A pie recipe + burrata & choc cake

And summertime scheduling - a new literary festival in the woods

Hello friends, reporting to you from my mum‘s kitchen! We’ve been staying here since we got back from France at Christmas - sort of unplanned - but it’s been really lovely. Long story short ( a combination of a leaky roof and me having my hands and head full revising for my first round of nutrition exams), cosying up at my Mum’s for these wintery weeks has been a lifesaver for childcare and general support. I have loved only having one small suitcase worth of clothes with a couple of beauty products & my study bits and bobs. It’s very peaceful & tree filled here compared to the London street we live on and it’s been so fun cooking for each other. My Mum is an absolutely fantastic cook - I’ll share some of her recipes next week perhaps.

Anyway as it’s Valentine’s Day this weekend, my preference is to cook and eat at home (although if Henry surprises me with dinner out, I won’t say no!) so I thought I would share links to some previous V Day recipes like this oozy burrata & broccoli and my best almond chocolate cake (you can read a few of the happy reviews, below).

And then if you scroll down below, you’ll get your hands on this absolutely delicious duck and pheasant pie. Henry said it was one of the tastiest meals I’ve ever made him so see for yourself if you like it.

Discounts

I also wanted to share the love by including just couple of discount codes because it’s always nice to have some money off if you’re shopping!

+ Beauty products - 10% discount for you with this link where I shop for items like deodorant, toothpaste, some make up bits and bought some ankle weights last year for workouts at home!

+ Brilliant lunchboxes, leak proof containers & water bottles from this lovely company - you get 20% off if you spend £50+ with this link but if you don’t want to spend that much, there’s 10% off all first orders too when you sign up to their mailing list.

+ Treatments at home - hair, facials, massage, all sorts - this app puts you in touch with local therapists in your area (London, Manchester, Cotswolds & Surrey) and you get £20 off your first booking with code MELISSA376 here

+ Further education online or at 10 campuses across the UK - weekend courses, diplomas and degrees - in environmental medicine, massage therapy, acupuncture, naturopathy, natural chef, nutritional therapy (I’m doing this BSc (Hons) one) and more - you get £250 off your course with this link or saying that yours truly recommended them to you!

+ My bestseller Real Healthy is currently 23% off online too

+ These reusable storage bags are 27% off - great for travelling etc but I mostly use them for storing food in the fridge & freezing and for taking snacks on the go

Last year’s Valentine’s recipes for you:

Recipe for Broccoli Burrata here (paid subscribers)

And Recipe for Chocolate Almond Cake here (paid subscribers) - with some happy reviews too!

Really really good chocolate almond cake

Recipe

And now for this year’s Valentine’s recipe.

I’m not usually a pheasant person or someone who buys duck regularly (although if you have one of my old cookbooks ‘Eat Happy’, you’ll know that there is an amazing hoisin tahini five spice duck pancake recipe in there. But I did a collaboration with a fantastic dog food company called Carnilove and they challenged me to create some recipes (for humans not dogs!) with some of their most popular ingredients! So maybe you don’t want to think of dog food as you make this pie but if you’re a pet parent like I am, I’m sure you’re a fan of making sure they eat as nutritiously and deliciously as you. Only the best for my old girl Nelly who just turned 11 which is 72 in dog years!

PS my Mum also LOVED the pie but couldn’t get her head around why I was cooking a pie for a dog food brand! So just to reiterate, this delicious pie is for humans, not for dogs!!!!

Valentine’s Pie with pheasant, duck & veg mash

For the filling

3 tbsp Olive oil

1 onion, finely diced

3 carrots, finely diced

2 celery, finely diced

200ml red wine

150g pheasant breast, cubed

350g duck breast, cubed

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 thyme sprigs or ½ tsp dried thyme

2 rosemary sprigs or ½ tsp dried thyme

2 garlic cloves, diced

100ml stock

sea salt & pepper

For the veg mash

1 small butternut squash, peeled & deseeded, flesh roughly chopped

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp butter

Sea salt & pepper to taste

1. Fry onions, carrots & celery in olive oil in an ovenproof dish for 10 minutes, stirring every now & then until softened.

2. Add the herbs, salt, garlic & tomato puree to the pan, stir and let fry for a few more minutes then set the contents of the pan aside in a bowl for the moment

3. Dust the meat with flour, salt & pepper & in the original pan add a little extra oil & brown the meat in 2 batches for a few minutes on each side then set aside.

4. Deglaze the pan with wine until it cooks right down and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This takes about 8 mins then add everything back to the pan together with the stock to simmer away.

5. Meanwhile simmer the cubed squash in salted water until tender. Drain very well. Mash with milk, butter & salt or whiz it up if you prefer.

6. Top the pie with mash & shuzzzh up the mash. Bake for 25 mins 220C. Let sit for 15 minutes out the oven. Serve with buttered peas

I love having things in the diary to look forward to so I’ve been plotting some holiday meets work weekends. First up is a brand new literary festival called Well Read (more details here) in the beautiful woodlands in Berkshire for the weekend of 25th and 26th May, I’ll be speaking both days, I can’t wait to sauna and swim in their lakes and have a snooze under the trees, listen to other writers and buy lots of books to see me through the summer.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend ahead and I’ll see you next week X