Recommendations for a Pie Recipe...

[PeteXXX]

Recommendations for a good pie recipe please..
Something easy to start with please.
I'm good on cakes, muffins and cookery in general, but have not yet done Pies!

 

[Hill Wimp]

Recommendations for a good pie recipe please..
Something easy to start with please.
I'm good on cakes, muffins and cookery in general, but have not yet done Pies!

Oh Boy, you get good and we won't be able to hold @vernon back.

 

[PeteXXX]

I'm prepared to learn from the master..

 

[vernon]

Two very reliable recipes:

Vegetarian: Indian potato pie. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1039649/indian-potato-pie

Mine look like this:

Then there's corned beef and potato pie adapted from a Mumsnet recipe http://www.mumsnet.com/food/recipe/1639-Corned-beef-pie

I add par boiled cubes of potato to the corned beef filling along with a generous amount of coarse ground black pepper.
Any standard shortcrust pastry recipe will do for the crust. I use lard, butter and plain flour in a 1:1:2 ratio with a pinch of salt

Here's a scaled up version masquerading as a 70th birthday pie.

Then there's steak and kidney pie - full recipe below. It's a winning recipe - I took on the creations of ten other pie makers and mine came out on top

Steak and KidneyPlate Pie

Ingredients.




Pie filling

2 x 400-500g packs of diced steak andkidney from the supermarket

or

the equivalent made from

1/2lb of ox kidney diced ¾ “ cubes

1 ½ lb of braising steak diced into 1” cubes

2 x medium onions thinly sliced

2 x sticks of celery finely chopped

4 x large mushrooms open or closed cup coarsely chopped

olive oil

1 x heaped tablespoon of plain flour

¾ pint of water

salt and pepper to taste

Shortcrust pastry

4 oz butter at room temp

4 oz lard at room temp

1 x heaped tablespoon of plain flour for steak and kidney filling

16 oz plain flour for the pie crust

large pinch of salt




Egg and a dash of milk beaten together for a glaze




9-10” pie dish

or

10” dinner plate, preferable deeply 'dished'

Method

Pie filling.

Heat a tablespoonful of oil in a frying pan. Brown the steak in theoil and transfer to a metal casserole then brown the kidney andtransfer to the casserole dish. Add a drizzle of oil then add theonions and fry until they soften. Add the celery and mushrooms andgently fry until the celery and mushrooms soften and the onion hasturned golden. Be careful not to burn the onion. Transfer the vegto the casserole and stir in the tablespoon of flour to absorb thejuices. Add some of the water to the frying pan and bring to asimmer to collect any flavour residues from the frying operations andadd to the casserole along with the remainder of the water. Placethe casserole on a medium flame. Add salt and pepper to taste alongwith a pinch of thyme and bring to a gentle simmer. Transfer to apreheated oven at 140 degrees C or gas mark 1 for a couple of hours. Remove at the end of the two hours and taste before adjustingseasoning. Allow the mix to cool. I accelerate the cooling byputting the casserole in a sink of cold water. This recipe is notfor someone in a hurry to eat pie!




Pastry

Chop the lard and butter into small pieces. Sift the flour and saltinto a bowl and add the pieces of fat to the flour. If the pieces offat stick together, run a knife through the lumps to divide them. Rub the flour into the fat until you get a crumb texture. Add acouple of tablespoons full of water and cut into the mix with a knifeat first then start kneading by hand. More water will be needed asyou knead (sic) just ad a tiny drizzle at a time until a soft pliabledough is obtained. Half the dough and form two dough balls. Rollout the first ball on a floured surface until it is comfortablylarger than the pie dish/plate. Transfer the pastry disc to the plateusing the rolling pin. Spoon on the filling. Roll out the seconddisc of pastry. Use a pastry brush or fingers to apply some of theglaze to the edge of the pastry on the dish/plate and then lower thesecond disc of pastry onto the pie. Crimp the edges by pressing themtogether with your fingers or be decorative and use the handle of apiece of cutlery to make a crimp pattern. Cut a small hole in thecentre of the crust or cut some slots. Brush the crust with the eggglaze and put the pie in a preheated oven gas mark 6, 200 degrees Cfor ten minutes before turning the temperature down to gas mark 4,180 degrees C for forty minutes or until the crust is an appealingshade of brown.




Remove and serve with whatever takes your fancy. Allowing it to cool a little is worthwhile and prevents blistered lips.

Hope that helps.

@Hill Wimp and @User14044 might get to taste one or two of these if they can fend off the Woodrup crew.

 

[classic33]

Steak and Guinness® pie
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/92/the-absolute-best-steak-and-guinness--pie.aspx

 

[classic33]

[QUOTE 3906607, member: 259"]That is not the best recipe for anything. The pastry is ready bought puff, which will not have an ounce of lard in it.[/QUOTE]
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beef-and-guinness-pie-230754

 

[classic33]

[QUOTE 3906624, member: 259"]Still not looking the best. It requires rough puff dough, and the link for it contains butter but no lard.[/QUOTE]
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/22635/steak-and-guinness-pie.html
http://www.lovefood.com/guide/recipes/11359/anthony-worrall-thompsons-beef-pie

 

[classic33]

[QUOTE 3906646, member: 259"]The one from the stealer of cheese looks great, but @vernon will probably not tolerate the lack of bottom and side.[/QUOTE]
@Crackle??

 

[Crackle]

I've got the bill for mine, before you try to get me up before the beak.

 

[PeteXXX]

There's some good ideas there, thanks. I'll have to get cracking on some of them soon.

 

[vernon]

There's some good ideas there, thanks. I'll have to get cracking on some of them soon.

The Indian potato pie is the easiest of the three that I listed. It's also the most popular of the three.
The corned beef pie is the easier of the two meat pies that I've listed.

 

[PeteXXX]

The Indian potato pie is the easiest of the three that I listed. It's also the most popular of the three.
The corned beef pie is the easier of the two meat pies that I've listed.

Thanks for that, I'll try my hand at some soon.