There's nothing that says “comfort food” like a home-made pie – no matter what the weather! Here's a selection to choose from.
The pie plan!
You can cook this ahead – the steak and kidney was slow cooked on Thursday, cooled, bagged and fridged, ready to pull together for Saturday.
To make life easier, here are the recipes for both pie fillings – first up :
Steak and Kidney Pie filling – serves 4
1kg/2.2lbs braising steak or stewing steak, cubed
275g/10oz lambs kidneys, diced
glug of rapeseed or Canola oil
2 x Knorr beef stock pots
2 heaped tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves of roasted garlic or fresh crushed garlic
salt and black pepper
You'll need a pie dish measuring 23x23x5cms/9x9x2”
Brown and season the steak in a large frying pan, using a drop of rapeseed oil – do this in small batches – if you don't you'll get grey looking meat, it will take ages and it will stew. Using a slotted spoon pop the browned meat into the slow cooker. Toss the kidneys in a little plain flour then brown in the frying pan and add to the steak in the slow cooker.
Dissolve the stock pots, gently, in the residual pan juices, then add the tomato paste – make sure the paste is properly melted and “cooked out” - if you don't do this you'll have a bitter taste. Add a glug of water to the melted stock pots and the tomato paste, stir well to combine, repeat until your pan is two thirds full. Bring to the boil and then tip – carefully – into the slow cooker. The “gravy” should cover the steak and kidney – if it doesn't top it up with boiling water. Slow cook for on low for 4 hours. If your gravy is too thin – it's personal choice - add a little slaked cornflour and thicken to taste. If you decide to thicken the gravy then I'd take the steak and kidney out of the gravy before thickening. It might seem a bit of a faff but it's worth it – the meat won't break up.
Set the slow cooked steak and kidney aside and fridge until you're ready to roll.
The pie plan - Cheese, potato and onion filling
It's no surprise that both these pies already figure on the blog – what I suppose it shows is their popularity – it's the simple things in life.
This filling is easy peasy, just three elements all of which can be made ahead, bagged, boxed and then fridged!
Cheese, potato and onion filling
Serves 4
4 medium sized baked jacket potatoes, peeled
and cut into cubes measuring 1.5cms/½”
approximately
2 medium onions, finely diced and
sautéed with a knob of unsalted butter and
a drop of rapeseed oil until softened – 5 minutes
add 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard to the onion
300g of grated cheeses – 100g each of Mature
Cheddar, Red Leicester and Gruyere
Black pepper
you'll need a pie dish – measuring 23x23x5cms/9x9x2”
foil or ceramic – ceramic if you're serving at the table
Using a large mixing bowl add the potatoes, onions and mustard – season generously with black pepper. Fold in the cheeses.
Both the pie fillings benefit from being made a couple of days ahead and then fridged until you're ready to complete.
All that remains is the pastry!
The pastry and the photos
As always you have “lid” options – for me it has to be puff or flaky pastry – here's my usual recipe if you want to make your own.
You will need a batch for each pie :
Fast flaky pastry
150g of unsalted butter – chilled in the freezer
220g plain flour
pinch of salt
8 tablespoons of ice cold water
Plan ahead - before you begin weigh out your butter, wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer – 30-40 minutes. Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. You'll need a cheese grater on stand-by. Remove the butter from the freezer and fold back the foil – it's easier to control when you grate the butter into a heap in the middle of the flour and salt. You can dip the butter into the flour to stop any sticking.
Using a round bladed knife mix the butter into the flour and salt. Sprinkle four tablespoons of water into the pastry and mix well. Add another four tablespoons and continue to mix. Finally use your hand to bring together – you're aiming for a clean bowl so no bits of pastry left in the bowl. Have a sheet of cling film ready – you can now use both hands to mould the pastry into whatever shape you require. Place on the cling film and wrap.
Rest the pastry in the fridge for 30 minutes before use or place the cling filmed pastry in a bag and freeze.
On a lightly floured surface roll out your pastry – dust your rolling pin too. Roll out as evenly as you can turning the pastry as it takes shape – always roll backwards and forwards and quarter turns so that it keeps to a circle. If you roll side to side you'll stretch the pastry and it will shrink when cooking!
Tip the filling into the pie dish. Egg wash the rim of the dish and then gently lift the pastry lid on top of the filling. The egg wash will glue the pastry in place and you can press the lid onto the filling gently. You can use a sharp knife to remove any excess pastry then, using a pastry fork edge the pie. Egg wash the pastry and add two cuts in the centre of the pastry to vent the pie.
Bake in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 40 minutes. I'd check after 20 minutes and turn the pie dish so as to give an even colour. It depends on your oven but I've found that even with new fan ovens the baking isn't always evenly browned.
There's always a plan B – cheat – buy puff pastry sheets – 320g x 2.
Here they are :
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Yum!
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Double yum!
Then there's “Sally's favourite … Homity Pie”
I normally make Homity Pie for special occasions – my recipe serves 12-16 depending on the size of slice! I decided to make the same amount of pastry but scale down the filling – I freeze the remainder for another day – here goes :
Sally's Homity Pie – makes 2
Pastry
200g plain wholemeal flour
100g unsalted butter
pinch of baking powder
ice cold water to bind
Rub the butter into the flour and baking powder until it resembles breadcrumbs, then gradually add a glug of water and use and round bladed knife to bring the pastry together.
You can use a processor if you prefer – I'd then tip the pastry directly onto clingfilm and bring it together to form a ball, then wrap and rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Ahead of the game
Bake 3 large jacket potatoes, then cool, peel and dice finely
and place in a large mixing bowl
250g onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped or roasted
paste
1.5 tbsp rapeseed oil
salt and black pepper
2.5 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley – 1.5 tbsp for the
filling and 1 for the topping – use less if you are
using dried
150g of grated cheese – I use a mixture of mature
Cheddar, Gruyere and Red Leicester – 100g for the
filling and 50g for the topping
Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil, add to the potatoes and season with salt and black pepper. Add the cheese and parsley, mix thoroughly.
Roll out your pastry and line a greased pie dish measuring 18x14x4 cms (7x5½x1½”) .
Tip your potato mixture into the pastry case and pack it down tightly and flat – it will look as if you'll never get all the filling into the case – persevere – you will succeed.
Top with the remaining cheese and parsley.
Bake in a pre-heated oven – 190fan/170c/Gas 7 for 40 minutes – check after 20 minutes.
Next up … the pie dishes
Sally's favourite Homity Pie – the dish
I wouldn't normally use a foil pie dish, in the interests of recycling and climate change et al but when I do I re-use them. However in this case the “pie dish” needs to be easy for Sally – easy to place on a baking sheet in and out of the oven – there's nothing more frustrating in recovery when you can't handle a container because it's too heavy – as light as possible and practical is the key.
With that in mind I sourced this dish :
a dish fit for purpose!
with the pastry lining
and then the filling
cooked and ready to eat!
More crowd pleasers to come ...
