Anyone For Pie?

Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Pie
From the Ugly Binder
(torn out of The Australian Women’s Weekly, July 1999)

1 medium leek, sliced
60g butter
¼ cup plain flour
200g button mushrooms only had about 130g
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
3 cups milk
1 tablespoon seeded mustard
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley didn’t have any so I left this out
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk, extra
3 sheets of pre-prepared puff pastry I used store bought frozen stuff

To prepare leek, remove dark green top and root end; cut leek in half lengthways. Hold leek under running water, opening leaves to allow water to flow between leaves and rinse away grit. Or swish in a bowl of water until clean.
Heat butter in large pan; cook mushrooms, stirring, until browned lightly. Add leek, cook, stirring, until leek is soft. Stir in flour and stock powder, stirring, one minute. Gradually stir in milk, then mustard; cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in parsley, chicken and pepper, cool. (I didn’t let mine cool, I just went straight on)
Place chicken mixture in an oiled 1.75 litre (7-cup capacity) ovenproof dish. Brush rim of dish with a little of the combined egg yolk and milk. To make a double edge of pastry for the pie (this gives the pastry a bit more puff) cut a strip about 1.5cm (about ½ and inch) and long enough to fit the top of the ovenproof dish. Gently press pastry strip onto the rim of the dish; brush pastry rim with water.
Place remaining pastry over pie; trim edge with sharp knife. Scallop the edge of the pie, if desired, by pressing an upturned teaspoon into the pastry. Brush pastry top lightly with more egg yolk mixture.
Using a sharp knife, mark the sides of the pastry so it ‘puffs’ more during baking. Place dish on an oven tray, bake in very hot oven (240˚C/500˚F) for 15 minutes; reduce heat to moderate (180˚C/350˚F), bake further 10 minutes or until browned.

Serves 4-6
Suitable to freeze
Not suitable to microwave

I tried a new recipe last night. I had a bunch of chicken mince (ground chicken) that I wanted to use up and had also scored 3 leeks for $1 on the clearance veg trolley at the supermarket so decided to make this pie and serve it with some vegies. I just cooked the chicken mince first and put it aside until the recipe called for it. Despite the huge amount of instructions this was actually easy to make. I was having a bit of a panic because Offspring #1 and I had been out to visit a kindy friend and arrived home a little later than I had planned but this was done inside an hour, from the beginning prep to on the table! I was pretty impressed with that. I have included the leek prep instructions for those of you who said you hadn’t cooked with leeks before – maybe armed with this info you might be willing to tackle them.

This was a hit with the whole family - Hubby was very vocal in his appreciation, Offspring #2 scarfed the lot and Offspring #1 declared that the black bits were yukky but the rest was okay (once I removed the offending mushrooms from his serve all was well with the world).

As a special treat I brushed the leftover pastry with water and sprinkled it with raw sugar then baked it for about 15 minutes. The pastry “wafers” cooled while we ate dinner then we had them with vanilla ice-cream and fresh juicy sweet strawberries. #2 just got strawberries (what a mean Mummy!) but she thought they were pretty darn fine and they quickly disappeared. We know she’s enjoyed something when we can’t find any remains in her highchair LOL.

And no, I don’t generally keep recipes torn from magazines for 7 years before trying them! I found this in an old magazine about a year ago and I have made the recipe on the reverse page (for bacon and egg pie) a few times.