When both of us wants pie, we usually go for the fail-safe steak and ale, so for something a little different I remembered making a chicken and chorizo pie. After searching and searching, I found Curiously Delicious' Chicken and Chorizo Pie but couldn't find the original one I made way back before the blog. This version was the most similar to the original, bar the tomato sauce and peppers.
FYI: I used Jamie Oliver's shortcrust pastry recipe which I have reviewed here.
Yay or Nay: Yay
I've only added photos of the filling, mainly because everyone knows what a pie looks like!! The recipe straightforward and even though it wasn't like the dry original pie, this one I purposely reduced the tomato sauce down (in case of a soggy bottom!) and the chili paste (I used chili powder) gives it some heat. My only gripe is that I cannot for the life of me find real Spanish style chorizo, here in the States, it is more like a regular raw sausage.
TIP: The recipe says to use puff pastry, but I prefer shortcrust. I followed Jamie's recipe for cooking the whole pie, but I would increase the time to about 50mins as I like my pastry crispy and brown.
I love a good pie, mainly because of the crust more than the filling! I've used Jamie Oliver's recipe for a while now and figured I'd share it here. I got this from his cookbook Comfort Food but I found it here on the 'net!
Yay or Nay: Yay
So easy to make and even easier to eat!
Whenever the weather gets colder, I always have a hankering for a good ol' fashioned pie. Not a sweet one, not a weird pot pie but a proper shortcrust or puff pastry pie with a yummy, warming filling. Nothing beats steak and ale pie, unless it's a steak and Guinness one but when you can find a single can/bottle of it then an ale will do!
I usually make my crust via Jamie Oliver's recipe but the filling was from UK newspaper The Telegraph. They managed to convince Pieminster (one of the best proper pies around in the UK) to give up their recipe for Moo 2 Pie!
Yay or Nay: Yay
Although this took over 3 hours to make start to finish, it was worth it! Rich and comforting in the snowy weather, there wasn't much to fault it apart from the time it took! I took out the carrot once I had to put together the pie, I didn't add the squeeze of lemon as I didn't have any and I didn't glaze the pie with an egg wash as I didn't want to waste any more time! I was hungry, it was time to eat!!
I remember seeing this recipe for Spinach and Feta Pie on TV and I never got the chance to cook it as my living situation at the time didn't allow me to have control of the kitchen! Anyway when I did get the chance I jumped on this recipe. Now, Jamie promised it would be a 30 minute meal which is a big ask! He made it look so easy, would it be like that for me??
Yay or Nay: Yay!
Admittedly it took me a few tries to get this down but the instructions aside from the filo pastry assembling is pretty straightforward. Definitely don't skip the baking sheet part as it makes for less cleaning which no one likes after a long day. I do like to part bake mine if I know it'll be for dinner the next night, then reheat and bake the rest of the way on the night you'll eat it.
A bit of a late post as the combo of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year swept me along. In preparation I took a bunch of pictures that I could use when things calmed down. I spotted the Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie recipe in the November issue of the magazine and it looked like a good thing to bring to a family gathering. I love anything coconut tasting and I figured you can't go wrong with chocolate in a pie right?
Yay or Nay: Yay
Pretty easy like the recipe and it tasted gooooooood! I did make some minor adjustments to the recipe as it asked for 1 cup of corn syrup and I just couldn't make myself buy that much sugar so I just put a squeeze of some leftover pancake syrup in, however I did keep the brown sugar amount the same.
