, soupy, sour, tomatoey, and the little puff pastry lid was difficult to eat and not very satisfying. But in Hay-on-Wye we stopped in a tiny little bakery and I got a lamb and meat hand pie ("oggie"), then carried it around in my bag the rest of the day before eating it for dinner that evening. It was perfect, and I made special note of its attributes and have been brainstorming a re-creation ever since.

It had big chunks of lamb, and little chunks of potato-- but really, mostly lamb. There were leeks, but no peas or tomatoes. It was entirely savory. I've found a few recipes that call for mint jelly, but this one did not use mint jelly. I noted that the use of mint was almost like spinach-- it was used abundantly, as a leafy green. I don't even like mint in sweets, but I found it really worked in this savory pie.

So for my signature bake, I did some research and pulled together a recipe. I think it made a very good pie, and one that almost matches my sense memory. It's delicious hot but too stodgy cold, and it turns out it's hard in a practical sense to replicate "room temperature" in a full pie rather than a hand pie. I'll try hand pies next time, maybe!

Happy St. David's Day!

2 lb lamb, trimmed, 2.5 cm pieces--  toss with ¼ c AP flour; brown in batches (4-5 min) in olive oil over high heat-- set aside.

In butter over med high—2 garlic cloves, crushed, 3 fat leeks, chopped, fresh thyme, salt, pepper.--> Cook, stirring, till soft. 

Return lamb to pan and stir in 1/2 oz fresh mint leaves, chopped, 3 sprigs rosemary, 1.5c beef stock, and 1 huge or 2 normal russet potatoes (peeled & cubed). Bring to the boil and reduce to med-low. Simmer 35-50 min till lamb is tender. (Thicken with flour if needed-- I threw in a bit near the end.) 

Remove rosemary; season to taste. Stir in another  1/2- 1 oz fresh mint,* chopped. Bake in pastry case, sealed/glazed with egg, topped with pepper.

**Over the two additions, somewhat more than 1 1/2  0.75 oz clamshells of fresh mint, and I think it's just about right. Although it could probably absorb the full 2 clamshells.

Miso Walnut Bread

For GBBO series 1 biscuit week, I made the almond cookies (elsewhere on this site) by the pastry-blender method, and prepared them as icebox cookies. I put in orange zest and dried cherries.  They were good, but they were not an improvement on the original. I didn't expect them to be an improvement-- I think almond cookies are perfect already-- but I was disappointed nevertheless. They were just too sugary. I'd like to try it again, perhaps with just the orange zest and sliced thinner to crisp up. Or maybe with toasted coconut and dark chocolate? Chopped almonds or pistachios? 

The third week was bread week, and the inspriation that came to my brain was "miso walnut." I based my recipe off of a FloFab recipe with Julia Thiel's advice for miso incorporation. And this time, I was satisfied-- the bread smells and taste parmesany and nutty. Yum!

2 1/2 c chopped walnuts, toasted, cooled.

2 t (7 g or 1 packet) active dry yeast

2 t salt (I actually don't remember. Did I do a T?)

2 T miso (I used yellow)

3 T (45 ml) maple syrup (I used grade B)

2 T (60 ml) sesame oil

extra veg oil for later

2 c (250 g) whole wheat flour

3 c (375 g) bread flour

Coarse cornmeal, for dusting baking sheet

Yeast in large mixing bowl. Mix salt and miso into 2 c lukewarm water. Stir into yeast. Stir in maple syrup and 2 T oil.

Measure 1 c of the toasted walnuts. Process with 2 T of whole wheat flour until finely ground. Add to bowl along with remaining whole-wheat flour. Stir.

Add bread flour ½ c at a time until dough forms and leaves the sides of the bowl. (You can mix w your hands now). Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Continue adding bread flour, kneading as you go, until you have a dough that’s a bit on the soft side, only slightly sticky, and easy to handle.

Clean out your bowl, coat it with 1 T oil, and place dough back into the bowl, turning it so it’s oiled all over. Cover w a cloth and set aside for a leisurely proof.

Punch down, add remaining toasted walnuts, and lightly knead them into the dough. Dust baking sheets w cornmeal. Divide the dough in half, shape into 2 balls and place on the baking sheet. Cover loosely and let rise for an hour.

Place the oven rack in the lowest position and heat to 375-400-425. Slash the tops of breads with a razor. Don’t be tentative! Slash ½ inch deep.

Place in oven. Throw a handful of ice cubes on the floor of the oven to create steam. Bake 20 min. By this time the breads should be a nice honey-brown. Brush them with remaining 1 T oil, reduce heat to 350, add more ice cubes and bake about 30-35 min longer, until well browned and hollow sounding.