Al Fresco a la Francaise

Sausage Meat Plait and Cold Roast Beef - by Sophie Conran in the weekend supplement c 2000

Sausage Meat Plait and Cold Roast Beef - cold buffet staples for many a large family celebration !

Sausage Meat and Mushroom Pie

Serves 8-12

Make the day before

Ingredients

• 1 lb flaky pastry (bought or home-made) or ruff-puff pastry;

• 1lb. top class sausagemeat

• 1 lb. mushrooms;

• 1 onion;

• Plenty of chopped parsley;

• ½ teaspoon thyme;

• a sage leaf or two;

• 2 crushed cloves of garlic;

• 1 beaten egg;

• 1 oz. butter;

• Salt, pepper.

• Variation - add tomato sauce to the layer

Method

Mix the chopped herbs and garlic into the sausage meat.

Melt the butter, soften the finely chopped onion, then add the diced mushrooms, season, and cook gently until tender

Roll two thirds of the pastry into an oblong about 12 to 14 inches by 8, and lay it on a greased baking sheet. Take one third of the sausage meat and place it in the middle of the pastry leaving a margin of 2 1/2  inches all .round. Now place a layer of mushrooms on this, more sausage meat, another layer of mushrooms and finally the last of the sausage mixture.

 Pat it into an even rectangular mound. Bring up the sides of the pastry, cutting off the excess at the corners. There should still he a rectangle of sausage meat visible at the top. Roll out the remaining pastry into a rectangular lid for the pie.

Cut even parallel slashes in it, every ½ in. leaving a margin of about 1 in. uncut all the way round. Brush it with water and place it wet side down on top of the pie, when the filling will be just visible through the slashes. Brush the pie all over with beaten egg and bake at 200 c for 15 minutes. Then at 160c for a further half hour. The pie will be golden and the top open to show the filling,

 Allow to cool.

Cold Roast Beef

Buy as long and thin a piece of topside as you can, weigh it, and then cover it with the roasting paste given below and cook it, basting two or three times, for 15 minutes a pound at 200 C in a fan oven). Allow an extra 10 or l5 minutes at the end if you don' really like it deep rose red, but topside is really only nice eaten rare unless it is used for braising.

Roasting paste: for a 21b. joint you will need 3oz. of fresh white bread, crusts removed, a large handful of parsley, a clove of garlic, a little salt. Put all the ingredients in the liquidiser, and whirr until the crumbs are rather fine. Tip into a bowl and stir to a dryish spreading paste with a little water.  Spread on the meat and sprinkle with oil before roasting. 

Slice the cold meat thinly and serve with green mayonnaise - a sharp lemony mayonnaise with plenty of herbs stirred in. Use sweet ,herbs such as chives, parsley, chervil, tarragon, rather than aromatic herbs such as marjoram, basil or rosemary.