Sometimes I get a random yearning for a particular sort of food. It comes out of nowhere but won't go away until I have found or made the food and, quite honestly, eaten it until I am completely full up with it. This time it was chicken and leek pie which, given that I am vegetarian, is not easy to see the origin of. It's not a childhood food, it's not something I would have chosen in restaurants... I don't know why but it is, nonetheless, at the front of my mind today so I made one. I had a couple of packs of ready rolled short crust pastry in the fridge as I usually do at Christmas in the event that I have an opportunity to produce at a moment's notice something yummy and 'home cooked' for the visiting hordes. No hordes this year so spare pastry in plenty. I could make shortcrust myself but shop bought does the job nicely and I look great with very little effort. This is on the strict understanding that I COULD make it from scratch should I so wish and it would probably be a bit nicer than the bought one...probably. If it was puff, I am unashamed to say I never make it and most likely will never make it. Its harder to look like you have whipped up something amazing after spending hours buttering and folding and honestly, they can't tell the difference! You need to make this pie in a tin that works for you - it could be a loaf tin but in this instance I used an enamel tin that is around 25 cm long, 18 cm wide and 6 cm deep. <ine has a nice lip on it so the crust lays over it and gets all crunchy.
So you need:
1 pack quorn chicken pieces
1 pack ready rolled shortcrust pastry
1 leek (quarter along the length and chop)
1 large potato (peeled and diced fairly small)
1 veg stock cube
For the sauce:
35g butter
1 tsp ground white pepper
35g plain flour
200 ml milk - stir in to the roux a bit at a time and mixing vigourously to make sure there are no lumps
100 ml stock (from the potato pan)
Cook the filling:
Boil the potato chunks in stock until cooked (can be a bit undercooked as they will finish off in the pie)
Use 100 ml of the potato stock in the sauce (see below) and the rest to cook off the quorn pieces to make them moist.
Sweat the Leeks off in a knob of butter untill they are just softened.
Make the sauce:
melt butter in a pan
mix the ground pepper into the flour before adding to the butter. Use a bit less pepper if you don't want a warming mouthful of a sauce
add flour mix in to the melted butter a bit at a time, stirring to get rid of lumps. Cook the thick paste for a few minutes (this is a roux) and you can use this exact base to make a great cheese sauce another time.
Add the milk into the roux a bit at a time, stirring vigorously to make sure there are no lumps.
Add the stock to the thick sauce and give it a further stir. You might want to add a little salt at this time - have a taste and see.
Put the leek, chicken bits and potato in to the sauce and leave to cool.
Assemble the pie:
Lay two thirds of the pastry (cut along the short length) in your pan, smoothing it gently up the sides without thinning it if at all possible. Use any pan that works for you in terms of size but the two thirds base to one third lid is a good rough ratio - the pastry is fairly forgiving as long as you don't stretch it too much and make holes. If you do, patch!
When the filling and sauce mix is completely cooled, fill the base pie crust. Taking the other part of the pastry, lay it over the top after wetting the edges slightly with water or beaten egg. Crimp the edges all round with a fork or your fingers. Brush the top with a beaten egg if you have one available - if not then brush with milk. It will be less shiny but its not always worth using a whole egg just to make a shiny pie unless you are already using eggs say for a cake in which case, work on your timings and dip your pastry brush in the egg just before you make your cake. In this instance I made a lemon drizzle with the egg.
Bake:
Use the pastry packet instructions as a guide. In this instance I am baking at 180 degrees c for around half an hour or until the pastry looks golden and fantastic.
