T here is a tiny room in the basement with walls of whitewashed brick and stone shelves as thick as a bible. I have never known its original use, but it is where I keep cake tins and baking sheets, casseroles and bun tins. As you open the creaking door, you are greeted by a teetering pile of tart tins. Such double-carb suppers β let us not pretend this is anything but comfort food β are welcome on a freezing night, when you have been blown home by an icy wind.
The pastry and potatoes offer sustenance, the cream solace and the mustard will warm cold bones. If a pie seems too much trouble, then I will bake a potato or two and slather them not with butter, but with a ragu of butter beans, tomato and chillies. Wash and dry the potatoes, then pierce 4 or 5 times with a metal skewer. This will prevent them from exploding in the oven. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet, rub with a little oil and dust lightly with salt.
Bake for minutes, testing regularly. Cooking times will depend on their size. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Warm 2 tbsp of olive oil in a medium saucepan and stir in the chopped onions. Leave them to soften for minutes, stirring from time to time, until they are pale golden and almost translucent. Strip the rosemary leaves from their stems and chop finely, then stir into the onions. Roughly chop the tomatoes, add to the onions and let them cook for 10 minutes or until soft and fragrant.
Stir in the chilli paste β more if you like β then pour in ml of water. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, then drain and add the butter beans, season with black pepper and salt and leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Set aside. When the potatoes are cooked, transfer to plates, open them up I like to cut a cross on top and squeeze the sides to let the steam out and open up the fluffy insides , then spoon over the beans and their brick-red sauce.
I make rough puff for this, but puff pastry, shop-bought and thawed, will be fine, too, if less crumbly. Serves 6. Ready in 2 hours. You will need a shallow tart tin with a wide rim, the base measuring 20cm, 25cm including rim. Make the pastry: put the flour into the bowl of a food mixer. Roughly chop the butter and add a good pinch of salt, then mix for a minute or two until you have crumbs of differing sizes. Mix in the water and bring the dough into a ball with your hand. It may feel dry at first, but will soften as you go.
