Christmas Leftover Pie with a Cider Crust

Pie is an obvious way to use up turkey and winter vegetables but the cider makes this one slightly less boring.

Serves 4 - 6

2 tbsp turkey dripping or vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp plain flour

150ml pear or apple cider

400ml hot chicken stock

3 carrots, cut into chunks

3 parsnips, cut into chunks

1 tbsp cranberry jelly

chopped herbs such as sage or thyme

leftover cooked turkey, cut into chunks

leftover cooked ham or bacon, chopped

FOR THE PASTRY

200g self-raising flour

100g vegetable suet

large pinch of salt

125ml pear or apple cider

milk for brushing

Heat the fat in a large pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for 3 - 4 minutes then add the cider and stock. Bring to the boil and stir in the carrots, parsnips, cranberry jelly and thyme. Cook for 15 minutes or so until tender.

Preheat the oven to 190C / Gas 5. Stir in the turkey and ham and simmer for 10 minutes then tip into a pie dish.

Mix together the flour, suet, salt and cider to make a soft dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and lay on top of the filling. Tuck in the edges, brush with milk and bake for half an hour until dark golden.

Winter Collection: Chicken Pie

Scrap's pal came for tea yesterday and I made a nice pie. Sadly his little friend couldn't face it and then got violently sick at the table. Turns out she had the winter vomit bug and is feeling much better today, so don't let that put you off.
Serves 4
1 large onion, thinly sliced
400g baby carrots, scrubbed and trimmed
1 chicken
600ml hot chicken stock
200g frozen peas
100g crème fraiche
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp cornflour
500g pack puff pastry
milk, for brushing

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Arrange the onion slices and carrots in a large casserole dish or small roasting tin. Sit the chicken on top then pour over the hot stock.

2 Cover and roast for an hour then add the peas and cook for a further 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Lift the chicken out onto a board.

3 Sit the pan on the hob and stir in the crème fraiche and mustard. If you want to thicken the sauce, dissolve the cornflour in a little water and stir in.

4 Shred the meat off the chicken and stir back into the pan. Leave to cool.

5 Preheat the oven to 200C / Gas 6. Spoon the mixture into a pie dish, then roll out the pastry and use to cover the filling. Brush with milk, decorate with any pastry trimmings and make a couple of holes to let out any steam. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until piping hot and serve with mash.

Kefalonian Meat Pie

The food in Kefalonia is a bit limited - not much fruit, veg or fish but plenty of good meat. The local pie was the highlight for me, packed with chunks of slow-cooked meat and nicely spiced rice with a crisp pastry top. I shall have a crack it myself soon but in the meantime, here's a real Greek recipe.

I Literally Love The Quality Chop House

I went to The Quality Chop House for my lunch and it was, quite probably, the best lunch I have ever eaten (that wasn't cooked by The Wife). Excellent bread and olive oil, pea and mint soup to start and an incredible chicken, ham and mushroom pie with a a great hay-cock sized bowl of double-crunchy chips. Amazing.

THAT LUNCH IN FULL

SOUP!


A WHOLE PIE!


2/3s OF A PIE!


NO PIE WHATSOEVER :(

Sad Pie

Ahhhh! Poor pie!

Lazy Steak & Pickled Onion Pie

I met a friend for lunch at surely London's best pub, The Anchor & Hope, on Friday. It all went a bit wrong as she was an hour late and I drank the two glasses of Prosecco I'd allowed myself in the first half an hour. And I was really hungry which didn't help. Anyway, we ended up drinking way too much including some excellent dessert wine with our excellent Damson Bakewell Tart. But best of all was the steak pie for two which had cooked-for-hours, fall-apart-meat with a few little pieces of kidney, a dark gravy and a proper 'pork-pie-style' hot-water crust. My current favourite blog Old Foodie says it's pie week this week and so here's my favourite cheat's recipe - it can't compare to the A&H pie but it's quick and easy and uses jars and packets so I am sure Delia would approve.

Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
750g cubed casserole or braising steak
4 tbsp plain flour
75cl bottle red wine
1x 450g jar silverskin pickled onions drained and rinsed (250g drained
weight)
3 tbsp redcurrant jelly
2 fresh thyme sprigs
375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Heat the oil in a large casserole pan cut the bacon into 1 cm wide strips, and add to the pan.

2 Season the flour with salt and pepper then toss the steak in the mixture. Shake off any excess flour then add to the pan and cook for 7-8 minutes, turning from time to time until nicely browned.

3 Add the wine, pickled onions, recurrent jelly and thyme. Bring to the boil, partially cover and simmer for 1 hour.

4 Preheat the oven to 200c / gas 6. Open out the pastry and cut to about
2cm larger than the pan, rolling out slightly thinner if necessary. Place on top of the steak, tucking in the edges to enclose the filling. Brush with milk then bake for 20 minutes until golden and puffed.

Ham & Leek Pie

I made this today for tea tonight, I know it's July and I should be making salads but I wanted some comfort food, alright!
This is very straightforward but just delicious - leave the cheese in cubes rather than melt it into the sauce, that way you get little pockets of molten cheese throughout the pie. Serve with soft mash.

Serves 4
3 eggs
large knob of butter
3 leeks, sliced
1 large garlic clove, finely grated or crushed
few sprigs of thyme
300g piece smoked ham, torn into bite-sized pieces
800ml chilled white sauce (home made or shop bought bechamel or fresh cheese sauce will do)
200g good Cheddar, diced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
100g frozen peas
small bunch chives, snipped
1/2 x 500g pack shortcrust pastry
1 beaten egg, to glaze

Simmer the eggs in boiling water for 10 minutes, then cool, shell and quarter.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan and add the garlic, leek and thyme and cook for 10 minutes or so until softened.

Gently stir together the leeks, ham, sauce, cheese, mustard, peas, chives and finally the eggs. Season generously.

Preheat the oven to 190C/ Gas 5. Tip the mixture into a pie dish the roll and the pastry and use to top the filling. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until dark golden.

Pie, Mash and Liquor

Years and years ago I had an obsession with pie and mash shops. My idiot boyfriend at the time was studying interiors at the RCA so he was fascinated too and over a year or two, the pair of us visited every single pie and mash shop that London had. I looked at the pastry and he looked at the tiles. It always felt to us like these places were running out of time and all these years later, lots of them have now closed down.

After a hectic morning at Peckham Pulse doing soft play and swimming in the hydro-pool, me and Scrap walked round the corner to Manzes on Peckham High Street (on that spot since 1927). We both loved it - it was packed with all ages, everyone seated beside strangers along the marble tables and all eating exactly the same. Scrap cleared his plate and while he was still eating was asking if we could come again. Well, yes we can. Everything we ate tasted great, was very fresh and was cooked from scratch on the premises that same morning.
A fine example of British food at its best.

Other recommended pie and mash houses:
Arments, Westmoreland Road, just off Walworth Road
Manzes, Tower Bridge Road
Bert's, Peckham Park Road, just off Old Kent Road
G. Kelly, Roman Road, Bow
F. Cooke, Hoxton Street

Take The Pie Road

Writing recipes is a strange way to make a living. Mostly we are writing for publication at least one or two seasons ahead so none of the ingredients we need are in the shops. And no-one's really in the mood to eat what we're cooking.
Tomorrow, I have asked Heidi, Bert, Sami and Milo to pop over after their walk in the woods with Rob and Scrap for lunch at ours. I am testing recipes for bonfire night which includes mulled cider and a slow-roast pot-chicken I am experimenting with. Only we will be eating it at midday on a sunny Saturday in April.
When my best friend Angela was writing her lovely book Pie, she tested so many recipes she ended up knocking on all the neighbours doors asking if anyone fancied a pie for their tea. She made these for me and Robert and gave us them all ready to cook at home. They tasted wonderful – but how sweet are they! I love initials on things

Anyway, we ate so many of her pies that I can’t remember which one this was. So here’s a recipe from her lovely book. Thanks Ange!

Braised Lamb Shank Pie
Serves 6
FOR THE PASTRY
400g puff pastry
beaten egg, to glaze
FOR THE FILLING
50g plain flour
6 lamb shanks
2 tbsp olive oil
4 red onions, quartered
8 cloves garlic
1 bottle full-bodied red wine
300ml beef stock
2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
3 tbsp recurrant jelly
salt andpepper

1 Season the flour with salt and pepper and dust the shanks.

2 Heat the oil in a casserole dish and brown the shanks all over. Add any remaining flour and the onions and garlic and stir well.

3 Pour in the wine, stock, rosemary, redcurrant jelly and a good grinding of black pepper. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 2 hours until the sauce is rich and thickened and the meat is falling away from the bones.

4 Remove the bones from the pan, reserving three of them and flake the rest into small pieces.

5 Preheat the oven to 200C. Spoon the mixture into a 2 litre pie dish. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 3mm and 2cm bigger than the dish. Cut a 2cm strip of pastry. Brush the rim of the dish with a little water and place the pastry strip around the rim.

6 Sit the three bones into the pie filling at intervals along the length of the dish – these will act as pie funnels, releasing the steam as the pie is baking as will also stop the pastry from sinking into the filling and becoming soggy.

7 Cut three slits in the pastry at the same intervals as the lamb bones and place the pastry lid over the top, sliding it over it the bones. Press down the edges of the pastry to seal.

8 trim off any excess pasty and crimp the edges. Brush with the beaten egg and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Tea tonight

It's cottage pie for tea tonight. I'm going to be home a bit late though, Robert, so you'll have to put it in at 180C for about half an hour to warm it up.

Cottage pie
Enough for 6
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 teaspoons caraway seeds
2 tbsp plain flour
750ml beef stock
1 kg minced beef
2 tablespoons brown sauce
150g frozen peas
handful fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and cubed
100ml (1 /4 pint) milk
knob of butter
150g mature Cheddar
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and caraway seeds and cook for 3 – 4 minutes then add the flour and cook for a couple of minutes.

Pour in the hot stock then add the mince and brown sauce and simmer gently for 30 – 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes for 15 – 20 minutes until tender then mash well and stir in the milk, butter, cheese and seasoning. It’s a good idea to warm the milk first as it blends in more easily.

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan oven 160C) gas mark 4. Stir the peas and parsley into the mince and add salt and pepper. Spoon over the mash then bake for 45 minutes until bubbling and golden.