Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen

Turkey and foie gras mini pie.

One filling, one pie three ways.

Using different little pots/containers, you can create an interesting array of pies. I used different sizes and shapes of ramekins and little flower pots and ended with some individual little potpies. Because we’re in the festiv season, I used foie gras along with the turkey for the filling as well as cubes of boudin blanc (milk/white sausage) and black truffles from Perigord. For the small mini pies, I omitted the foie gras, since it gets too oily once the foie gras is heated, making the small pies too soggy. It can be replaced with chicken livers and a cubed smoked cheese sausage for some stronger flavour.

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Turkey and foie gras pie.

  • about 400g turkey filets
  • 80 g bacon
  •  200 g store bought puff pastry
  • 1 large onion, quatered and sliced
  • 150 g mushrooms
  • 1 white sausage (optional)
  • 100 g uncooked foie gras (optional)
  • 1 truffle
  • 1 organic chicken stock cube
  • 1 egg yolk
  • parsley, salt and pepper
  • sherry vinegar
  1. Cover the bases of the pie containers with the puff pastry. Cut some circles to cover and some fun shapes to decorate. Place on an oven tin and set aside in the fridge.
  2. Sauté the sliced onion in some olive oil until tranclucent , remove to a plate and keep aside.
  3. Cut the turkey filets into bite size pieces.
  4. Brown the turkey meat and the bacon in the onion pan, remove to a plate and keep aside.
  5. Sauté the mushrooms in the same pan over high heat, until just wilted. Mix with the meat and onions, season and keep aside.
  6. Deglaze the pan with about 150ml of chicken stock, with a liberal drizzle of sherry vinegar. Remove from the stove and add the truffle juice.
  7. Remove the skin of the white sausage and cut into cubes.
  8. Cut the foie gras into cubes.
  9. Finely chop the truffle.
  10. Fill the pies with the turkey mixture, top off with some sausages and foie gras, sprinkle with truffle and chopped parsley and a light drizzling of deglazed sauce. Brush a little egg yolks over the seams, cover with a pastry circle and lightly “pinch” the edges together.
  11. Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, essential for the pastry to puff up during cooking.
  12. Just before baking, brush the pies with egg yolk and bake the cold pies in a hot oven at 230 deg. C for 20 to 25 minutes.

                  Serves about 4 people for a main meal, or 8 people as a starter

This is an entry for The mini pie revolution, of which Ann at Redacted recipes and Karyn at Threepotato are the hosts.

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen

Hertzoggies cookies

An “old” cookie that will always be fashionable. Named after General J.B.M. Hertzog, the prime minister of the Union of South Africa, from 1924 to 1939. It was apparently his favorite cookie.

This recipe comes from Huisgenoot wenresepte 2 by Annette Human, which is perfect as is, gives perfect results every time, year after year. It is probably the only time I’ve exchanged one of my mother’s recipes for a “better” one!

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Hertzoggies

Crust:

  • 250g flour
  • 25g castor sugar
  • 10ml baking powder
  • 1 ml salt
  • 125g butter, at room temperature
  • 3 extra large egg yolks
  • 15 ml cold water

Filling:

  • 75ml apricot jam
  • 3 extra large egg whites
  • 250g sugar
  • 160 g coconut
  1. Sift the flour, castor sugar, baking powder and salt together.
  2. Crumble in the butter and mix with finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  3. Mix the egg yolks and cold water and add to the butter mixture. Mix to a dough. add a little extra water if it is too dry.
  4. Work the dough into a ball, cover and leave aside to rest.
  5. Heat the oven to 180 deg. C(350 F)
  6. Grease the inside of muffin pans.
  7. Roll out the dough, about 1 mm thick. Cut round circles with a cookie cutter, big enough to cover the inside of the muffin pan. Press into muffin pans.
  8. Put a teaspoon of jam into each dough crust.
  9. Whisk the egg-whites until stiff and gradually add the sugar to whisk to a meringue.
  10. Stir in the coconut.
  11. Put a tablespoonful of coconut meringue onto each jam-filled dough crust.
  12. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the middle of the oven.
  13. Leave to cool before removing. store in a cool place.

An entry for “Christmas cookies from around the world” for which Susan at Foodblogga is the host.

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