Leek, Zucchini and Cheddar Cheese Hand Pies

The last time I made these Leek, Zucchini and Cheddar Cheese Hand Pies, I had a picnic in mind. Preparing to travel from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Overland train, my thoughts as usual were on food. Train food I'd heard, was pretty average which  meant I really needed to pack my own.  I anticipated a glorious picnic on the train and wanted something special to eat.

What an interesting way to experience the countryside from the Adelaide plains, through the hills to the River Murray and out into the rural and farming areas of South Australia and Victoria.

The day started well, cool morning but no rain and the train gathered speed after the hilly bits as we were heading across country at over 100 kms an hour. Compare it to the Bullet Train in Japan and that is a walking pace but it was lovely to see the River Murray from this vantage point as it curls its way down to the sea.

The sun was shining, I was reading "Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins and I settled down to the comfort of the Overland. We passed huge wheat silos, kangaroos and emus, sheep and baby lambs. We glimpsed the runners of the Stawell Gift, Australia's richest foot race and saw other animals and farming implements. It was a truly relaxing time.

And resting in my lunch bag was a box full of these hand pies. Cold of course. But when I opened the lid and the smell wafted out into the train all eyes were suddenly on me. Other passengers noses were in the air, they could smell the aroma coming from my lunch box and they were salivating.

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to hand around and i felt quite guilty eating them myself because they truly were delicious.

And to avoid the same situation recurring, I've shared my recipe.

LEEK, ZUCCHINI AND CHEDDAR CHEESE HAND PIES

To make 10 - 12 pies you will need;

• Filling
• 1 large leek, cleaned and finely chopped
• 1 zucchini, finely chopped
• 1.5 - 2 cups of cheddar cheese, finely chopped or grated
• 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon oregano/marjoram, finely chopped
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 tablespoons plain yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• small nob of butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• salt and pepper

Pastry

I used bought sheets of Pampas Butter Puff Pastry.


This is how you make them:-

I used a medium sized fry pan, added the oil and butter and gently cooked the zucchini, leek and herbs until they were slightly browned.

In a small bowl I added yoghurt and an egg and gave it a quick beat together. I added salt and pepper, flour and cheese and stirred until it was combined.

Once the leek and zucchini are cooked, let them cool a little, then add them to the yoghurt and egg mixture. Now cover and place in the fridge until completely cold. You can do this the day before if it is easier.

Pastry

Find something round you can used as a template for making circles. I used a mixing bowl that was  5 inches/13 cms in diameter and scored around it with a knife.  My pastry came in sheets and I managed to get 2 circles out of each sheet.

Place a large tablespoon of the mixture in the centre of the pastry circle, wet the edges of the pastry using water and a pastry bush. Now fold the pastry in half and seal the edges with your fingers. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut a small v in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape.

Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.

Put the pies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 200ºC/400ºF/6 for 15 - 20 minutes. Eat them piping hot or cool and refrigerate or freeze for later.

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Vegetarian Pot Pies

I like a pie in any shape or form, and teemed with countless vegetables and topped with puff pastry, makes my heart sing. Its a beaut (good old Australian word) thing to eat with creamy mashed potato and some steamed broccoli.

Cooking doesn't have to be Masterchef quality every night; too many ingredients, too little food on the plate.  Good, wholesome, flavoursome food which is simply prepared is fine. And I want to be fed; to push my empty plate away and say "delicious", I feel like I have eaten.

Making a few short cuts when you are cooking is OK too. Yes, making your own puff pastry is truly fun, but there are moments when you are so pushed for time that having some ready made in the fridge is a perfectly acceptable option. (Actually, I must admit it's a life saver) So use it and don't feel at all guilty. 

Try these little gems (made with bought puff pastry) and tell me how good they taste.

Recipe makes enough for 8

Vegetables of your choice - this is what I used

1 zucchini diced

2 carrots diced

1 leek chopped

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 shallot (French) chopped

2 small potatoes diced

4 mushrooms diced

handful of baby spinach

handful frozen or fresh corn

600ml stock

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons butter

few sprigs of fresh thyme and parsley

2 tablespoons Creme Fraiche

few sheets defrosted puff pastry

Add olive oil and butter to a large pan. Add leek, garlic and shallot and cook until it starts to soften. 

Add zucchini, carrot, potato, salt and pepper. Cook until vegetables start to soft. Keep stirring to avoid burning or sticking to the bottom. Season with salt and pepper, a few sprigs of thyme and parsley and the mushrooms.

Add stock or water with a vegetable stock cube.

As the vegetables soften you can throw in a handful of baby spinach and frozen or fresh sweet corn (or any other vegetables you like). Allow this to just cook together for a few minutes and then check the seasoning. 

Spoon in some creme fraiche and turn off the heat, allowing the mixture to cool.

Place your cooled mixture into ramekins and start preparing your puff pastry.

Cut a circle of pastry large enough to go on top of your ramekins. Now cut out some strips of pastry which will go directly onto the ramekins and act as a collar. You can join pieces if you need to, moistened with a little water.

Using a pastry brush, lightly wet the edges of the pastry collar with water and press down the pastry topping. Give a tweek with thumb and finger to adhere the pastry together. 

Lastly, cut a small V with the point of a sharp knife in the centre of the pastry, to allow steam to escape. You can brush the top with milk if you wish, but usually I don't bother.

Bake in a preheated oven 200/400Fº for 15 - 20 minutes, depending on your oven. Keep a check on them so the pastry does not burn. Remove when the pastry is golden brown. Happy eating!

How To Avoid a Soggy (Pastry) Bottom

Now stop laughing because for many people  a soggy bottom is a real problem!

Only a few days ago a friend cooked a Tomato Tart using puff pastry but she was unable to get the bottom of the tart to cook. She asked my opinion on what she did wrong and how to avoid a soggy bottom with puff pastry.

Remembering back to my first few quiches, I suffered from a similar problem, although I used a shortcrust pastry. Then I learned about blind baking.


BLIND BAKING PASTRY CASES

Blind baking isn't turning the oven on wearing a blind fold.

It is where you bake a pastry case for a short period of time  of the without a filling, to ensure the bottom of the pastry is cooked through.

To stop pastry on the base rising, it is necessary to prick the pastry base with a fork, cover it with baking or greaseproof paper and fill the cavity with dried beans or Ceramic Pie Weights. The shell is then cooked for a short time without the filling.

This method allows the pastry to cook right through to the bottom layer once the filling is added.

Ok we have learned that the hard way. But does this method work with puff pastry????

PUFF PASTRY

No matter whose recipe you read, there are arguments for and against blind baking puff pastry! In fact many chefs will not use puff pastry on the bottom of a filled pie because there is no guarantee that it will cook through.

As a rule, I blind bake all pastry cases; puff, flaky, shortcrust. The only exception is if I making very small puff pastry finger foods, where the filling is completely wrapped in puff pastry - then I bake it on a high temperature to ensure it's sealed and cooked quickly.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

I called into my local bakery 'Banana Bogie' at Belair and spoke with baker Jason Spencer. I asked his opinion on puff pastry.  

One of the most important things to remember when using puff pastry, according to Jason is to make sure you cook pastry at the correct temperature; puff pastry needs to bake quickly at a high temperature, around 200º or higher depending on your oven. Also, you need to ensure that your filling isn't too wet, because this can also make for a soggy bottom.

Jason stated that most commercial bakers/bakeries would use two kinds of pastry to make pies; puff pastry for the top of the pie because it puffs up beautifully, gives a wonderful golden colour to the pie and is nice and flaky when you eat it. The other end of the pie is usually a shortcrust pastry, which holds the filling in and cooks right through to the base - so no soggy bottoms. How sneaky is this???

I have the recipe for the Tomato Tart that my friend made. I decided to give it a go with puff pastry too, but I did blind bake the pastry cases. I decided to make individual tarts, because that was more useful at the time.

(I've not included the recipe, because I don't have permission to re print it.) But, guess what? No soggy bottoms!

Now you might just disagree with blind baking your pastry and that is Ok. Whatever works for you is fine. But after a few years of failures, this works for me every time.

The recipe came from a book called "Delia's Happy Christmas' Cookbook. You may be able to search for it on line. Delia Smith did not recommend blind baking the pastry for this recipe.

Mushroom Pies

Looking into the fridge the other day, contemplating what to cook for dinner. Mushrooms! I had 4 large brown, gorgeous looking mushrooms which caught my eye.  One of my all time favourite summer mushroom recipes is a sort of mushroom Streudel made with phyllo pastry, but because it involves sour cream I don't cook it too often. I am still wanting to throw off a few kilos, so I am trying to be a bit careful.
I did a search in the fridge to see what else was lurking there that needed to be used immediately and what I came up with lead me to this -  Mushroom Pies. Mushrooms are great for vegetarians because they contain essential vitamins and minerals and are a good source of protein; And are low calorie,

I use mushrooms almost every week. If they are not being chopped into a salad, then I am adding them to eggs for omelette, into casseroles, blended to make dips and on their own, lightly cooked with lots of black pepper.

Incidentally over the past week I have been reading about raw foods. I was interested in seeing how a mix of water and cashew nuts blended together would make a creamy sauce; one that could be added to any casserole or stew to give it a nice creamy consistency. Time to add this to my mushrooms to make a pie filling. I also had a little bought puff pastry that I was desperate to use up and this helped enormously as I was in a screaming hurry to get some food on the table.

I used a combination of the beautiful large brown mushrooms, and a mixture of things I had in the fridge; you can use whatever you have but this combination worked really well. You could add cooked broccoli, frozen or fresh peas, finely chopped carrot etc etc.

This is what I made and it was pretty delicious. I made enough for 4 servings, but it would be easy to add extra ingredients or less, depending on how many people you want to serve. My little pie tins took 1 whole sheet of puff pastry each. Depending on the size of yours, you will have to calculate how many you need.

Little Mushroom Pies (with whatever)

Ingredients

5 large brown mushrooms chopped
1 brown onion finely chopped
1 stick of celery finely chopped
1/2 a leek finely slice
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup raw cashew nuts
1/2 cup water
1 tbls olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh thyme and parsley chopped finely
4 sheets of ready made puff pastry (I used Pampas)
a little butter for greasing the pie dishes
a little water for the pastry edges

• Take pastry out of the freezer and defrost ready for making pies.
• Place the cashew nuts and water into a blender or if you are using a hand held stick, into a bowl and blitz until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
• Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and cook onions until soft, add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
• Add leek, celery, salt and pepper and cook for a further 3 minutes. Turn the heat up a little and add chopped mushrooms and cook for 6 minutes.
• Cut out your pastry for a top and a bottom to suit your pie tins. Grease pie dishes while you are waiting.
• Add the creamed cashew and water mixture and stir until all is coated. Adjust seasoning and add chopped parsley and thyme and stir in well. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
• Heat oven to 200ºc Fan forced.
• Line pie tins with pastry, add filling. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry with water and add the pastry tops, pressing down along the edge to seal or pinch them to make a scalloped pattern. When all pies are completed, take a sharp knife and add a small v shape in the middle of the pastry to allow steam to escape.
• Place in the oven and cook for 20 -25 minutes, until pastry is nicely brown and has risen well.

Serving 4 people: estimated cost $8, that is $2 per head, add more if you serve with extra vegetables or salad.