Josceline Dimbleby's Crispy Pigeon Pie

This impressive Moroccan-style pie from Josceline Dimbleby's food memoir Orchards in the Oasis would make a great centrepiece for a dinner party or more casual supper with friends.

"This party piece – a deliciously aromatic fusion of flavours – isn’t a true Moroccan bastilla, but it is inspired by those I have eaten there, and less laborious to make." says Josceline. "I serve it with a green salad – with fennel slivers and coriander and mint leaves added – and a bowl of yogurt to spoon onto your plate beside the pie."

The filling can be made ahead.

Serves 8

12 pigeon breast fillets, skinned
350g red onions
3 large cloves garlic
generous walnut-sized piece fresh root ginger
75g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 rounded teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 rounded teaspoon paprika
finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
2 level teaspoons caster sugar
150g blanched almonds
6 medium free-range eggs
4 tablespoons whole milk
1 rounded teaspoon turmeric
large handful of flat-leafed parsley
350g filo or strudel pastry
1 level tablespoon icing sugar
sea salt, cayenne pepper

Cut the pigeon breasts into small pieces. Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger. Melt 15g of the butter with the olive oil in a wide flameproof casserole dish or large, deep frying pan (with a lid) over a medium heat. Stir in the garlic, ginger, cinnamon and paprika, followed by the pigeon. Stir for a minute or two, then add the onions and the lemon rind and juice. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the pigeon is tender. Then remove the lid, stir in the sugar and bubble to reduce the juices down. Season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, brown the almonds in a dry frying pan and then whiz briefly in a food processor to chop. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the milk, turmeric and a little salt. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan over a low heat, add the egg mixture and scramble slowly and lightly, stirring only once or twice. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4.

Pull the leaves off the parsley stems and chop them roughly. Stir into the cooled pigeon mixture with the almonds. Melt the remaining butter. Brush a loose-based deep cake tin, about 18cm in diameter, thinly with butter. Line the tin with a sheet of filo, bringing it up the sides and allowing the excess to overhang the rim; keep the rest of the filo covered with a damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out. Then lay another sheet of filo across the first one (at a 90° angle) and continue like this, buttering the sheets between each layer, and reserving two sheets.

Now spoon half the pigeon mixture into the filo-lined tin and level the surface. Spread the scrambled egg evenly on top and cover with the remaining pigeon mixture. Fold the overhanging filo over the filling and then lay the remaining filo sheets on top. Press the excess pastry down inside the edge of the tin and butter the top.

Cook the pie in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes until well browned. Push the pie up so it is just on the tin base, then using a wide spatula, lever it carefully off the base onto an ovenproof serving plate. Put back in the oven for about 20 minutes to crisp the sides. Before serving, sift icing sugar over the top. Use a very sharp knife to cut into slices.

Taken from ORCHARDS IN THE OASIS by JOSCELINE DIMBLEBY, published by Quadrille (£25, hardback)

Photography © JASON LOWE

What to drink: I'd like an aged Spanish red like a Rioja Reserva or Gran Reserva with this or an old vintage of Chateau Musar.

Fridge-raid tortilla sandwiches

You might think that as tortilla generally has carbs of its own it doesn’t need to be stuffed between two slices of bread. Wrong! The Spanish do it so why shouldn’t the rest of us? Particularly if you have leftovers to use up.

This was based on some amazingly fragrant peppers we bought in the market at Arles a couple of days ago (for 99 cents a kilo!). Add some fried onion, a few slices of chorizo and some eggs and you’ve got a great filling to stuff into a baguette or roll. Or even a pitta bread. Perfect student food for those who have just gone up to uni for the first time.

You can vary it endlessly depending on what’s in the fridge although I’d say that onion - and, some would say, potato - was essential. Ham or bacon instead of chorizo, a bit of crumbled up feta, some chopped herbs - feel free. Just make it a bit thinner than you would a normal tortilla.

Serves 2-3 - or 1 if you’re utterly starving (leftovers will keep in the fridge till the next day)

4 tbsp olive oil + extra for drizzling

1 large mild sweet onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 green peppers - preferably like these small tasty ones on the right - de-seeded and sliced. (You can find them in middle-eastern and Turkish greengrocers)

About 50-75g sliced chorizo

4 large eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper

a baguette or ciabatta loaf

Heat a medium-to-large frying pan over a moderate heat, add 3 tbsp oil and start frying the onion. As it softens add the sliced peppers and chorizo and fry until the veg start to brown (about 5 minutes).

Add the eggs, cook for a minute then lift the edges of the tortilla to let any uncooked egg run to the bottom of the pan. Leave for 3-4 minutes or so then invert a large plate over the pan and tip the tortilla onto the plate. Add another tbsp of oil, slide the tortilla back into the pan, cook for another minute then turn off the heat. Leave for 8-10 minutes if you can bear it then cut into thick strips and tuck into a split baguette or a couple of rolls. Drizzle over a little extra olive oil or a dollop of aioli. A few fresh basil leaves wouldn't go amiss either.

What to drink: Well probably anything you've got to hand but a glass of Spanish or southern French red would hit the spot nicely

For more recipe inspiration buy my Ultimate Student Cookbook here.

Menestra

I first had this wonderful vegetable stew - a northern Spanish equivalent of a spring vegetable minestrone - in a restaurant in Pamplona and dreamed about it for several years before managing to recreate it.

This version comes from winemaker Maria Martinez of Bodegas Montecillo in Rioja who I was interviewing for a feature in Decanter. We bought the ingredients together from the market in Logrono.

Like cassoulet and bouillabaisse, menestra is one of those dishes about which huge arguments rage. Basically it can be made from any seasonal green vegetables, “from two up to twenty” as Maria puts it, but the ideal time of year to prepare it is in the spring when artichokes and spring vegetables such as peas and beans are in season.

There are apparently certain ground rules though. You mustn’t use dried beans or other pulses or peppers (too slimey). Jars of vegetables are permissible but should not be mixed with fresh ones. Spinach is fine if added at the end. Opinions differ as to whether you should use onions, garlic and herbs, whether the vegetables should be cooked separately or together and whether or not hard boiled egg should be added. The consistency should be more that of a stew than a soup though some cooks like to make it more liquid.

Serves 6-8

10-12 baby artichokes
2 heads of borraja* (borage)
1/2 a large head of chard
250g asparagus, trimmed
250g green beans
3-4 potatoes cut into small dice
125g thickly cut panceta (streaky bacon), diced
A thick slice of dry cured Spanish ham (about 100g)
About 75g chorizo, diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Olive or corn oil
Salt and pepper

Trim the artichoke bottoms and strip off the outer leaves until you are down to the yellow leaves at the heart. (Handling artichokes can stain your hands black so you may want to use plastic or rubber gloves for this). Trim off the very top of the remaining leaves and cut the artichoke hearts in half and drop them into a pan of acidulated water. (Water with lemon juice added to stop them discolouring).

Cut the top and bottom off each stalk of borraja then peel away the fibrous strips (rather as you would the edge of a runner bean). Remove the green part of the chard leaves saving them for another recipe and chop the white stalks. Trim and chop the asparagus and roughly slice the beans.

Tip all the vegetables into a large pan of boiling, lightly salted water and cook until tender - about 30-40 minutes (Some cooks cook each vegetable separately) Meanwhile fry the cubed potato and cook until tender, then add the panceta. Once the fat starts to run add the diced ham and chorizo and finely chopped garlic. Drain the vegetables and tip the fried potatoes and ham into the pan. Mix well, adjust the seasoning and serve.

What to drink:
Breaking one of the cardinal rules of food and wine matching that red wine and artichokes simply don't go, we drank a 1975 magnum of Montecillo Gran Reserva Especial throughout this meal, including the menestra. As you’d expect for a wine of that age it was quite delicate but still full of seductive damson fruit which we were surprised to find worked perfectly well with the soup. Whether that was due to the long cooking time, the smokey notes provided by the chorizo or the age of the wine we weren't sure but the experiment would be hard to repeat successfully. A more conventional pairing would have been a white Rioja or Rioja rosado.

Lamb and porcini kebabs with sage and parmesan

Maybe I've got a bit overexcited with all the sun this week but the barbecue season doesn't seem that far away so it was good to find Dan Vaux-Nobes' 101 BBQ and Grill recipes arriving through my letterbox.

Dan (who's a friend so maybe I'm just a teeny bit biased) has selected some great recipes and given each a practical and quite often hilarious introduction, typical of his blog Essex Eating. The intro below is comparatively restrained but he picked the recipe because it was one of his favourites from the book and could also be cooked on a ridged grill which is useful since it could well be snowing next week. You never know at this time of year.

This is what he says: (good tip about the porcini!)

"Beautiful Italian flavours of sage, porchini mushroom and parmesan are used here to compliment chunks of chargrilled lamb. The recipe calls for fresh porcini which unless you live in rural Italy isn't the easiest (or cheapest) thing to obtain so use the dried and reconstituted in water variety - just make sure you get a pack with dried pieces and not a bag of dried dust. Good luck with threading that on a skewer! Otherwise use chestnut mushrooms. Lovely stuff!"

serves 4

1 lb. (500g) tender lamb, from the leg or shoulder, cut into bite-sized chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil

freshly squeezed juice of 1–2 lemons

leaves from a bunch of fresh sage, finely chopped (reserve a few whole leaves)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4–8 fresh medium-sized porcini/ceps cut into quarters or thickly sliced

To serve

truffle oil, to drizzle

Parmesan cheese shavings

grilled or toasted sourdough bread

* Put the lamb pieces in a bowl and toss in the oil and lemon juice. Add the sage and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cover, refrigerate, and leave to marinate for about 2 hours.

* Thread the lamb onto skewers adding a quarter, or slice, of porcini every so often with a sage leaf. Brush with any of the marinade left in the bowl. Prepare a charcoal grill. Cook the kebabs for 3–4 minutes on each side.

* Serve immediately with a drizzle of truffle oil, Parmesan shavings, and toasted sourdough bread, if liked.

What to drink: Frankly any medium-bodied red would be pretty good with this but given the influence is Italian I'd probably go for a Chianti or other Tuscan red. That said, a pinot noir would be great too, especially with the truffle oil.

101 BBQ and Grill Recipes compiled by Dan Vaux-Nobes (CICO Books, £12.99)

Photos © Richard Jung