So this is the first original recipe I’ve posted. Although I made it up, I have to say that I did borrow heavily from Nigella Lawson. Her book “How to be a Domestic Goddess” had a few recipes for savory pies made in spring form cake tins (all really good by the way). The advantage is that you can use tons of filling, and they come out all tall and pretty.
So this is a little elaborate, but I wanted to try it as a way to use up leftover food.
I had a half a sweet potato, a few small regular potatoes and two carrots, so I diced them up really small and threw them in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes, then drained them and put to the side.
Next I took a chunk of red onion, plus a regular onion, some garlic and some mushrooms that were truly at the end of their usefulness, and I sautéed them with a little white wine till they released some liquid and then burned it away (so they were dry).
I added those both together with some sage, thyme and rosemary, threw in some grated cheese, and some left over baked chicken and that was my filling.
I made a little gravy too.
I made a pastry dough (you could easily use some store bought). Rolled out the bottom dough big enough to hang over the edges of the cake tin. I lined the bottom with some breadcrumbs to help keep it from getting soggy (another trick I learned from Nigella). I put in 3/4 of the filling then the gravy, then the rest of the filling, in another attempt at fighting sogginess. Rolled out the top crust, and put it over the top, then pinched the edges together to seal it. Put a little egg wash on the top, and poked some holes for steam to escape.
Baked at 200c/400f for 10 min, then turned it down to 180c/350f for 40 min. Again, I borrowed the cooking time from Nigella.
Like I said, a little elaborate, not something to do if you are short on time. Still, I love making savory pies, and I always have bits and bobs left over at the end of the week, so I loved it. It came out tall and pretty and tasty. Everybody loved it and had second helpings.
3 comments:
That looks so good, and it's such a refined way of cooking leftovers. I have a question though, what type of cheese do you reccomend; and how did you make the gravy and the pastry? Thanks, I'm looking forward to using up my leftovers.
Hi Kevin,
I'm sorry, I've not been checking my comments lately, so I don't know how long ago you left this.
If you are still out there...
The cheese I used was the super cheap Mild white cheddar. It mostly adds to the texture more then the taste. Having eaten it now, I would say most hard cheeses would be good, but I bet that something like an edam, or a gouda would really be great.
The gravy was just a basic one. I had some cooking juices from the baked chicken. I melted some butter and stirred in some flour till it was thick, then added the juices. It only made a tiny bit, but I didn't want too much for fear of making it soggy. Stock would have worked just as well as the cooking juices for such a small amount too.
As for the pastry, any basic pastry will do. I have a favorite that I use all the time. I will do a new posting with the recipe either today or tomorrow (I have to go find it).
I hope this helps, and I hope I wasn't too late, sorry about that.
Hello again,
I added a seperate post with the pie pastry recipe that I used for this one.
Hope you lke it.
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