For Connoisseurs - Bacon, Leek and Sweetcorn Pie

 

 

The cynics amongst us might think that themed weeks are a little 'meh' and spend the time wondering what the point is of making a week out of something when let's be honest, a day would be quite enough. However, I am not a cynic and some things are worth a week of extoling their virtues, so most definitely I would say that a week devoted to bacon is a wonderful thing. This week is 'Bacon Connoisseurs Week' which is a week to raise awareness of the brilliance and versatility of bacon as an ingredient, from the crispy streaky that you put on a slice of doorstop white bread for the ultimate bacon butty, to the bacon joint, simmered to create the most wonderful stock and even more wonderful soup. It's hearty, honest, unpretentious food and despite the keenness of the health lobby to point out how we should be careful about the amount of processed meat, sausages, etc. we eat, I still fervently believe that a little bit of what you fancy does you good. Bacon does you good. Is there anything more instantly gratifying than the smell of bacon cooking? I don't think so.  

 

And if we are to be more conscious about just what we consume, then all the more reason to be selective in what we actually buy. A little bit of bacon goes a long way and the purchase of a quality bacon such as something endorsed by the Red Tractor label really makes the difference to the finished dish and a difference to the welfare of livestock in this country. Food for thought, literally.

 

So, to celebrate Bacon Connoisseurs Week, I have recreated a dish by Fay Ripley, who is the ambassador of 'Bacon Connoisseurs Week' Her recipe for bacon, leek and sweetcorn pie uses dry cured gammon steaks to flavour and intensify the filling and the addition of leek, sweetcorn and cream cheese produces an unctuous and satisfying pie which even Finn liked! And Finn, as you may know, is hard to please.

 

I hope that you are inspired to look at good quality, dry cured bacon as a basis for a myriad of dishes that could feed yourself and your family ethically but economically. Here's the recipe:

 

Bacon, Leek and Sweetcorn Pie, adapted from the recipe by Fay Ripley

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

My adaptations in red

 

Ingredients:

2 dry cured smoked bacon or gammon steaks (about 200g each in weight), cut into cubes (You could also use lardons, or pancetta)

15ml (1tbsp) Oil

2 leeks, washed, halved and sliced

200g low fat/light cream cheese

325g can of sweetcorn, drained (alternatively use 260g of frozen sweetcorn)

500g ready made puff pastry (I actually used six sheets of filo pastry - Lola and Finn are fans of the texture of filo)

Milk and egg, whisked, for glaze (or melted butter if you decide to use filo)

Black pepper – to taste

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7, 200˚C, 400˚F.

 

Heat the oil in a large pan.  Add the bacon and leeks and cook until the bacon has changed colour and the leeks are beginning to soften.

 

Add the cream cheese and combine together well.  Heat through and allow to thicken slightly for about 2-3 minutes.  Taste and check for seasoning - you shouldn't need salt because of the saltiness of the bacon. Add the black pepper and sweetcorn then place in a large 1 litre/2 pint pie dish.

Roll out the pastry to a size that will roughly cover the dish – decorate the edge with a pattern (a good effect is to use the edge of a small round glass) and if you wish cut out shapes to decorate the top of the pie.  Brush pastry with the milk and egg glaze. (If you decide to use filo, use some melted butter to brush over each layer of filo - I used six layers in total. I seasoned the top with salt and black pepper)

Place in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and well risen.

 

Serve with vegetables and enjoy!

 

 

Recreating perfection - Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie

 

 

So, Phill's birthday came around again and because he is notoriously difficult to buy for (I ended up buying him a winch. Don't ask...) I decided to cook him a meal of his choice. Cooking something special for someone is a great present to give, if you ask me. Anyway, I have already tried to take Phill back to his Aunt Renie's cooking by trying to make a cheese, onion and potato pie which was really, really nice but not quite like his Auntie Renie. Now, there is an argument that I would never quite make it, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try, so, some people on their birthday get diamonds, a sports car - Phill gets a cheese and onion pie. But it WAS as good as his Auntie Renie's, so he says. Unless he was just being kind...

 

Phill's observation was that when I put mashed potato in the original pie to bulk it out, it took away from the cheese and onion flavour, which I suppose is correct. Phill likes really strong flavours. After watching Simon Hopkinson on his show, 'The Good Cook' cook a Lancashire cheese and onion pie, and Phill salivating whilst he was making it, I decided to try this recipe. It uses Lancashire cheese, which, I confess, is not my favourite, but when it was cooked with the onions it mellows a little and produced a beautiful, creamy but sharp, oniony filling. Yum, frankly. And seeing as he is a Lancashire chap, really quite apt.

 

I have included the pastry recipe below. I confess I used some shortcrust pastry that I had frozen months previously. Whisper it - I bet you could buy some shop bought decent pastry to do this with, especially if pastry frightens you. It still makes me a little bit scared...

 

Cheese and Onion Pie, adapted from Simon Hopkinson's 'The Good Cook'

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad plus one other, generously

 

My adaptations in red: 

 

Ingredients

 

For the pastry (which I didn't make as I had some shortcrust already made)

 

60g/2oz butter, cut into small pieces

60g/2oz lard, cut into small pieces

200g/7oz self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch salt

 

For the filling:

 

25g/1oz butter

3 onions, roughly sliced

salt and freshly ground white pepper (I used black - I quite like black specs of pepper!)

250g/9oz Lancashire cheese, coarsely grated

milk, for sealing and glazing (I used a beaten egg)

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and place a baking tray in the oven to heat through.

 

For the pastry, place the butter and lard into a large bowl with the flour and salt. Gently rub the fat into the flour using finger tips until the texture resembles very coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively use a food processor to bind the fat and flour.

 

Add 2-3 tbsp ice cold water to bind the mixture. Lightly knead the dough until well amalgamated, dust with flour and place into a sealable plastic bag. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before using. If you are in a rush, you can use the dough straightaway.

 

Or - use some pastry that you might already have, like I did, or buy some ready made.

 

For the filling, heat the butter in a saucepan and fry the onions for 10 minutes, without colouring.

 

Stir in 150ml/5fl oz water, salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Remove the onions, spread out onto a plate and set aside to cool.

 

Roll out two-thirds of the pastry until it is about 0.5cm/¼in thick and line a greased 20cm/8in loose-bottomed tart tin, leaving any excess pastry overhanging the edge.

 

Now roll out the remaining pastry to a similar thickness which will also be generously wide enough to use as a lid to the pie. Cover the base of the pie with half of the onions and then cover with half the grated cheese.

 

Repeat the layering process until all the mixture is used up.

 

Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid for the pie. Brush the edges of the pastry case with milk to seal the pastry lid upon it, while also pressing the edges together lightly before trimming off any excess overhang.

 

Brush the surface of the pie with milk (or egg). Make three small incisions into the centre of the pie using the point of a sharp knife and, if you wish, further decorate to make a lattice effect.

 

Place the pie into the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden-brown. Remove from the oven and leave for a good 20-30 minutes before un-moulding and cutting into generous wedges.

 

with roast potatoes and cabbage!!!

 

 

Serve the pie warm or at room temperature (not piping hot).

 

Apologies for the lack of 'method' photos. I am, what I call, 'between cameras', and I deleted the method photos. Stupid woman.

 

 

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.

Ideal for leftovers, and my first food love! Chicken (or Turkey!) pot pie

If you were to ask my mum what was her food memory when she thinks about me when I was a kid I would venture a chicken pie would be high up on her list. She has often told me of how, when my dad used to have Birds Eye chicken pie for tea, I would sit, not able to speak for being so young, but communicating by licking my lips until my dad gave me some, and, frankly, I adored it. And whilst I try to shy away from buying frozen meals for my kids for the reasons that I feel that the ingredients are in the main of poor quality and loaded with fats and additives, I will happily wolf down a Birds Eye chicken pie without thinking about it, because I unashamedly adore them!

So, cooking chicken pie offers some sort of satisfaction for me, as does cooking almost anything from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. In fact, I am amazed that it has taken me six months or more to include one of her superb recipes on my blog, as I cite her, along with the likes of Tamasin Day Lewis and Nigella as the inspirations to improve my cooking skills. I was firstly captivated by her lifestyle in The Hamptons and the ease in which she was able to put things together and produce tasty, appealing dishes. Her recipes have often been the ones that have been most positively received by those on the receiving end. As I am fussy about pastry, I substituted the original pastry in the recipe for what I use for shortcrust pastry, plus I had no vegetable shortening which is called for in the original recipe. For the purposes of serving, I made this in one (well two, as it turned out) 'pot' or dish, and the pastry recipe is sufficient for covering both pies. And one last thing. I left out the whole baby onions and I added mushrooms, for chicken and mushroom pie is where this love affair with the chicken pie started.

Chicken (or Turkey at this time of year!!) Pot Pie, adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ingredients (An American recipe, so using cup measurements, fellow Brits (and others) You should invest in them; it's a liberating experience!)

3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on, or parts of the chicken that you prefer. I used a combination of thighs, drumsticks and breast because I like dark meat! You could of course use leftover cooked chicken/turkey if you have enough of it.

3 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

2 chicken bouillon/stock cubes

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions)

3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 cup double cream

2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes

1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (2 cups)

1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions or a tin of mushrooms.

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

For the pastry:

8oz plain flour

pinch of salt

4oz butter

a little water, to bind.

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin.

Cut the chicken into large dice. You should have 4 to 6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock, or just make

up the whole of the stock from stock cubes, remembering to add two more stock cubes than you need.

In a large pot, melt the butter and cook the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick.

Add salt to taste, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the double cream.

Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions/mushrooms and parsley. Mix well.

For the shortcrust pastry:

Mix the flour, butter, salt together, either using a food processor or by rubbing together the ingredients until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add just enough water to bind.

Let the pastry rest for half an hour or so before rolling out.

Once the pastry is ready to be used, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls, or a sufficient bigger bowl or dish.

Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle, or roll out the pastry to the size that you need.

Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the pastry on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl if you wish. If you use a bigger pot I found I did not need to do this with the shortcrust pastry I use. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick.

Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 40 mins to 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.