I’ve always secretly harboured the hope that somewhere within the family tree, there’d be traces of Indian, Spanish, Italian or even Middle Eastern roots. This would go to supporting my bias towards the bold flavours that typify these cuisines. Sadly, no luck. That said, on the menu tonight is a mouthwatering Spanish chicken pie with chorizo and sweet peppers, topped with buttery homemade shortcrust pastry.

Easing us into the autumn zone are warming bowls of soup, creamy pastas and of course, pies. As you’d expect, the flavours are bold! Spicy tomato with the unmistakably taste of chorizo. It’s warm but not hot like the the kind of heat that’ll mute your taste buds.

And then there’s the pastry. This is my feeling on pastry. Making filo pastry is for the experts. In fact, if you value your sanity, I strongly suggest against it! Puff pastry however is a bit of a fence-sitter. I’ve made Edd Kimber’s rough puff pastry from his Pâtisserie made simple and it is as promised, simple and superb. Light, buttery, milti-layered and crisp. Heavenly really.

If all this is too much of a palaver, there are plenty of good quality store-bought versions on the market. About shortcrust. Shortcrust should always be homemade. It’s simple enough to make, really. The secret, which is not really a secret ’cause everyone knows it, is cold butter, cold water, cold hands and a warm heart. When making the shortcrust, double the recipe and freeze half for later.

Now for the filling. A great pie is made up of 2 essentials. Good pastry and an even better filling. The filling here tastes like tapas. Red peppers, mushrooms, chicken and chorizo in a spicy sherry tomato sauce. It’s dude food and very Moorish.