steamed pork buns

These are a revelation! Leftover meat need never be dull again!

I go this recipe basically from Jamie Oliver's money saving meals. It's a lovely way to feed a crowd with a very easy but complicated looking, yummy load of little hot, yummy buns of loveliness. And ready in 30 mins!

Makes 8 buns (serves 2-3 hungry peeps)

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour (or plain with a couple of level teaspoons baking powder)

200ml milk (or water at a pinch)

1/2 tsp salt

150-200g leftover roast meat (I used pork but chicken would work, or even prawns, ham etc would probably work. Or stir fried veggies even. Or tofu?!)

Big squidge tommy K mixed with 1/2 tsp chinese 5 spice and a good dash of dark soy sauce OR bbq sauce mixed with spice.

Method:

First, chop your cooked meat / filling stuff, and mix with the sauce.

Then, mix the flour with the salt and milk. give it a good mix so there are no lumps; it will possibly be a bit sticky, so sprinkle it with a little more flour in order to handle it. Split it into 8 equal pieces.

Flatten each piece into a round patty about the size of the palm of your hand (or maybe smaller, I have unusually small hands for a lanky person), fill with a decent teaspoon of mixture, and squidge the dough all around it so the meat is fully encased. Repeat until you have 8 little balls with a surprise inside!

Place said balls into non stick paper bun cases, and arrange them in a bamboo steamer basket or a metal steamer over an inch of boiling water (or a posh standalone steamer!), and steam for 15 minutes. They will puff up and be gloriously light and chewy. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with any kind of dipping sauce and a mountain of stir fry veg. Yummers!!

Pink Pie!

Made a version of key lime pie yesterday. Without the limes but with raspberry and white chocolate... So Pink Pie was born! It's a kind of baked mousse non cheesy cheesecake thing and really rather yum.

Ingredients:
Base - 160g gingernuts and 160g digestives, smashed up in a bag (or blitzed in a processor if you have one) plus 100g melted butter
Topping - 4 eggs, separated, one tin (400g ish) condensed milk, 200g raspberries (half pureed, half whole), 100g chopped white chocolate, 50g caster sugar, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
Mix the biscuit crumbs into the butter and press firmly into the base of a 9" springform tin. Fridge it until set. Preheat a (fan) oven to 160.

Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks, condensed milk and raspberry puree until just combined. Separately whisk the egg whites with the sugar and cream of tartar until stiff and meringue-like.

Then, scatter the chopped chocolate and whole raspberries over the base. sacrifice 1/3 of the egg whites and beat well into the yolky mixture. Then gently fold the rest of the whites into the pink yolky stuff until just combined.

Pour over the base, and bake for 25 mins until just a faint wobbliness remains in the centre. Leave until pretty cool, then extricate from the tin (carefully!) and fridge it until you serve. Decorate with white chocolate ganache, chocolate curls or fresh raspberries (or even better all of the above!!).