Editor Chad January dishes out heaps of heart-warming pies, topped with tips to perfect any kind of crust.
Beef and Guinness pie
Serves 4-6 • Total Time 1 Hr 45 Min
Ingredients
1kg beef shin or stewing beef
Salt and milled black pepper
Cake flour, for dusting
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Handful fresh thyme
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
440ml Guinness beer
1 cup beef stock
Handful fresh coriander, chopped
400g puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg, whisked
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Generously season beef and lightly dust with flour.
- Heat oil in large pot and brown beef in batches. Set aside.
- Add another glug of oil and sauté onion, carrots and celery for 3-5 minutes or until golden.
- Add garlic and thyme and fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Return beef to pot and pour in tomatoes, beer and stock. Cover and simmer for about an hour or until meat is tender.
- Stir through coriander and simmer for another 10-12 minutes. Season well.
- Roll pastry out on a floured surface to about 3mm thick.
- Place half the pastry into a greased round oven dish and prick the base with a fork.
- Blind bake pastry for 6-8 minutes and set aside.
- Pour filling into pie crust and cover with remaining pastry.
- Brush with egg and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Serve hot.
TIME SAVER
Skip the blind baking and spoon pie filling into small ovenproof ramekins and top with puff pastry. Brush with egg and bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
Haddock, cheddar and potato pie
Serves 4-6 • Total Time 1 Hr
Ingredients
500g smoked haddock
Glug olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup cream
½ cup vegetable stock
2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Salt and milled black pepper
6 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
½ cup sour cream
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp chives, parsley or coriander, chopped
1 cup mature cheddar, grated
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Place haddock in a colander over a pot of simmering water, cover with a lid and steam for about 8-10 minutes or until cooked through. Flake fish, discard bones and set aside.
- Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet; sauté onions and carrots until golden.
- Add garlic and fry for another minute or until fragrant.
- Pour in cream, vegetable stock and dill. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Fold through haddock and mustard and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.
- Add lemon zest and juice, season and set aside in skillet.
- Boil potatoes for 6-8 minutes, or until cooked through, and drain.
- Mash potatoes until smooth and fold through sour cream, mustard, herbs and cheddar.
- Top haddock mixture with potato and level with the back of a spoon.
- Bake pie for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Serve hot.
CHEF’S TIP
Swap out haddock for hake, mackerel or tuna if you prefer.
Butter chicken phyllo pastry pie
Serves 4-6 • Total Time 45-50 Min
Ingredients
FOR THE MARINADE
½ cup plain yoghurt
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp salt
FOR THE BUTTER CHICKEN
500g chicken breasts, cut into medium-sized chunks
1 Tbsp canola oil
3 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp turmeric
100g tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can coconut milk or cream
3 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Salt and milled black pepper
FOR THE CRUST
6-8 sheets phyllo pastry, defrosted
Melted butter for brushing
Fresh coriander, chopped for serving
Plain yoghurt, for serving
Method
- Combine marinade ingredients and chicken in a bowl and set aside for an hour.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Fry chicken in batches in a large pot or skillet for about 3-4 minutes. Don’t cook chicken all the way through. Reserve marinade and set aside.
- Remove chicken and set aside.
- For the sauce, heat oil and butter in the same pan and sauté onions for 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic and ginger and fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Stir through spices and cook for 2 minutes. Add a splash of water if needed.
- Add tomato paste and cook for a minute. Stir through sugar.
- Pour in tomatoes and coconut milk or cream. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add chicken and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Stir through coriander and season.
- Pour butter chicken into a large ovenproof dish.
- Cut each sheet of phyllo pastry into four long strips. Fold each strip into a triangle shape to resemble a samoosa.
- Arrange pastry on top of butter chicken and brush with melted butter.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until pastry is golden.
- Serve with dollops of yoghurt and garnished with fresh coriander.
LEVEL UP
Arrange 4-5 phyllo pastry sheets at the bottom of your pastry dish, brushing with butter between each layer. Blind bake for 6-8 minutes. Then add in the butter chicken.
Roasted vegetable pie with herbed cream cheese pastry
Serves 4-6 • Total Time 45 Min [Plus 30 Min Chill Time]
Ingredients
FOR THE PASTRY
2 cups cake flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter, grated
¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, coriander or rosemary)
230g medium fat cream cheese
2 Tbsp water, if needed
FOR THE FILLING
1kg roasted vegetable mix
Glug canola oil
Salt and milled black pepper
Handful fresh thyme or rosemary
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp sundried tomato pesto
¼ cup canola oil
1 egg, whisked
Method
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub butter into flour using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Mix through herbs and cream cheese with a wooden spoon until a smooth, soft dough is formed. Add a splash of water if dough is too dry.
- Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
- Arrange vegetables in an ovenproof dish or deep roasting tray, taking care to spread them out evenly.
- Drizzle with oil, season, sprinkle with herbs and garlic. Roast for 15 minutes or until golden and slightly charred.
- Combine pesto and oil.
- Remove vegetables from oven and stir through pesto. Roast for another 6-8 minutes.
- Roll out pastry onto a lightly floured surface to about 3cm thick and shape according to your greased pie dish. Leave enough pastry to create a lid.
- Press pastry into pie dish, prick base with a fork and blind bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove vegetables from oven, season well and stir. Spoon vegetables into the blind-baked pie dish.
- Cut remaining pastry into large strips and arrange over filling to create a lattice.
- Brush with egg and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until pastry is golden and cooked through. Serve hot out of the oven.
Creamy chicken and kale pie with harissa sweet potato crust
Serves 4-6 • Total Time 1 Hr
Ingredients
FOR THE FILLING
500g chicken breast fillets
2 Tbsp canola oil
3 spring onions, sliced
4 leeks, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup cream
300g kale, roughly chopped
Salt and milled black pepper
3 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander or parsley
FOR THE CRUST
4-6 sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp harissa paste
1 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Method
- Place chicken into a large pot and fill with water to cover.
- Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
- Remove chicken and allow to cool before shredding. Reserve ¼ cup poaching liquid.
- Heat oil in a large pot and sauté onion and leeks for 5-6 minutes.
- Stir through garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add butter and, once melted, stir through flour until smooth.
- Add poaching liquid and stir until smooth. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Pour in cream and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Fold in chicken, kale and herbs and season well.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Spoon filling into an ovenproof pie dish or skillet pan.
- Toss sweet potato, harissa and coriander. Season well.
- Arrange sweet potato slices on top of filling in a spiral.
- Bake pie for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through and golden. Serve hot.
CHEF’S TIP
Swap kale for spinach or Swiss chard.
Mini pork pies
Serves 12 • Total Time 45-50 Min
Ingredients
400g puff pastry, defrosted
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
500g pork bangers, casing removed
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp wholegrain or Dijon mustard
Salt and milled black pepper
1 egg, whisked
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Roll out pastry onto a lightly floured surface to about 3cm thick.
- Cut out 12 circles, larger than the cups of a 6-cup muffin tray.
- Grease your muffin tray and line each cup with pastry, taking care to leave some above the rim of the cup. Prick with a fork and chill in fridge for 15 minutes. Set aside remaining pastry circles.
- Blind bake pastry for 10-12 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Heat oil in a large pan and sauté onions for 3-5 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for another minute. Set aside to cool.
- Combine pork, nutmeg, mustard and cooled onions. Season well.
- Spoon filling into muffin cups and level with the back of a spoon.
- Cover filling with remaining pastry and crimp edges with excess pastry to enclose.
- Brush with egg and bake for about 30 minutes or until pastry is golden.
- Cool on a wire rack and serve hot or cold with dollops of mustard.
