Steak and Adnams Ale Pie

The weeks fly by and posting about pies has been on the back burner to my regret. My husband has come out the other end of his cancer treatment (radiotherapy) and we’re all feeling much happier. 

The weekend after Easter I was in Suffolk staying in the tranquility of Mendham Mill. I am privileged to cook for and generally tend to a group of writers participating in a creative writing course with Mendham Writers.

On Sat 14th April, the dinner I prepared for everyone participating was – rather surprisingly – pies; one meat and one vegetarian and these are the recipes I’m going to share with you today.

Steak and Adnams Ale Pie

3 lb braising steak

2 large onions

1/2 lb flat mushrooms

Bottle of Adnams bitter (500 ml)

Knorr rich beef stockpot

I cup of water

Splash of red wine

Salt and pepper

 

Dust cubed steak with seasoned flour and fry in small batches.

Fry chopped onions separately until soft andadd to the meat.

Place all in a large casserole. Add beer, wine and water, seasoning to taste. Add the stockpot.

Cook in the oven for 2-3 hours on a slow heat until the meat is tender.  

When the meat is ready you can transfer it to a pie dish or simply cover with pastry. However, before putting the pastry top on, add the mushrooms and any fresh herbs you wish to use.

Treat pie in the usual way; prick top, glaze and bake until golden. 

 

Good Friday Pie Recipe

So my promise of cooking and posting a pie recipe every week appears to be getting a little ambitious as I am slightly behind, but, believe it or not, there is more to life than just pie. With an extended Easter break spent at my cottage in Norfolk, a Mendham Writers weekend to cater for (more on this next week), and my meat-loving husband having started radiotherapy, I have been slightly preoccupied. However, for all my pie-loving friends out there I hope you enjoy my latest recipe.

Good Friday may have been and gone but as Easter is a moveable feast please feel free to tuck in - this pie, along with all the others, can be made at any time of the year. Plus, you may find you have some haddock and spinach in the freezer, and as the rest of the ingredients are mostly store-cupboard staples it’s a good dish to have on standby.

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 lbs smoked haddock, 1 pint of milk, pinch of white pepper, 1 lb spinach (frozen will do), 3 hard-boiled eggs (chopped), 1/2 lb ready made puff pastry, 1 pint of white sauce (made with poaching liquid), handful of chopped parsley.

METHOD:

Poach smoked fish gently in 1 pint of milk and season with white pepper. Once cooked set the fish aside and remove tough skin and any bones, flake the haddock into large chunks and place in the pie dish. Save the poaching liquid to make a white sauce later.

Meanwhile, cook the spinach, drain well, and add to the pie dish along with the eggs. Then make a white sauce with the fish stock reserved from poaching and add the chopped parsley. Cover the pie ingredients with the sauce.

Finally, put the pastry lid over the filling, brush with milk and prick. Place in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Serve with new potatoes and peas or green beans.

Beef, Mushroom, and Mussel Pie

Ingredients; 2 lb good braising steak, 1 large onion, 12 oz chestnut mushrooms, 8 oz shelled mussel meat, 1 glass of red wine, 1/2 pint of beef stock or 1 tin of oxtail soup, salt and pepper to taste. For the pastry 12 oz self raising flour, 6 oz suet, salt and pepper to season, pinch of mustard powder and 1 teaspoon of dried parsley.

Method

Dust diced beef with seasoned flour and fry in a little olive oil. As I’ve said before do this in small batches so the oil stays hot thus sealing the meat better.Fry onions and mushrooms together and add to meat. Add red wine and stock or soup to the rest of the ingredients and simmer on a low light until meat is tender.Do not add the mussels at this stage as they will overcook. Whilst the meat is cooking you can get on with making the pastry and there is nothing easier than suetcrust.

Sift the flour and mix with seasoning. Add the suet, for a lighter dough you can use vegetarian suet. Mix together with a palette knife.Add enough cold water to make an elastic dough. Roll out on a floured surface.Put the pie filling in a suitable pie dish, at this point you add the mussels.Cover the pie filling with the pastry.Prick the pastry with a fork and brush with a mustard powder and milk wash. Bake in a preheated oven, 200 degrees C, for around 40 minutes, or until pie is golden brown.

 

Bacon, Cheese and Leek Popover Pies

As there was no pie posted last week I’m giving 2 pie recipes this time. The first one was inspired by the wonderful weather we’ve been enjoying and are great for picnics.

Ingredients: 12 oz sliced leeks, 12 oz bacon pieces cut small, butter for frying, 2 oz flour, 12 fl. oz milk, 1 tablespoon creme fraiche, 4 oz Wensleydale cheese, sprinkle of white pepper, pinch of grated nutmeg, pinch of mustard powder, 12 oz puff pastry.

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Fry leeks and bacon in the butter. Add flour to pan along with the seasoning, you probably won’t need salt as the bacon and cheese should provide this. Gradually add the milk and creme fraiche and stir together until you have a smooth sauce. Now add the crumbled cheese. The sauce is now ready.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut 12 discs,big enough to line a 12 hole muffin tin. Place each disc in the buttered tin. Now fill these with the bacon, cheese and leek sauce.The popovers are now ready to be baked in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Cheat’s Chicken Curry Pie Recipe

Apologies for not posting a pie recipe last week and the lateness in my offering this week but with I’ve been away to Buxton for the weekend and recently welcomed my wonderful new grandson Albert into the world so have been a little preoccupied. I promise to fill the pie gap with a buy one get one free recipe, as it were, in the weeks to come.

Therefore, this week’s recipe is by far the simplest meal and can be made with a few store cupboard basics, or, as in my case whatever ingredients were on offer at the supermarket as I dashed home from a busy day at work. This Chicken Curry Pie is tasty and can be made in a hurry.

Ingredients: One onion, chicken breasts, jar of Tikka Masala sauce or any other curry sauce you can find, shop bought puff pastry.

Method: Chop and fry the onion and add the diced chicken until cooked through. Throw in the curry sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.

Thewn just grease the pie dish, add the filling and cover with the pastry. Place in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees) and cook for 30-45 minutes or until the pastry in browned.

Serve with green veg or a salad and you’ve still got time after to relax in front of the telly and catch the lastest episode of Corrie or Eastenders, or whatever you like to do of an evening. A quick, tasty and cheap recipe that all the family will enjoy, although baby Albert’s still a little young for my pies.

PS: Happy Mother’s Day

Russian Fish Pie

This is a quick and easy pie to make – simpler than last week.

1kg white fish

500g prawns

2 small leeks

500ml parsley sauce

3 gherkins (chopped)

3 hard boiled eggs

1 cup frozen peas

1 packet ready rolled puff pastry

Pan fry fish and leeks until just cooked, add prawns and frozen peas. Cook for a few minutes. While fish is cooking, make the parsley sauce. I am assuming you can make this – just a basic roux white sauce with added parsley (dried or fresh). Packets of sauce mix are available if you really want it easy! Add parsley sauce to fish mix and also the gherkin and eggs. Combine together and place in pie dish.

Cover in pastry not forgetting to ventilate and glaze pie top. Place in pre-heated oven (180C) and cook until golden.

If you wish you can use mash potato for the pie topping but I think pastry top is more unusual. Serve with chips and/or vegetables, broccoli is my favourite accompaniment for this dish.

Lenten Pie

Along with November I always find February quite a depressing month. Generally Ash Wednesday falls in February, unless Easter is very late, and so commences Lent – for some a period of abstinence.

An old church friend of mine used to suggest taking up something for Lent rather than giving something up.

This year, as usual, I will be forsaking alcohol for 40 days, or at least trying my best. However, I will also be taking up Spanish lessons – a hangover from my recent holidays.

This pie is built up in layers using filo pastry. Definitely shop bought - I wouldn’t entertain the idea of making it.

350g frozen petit pois

350g frozen broad beans (shelled)

150ml creme fraiche

600g frozen spinach

1/2pint cheese sauce

1 medium red onion

4 large tomatoes (peeled,cored and chopped)

150g goats cheese

2 packets filo pastry

50g grated cheddar cheese

mint sauce

butter

Method.

Cook petit pois. Separately cook broad beans – after shelling (a tiresome but worthwhile task). Combine peas and shelled beans along with the creme fraiche and a teaspoon of mint sauce.

Cook spinach and drain well, combine with cheese sauce.

The tomatoes need to be peeled and cored. Blanche in boiling water to enable easier peeling. You can use tinned tomatoes if you like but fresh tomatoes suit the recipe better. Fry the medium onion in olive oil until soft, add to chopped tomatoes.

You now have 3 separate fillings.

Take your oven dish – 12″ x 8″ approx. Grease with melted butter.

To assemble.

Remove filo pastry from packet and take 2 sheets. Lay 1 on bottom of dish and brush with butter then place second sheet over it. Wrap remaining sheets in a clean wet cloth to prevent drying and cracking. Cover first layer with half of the pea and bean mix.

Place two more pastry sheets over this, using the melted butter between the 2 sheets as before. Next place half of spinach mix over this and cover with 2 filo sheets as before.

Now for the middle layer, put chopped tomato and fried onion on this layer and top with the sliced goats cheese spread evenly.

The remainder of the spinach mix and the rest of the peas and beans will form the next two layers, inter-leafing each with 2 layers of filo as before.

Sprinkle top layer with around 50g of grated cheddar and finish with 2 more sheets of filo brushed with melted butter.

The pie is now ready for the oven.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (200C) for 30-40 minutes until golden on top.

The first time I made this I used only 1 packet of filo pastry and although it was a huge success I felt we needed to double the quantity. That is why this recipe uses 2 sheets of filo between each layer.

The pie is quite filling and this amount will feed between 8 and 12 people. Serve with a mixed salad and/or new potatoes.