A quick post today to bring to your attention the addition of a recipe I really like: the chicken and leek pie. The title may seem a lot of work but in the end, can be done quite rapidly as different preparation steps can be done at the same time.
This recipe was an “on the spot” inspiration. I had not researched anything. It started with a friend mentioning she had a chicken and leek pie in the oven. I was intrigued and gave it a go!
Other pies I have done (no photos were taken, unfortunately) this year are two of the Bourke Street Bakery pies. I have done them a few times and very successfully. The only differences there were that I made a family version of them (instead of the individual pies) and blind-baked the pie casing a little (as for a quiche). The pies were the humble beef pie and the spinach ricotta pie.
If you have some mulberry trees in your neighbourhood, you could try to collect some of the fruits and bake this classic mulberry pie.
You will need about 2 L of mulberries. Your fingers will get quite coloured by the juice, it takes a few washes to wash off, otherwise use thin nitrile or latex gloves.
Ingredients:
For the short crust pastry.
The quantity below can be a bit tight (you have just enough), so feel free to increase it by half to give you some space to move, that new quantity is noted into bracket.
100 g of butter softened (or 150 g)
200 g of plain flour (or 300 g)
some cold water, about 1/2 glass (about 3/4 of a glass)
For the filling:
around 2 L of fresh mulberries
4 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of white sugar
Whipped cream – for serving
Method:
1. Prepare the shortcrust pastry
Place softened butter cut in cubes and flour together in a bowl. Rub the soft butter and the flour together until all of the butter sticks to the flour. Add water little at the time to obtain an homogenized ball. If you have put too much water, add 1 teaspoon of flour at the time. Wrap in cling-wrap and rest for at least half an hour at room temperature before using.
If you want to see pictures and tips, consult my page dedicated to shortcrust pastry.
2. Clean the mulberries gently and drain. Remove all the stokes.
The harvest
Cleaning
Cleaned
3. Mix to the mulberries, the flour and sugar.
4. Divide the dough in 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. This will be the bottom part. Roll the dough (you will know when to stop, the dough should not be forced, it will spread under the push of the roller to its final size). Place the dough over the tart tin. If you have only little extra, do not remove it, if you have plenty extra, cut the pastry 2- 3 cm away from the edge.
5. Place the fruit mix in the pastry. Level.
Fold back the edges. You could very well choose not to place a lid and eave it as such, it would be beautiful. I like this as a pie. Roll the second part of short crust pastry. Using the point of a knife, cut a disk of diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of your pie. Using a kitchen brush (use your fingers if you do not have any), brush the top of the lower pastry with milk and then place the disk over the top of the pie. You can decorate with lines or other patterns traced with your pointy knife as wished, ensure you do not cut through. Brush the top of the pie with milk or with eggwash (a beaten egg with drop of water).
Bake in preheated oven at 170 °C until golden. Allow to cool partly before serving. Serve with whipped cream.
