Jan 8th, 2018

Author: donich_admin

A Blast from the past

Yesterday I made a flaky pastry chicken pie for lunch. The reason it is a blast from the past is that the recipe comes from a cookery book which I won as the “Junior Drama Prize” in 1981 for my starring role as Oblong Fitz-Oblong in the school play.

A lot of the recipes are a bit out of date but this one is quite nice. Although the original recipe specified proper puff pastry I cut down on time by just making a basic flaky. Then the internals of the pie are simply made by frying off an onion together with a couple of chicken breasts, a red pepper and a leek in a decent amount of oil and butter mixed, then adding enough flour to make a roux. Then you add stock, a bit of cream and a good couple of ounces of strong cheese. Put into small individual pie dishes, making sure to roll the pastry out quite thinly, and brush with egg. If you feel fancy, brushing the inside of the pastry with egg white is supposed to reduce the risk of a soggy bottom.

Bake in the oven at 160 fan for about 45 minutes until nicely browned. I served this with a mound of creamy mashed potatoes and green beans and never a soggy bottom in sight.