Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Let Them Eat Pie

The weather here in sunny old Perth has been anything but for the past few weeks. We've had more rain that we know what to do with and freezing cold temps (well, freezing cold for us!) so naturally enough we've turned to some hearty winter meals to warm us up a little. This pie turned out to hit the spot very nicely - warm, filling and something the whole family enjoyed. Gotta love that! Even better, it did us two meals with a little extra for lunches for Hubby and I.


A couple of tips to keep in mind: Give yourself enough time to let the filling cool in the fridge as per step 2. Let the pie sit for 10 minutes before you serve it - it lets the filling set slightly so that when you cut it the filling doesn't spill out everywhere. I found this out the hard way.


Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie
from Super Food Ideas Best Ever Winter Warmers



40g butter
2 leeks, trimmed, halved, washed, sliced
150g ham steaks, diced
1 kg chicken thigh fillets, cubed
1/4 cup plain flour
1 cup light thickened cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 sheets frozen ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, partially thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten


1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add leek and ham. Cook for 3 minutes or until leek is soft. Add chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes or until browned.
2. Sprinkle flour over chicken mixture. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Slowly add cream, stirring. Add mustard. Stir to combine. Return to heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens. Refrigerate until cold.
3. Preheat oven and baking tray to 200C. Grease and line a 22cm (base) springform pan.
4. Use 2 sheets of pastry to line base and sides of pan. Spoon chicken mixture into pastry. Use remaining pastry to cover filling. Cut a small cross in the centre for steam to escape. Fold pastry around sides of pan over pastry lid. Press to seal. Brush with egg. Place on baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 180C. Bake for a further 30 minutes or until golden. Stand for 10 minutes. Serve.

4 comments:

B and the boys said...

We had an Australian restaurant in our little town for a while and this looks like one of the pies they served--- I will have to copy this. Thanks!

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

mm sounds delicious ...found you via a tweet.

Iris Flavia said...

"I found this out the hard way."
;-)
Yips, my man did, too! Ouch!

Do you use "puff pastry"? This is the difficult part for us, the pastry! Guess we always get it wrong - ist there a secret, a hint you can give?

From no-pie-available-country...

Red Dirt Mummy said...

Really? An Australian restaurant? It's funny (for me) to think of an Australian restaurant, I'm more used to Chinese or Italian I guess. Thanks for stopping by.

Hi Trish, thanks for leaving a comment.

Hey Iris - I used ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, we can get it in the freezer section of the supermarket but you'd be able to google a good shortcrust recipe.