My husband is a bit of a traditionalist – we both are – hence the homemade pie. Will likes roast dinners in the winter, watching rugby on a Sunday, bringing home the bacon and Monday Pies. Monday Pies are a Harold family institution, something his mum used to cook often whilst he was growing up. So when I’m trying to get in the good books or if I’ve been in the dog house I will make my hardworkin’ man a weekend roast followed by a Monday Pie. It’s like a very British Dolly Parton song.
Homemade Pie
This reason for this week’s Monday Pie was simple: Will let me have three lie-ins over the weekend. THREE! What a man. The way to his heart may be his stomach but the way to my heart is most definitely through my snoozes.
The brilliance of Monday pie is that it’s totally cobbled together yet tastes amazing, for me it’s the best pie on earth. The components are quite simply: Pastry (shortcrust or puff, homemade or shop-bought), leftover roast meat (this week I used lamb), onions, 2 x veg, and gravy. If I’m making my own shortcrust pastry I will faithfully stick to Delia’s by-hand method and will use 220g of flour to 110g of fat (55g butter/55g beef dripping… oh yeah that’s how I roll). I never make my own puff pastry because, really, who can be bothered when there’s jus rol?
- 1 quantity pastry (see above)
- Leftover roast meat (I used just under a quarter of a shoulder of slow roasted lamb)
- 1 onion
- Any fresh herbs (I used a couple of sprigs each of rosemary and thyme)
- 2 large handfuls of assorted veg (this week mine was made up from 100g green beans and a handful of frozen peas)
- 100ml wine (red for dark meat, white for light meat)
- 400ml chicken stock
- 1 beef stock cube
- 2 tsp bisto
- Start out by preparing your pastry and bringing it to room temperature.
- Slice the onion in half and then lengthways. Fry off in oil on a medium heat and add your veg and herbs (if you're using any frozen veg it should be added at the end).
- Add meat and cook through.
- Turn up the pan slightly and deglaze the pan with wine; leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken stock bit by bit, stirring all the time.
- Crumble in the stock cube and add the bisto. Stir until a gravy consistency is reached.
- Roll out pastry to about half a centimetre thick. Tip pie filling into dish and scatter any frozen veg on top.
- Place pastry on top of dish and seal with your fingers. Prick a couple of times with a fork and brush over a light egg wash.
- Cook at 180 degrees until golden brown on top - around 25 minutes.
Yum! Pie is pretty much the glue that holds this family together! Francesca loves watching me make a pie, she is literally hypnotised by the motion of me making pastry! And I believe Dean fell in love with me the first time I made him a steak and ale pie. Oh I do love a ‘proper man’!
Looks delicious!