Fridge raiding! - Cheese, onion and potato pie

Well, it's nearly payday, and I am surviving until my next food shop by using up any sorry looking bits of food I can find in my fridge and cupboards. What I can safely say is that this method does not produce inferior food; indeed, this dish is guaranteed to put a smile on all faces here. What I will say is that this is very much one of these personal choice kind of dish, so the ingredients I give here may need to be tweaked to your liking. The only departure from the norm I did make here was using up filo pastry for the pastry crust rather than the usual shortcrust that I would make up to lay on top of the oozy, cheesy, oniony filling, but I don't think it was any worse because of that.

One of my foodie aims in life is to try to replicate the cheese and onion pie that Phill's auntie used to make for him when he was small, because from what I can gather it was the best cheese and onion pie ever. I am not sure that I have hit that nadir as yet, but Phill came in from work and ate a few forkfuls of filling before I manage to trap it in pastry and he exclaimed that he was now 'hungry'. That's good enough for me, as nostalgia is very hard to replicate, which is the reason why although I might aim to make the best cheese and onion pie ever, I will probably not succeed. I am not Auntie Renie.

Lola, in particular, gives a big thumbs up on this one. Plate scraped clean.

Cheese, onion and potato pie

Feeds 4 - 6, depending on hunger.

Ingredients:

A glug of olive oil

300g grated cheese (In this instance it was the remnants of the Christmas cheese feast, so I used strong cheddar, gruyere, smoked gouda and Double Gloucester, but my recommendation would be at least a strong cheddar, to flavour the potato and compliment the onion)

1 onion diced

3 medium potatoes, diced into small chunks

salt and pepper if needed

For the pastry:

Three sheets of filo pastry (which when cut to fit made six layers for the size of dish I used)

Olive oil or melted butter

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

Grate the cheese and put aside.

Dice the onion and put into the oil. Saute over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Do not colour.

Peel the potatoes and dice into smallish chunks. Put into salted water and boil until they can be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Drain.

Combine the ingredients in a bowl. Stir until well combined but take care not to mash the potatoes overly if you want texture in the finished dish. Taste and season appropriately.

Put into a suitable ovenproof dish or pie dish.

Preheat the oven to 180c

To top the filling, take one layer of filo pastry at a time, brush with oil or melted butter, and then use to cover the cheesy filling. Obviously trim the filo if you need to, or else just crinkle it haphazardly around the sides of the dish. Repeat, until you have used all the filo pastry.

Brush the top with oil and then scatter salt and pepper across the top.

Place in the oven for about 25 - 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and the filling is bubbling.

Take out of the oven and leave for about 5 - 10 minutes. A hot pie will take the roof of your mouth off.

Serve with whatever you fancy. on this occasion it was peas and sweetcorn.