Monday, November 24, 2008

Pies and Prejudice

The latest home cookery project has to perfect a meat and potato pie. I've experimented with a couple of things so far, involving large pies, mini-pies, beef and Guinness pies and so, but there is still some way to go.

What I have learned so far:
  • I am useless at handling pastry
  • West African Guinness doesn't make a good pie ingredient. It's 7.5% alcohol and tastes a bit too Guinnessy.
  • Despite my usual prejudice, bisto is an essential ingredient.
  • Despite my usual prejudice, I may have to resort to Delia.
These mini-pies made a great treat while Mrs Jiffler was in Cape Town the other week, served with the last of the HP sauce (no more until Christmas now) and a couple of beetroot.


Anyhow, this post is a call for pie suggestions and recipes, particularly for prater pies. How do I get the pastry right?

More from Vietnam next time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well I've never made a large pie, but last time I made mince pies I used Delia's shortcrust pastry recipe and it worked well for me. So if you can overcome your prejudices...!

Unknown said...

Jen asked me to comment. I am her little brother. I usually buy ready-made puff pastry, but I guess this may not be a workable solution for you, sorry. For shortcrust pastry I seem to remember keeping it cool was important. Anyway, as far as fillings go, I like chicken and mushroom (where the gravy is just a tin of campbell's mushroom soup), sausage and onion (gravy=bisto), and corned-beef pie. This last one is a classic from our mother - she literally scrapes out a tin of corned beef into a pastry-lined dish, chops it into cubes, covers it up with the top layer of pastry, and bakes the thing. It *shouldn't* work - but it does. Mmmmm pie. Good luck Mr Jiffler!