Fitz’s second birthday is galloping towards us at pace, & we have sensibly decided not to have a party. At least not one that involves other people and children running around on a sugar high, but we will have a small family party, here at home.

Since I expect he will be too excited to eat too much, I’m keeping it simple. It’s the same reason we’ve been opening birthday presents as they are given, rather than saving them up for a big overwhelming morning of paper ripping. The table will have:

• cheese, onion & potato pies
• cocktail sausages
• breadsticks, carrot sticks & hoummous
• bear shaped jellies
• blackberries
• a chocolate cake

I want it to look like a party table, but not be groaning. If there are too many leftovers I’ll be the one eating them, since Fitz will be back on his usual healthy fayre, and I have no need of extra cheese on my hips.

These little pies are perfect for adding a little rib-sticking stuff to slow down the progress of sugar into the bloodstream, but still not something I would feed him every day. As the recipe is available online, I include it here, in case you want to give it a try.

Cheese, Onion & Potato Pies

I won’t the recipe for shortcrust pastry since everyone has their favourite, & mine is from Tamsin Day-Lewis (Sorry, Nigella, but yours is so unnecessarily fiddly), but you will need a quantity of shortcrust made with 10-12oz of flour. And I’ve had equally good results with bought shortcrust so no snobbery about that particular shortcut either.

I do follow Nigella’s suggestion to use a yorkshire pudding tin (the kind with four shallow indentations) as I like the kind of rustic pasty they produce. You will need two of these, or you could always use individual flan tins.

 

For the Filling:

500g waxy potatoes, diced
125g Cheddar or double Goucester, 75g grated, 50g diced
50g Red Leicester, grated
2 tbsp Parmesan, grated
6 Spring onions (about 100g), sliced
4 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Prepare your pastry: separate into two, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Boil the potatoes in water for about 10 minutes until cooked through, then drain and set aside.
3. In a large bowl combine the cheeses, spring onions, slightly cooled potato and parsley. Bind with the creme fraiche and season with salt & pepper.
4. Roll out one pastry disc and cut out 8 rough circles slightly larger than the indents, and push 4 into the first tray. Fill generously with an eighth of the mixture. Use the remaining circles as lids for the pies. Seal the edges with a knife, pulling the base edge up and over the edge of the lid.
5. Repeat with the second lot of pastry and the second tray. Brush both lots with egg or milk if desired.
6. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes, until a pale golden colour. Let the pies cool in the tins a little, before easing them out of the tin.

Terrific eaten warm, but equally good cold.

Taken from How to be a Domestic Goddess, by Nigella Lawson

Available online, with US measurements at the Food Network.