Christmas - Rudolph Pie

Well, it's been all quiet on the Eastern front since the being of December as I have been back West, to London, for most of December.

I missed a tonnes of gorgeous Christmas cooking to be done - cooking in someones elses kitchen is never the same and you are always ferreting around in the back of cupboards/drawers praying there's a grater/scales/rolling pin that is the crux of the recipe you've already started making. However I did manage to bang out a fabulous Christmas Cake, a Christmas Eve dinner of Rudolph Pie with red cabbage and a Christmas Lunch with all the trimmings - sausages in bacon, roast potatoes crisped to perfection in goose fat etc etc.

The Rudolph Pie suggestion came courtesy of a friend who is always great with ideas as I struggled to come up with something Christmassy, that didn't resemble a roast dinner, was easy to put together for what was our main family meal of the season. It is a Nigella recipe, slightly altered.

Minced venison can be a really hard to find - online or from a game butcher is your best bet, and I got mine from Borough market - well worth the visit, even if it is just to check out my friend and all round goddess's fabulous Mushroom pâté stall. Also, don't get too bogged down in the exact measurements - the packet of porcini I got had 40g in it, so that's all I used, and the onions and carrots are easily whizzed up briefly in a magimix as it took me hours and a lot of running mascara to make it through them by hand.

You're going to need a big dish - 30cm/30cm at least - and this left over enough of the meat sauce to stir into fresh tagliatelle for E, who hates potatoes and freeze a small bit for future pasta dinners. Serve with some festive red cabbage and some greens if you must.

• 50g dried porcini
• 3 - 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 white onions chopped
• 3 large carrots chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
• 500g button mushrooms, quartered
• 1kg minced venison
• 1kg minced pork
• 2 tbsp flour
• 6 tbsp Marsala
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
  
• Worcestershire sauce to taste

To Top:

• 3.5 kg potatoes, peeled and cut up into large chunks (no more than thirds)
  
• 100ml full-fat milk
• 100g butter
  
• nutmeg
• sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce

Pour 500ml of near-boiling water over the porcini mushrooms and leave to steep.Warm oil into very large thick bottomed pan and add the chopped onions, carrots and minced garlic. Cook stirring for about 10 minutes, sprinkling with the salt if the vegetables look as if they may burn.

Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking liquid, chop coarsely and add with the button mushrooms to the vegetable mixture. After about 5 minutes tip the whole lot out to brown the meat.

Add a little more oil to the pan then tip in the minced meats, breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Stir for about five minutes until the rawness has left them a bit, add salt - unstintingly - and then return the vegetable mixture to the pan.

Stir in the flour and add the mushroom-soaking liquid, tinned tomatoes, diluted puree, Marsala, 125ml water, and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Stir well, cover partly with a lid and reduce heat so that the mince bubbles gently, for about an hour.

Meanwhile boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water until they are nearly ready. Boil until they are cooked to easily mashable tenderness, then drain and allow to dry slightly.

Warm the milk and melt the butter in the heat of the potato-pan. Mash the potatoes straight into this, grate in some fresh nutmeg and add salt to taste.

Put the mince into your large dish, then dollop the potato mash on top, spreading with a spatula, taking care to seal the edges to prevent the meat below from bubbling up in the oven. Fork lines over the top and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce.

If you're cooking this straight away, about 10 minutes in a 225C oven should be enough to make it piping hot and crispily golden on top. If cooking from cold, about an hour in a 190C should do it.

I topped it with half a cherry tomato for a Rudolph nose effect. Rather annoyingly, there's no pictures as my camera has chosen to crash every time I attempt to take any photos - hopefully it will be up and running for the Friday baking.