Turkey pie

Yesterday I planned to make that Jamie Oliver leftover turkey pie. I think everybody else had the same idea however - not only have I seen it all over Twitter and blogs, but not one food shop I went into had puff pastry in stock!

I didn't have any creme fraiche either so decided to just roll with what I had and make it up as I went along. That's the beauty with pies though - you can throw what you like in, top it with some good pastry and it will probably taste delicious.

This is what I used:

for the filling:
1 leek
Two handfuls of chopped celery
1 medium & 1 small onion
1 fat clove of garlic
Handful of dried thyme
Knob of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
600g leftover white turkey meat
Around 750ml turkey or vegetable stock
2 heaped tbsp plain flour

for the pastry:
3 oz plain flour
7 oz self raising flour
5 oz butter/margarine
3-4 tbsp water

This is what I did:

I chopped the celery, leek and onion into rough but manageable pieces and steamed them until fairly soft and tender.

In a large deep frying pan, I heated the butter, oil, thyme and garlic together. I added the veg and stirred until everything was well coated.

Then I added the turkey meat, stock and flour. I stirred well and brought everything to the boil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

(For the pastry, both puff pastry and shortcrust work well in this pie, readymade or homemade. If we want puff pastry we usually opt for readymade, but shortcrust is very simple to make from scratch.)

So to make the shortcrust pastry I whizzed together 3 oz plain flour, 7 oz self raising flour and 5 oz butter or margaine. When the mixture became crumb-like, I began adding cold water, a tbsp at a time until a dough formed. I then moulded it into a disc shape and left in the fridge to chill for half an hour.

I poured the pie filling into a pie dish (draining off any excess liquid). After rolling out the chilled dough to about 5-10mm thick I covered the top of the pie with it, and had enough leftover pastry for some decorative festive stars. (If we had a proper pie dish I would have made a thick pastry rim around the pie.)

I baked the pie at 190 degrees for half an hour, and when it was golden brown and any escaped filling was bubbling, served it up with some steamed purple cabbage. Yum.