Wood-fired!

Wholesome chicken pie

No fancy food photography here! Just a recommendation for a tasty and satisfying pie.

This is a very old favourite from the days of struggling to put food on the table when my partner and I were both studying and the kids had big appetites. We’ve revisited this many, many times over the years and have recently rediscovered its wholesome silkiness.

The chicken and veggies are in a velvety velouté sauce. Something magic happens between the flavours of the chook, the sauce and the veggies - especially the carrot and mushrooms.

You can vary the veggies a bit - I have used parsnip and other root veggies. It is essential though to have the beans, carrots and mushrooms.

Homestead Chicken Pie

Serves 6.

250 g (1 quantity) rough puff or shortcrust pastry

Filling:
1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced potato
1/2 cup diced turnip
1/2 cup chopped green beans
125 g (4 oz) mushrooms, sliced
60 g (2 tablespoons) butter
3 cups cooked chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Velouté sauce:
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
90 g (3 tablespoons) butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
750 ml (3 cups) chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon salt
white pepper

beaten egg for glazing

Make pastry according to recipe and chill well.

Filling: In a small pan of boiling, salted water, boil carrot, potato, turnip and green beans for 5-10 minutes, or until just tender. Drain in a colander and refresh them under running cold water. In a heavy-based frying pan, gently fry mushrooms in butter over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Place chicken in a mixing bowl and add all prepared vegetables.

Velouté sauce: Gently fry onion in the butter in a saucepan until soft but not brown. Stir in flour and cook roux over a low heat, stirring continuously, for 3 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and pour in chicken stock. Return to heat and bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Increase heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and vegetables and mix gently.

To finish pie: Place filling in a 1 litre (4 cup) oval pie dish or casserole and leave to cool. Roll pastry out on a lightly floured board to an oval shape and cover pie. Brush pastry (not flaked edges) with beaten egg. Place pie on a baking tray and bake towards the top of a hot oven at 220°C (425°F) for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is golden. Serve hot.

I’ve used a variety of pastry tops. My favourite is shortcrust but I’ve used a commercial puff pastry when feeling lazy. These pics show individual pies but I usually make one large one.

The original recipe is from a 1979 paperback called The Perfect Piebook by Anne Marshall. One of the many pie books in my library.

2 comments January 12th, 2009

Lark’s tongues (mostly aspic)

I just re-discovered this sensuous image when browsing my food photos and felt the need to share it.

Those who had ‘alternative’ taste during the early seventies might remember the King Crimson song (and album) Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Always a Crimson fan, this song has particular memories because I (with some conspirators) used it as the introductory sound track for my first and only film.

Fascinated by feast dishes of the past and being a keen maker of pies and terrines, aspic has always held a romantic aura.

I have made traditional hand-raised pork pies at Christmas for many years (based on the sage advice of Jane Grigson). I love the degree of construction involved (like making a chair only edible!) and the revelation of the contents (a recurrent theme in almost all my other posts) when the cold pie is eventually cut open.

Of course the jelly is an essential part of a pork pie. It provides the required moisture and should also contribute significantly to the flavour. I make mine in the way described by Jane Grigson - 2 pig’s trotters boiled in a large amount of water with a clove-studded onion and some carrot, celery, bouquet garni and peppercorns. This gives a flavoursome stock which will set very firm. A little experience is required to reduce the stock to a volume that will set well but still be soft and glutinous rather than firm or even chewy.

Traditionally the jelly is clarified before use. I must admit that I rarely do this - partly fear of losing flavour and partly laziness. This pic shows a pie filled with a very opaque jelly that has loads of flavour.

However some occasions require more refinement. When clarified in the trad. way with egg whites, a trotter jelly can look pretty fine.

For my 50th birthday I cooked a degustation of 13 of my favourite dishes for myself and 12 friends. (For me any excuse to cook is a great present.) One of the dishes was my pork pie. In this case I wanted a refined jelly and chose to clarify it. (Some day I will post the full menu for this event - plus the even longer wine list!)

The process is pretty simple. Just whisk egg whites into the stock and simmer it until the egg white coagulates the particles in the stock and forms a raft on the surface. As the filthy-looking raft sets on the surface you get glimpses of golden, clear stock underneath. Order emerges from chaos! The clear stock is strained through a fine cloth.

I had plenty of jelly left over after filling the pies so I set it in a mould and chopped it into the dice you see in the picture. Be sure to click to look at the larger photo to appreciate its sublime amber beauty.

The pies were sliced and served on a silver platter surrounded by the amber aspic - god I wish I’d had time for a photo! - but when you’re serving 169 plates of food with one helper out of a small kitchen you don’t have too much time for reflection.

I hope to describe the making of pork pies in a later post.

4 comments April 19th, 2008

A decent Shepherd’s Pie

In a recent (in Australia) episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares show, Gordon shows the ‘Irish chef’ how to make a shepherd’s pie. (Apparently the chef got his recipe off someone who knew someone who’d once been to Ireland!)

So we thought it was about time we had a shepherd’s pie especially as the cold months have just arrived with a vengence. A quick check on line gave me lots of variations on Gordon’s recipe but not the original one.

I grabbed two recipes that looked promising and made some guesses about what was original and what was added. I adjusted quantities a little and added my own corruption in the form of a few mushrooms to add to the earthiness of the meat filling. I used minced beef for this version (which I guess makes it a cottage pie) but will try it again with lamb.

It turned out great - good enough to want it again very soon. So I thought I’d record my variation before I forget it. Unfortunately I was running a little late when the dish came to the table (timing, timing, timing!) so I didn’t do the right thing and grab my camera for a quick shot but they looked good in individual bowls with rustic peaks of golden potato with some dark crunchiness on the peaks. (The pic on the left is of a second version with lamb mince and cooked in a pie crust - not as attractive as the originals because I used left-over potatoes which didn’t achieve the same peaks.)

Shepherd’s Pie

The meat filling
600g minced beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large carrot finely chopped
3 large cloves garlic finely chopped
6-8 mushrooms (I used Swiss Browns)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
leaves from 3-4 sprigs of thyme
1½ teaspoons chopped rosemary
1 cup shiraz
1 cup chicken stock (try beef or veal if you have it)
salt and black pepper
The mashed potatoes
4-5 medium-sized desiree potatoes (probably about 500g)
salt
15g butter
¾ cup milk
2-3 tablespoons parmesan
salt and white pepper
Assembling the pie
2 large ramekins or other steep-sided bowls
grated parmesan
butter

1. Slice mushrooms and fry in a tablespoon butter. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large frypan and brown the meat. (If making a larger quantity or using a smaller pan do this in batches so the meat doesn’t stew.)
3. Drain fried meat in a metal sieve or colander with fine holes. (More essential for lamb than beef I imagine.)
4. Add a knob of butter to the pan and fry the oinions for 1 minute.
5. Add the carrots and fry for a further minute.
6. Add the garlic, thyme and rosemary and continue frying (without burning the garlic) until the onions are translucent.
7. Add the meat back into the pan, sprinkle with flour and fry for a further minute or two.
8. Mix through the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce.
9. Add the mushrooms.
10. Add the red wine and cook for a couple of minutes.
11. Add the stock, cover and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes until the liquid is reduced but the filling is still moist.
12. Season with salt and black pepper and set aside while preparing the potatoes.
13. Peel potatoes and cut into 4 or 6 depending on the size. Boil in salted water until cooked (easily broken by pressing with the back of a knife).
14. Preheat oven to 200°C.
15. Drain potatoes and put them through a ricer (or mash until smooth).
16. Put butter and milk in a pan and bring to the boil.
17. Pour over potatoes and mix through.
18. Season with salt and white pepper.
19. Divide meat filling between the ramekins leaving room for potatoes.
20. Spoon on the potatoes and push about to seal the dish. Create ragged peaks and grate a little parmesan over. Dot with small pieces of butter.
21. Put on a tray to catch any filling that bubbles over and put in oven for around 20mins or until the potato peaks are well browned.
22. Server hot.

Leftovers were fantastic the next day!

Add comment March 30th, 2008