FLOWER POT KITCHEN: HOT WATER CRUST RAISED PIE

5 Jan 2017

HOT WATER CRUST RAISED PIE

BRITISH PIE WEEK

FRENCH PIE

WoW...What A Show Stopper...

I Love Love Love this pie tin!

I love making this old fashioned Hot Water Crust French pie, I am not as traditional these days as I was when I first started making this pie in this fluted French tin for my market stall (search bar has recipe) which would be a layered game pie with a brandy chicken liver pate force meat, but I found I rarely got to use this tin. So nowadays I enjoy using this tin for special pie moments like Christmas Day Left Over Pie. I do always use my hot water crust with home rendered crackling lard the best ever melt in the mouth pastry

Prep Time 20 mins / Cooking Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

Hot Water Crust Pastry

450g plain flour

1 egg beaten

220g lard

10g salt

180ml hot water

1 egg beaten for egg wash

Pie Filling Ingredients

(this can be any fillings you want)

Left over turkey meat

Left over roast potatoes

Left over gravy

Left over cranberries

Left over stuffing

Sea salt and black pepper

Method

First make the hot water crust, place the water and lard in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, in a bowl place the flour and salt and cut in the beaten egg, pour over the hot lard and bring together with a wooden spoon and as soon as you can handle the dough knead for a couple of seconds and form in to a ball.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees C, grease the sides of your pie tin. cut off on third of the pastry and leave to one side, this is for the pie lid. Roughly roll out the remaining pastry to about an inch thick and fold in to the tin to line, press the soft pliable pastry in to all the ribs of the tin and up the sides, trim off any excess that is hanging over the top of the pie tin.

For the pie lid, roll out the remaining pastry and place the tin on the pastry, cut around the pie dish. If you have any left over pastry cut out some decorative leaves or hearts for the top.

Now to layer, I went with cranberries first followed by turkey, stuffing, gravy, repeated that again and then finished off with crushed roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts, if I had more cranberries I would have finished off with a final layer. Egg wash the top of the pasty and place the pie lid on the pie, crimp the edges and decorate the top with leaves, skewer a small hole in the centre of the pie.

Brush the pie with egg wash and place in the oven to cook for around 35-45 minutes until golden and crisp. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. The pie is ready to serve, but I like to egg wash the sides and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes to set the glaze and then serve.

Serve with creamy buttery mashed potatoes and fresh sprouts and any left over gravy.

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.