Two last minute Thanksgiving cocktails

You're probably all organised for the great day but just in case, here are a couple of clever ideas for festive cocktails using storecupboard ingredients from mixologist Myles Davies.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberry Sour

50ml bourbon (Myles recommends Buffalo Trace)
25ml freshly squeezed, strained lemon Juice
15ml cinnamon sugar*
1 very fresh small/medium egg white
1 tsp cranberry sauce

Shake all the ingredients together and strain into an ice-filled wine glass.

* If you buy cinnamon sugar it's best to blitz it in a blender or food processor for cocktails to make the consistency finer. Make a batch while you're at it. If you're making your own mix caster sugar in the proportions of 1 - 1 1/2 tsp to 250g/9oz sugar and blitz together as described

NOTE: this recipe contains raw egg

Pilgrims Punch

50ml Plymouth gin
25ml lemon juice
15ml cinnamon sugar (see note above)
1 tsp homemade or shop-bought apple sauce
1 very fresh small/medium egg white
Appletise

Shake all the ingredients together, and strain into an ice filled highball glass. Top up with Appletise. Garnish with an apple slice and a fine dusting of sieved cinnamon powder.

NOTE: this recipe contains raw egg

Beef bourguignon pie

Why has no-one had the genius idea of putting beef bourguignon into a pie before? Here's the recipe courtesy of the brilliant Ginger Pig Meat Book which I reviewed here.

We started making meat pies around eight years ago as we had a lot of offcuts of meat that was too superior to make into everyday mince. After getting a classic recipe from old farm cookery books, I adapted it to make it more interesting.

Makes 1 large pie (24 x 12cm/9 1/2 x 4 1/2in) or 4 small (12 x 6cm/4 1/2 x 2 1/2in) pies
Takes 2 hours, plus overnight chilling

For the filling
1.3kg (3lb) chuck steak, cut into 2cm (3/4in) cubes
350g (12oz) cooked dry-cured bacon, diced
200g (7oz) button mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp soy sauce, preferably Kikkoman
350ml (12fl oz) red wine
2 tbsp cornflour
leaves from 4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, chopped

For the suet pastry
700g (1lb 9oz) plain flour
350g (12oz) suet
tsp salt

For assembly
25g (1oz) lard, melted
1 tbsp plain flour
1 egg, beaten

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Place the beef and bacon in a roasting tin and brown in the oven for 15 minutes, then stir and cook for 15 minutes more. Add the mushrooms, onion, garlic, soy sauce and wine. Cover with baking parchment, pushing it down over the ingredients, seal with foil, and cook for 1 hours.

2 Drain off all the liquid into a saucepan. Blend the cornflour with a little water and
mix into the cooking juices, then place on the heat and stir until boiling and thickened. Return the liquid to the meat, add the parsley, mix, and leave to cool completely.

3 Now place the flour and suet in a food processor and blitz until very well blended.
Transfer to a mixing bowl, add 300ml ( half pint) water and mix until smooth. If making individual pies, divide the dough into eight balls, four weighing 185g (6.5oz) and four weighing 115g (4oz). If making one large pie, divide it into two balls, one 740g (1lb 10oz) and the other 460g (1lb).

4 Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Brush the inside of the tin or tins
thoroughly with lard, then dust lightly with flour. Roll out the larger pastry balls and use
to line the tin or tins. Divide the filling between them. Brush the pastry edges generously with egg, roll out the smaller pastry balls and place on top, pushing the edges together. Trim off the excess with a knife and crimp around the edge. Brush with egg, and decorate with pastry trimmings. Cook for 50 minutes. Leave to cool for five minutes, then turn out of the tins and enjoy hot or cold.

Suggested wine match: burgundy is the classic French match for a Bourguignon but given the pie treatment I go for a more rustic and substantial Rhne red or southern French red.

From Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde, £25 Mitchell Beazley

Celery, tomato and echalion sauce - a simple way of serving fish

My friend cookery writer Andrea Leeman is one of the best home cooks I know with a knack of making even the simplest food taste utterly delicious.

Her latest book A Veg for All Seasons, inspired by her (and my) local Bristol greengrocer Reg the Veg and published by Bristol photographer and designer Stephen Morris is a great example of the kind of small-scale publishing project that's burgeoning nowadays.

As the title suggests it includes a selection of recipes for using seasonal vegetables including this healthy sauce for serving with roast or poached white fish.

Andrea writes: echalions are the long torpedo-shaped or 'banana' shallots. An excellent sauce in which to cook fresh white fish such as chunks of flaky cod, sea bream fillets or whole sea bass. You could pep it up with half a chopped green chilli.

Serves 4

4 celery sticks

4 ripe tomatoes

2 echalions (banana shallots)

A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

200ml dry white wine such as muscadet

a small to medium-sized seabass or 4 x 150g white fish fillets

sea salt and black pepper

String and chop the celery sticks in half lengthways, then into small half-moons. Make 3-4 slashes in the tomatoes, put into a bowl and pour over boiling water; after a couple of minutes, run under the cold tap, skin and remove the hard core at the top before chopping into pieces. Peel and chop the echalions and chop the parsley.

Spoon the olive oil into a pan and heat; add the celery, tomatoes and echalions, fry gently until the vegetables soften. Pour in the wine and cook for another 3 minutes before adding the chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce into a suitable dish for roasting or steaming the fish – if steaming the pan will need a lid. Lay the fish on the sauce and spoon a little over the top. Oven time is about 20 minutes in a medium oven, poaching on the stove takes approximately 5-6 minutes on a low heat, but don’t forget to cover the fish so the steam can do its work.

What to drink: As Andrea has mentioned Muscadet it would make sense to drink it with the dish. Picpoul de Pinet or a dry Italian white such as Pinot Grigio would also work well or even a dry Provençal rosé.

You can buy A Veg for all Seasons from Reg the Veg or order it online from Waterstones for £10.

Butternut squash with pistachio pesto, feta and pomegranate seeds

Finding a special occasion vegetarian dish is tough if you're not a veggie yourself but try this show-stopping recipe from Sabrina Ghayour's Persiana which won best new cookbook at this week's Observer Food Monthly awards.

Sabrina writes: "Middle Eastern people often perceive butternut squash as bland. Taking inspiration from an Asian pesto-and-squash dish made by my friend, the chef Tony Singh, I came up with my own Persian pistachio pesto, adding salty crumbled feta cheese and a handful of vibrant pomegranate seeds for a burst of flavour.

The result? It has become one of my most popular supper club dishes of all time and has proven itself to be the dish that converts those who were formerly not the greatest of squash fans."

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a side dish

1 large butternut squash, quartered lengthways and deseeded

4 tbsp olive oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

150g (5 1/2oz) feta cheese

100g (3 1/2oz) pomegranate seeds

For the pesto

100g (3 1/2oz) shelled pistachio nuts

70g (2 1/2oz) Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, chopped into rough chunks

olive oil

1 small bunch of coriander, leaves picked

1 small bunch of parsley, leaves picked

1 small bunch of dill, leaves picked

3 tbsp chilli oil

juice of 1 lemon

In a food processor, blitz the pistachios and cheese together, adding a generous amount of olive oil to slacken the mixture. Put all the herbs into the food processor with a little more olive oil as well as the chilli oil and lemon juice and blitz again, then add a handful of crushed sea salt and give the mixture one last blitz. Taste the pesto, ensuring it has enough salt and acidity, then allow it to rest in the refrigerator until you need it.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6. Once the oven is hot, rub each wedge of butternut squash with the oil, season generously with sea salt and black pepper and place it on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper. Roast the squash for about 45–50 minutes, or just until the edges have begun to char slightly. You want to blacken the edges a little – this gives them a nice chewy texture. To check the squash to see if it is properly cooked, insert a knife into the flesh – if it slides clean through, the squash is ready. If you feel resistance, return the squash to the oven for a few more minutes.

Serve each wedge of butternut squash on a plate, drizzled generously with the vibrant green pesto. Crumble the feta cheese on top and scatter over the pomegranate seeds to finish.

What to drink: With the punchy, herby pesto you should be looking at a sauvignon blanc or other crisp white wine here. But a dry Provencal rosé would also work really well.

From Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour published by Mitchell Beazley (www.octopusbooks.co.uk) Photo © Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton