As easy as pie
Country chicken and mushroom pie. Photo: Fiona Feasey
The words “it’s as easy as pie” are comforting when you are combining any number of different ingredients topped with a lovely flaky pastry to create a hearty winter meal-in-one.
Pies are recognised and loved firstly due to their smell. Pastry cooked to a golden-brown crust is similar to other totally seductive aromas: bacon frying, onions caramelising, sugary cinammon donuts and hot buttery toast.
Pies are fantastic in the sense that the work is done in the preparation. All you need to do at the end of the day is pop it into a fairly hot oven, set the table and start dreaming.
I have often feared that the humble pie will go out of fashion, or be dropped for some new, hot one-night stand. This is apparently not the case in Golden Bay. The hot pie is alive and well and loved by many: One dairy in the Bay sells an average of 100 dozen pies a week! The two most popular flavours are steak and cheese, and steak and mushroom, followed by mince.
Kids love pies, especially their very own individual ones. These can be made easily identifiable using pastry scraps to create their initials. And you don’t need a new set of fancy pie tins; I used a muffin tray for the little pie pictured. For something more man-sized, a mega-muffin tin would work well, or you could just make one big pie. If you own one of those ceramic blackbird pie funnels then this will release extra steam and help keep the golden pastry intact, as well as adding entertainment.
Country chicken and mushroom pie
The day before making the pie you need to poach your chicken. Place a chicken into a large pot. Add a carrot, some celery, a sprig of parsley, an onion and some peppercorns. Cover the chicken with cold water. Bring quickly to the boil and skim off any scum. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 45 minutes. Remove from the stock, cool and refrigerate overnight. Strain the stock and cool. Then either freeze it in containers or keep in the fridge for a risotto or some soup the next day.
Filling:
60g butter
1 each of carrot, celery stalk and onion, all peeled and finely diced
200g button mushrooms, quartered
1 cup of frozen peas
60g flour
425ml milk
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
The meat from the poached chicken
¼ cup of finely chopped parsley
Melt the butter and add the carrot, celery and onion. Put on the lid and place the pan over a very low heat. Sweat the vegetables until soft (10 to 15 minutes). Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they have given up some of their moisture. Remove the lid, stir in the flour and cook, stirring for a few minutes. Add the milk, increase the heat a little, and stir until it comes to a simmer. Add the peas and mustard and season well. Allow to bubble away gently for five minutes, then remove it from the heat and stir in the parsley. Cool and refrigerate. This sauce can be made up to this stage the day before. Stir the cold, roughly chopped chicken into the cold sauce and combine.
The pastry for this little chicken pie is a recipe by Maggie Beer and includes sour cream. It’s easy to make and to work with as long as it doesn’t get warm—not difficult to manage on these winter days.
Sour cream pastry:
200g chilled butter, chopped into bits
250g plain flour
125ml sour cream
Place the flour and the butter into a food processor. Mix until the butter is just the size of breadcrumbs. Add the sour cream and pulse until the mix just starts to come together. Remove the dough to a lightly floured counter and quickly knead it together. Flatten and wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate for half an hour.
To make individual pies, roll the pastry to 3mm thick and cut to line the pie dishes or muffin tins, leaving a lip over the edge. Cut tops to fit. Add the filling, secure the lid and score the top of each pie. Brush with egg yolk and return to the fridge for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 220°C and bake the pies for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180°C for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
Option: Chicken and mushroom is a delicious combination, but so is chicken and leek. Instead of softening the carrot, celery and onion at the beginning of this recipe, you could use three large, sliced leeks instead. If you happen to have some cooked ham in the fridge, add some chopped pieces.
Fiona Feasey
