National Pie Week 1st-8th March 2020
It’s National Pie Week so what better way to acknowledge this than with a great British pie that combines the traditional roast dinner with a pie that has colour, texture and contrasts. Most pies are closed with a full crust but this recipe, leaves the pie open to visually enjoy the ingredients.
The recipe has been kindly provided by Deli.sh (www.delish.co.uk) based in Barrow in Furness, Fifth Senses’ new operational home close to the beautiful Lake District. It is owned by Sam and Caragh Halpin. Sam is a Michelin trained chef who has won numerous culinary awards and is a proud National Pie Week winner. Sams’ late dad had anosmia and so Sam had no hesitation in providing us with one of his recipes to try.
Roast Dinner Pie
Make a casserole on a stove top with any of your preferred meat, (chicken, turkey, beef or pork cut into cubes) with your own choice of vegetables such as onion, carrot, swede and celery – all roughly chopped. Season with salt and pepper and add a meat stock cube with some water – stir regularly and cook slowly for about an hour until the meat and veg are tender and the gravy is rich.
Separately, roast some potatoes – peel and par boil for 20 mins before roasting in oil with a sprinkle of salt for 20mins at 180 C.
Make some instant instant stuffing and roll into small balls (we mix it with sausage meat which gives a differenct texture but it’s optional). You can also include pigs in blankets (small sausages, wrapped in streaky bacon and pre-cooked in the open for about 15mins at 180 C).
Allow all the fillings to cool.
For the pastry, the easiest way is to buy some pre-made shortcrust pastry but you can always make your own! Either way, roll this out to lay into a dish of your choice making sure you pre-grease the dish and cover the sides with the pastry. You can do this into individual pies (in a Yorkshire pudding or cup-cake tin, or in a bigger pie dish).
Pour in the casserole and top with the roast potatoes, stuffing and pigs in blankets and cook in the oven at 180 C for about 30 mins, until the pastry is cooked and voila – the perfect roast dinner in a pie!