Latest news with #DesperateDan
Sunday Post
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday Post
Crust almighty! Meet the national pie tester out to create bonkers bakes
Get a weekly round-up of stories from The Sunday Post: Thank you for signing up to our Sunday Post newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up Meet Scotland's real-life Desperate Dan who has been 'sweating gravy' in his quest to create the perfect pie. Stuart McNeill proved he's not all puff and no stuffing by being named the UK's first supermarket pie tester last week after a countrywide search by grocery chain Aldi – and he has some wacky (some might even call them pie in the sky) concepts for the ideal bake. The 35-year-old proved a choux-in for the job, beating 100 other hopefuls to take the coveted title after wowing judges in a contest during National Pie Week. © Aldi / Sandy Young McNeill, a high school woodwork teacher from Falkirk, impressed with his passionate and creative entry, which included a hand-drawn concept for a SpecialPIE, complete with its own 'middle aisle'. Just like his famous comic strip hero Dan, he can't get enough of his favourite food – meat pies. And now he has grand designs on several revolutionary bakes, including the 'double-decker'– a vertically stacked pie like a Big Mac but with the fillings separated by layers of pastry rather than a bun. He is also working on a prototype for a Sunday roast pie, encased in Yorkshire Pudding. 'I have yet another in the pipeline called the Figure Of Eight, which is basically two different flavoured small pies that are fused together,' he said. Speaking about his win, McNeill said: 'As soon as the competition was announced, I had six different friends send me the link encouraging me to apply. 'Even the kids at school were telling me to go for it. They thought the idea of their teacher becoming a professional pie tester was brilliant.' The competition was designed to find one lucky Scot to taste and review a new range of Aldi pies. As one of his first tasks, McNeill was sent a case of 72 varieties to try out. 'Even Desperate Dan would struggle with that,' he said. 'I was sweating gravy for a week afterwards.' © Aldi / Sandy Young McNeil credits his love of pies to years of following his beloved Falkirk Football Club. He said: 'A WhatsApp group I have with my mates is meant to be about football, but nine times out of 10, we're discussing who had the best pie at the match.' Stuart was presented with his official Pie Tester trophy ahead of Falkirk's final home game of the season. His five-month-old son Ben even joined a pre-game pie party and was crowned 'Assistant Pie Tester' for the day. McNeill said: 'If being made Aldi's first ever pie tester wasn't enough, Falkirk beat Hamilton and secured promotion to the Premiership League that day – it really was one for the books. 'Now I'm just excited to get stuck in and be reviewing all the different flavours. It's an honour to help represent Scotland's proud pie tradition.' As Aldi's chief pie tester, Stuart will now critique pies based on crust quality, filling consistency, and flavour balance. His reviews will help guide fellow customers when choosing from the range and shape future pie offerings. McNeill said it was his unique 'SpecialPIES' concept that clinched it with supermarket bosses. 'They are like normal pies, but have a middle aisle of their own, formed of a dividing wall of pastry which allows for a unique pie combo-flavour,' he explained, adding: 'The people at Aldi love my ideas but said that unfortunately they would be a 'logistical nightmare' to produce.' Graham Nicolson, group buying director at Aldi Scotland, said the company was thrilled to have found someone who takes the nation's favourite dish 'as seriously as we do'. He said: 'We were blown away by the standard of entries but Stuart's passion and tasting insights, including his 'SpecialPIE' concept, proved he has the perfect mix of creativity and crust credentials for the task at hand.'
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Country diary: An adder, back from the ‘dead' in a burial cairn
Two days of sunshine at Fairy Hill croft and it has triggered some early spring action here. Young badgers are gradually emerging from the safety of their setts, while the volume has been turned up in the woods, with rooks, woodpeckers, red kites, buzzards, an early chiffchaff and 60 pink-footed geese cutting through the vapour trails above me. A mile 'doun the brae', on a hillside of recently felled forest that looks like Desperate Dan's chin, I was stopped in my tracks by a sitting woodcock. I spotted a glint in his left eye, which was lucky because the birds' cryptic colouration in the undergrowth makes them virtually invisible. The eyes of a woodcock are set further back on the head, enabling 360-degree vision. I played 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?' and crept up within arm's reach before the bird took flight. On my return to the croft, however, an even more thrilling sight awaited me. I passed the neolithic burial cairn that is over the wall from my vegetable plot, and while I was communing with the long-dead incumbents who lived here 6,000 years ago, I was delighted to see another resident of the stones – an adder, fresh from hibernation. It was easy to spot, away from any undergrowth, basking in the sun. It's not unusual to see adders in early to mid-March in southern Scotland, and this one was no doubt lured out by the brief sunny spell. The silver-grey colour and the timing identified this one as a male (the females' colouration ranges between bright copper and dark brown, and they tend to emerge a few weeks later). I moved closer, hoping to get a closeup photograph of its beguiling red eyes, but decided against disturbing it and observed from a safe distance. He hardly moved, but his forked tongue flicked in every direction, collecting scent molecules from the air to detect both prey and potential mates. I was reminded of the song Tam Lin by Robert Burns, my erstwhile neighbour at Ellisland Farm. He wrote of Tam's dalliance with the beautiful Janet, and his fears of his captors, the fairies, if he was not an honest man: 'They'll turn me in your arms, lady / Into an ask [newt] and adder.' Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
The Independent
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
British Pie Week: The best beef pie recipe for meat lovers
There are pies, and then there's this – the kind of thing to make Desperate Dan weep with joy. A pie with more beef in it than a Westminster lobby, a pie so rich it could bankroll a small nation. If you've ever felt a steak and ale lacked a certain heft, or that a shepherd's was more field mouse than lamb, Turner & George have the answer: their infamous Cow Pie, the heavyweight champion of British Pie Week. This is a pie with pedigree. Turner & George aren't just butchers; they're meat whisperers. Richard H Turner, the man behind Hawksmoor's legendary steaks, and James George, a butcher with a purist's love for properly raised, properly aged beef, have built a business on the belief that meat should taste of something. And this pie tastes of everything. Built on a foundation of oxtail and ox cheek – or chuck steak, if you're feeling less traditional – it's slow-cooked to collapse-in-your-mouth tenderness, then loaded into a double-crust fortress of suet and rough puff. It's the kind of pie that needs its own postcode, a proper belt-loosener, best served with a pint and a lie-down. If you're looking for the pie to end all pies, this is it. The recipe follows – just make sure you've got an appetite to match. Turner & George's 'infamous' cow pie Serves: 4 Ingredients: 600g oxtail pieces 400g ox cheek, diced into 3 cms (NB: oxtail can be supplemented with 1kg diced beef if preferred) 400g chuck steak, diced into 3 cms 200g onions, diced into 2cms 200g carrots, diced into 2cms 500ml beef stock Dripping, for greasing 100g button mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper 15g plain flour For the suet crust (for the pastry base): 350g self-raising flour 150g shredded vegetable suet 150 ml ice cold water 2g fine sea salt For the rough puff (for the pastry top – or buy a 500g ready made rolled pack): 300g unsalted butter 325g strong plain flour 150ml ice cold water 5g fine sea salt A pie chimney Method: 1. Heat your oven to 160C and place a casserole pot (that comes with a lid) over a medium heat on the hob. Add the dripping and fry the oxtail (if using) and diced meat, then the carrots, onions and mushrooms until browned and season with salt and pepper. 2. Add the beef bones gravy and stir through before popping the lid on the casserole and put it in the oven to braise gently for three hours. 3. To make the suet crust base, put the self-raising flour, suet and a couple of pinches of salt into a bowl and use your fingers to mix together. Once the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, add roughly 150ml of ice cold water to bring it together until you have a soft dough. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge. 4. To make the rough puff top, put the plain flour and salt into a bowl and dice the butter. Rub together to mix but there should still be small lumps of butter. Pour in the cold water and mix to combine to a firm dough, do not over mix. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge. – can use bought pastry. 5. Remove the cooked pie filling from the oven after three hours and drain off 200ml of the gravy and put to one side. Allow the remaining cooked mixture to cool completely and then pick out the oxtail, pulling the meat off the bones to add back to the mix – not necessary if using diced beef. 6. Turn out the puff pastry onto a floured board and roll out into a square, there should be small streaks of butter running through the pastry, this is needed. Fold the right hand third half way into the middle and repeat with the remaining left hand side, roll out again and repeat the folding process. Cover with cling film and return to the fridge for half an hour – not needed if using ready made. 7. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out the suet crust dough so it's about 1 cm thick. Line your pie dish, push and pat it in, letting a couple of centimetres hang over the edge. Place a pie 'chimney' into the centre of the pastry. 8. Press the now cool pie mixture into the lined pie dishes around the pie chimney. Roll out the rough puff pastry until about 1 cm thick and cut in half to make two lids. Egg wash the suet crust overhang and place one layer of puff pastry on top of the filling making a small hole to let the pie chimney through one. 9. Egg wash the pie top and trim the edges with a small knife to seal and cook for one hour at 180C. 10. When ready, carefully pull out the pie and allow it to sit for ten minutes before serving with some creamy mash, greens and the remaining gravy.
