Cool evenings call for warm pies. But why not try something new? Gammon with shallots or peri peri chicken and spices both thrive under a crunchy crust
Nigel Slater
Sun 26 Oct 2014 02.00 EDT
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It is pie weather. A damp, misty morning followed by a dark evening. A sudden need for crisp pastry soaked on one side with sauce or gravy from a pie. It can be an open one with a creamy filling and a soft undercrust, or a pie with a pastry top, its face golden, its underside soaked in the filling. It could be one of the classics, of course, a Victorian steak and kidney or quaint cottage pie, a frugal shepherd’s pie with deep fork-furrows of mashed potato, or a pastry-topped fish pie made with white fish, prawns and dill-freckled cream. But I don’t want any of those. The pie I crave is something new yet familiar, with a filling I may have had in some other form – as a casserole perhaps, or a sauté – but whatever, it must come with a pastry crust to soak up the sauce. I made two this week, the first with the familiarity of gammon and parsley and the second a spiced chicken pie with a tangled crust. Sometimes it just has to be pie. You will need a 24cm high-sided, fixed-base tart tin or shallow cake tin. Serves 6 For the filing:Gammon, celeriac and parsley pie
For the pastry:
butter 175g
plain flour 225g
egg 1 yolk
water 2-3 tbsp, cold
banana shallots 5
groundnut or other oil 1 tbsp
gammon smoked or not, trimmed, 650g
plain flour 2 level tbsp
double cream 250ml
parsley 20g
celeriac 150g (prepared weight)
butter 30g, melted
Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour using your fingertips or a food processor, until it resembles coarse fresh breadcrumbs. Mix in the yolk and enough water to bring to a firm but tender dough. Pull it together into a ball and knead gently for a minute. Place it on a floured worksurface or chopping board and roll into a disc large enough to line a 24cm high-sided cake tin. Line the tin, pushing the pastry into the corners and up the sides. Fill the pastry case with foil and baking beans and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Don’t miss this step or your pastry will shrink on baking.
Make the filling by peeling and halving the shallots lengthways, then slice off the root and separate the halves into layers. Warm the oil in a shallow pan over a moderate heat, add the onion and leave to soften but not colour.
Cut the gammon into large cubes, roughly 2cm, add them to the softened onions and continue cooking for five minutes or so, then dust over the flour. Stir the onions, ham and flour and let them cook for a minute or two, then pour in the cream and season with black pepper and very little salt.
Lower the heat, so the gammon and onions simmer gently, and leave, with the odd stir to make sure it isn’t sticking, for 15-20 minutes. Remove the leaves from the parsley and roughly chop, then stir in to the filling and remove from the heat. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Peel the celeriac then grate coarsely, as if for a remoulade. This is done in seconds with the coarse grating disc of a food processor. (If you are not using it right now, keep it from browning in a bowl of acidulated water.) Bake the pastry case for 20 minutes, remove the foil and beans, then return to the oven for five minutes, until the pastry feels dry. Remove from the oven and fill with the gammon mixture. Drain the celeriac then toss it in the melted butter. Cover the top of the pie with buttered celeriac, brushing it with any leftover melted butter. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 30-40 minutes, brushing with a little more butter if the top appears dry. Serve when the top is golden brown.
Serves 4-6 For the crust:Peri peri chicken pie
chicken 8 thighs
red onions 3
medium-hot red chillies 2
oregano 10g, fresh
garlic 4 cloves
red-wine vinegar 2 tbsp
olive oil 2 tbsp
Worcester sauce 1 tbsp
celery seed 2 tbsp
lime juice of 1
plain flour 2 tbsp
tomatoes 5, large
puff pastry 325g
egg a little beaten
Remove the skin from the chicken thighs, then cut the meat from the bones and into large chunks. Peel and thinly slice the onions. Into the bowl of a food processor put the chillies, oregano, garlic, vinegar, oil, Worcester sauce, celery seed and lime juice and blitz briefly. Scrape out the peri peri seasoning into a large shallow-sided pan over a moderate heat. As it starts to sizzle, stir in the onions. Cook over a moderate heat for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring from time to time, then add the chicken. Continue cooking, without the mixture colouring very much, for 7 or 8 minutes, then scatter over the flour and cook for 2 minutes more. Roughly chop the tomatoes, add them to the pan with a seasoning of salt and continue cooking for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle about 30 x 20cm, then into 1cm-wide ribbons. Tip the filling into a large, deep pie dish then lay the ribbons, neatly or in a tangle, on top and brush lightly with beaten egg. Bake for 20 minutes, till crisp and gold.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk. Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater
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