Showing posts with label pie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pie. Show all posts

0
Gluten Free Beef brisket, carrot and celery pie - with a delicious pastry top




























I recently cooked a small brisket of beef in the slow cooker and this pie is using some of the left over meat from the joint, I actually managed to stretch the meat to 3 separate meals, along with this pie I also served the meat simply with gravy like a roast dinner and in a pan haggerty (that's a post for another day).

Brisket isn't the cheap cut it used to be but its reliable easy to cook especially if you use a slow cooker like I do and it produces delicious gravy too. I just cooked the brisket for 6 hours on high after smothering the join in a mix of Dijon mustard, BBQ spice rub, tomato ketchup and maple syrup. I didn't add an extra liquid.

This is frugal dish as it used a fairly small quantity of meat, the leftover gravy and carrots and celery to bulk up the pie filling. I then created a gluten free pastry top and if I do say so myself it tasted pretty amazing.

Fresh out of the oven 
If you don't have left over brisket or roast beef then this pie could be made with minced beef or lamb and any suitable vegetables you have to hand. The gluten free pastry was very well behaved, the secret being allowing it to rest in the fridge for about half an hour before rolling out and a liberally brushing with an egg glaze before baking so you achieve a beautiful golden top.

What you need 

For the pie filling
  • Quantity of left over beef -chopped into bite sized pieces
  • Carrots and celery - parboiled until just tender
  • Gravy - I used thickened cooking juices
For the pastry
  • 225g Gluten free flour (I mix my own)
  • 110g Butter
  • 20g Parmesan cheese - finely grated
  • 1 free range egg - beaten (reserve a little for glazing the pie)
  • A little cold water
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp xanthum gum
What you do

  • Preheat the oven to 180c
  • Mix your pie filling and place in your pie dish
  • Sieve the flour, xanthum gum, salt into a bowl, add the Parmesan cheese
  • Rub the fat into the flour mixture until its resembles fine breadcrumbs
  • Add the egg and enough water to to form a soft dough
  • Once you have formed your dough, Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
  • Once rested roll out on a well floured surface and top your selected pie dish, crimp and trim and then glaze with a little beaten egg. 
  • Make a couple of cuts in the pastry top to allow steam to escape. With some of your spare pastry why not form some creative pastry shapes.
  • Bake for 35-45 minutes or so until golden and cooked through
  • Serve immediately



The pastry is deliciously savoury,short yet flaky and undetectable as gluten free. The pastry does require slightly more gentle rolling out for its well worth the effort.

With an eye to Valentine's day I decorated my pie with hearts, as its made with love. 

0
Mens Pie Manual by Haynes. A Guest Review by Mr Lancashire Food




If , like me you are a man of a certain age, you grew up with a collection of Haynes Manuals. Maybe to get your first car through its MOT and later on to give your lawn mower a service before its first cut of the season. These's books were written with step by step instructions and photographs to important steps in the processes. So, what has this got to do with cooking? well, the people from Haynes have teamed up with food journalist and author Andrew Webb to produce a manual to Men's Pies.

Just like the traditional manuals, the book is broken down into useful chapters.

· Tools of the trade - an overview of all the strange things you find in the kitchen but were afraid to ask what they did.

· Making Pastry - covering such topics as different flours and fats and how to make seven!! different types of pastry. Watch this space GBBO next year !

· Stocks and sauces - we all like the juicy gravy and jellies in pies.

· Meat Pies - following a short section on food Hygiene we are treated to step by step instructions on how to make 20 different meat related pies.

· The next five chapters cover other pie fillings such as fish, vegetables and fruit. Also, a chapter on pasties, sausage rolls etc.

As this is a book about Men's baking Mrs LF decided that I should make a from the book. Being a Lancashire lad, born and bred in Chorley, I grew up on a traditional pork pies made by Thornleys pork butchers, so it had to be a pork pie. Looking through the book, I decided that a cross between a Melton Mowbray and a Gala pie resembled most the pie of my childhood.

The Haynes Men’s Pie Manual is available from www.haynes.co.uk priced £21.99 and would make a smashing thoughtful christmas present for the man in your life.

My only disappointment  being a Lancashire lad that missing from the book was the iconic Lancashire speciality - the butter pie, otherwise its a great book. This blog fortunately does have a recipe which you can find here.

I'm going to hand back over now to Linzi for her to blog my actual bake from the book. Here is the first image of my bake.


0
Hollands new Steak and Guinness Pie



Hollands Pies sent us a few samples of their recently launched Steak and Guinness pie for taste testing. Frankly I'd forgotten they were on their way but hey ho...., Mr LF was put in charge of tasting given that they contain pastry and beer, two things that are off the menu for me now that I'm gluten free.

Initial impressions were good, the pictures on the box of a juicy well packed pie with a rich dark gravy all contained in Hollands trademark pastry looked tempting.

Hollands have been making pies for 160 years and this new introduction to their range retails for around the £2 mark and is available through Tesco and other retailers.

On opening the box Mr LF was a little disappointed as the pie definitely wasn't as tall as the one pictured on the box, for the purposes of taste testing the pie was cooked both in the oven and in the microwave following the instructions on the box. In both cases the flavour of the filling was good, the gravy rich with only a slight hint of the classic Guinness flavour. The pie did contain chunks of steak but also some shredded steak as well with a good quantity of gravy. The oven baked pie's pastry was crispy and crumbly and was the much preferred pie by Mr LF, but the one microwaved was soggy and a little rubbery.

Overall this is not a bad addition to the Hollands range but definitely not a rival to the classic Potato and meat pie.

Disclaimer
The pies where supplied on a complimentary basis by Hollands for review and testing purposes, any opinions expressed are my own.

0
Chicken and vegetable pot pie - Gluten free


One of the things that you miss when you go gluten free is pastry, all types, but more especially the comforting dish that is the pie. Gluten free pastry can be very disappointing, its often hard and has little or no flavour, so I was pleased to discover a promising gluten free recipe on the BBC good food website, I decided I would combine this with a traditional creamy chicken and vegetable filling for my first foray into gluten free pastry.

Reader, I am pleased to report that the resultant pie was absolutely delicious and I would definitely make the pastry again, it was sort of a shortcrust meets suet crust type of pie crust, very savoury and very very moreish. Frankly if I didn't know it was gluten free you really couldn't tell, so this would be a great recipe for a family meal.

What you need
  • 175g gluten free flour
  • 85g coarsely grated chilled butter
  • 50g grated mature cheddar cheese
  • 1 tsp coarse mustard
  • 3 tbsp cold water to bind
The pie filling
  • Cooked shredded chicken
  • Onion - finely sliced
  • Couple of carrots - peeled and chopped into small cubes
  • Frozen peas
  • Mushrooms - 4 or 5 finely chopped
  • Chicken stock 
  • Slaked cornflour to thicken
  • Fresh herbs
  • Salt and pepper
  • Double cream or creme fraiche
  • Butter or oil
What you do
  • To make the pastry mix together all the pastry ingredients except the water with a fork, add the water and combine to make a dough
  • Once formed into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • Meanwhile make your pie filling, Cook off in a tiny amount of oil or butter the onion until starting to softenened, now add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a few minutes until again softenening, now add the chicken and the herbs, followed by enough chicken stock just to cover the mixture in the pan.
  • Simmer until the vegetables are tender, add the herbs and slaked cornflour to thicken the sauce. Add a dollop of creme fraiche and taste for seasoning.
  • Allow to cool and place in pie dish.

  • Once cool, we are ready to top with the pastry. Roll out the pastry between two pieces of clingfilm until you have a piece of pastry large enough to cover your pie dish , remove the top piece of cling film and flip the pastry piece on top of the pie dish. Remove the other piece of cling film and make a couple of holes in the pastry top.
  • Brush the pastry with a little milk or beaten egg. 

  • Bake for 30 - 35 minutes at 180c until golden.





0
Smoked haddock, leek and pea fishermans pie

I love fish pie, nursery comfort food at its best. This week I decided to make a variation on the classic and it proved a popular dish, definately something I would make again. Pretty economical too as I was able to utilise mostly ingredients from the freezer or store cupboard, the tasty dish is gluten free and utilsed some of the stock powder I had kindly been sent by Essential Cuisine.



I really like Essential cuisines range of stocks as they are not over salted and very tasty, they are very like homemade stock, light in colour and allergy friendly. The smoked haddock I used in this recipe was from a frozen pack but I prefer if possible to use undyed smoked haddock if you can get it, any other white smoked would work too. The peas were frozen petit pois but you could easily use ordinary peas if that is all you have. I had the leeks and creme fraiche in the fridge and potatoes in the cupboard.

What you need
  • 2 smoked haddock fillets, skinned and de boned - cut into bite size pieces
  • 2 leeks, topped tailed and cleaned. Cut in to fine circles
  • Essential cuisine fish stock powder - make to about 150ml stock
  • Creme fraiche
  • Dill 
  • Cornflour
  • Frozen petit pois / peas - ramekin full
  • Salt and pepper
  • Potatoes ( 1 used 2 large poatatoes for 2 people)
  • Butter or vegetable oil
What you do
  • Gently heat a little butter or oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until they are starting to soften
  • Add the fish pieces and cook very gently until just coloured, now add the peas to the pan and the creme fraiche (I used about 2 tbsp), the fish stock and dill.
  • Simmer gently until you have a sauce of your desired thickness, if necessary thicken with slaked cornflour. (Slaked is when the cornflour is mixed into a paste with little water or milk or stock). Taste and season
  • Place the pie filling in your chosen dish and allow to cool
  • Meanwhile cook your potatoes for your mash, once ready then mash with a little butter and season to taste
  • Place the mashed potatoes on top of your pie
  • Pre heat the ove to 180c and bake for approx 25 minutes until golden on top and the sauce is bubbling
  • Serve immediately




0
Is tha comin t' Wigan Food and Drink Festival ?

Wigan holds a special place in my heart as I spent several years studying on a day release basis at the college in my youth. Home to honest a goodness folk who love their town, Wigan is the land of the pie, home to the legendary Uncle Joe's mint ball and the "pier" of George Orwell fame, its also a town where rugby is still the number one sport, in other words a grand Northern town.



The town holds an annual food festival celebrating its food culture and great local food products and produce, in this its 7th year the theme is Baking and Beer. 

Here's the link to the website with all the details here

A packed programme is planned starting on 27th February and running through to the 9th March 2014, there are chef demo's, theme dining events, baking challenges, beer festivals in fact something to tickle everyone's taste buds.

Of special note local lad and baking hero and 2012 Winner of the Great British Bake Off - John Whaite will be hosting on Saturday 8th March a "Baking with the Best" masterclass and then hosting an afternoon tea. (More details can be found in the programme)


The festival - sponsored by Euromark - kicks off with the 27th Wigan CAMRA Beer Festival, offering 60 real ales, 35 real ciders and perries and a great selection of foreign draft beers, plus live music and food. Plus also a special bus tour has been organised of Wigan's three famous micro breweries, Allgates, Prospect and Problem Child.

Also in town for this event will be none other than former "Corrie" star Sean Wilson, soap star turned award winning cheesemaker at The Wigan Wine Festival, he will talking all things cheese and signing his book "The Great Northern Cookbook". Which coincidentially we have a copy for you to win, just complete the widget below to be in with a chance of winning this fab prize.





So things are shaping up for a great festival and I for one will be booking my tickets for the events very soon as I am sure they will be popular. A full copy of the festival guide is downloadable via the festival website.
                                                    
Please enter our giveaway below, the prize can unfortunately only be mailed to UK addresses, sorry !

                                    

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the press launch for the festival and was treated to a lovely local afternoon tea and goody bag by the promoters. This included some How's yer Farther cheese from the Saddleworth Cheese Company, some Silvertally beer from Prospect Brewery and some Uncle Joe's mint balls from Santus and also the signed book for the giveaway.


0
National Vegetarian Week and Greenhalghs



Greenhalgh's Butter pie served with brown sauce



This week is National Vegetarian Week  a great celebration of vegetarian food. One great Lancashire delicacy is a great dish for vegetarians and that is Butter Pie. A pie that has its history firmly fixed in Lancashire and the area surrounding Preston in particular as a economical and nutritious meal for catholic mill workers. Butter pies are still produced by a number of local north west bakeries to satisy local demand, one of which Greenhalghs recently approached me to review their butter pie, obviously as a connoisseur  of the butter pie I was more than happy to undertaken this task.



A butter pie has a filling of potatoes, onion and butter, plus a little seasoning this is all in cased in a shortcrust pastry parcel, happily all the fats in Greenhalghs pastry are of vegetable origin so no worries there if you are vegetarian  I found the freshly baked pies to be delicious, juicy and tender and the pastry having just the right amount of crumble combined with melt in the mouth filling. Some people may think a pie with only potato, onion and butter in its filling would be a little bland, but far from it in a Butter pie the potato flavour comes to the fore. It is also nice that the pie has potato slices which create a nice texture rather than a mush I have seen in other butter pies.



Most high streets in the North west have a Greenhalghs so its easy to pop in and stock up on this great tasty vegetarian snack , especially during National Vegetarian Week.


                                           
Alternatively if you are feeling creative you could always make you own , check out the recipe in the popular posts.

0
Suet crust topped minced beef and onion pie

This week has been National British Pie week, well that sounds right up my street so in honour of this special event we had to bake a pie didn't we.



I love suet crust it takes me straight back to my childhood ( I remember it being used to top rabbit pie and hot pot mainly), a golden crusty top, soft fluffy underside and the delicious margin where the gravy touches the pastry. 

I though I would also dig out my retro vintage style pie dishes as well for this post, hope you like them, personally I love a bit of enamelware, very utility chic.

Ingredients
  • Quality minced steak
  • Large white onion finely chopped
  • Quality beef stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • A little vegetable oil
  • Gravy Thickner (Bisto or similar or cornflour)
  • 200g Self raising flour
  • 100g vegetable suet
  • Water
  • Pinch of salt
  • Milk for brushing top of pastry
Method
  • First to make the pie filling, heat a little oil in a frying pan, quickly fry off the minced steak until browned , now add the onion, turn the heat down and cook until slightly softened.
  • Now add enough beef stock to the pan, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or so, you can add herbs, tomato ketchup, etc to give more flavour to the gravy if you like.
  • Once the minced steak is cooked, thicken the gravy via your prefererred method.
  • Set to one side to cool, before filling your pie dishes.
  • On to the pastry, mix in a large bowl the flour, salt and suet with a knife, adding just enough water to create a slighty sticky dough.
  • Tip out onto a floured surface and roll out to desired thickness , top your pies and trim the pastry accordingly
  • Cut a small slit in the pastry top and brush the pie crust with a little milk
  • Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for about 30 minutes until the pie crust is golden and the gravy is bubbling up the sides of the pie
  • Serve with your favourite vegetable, I chose mushy peas.





Older Post ►
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )
 

Copyright 2011 Food Lancashire is proudly powered by blogger.com