Pie must do it

The cooking gods were in a good mood when they created puff pastry. I love anything wrapped in those delicious flakes of crunch. And I especially love when some of the pastry changes consistency as it absorbs the sauces. We often head around to our local drinking establishment, The Nags Head, for a glass of their finest red and a bite to eat. To be honest I couldn’t tell you anything else on their menu passed the Pies. They do the most delicious Chicken pie and Guinness Beef pie. These pies are fantastic and when I saw a recipe for Chinese Chicken pies in this month’s Delicious magazine I had to try them. The fact that the recipe also contains one of my current favourite ingredients – Five Spice Powder- was an added bonus. These pies were lovely especially as we are now heading into autumn here when the new chill in the air turns a girls thoughts towards comfort food.

Now I know what I am about to say has absolutely no place on a food blog but bear with me as my body is crying out for this. I have decided to do a little detox for a while. This means no more lovely pies with glasses of wine. To be honest I am worried that the blog will suffer for this ridiculous phase I am going through. Is anyone interested in healthy food? Or at least is anyone who spends their time reading about cooking, restaurants, cakes etc interested in healthy food? But I’m going cold turkey on the sugar, carbs and alcohol for a while. My body will be a temple. Will I stick to this plan? I really hope so. I’ll let you know how I’m going. I’ll be appealing to your voyeuristic side rather than your culinary side for a while. In the mean time here the recipe for those lovely chicken pies.


Chinese chicken pies

25g unsalted butter
1 small leek (white part only),finely chopped
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbs plain flour
300ml chicken stock
1/2 cup (60g) frozen peas
2 cups (300g) chopped cooked chicken
80g thickly sliced ham, chopped
1 tbs chopped coriander
Pinch of five spice powder
150ml thickened cream
2 frozen puff pastry sheets,thawed
1 egg, beaten
1 tbs sesame seeds
Mixed leaf salad, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease pie dishes.Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the mushrooms and ginger, and cook for a further minute.

Stir in the flour, then gradually add the stock. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the frozen peas, cooked chicken, ham and coriander. Season with salt,pepper and a pinch five spice powder.Stir in the cream, then remove from the heat and allow to cool while you prepare the pastry.

Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares.Line each pie tin with one square, pressing well to the sides. Divide the , filling among the pie cases. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little water, then top with the remaining pastry.Trim the edges and crimp with yourfingers to seal. You can use any pastry trimmings to decorate the tops of the pies if desired.

Brush the tops of the pies with beaten egg, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place pie dishes on a tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes for until the pastry is golden and puffed. Serve the pies with a mixed leaf salad.