Options
Favourite Savoury Pie?
maggie thecat
Posts: 2,241 Forum Member
✭✭✭
It's starting to warm up (finally!) and thoughts are turning to quick and easy meals that can be prepared in advance. I can do a pretty fair pork pie (and pork and apple) but what other pies - either handheld or sliceable, do you look forward to making/eating?
0
Comments
Gala pie is good as well.
I like steak and kidney, too. Although sometimes getting a hold of good kidneys is a challenge because they're not popular where I live. But the other day the husband mentioned pies, so I thought I might make some in the near future. And it seemed like a good thread starter.
Unwittingly you've made a good contribution. I've noticed in the past getting seasoning ratios right can be a bit tricky especially in multilayered pies.
Any tips there?
Right. The one with the egg in the middle. Do you have a favourite recipe?
Everytime we go to a special occation that it hosted in a social club one of the family members or friends will have made a corned beef pie.
For a few years it was the only place I could find them without making them myself but now ASDA sell their own slice and a full pie from Dickson's Butchers.
Corned beef has rocketed in price now so I don't make them often.
When I do it's a tin of corned beef, an onion, a spud or two depending on size - looking for around equal quantities to meat. Boil the spuds. Half way through add the onion and corned beef. Firstly to cook the onion slightly and secondly to soften the corned beef to make it easier to mash it all together.
Add Worcestershire sauce, s&p to taste. You can add other herbs & spice if you want. Just keep giving it a taste.
Then line a tin/dish with shortcrust pastry, add the filling, then cover/close up the pastry to form your pie and cook until golden.
Thanks! That sounds like a good idea. Corned beef always is popular at our house.
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/29590/sausage-pie.aspx?o_is=LV
Delicious hot or cold, vary the taste to taste by picking your favorite sausage meat & seasonings. Some versions add tomato & cheese but personally that makes it a bit too sweet. Same with leek, but then my view of leeks is they should only be used for chasing people out of kitchens.
I like the sound of the corned beef pie though. I like hash, but never thought of sticking it in a pie. I think that's one meal this weekend sorted..
For cold pies, I think the secret is the fill to pastry ratio. If it's gloopy, it ain't going to work cold. I need to practice this more. My pork pies don't look like slightly bulging Melton Mowbrays, more like a pile of meat with a lid on and a ring of slumped pastry around the edge.
Thanks for the recipe! I'm still working on getting the jelly part right. That perfect glimmering top layer. I think I need to let the gelatin get gloopier. Or let the pie set up more. I think the last time I did a Christmas pie? The one with turkey and dressing and sausage, it took forever and I just wanted it done, so I rushed the last steps.
I think perhaps rushing and fancy pies is a bad combination. < g >
I think I have the same problem. When I'm praticing, it's often because I want to eat it. Now! So maybe I rush it.. Which is something people keep telling me I shouldn't do with pastry. And I'm the same with pork/meat pies.. I like the jelly, but can't seem to get the balance right to stop them falling apart.
But some more favorites-
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8945/rabbit--bacon-and-thyme-pie.aspx
or poacher's pie-
http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/135-poachers-pie.html
Made the mince mix up myself and also homemade pastry.
It turned out like a burger with a pastry shell
A one that did work very well though was leftover pork Thai curry just scooped into a pastry case.
Delicious hot or cold.
http://www.degs.co.uk/wordpress/archives/50
Rabbit pie on Easter weekend? What would Bugs Bunny say? Kidding! They both sound delicious.
I'm so excited. After looking for a year I've finally found an oval raised pie mould. (Well, I've seen a few but they were either antiques that cost a small fortune or from vendors that wouldn't ship to the States or if the would, charged a small fortune.) Now I've just got to pick the perfect recipe to break it in with.
Rabbit used to be a traditional Easter dish, but then we kinda imported the whole 'Easter Bunny' thing and it became.. awkward for people with kids I guess.
If it's the clip opening kind, we used to have one of those. I learned most of my pie tricks on a farm with my gran. Sadly my sister inherited most of that due to being somewhat 'traditional', ie I shouldn't cook, I should find a wife to do that. Not sure saying I liked both eating and hunting went down too well.. So most of the pies tended to be variations on game pies and whetever game we'd shot along with pork & veg.
But the pie talk has reminded me of another gizmo.. A little ceramic thing that went into the middle of the pie. Don't know what it was called or exactly what it was for but was important in some pies. Might just have been to stop crust cave-ins.
A pie bird, you mean, to let the steam out? I think it's more properly called a vent, but someone with a twisted sense of humour made them bird shaped '4 and 20 black birds baked into a pie...'
I think everyone should have basic life skills like hunting/fishing and cooking. I'm not much of a hunter, mostly because sitting in a hide in the snow at five in the morning doesn't really appeal, but I can dress a deer or other animal and I like to fish.
It seems like all the cookbook photographers and set dressers snaffled up those hinged pie moulds. I've wanted one for ages, but every time I looked I was frustrated. It took a specific brand name search at the American Amazon site after finding out during checkout that the UK site 3rd party vendor wouldn't ship internationally.
That's the gizmo, and I'd forgotten it was birdshaped..
And in return.. if you're in the US, would this work?
http://www.alansilverwood.co.uk/id96.html
available here-
http://www.fantes.com/baking/pie/pie-dishes/silverwood-7-inch-oval-game-pie-mold.html
It's a bit fancier than the clip-style, but having handles and a built in try looks kind of useful.
The Alan Silverwood oval 2pound is the one I ended up buying. No side fluting, like in the classic models, but close enough. It's hinged on the sides so you can pop the pie out and egg wash the pastry so it has a shiny finish. I'll get one of the other kind some day, if only because it will make a unique souvenir.
First there would have to be a local butcher. Then he'd have to know what I was talking about. I should tell you about the time I wanted some suet. Availability of hard to get things and stuff is why the internet is my best friend.
Potatoes, carrots, peas and bacon. Spiced with a bit of salt, pepper and juniper.
(I had pastry left over from making the corned beef pie yesterday
That actually sounds pretty good! And how was the corned beef pie?
That reminds me of one I did when I first got the pie bug. I think it was called Russian pie. Salmon, rice, puff pastry. Lovely.
It was nice.. Wasn't sure about the veg, ie spuds in the pie and with the pie, but I like spuds. Served with a nice rich gravy and had to assert myself so there was some pie left to try cold. Which was also good.
Also wasn't sure if juniper would work in the veggie-ish pie but I like juniper, so may be slightly biased.
(quick makerel pate.. smoked mackerel, lil bit of butter, salt, pepper, dash of lemon juice and some juniper berries. Mash it all up, chill for a while and serve. Now wondering if that would also work as a pie-filler or be a bit heavy. My waistline may regret this thread)