Gloucestershire Squab Pie

Following our theme of trying to cook local fayre we are having Gloucestershire Squab Pie for dinner tonight. Bizarrely there is no pigeon in this pie, just lamb, apple and onion. Traditionally the lamb would have been a tougher cut but I have used leg because it cooks quicker, which suits me tonight. When I found this dish there was contrasting recipes with either a pastry top or swede mash so I've gone for pastry and served with swede mash and mint oil, along with some carrots, beans and sweet peppers. This one is dead easy but really very tasty, Mrs Larry loved it!

Ingredients:

Lamb, we used 400g of leg steaks chopped up with the fat removed
1x Onion, peeled and sliced
1x Bramley apple
5x Sage leaves, chopped
1x Chicken stock cube
Flour
1x Packet of puff pastry roll
1x Swede
1x Potato
A handful of grated cheese, Double-Gloucester of course!
15x Mint leaves
Nice oil, we used extra virgin rapeseed
Balsamic vinegar
2x Carrots, peeled and sliced
1x Sweet yellow pepper, sliced
French beans, trimmed and cut in half
Butter


Method:

1. Finely chop the mint leaves and mix with a spoon of oil and balsamic vinegar. Allow them to infuse for as long as possible.
2. Cook the onions in a frying pan in a little oil until translucent then pour them into a separate pie dish.
3. Season the meat and dust with flour then brown in the frying pan and add to your pie dish.
4. Peel, core and chop the apple into about 1-2cm chunks and add to the pie dish with the chopped sage leaves.
5. Deglaze the frying pan with about 500ml of water and add to it the stock cube. Pour enough into the pie dish to just about cover everything.
6. Cover the pie dish with the puff pastry, trim and place a couple of cuts in the top. Brush with a little milk.
7. Place pie in the oven on gas 6 for about half an hour or until the pastry is nicely browned and done.
8. Peel and chop the potato and swede and bring the boil in a pan. Simmer until soft, drain, add a big knob of butter and the grated cheese and mash until smooth with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Pour in a frying pan half a cup of water and add the carrots with a knob of butter, a teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 10 minutes then add the peppers and beans. Cook for a further 3 minutes, the liquid should have evaporated leaving the veg coated in a sweet shiny glaze.
11. Plate up! Not forgetting to drizzle the minty oil over the mash.