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ventaIt's an acknowledged fact round our way that ChrisC's mum makes the best steak pie[*]. So, over the Christmas holidays I cornered her in the kitchen and demanded instructions. She kindly obliged; by demo, because the pie-construction process is completely undocumented.
Apparently, it is a pie which should be served with chips. So when ChrisC's parents visited in February, they brought us a proper chip pan as a present. Now, I grew up in a Northern household, but it was also one which was very aware that its menfolk had a bit of a history of coronary disease. We didn't have a proper chip pan. Next door did, but I mostly ate meals there when I was of an age where my interaction with it was limited to "don't go near that, it's hot".
A couple of weekends ago, I decided that it was time to try making pie and chips. There was only one problem: based on (again) ChrisC's mum's advice, I'd kept a Frey Bentos tin to use as a pie tin. It's just the right shape and size - with only the one downside that when you buy it it comes with a free (and not particularly nice) pie. And last autumn, when I foraged a bunch of sweet chestnuts from our driveway, I'd parked then in the pie tin "for now".
So the first step of making the pie was cooking, peeling and chopping the chestnuts. And there's really no getting away from the fact that peeling chestnuts is a pain. And a time-cosuming pain to boot. But when Shirley Conran declared that "life's too short to stuff a mushroom", the mother responded "not if you really like stuffing mushrooms". And while I don't especially like peeling chestnuts, I really do like eating them. So I chopped away (and ultimately made them into chestnut stuffing to do with the Sunday roast chicken), and cleared the pie tin for use.
The pie filling went (eventually) to plan. The pastry didn't, because I make terrible pastry. I don't know why. It seems to end up overworked without me so much as looking at it; then it becomes tough and won't roll out. I have no idea why, I do all the things that sensible people who make nice pastry say you're supposed to do. The mother maintains that I am probably just one of those people who makes rubbish pastry, and there's very little to be done about it. (In reality, I should probably give up and make it in the Kenwood; I remain stubbornly determined to do it "properly".)
The chips were a bit of a trial. Without a thermometer, I guessed the temperature based on the amount of sizzling a test-chip did, and I must have guessed wrong. They took ages to cook, and ages to brown. I probably also put too many in the basket, meaning they couldn't shoogle themselves around easily.
Any tips from pastry cooks or chip fryers welcome.
The pie came out "ok" in the end; the chips were a bit overcooked. It was a reasonably passable pie and chips, but nothing like the one ChrisC's mum makes. Still, she's had several decades of practice. I'll just have to make more pies :)
[*] In the interests of fairness and family honour, I should state that my mum also makes great pies. I pretty much manage to tow ChrisC north for Christmas each year on the strength of the mother's Christmas-leftovers pie. But I don't recall her ever making a steak pie.
Apparently, it is a pie which should be served with chips. So when ChrisC's parents visited in February, they brought us a proper chip pan as a present. Now, I grew up in a Northern household, but it was also one which was very aware that its menfolk had a bit of a history of coronary disease. We didn't have a proper chip pan. Next door did, but I mostly ate meals there when I was of an age where my interaction with it was limited to "don't go near that, it's hot".
A couple of weekends ago, I decided that it was time to try making pie and chips. There was only one problem: based on (again) ChrisC's mum's advice, I'd kept a Frey Bentos tin to use as a pie tin. It's just the right shape and size - with only the one downside that when you buy it it comes with a free (and not particularly nice) pie. And last autumn, when I foraged a bunch of sweet chestnuts from our driveway, I'd parked then in the pie tin "for now".
So the first step of making the pie was cooking, peeling and chopping the chestnuts. And there's really no getting away from the fact that peeling chestnuts is a pain. And a time-cosuming pain to boot. But when Shirley Conran declared that "life's too short to stuff a mushroom", the mother responded "not if you really like stuffing mushrooms". And while I don't especially like peeling chestnuts, I really do like eating them. So I chopped away (and ultimately made them into chestnut stuffing to do with the Sunday roast chicken), and cleared the pie tin for use.
The pie filling went (eventually) to plan. The pastry didn't, because I make terrible pastry. I don't know why. It seems to end up overworked without me so much as looking at it; then it becomes tough and won't roll out. I have no idea why, I do all the things that sensible people who make nice pastry say you're supposed to do. The mother maintains that I am probably just one of those people who makes rubbish pastry, and there's very little to be done about it. (In reality, I should probably give up and make it in the Kenwood; I remain stubbornly determined to do it "properly".)
The chips were a bit of a trial. Without a thermometer, I guessed the temperature based on the amount of sizzling a test-chip did, and I must have guessed wrong. They took ages to cook, and ages to brown. I probably also put too many in the basket, meaning they couldn't shoogle themselves around easily.
Any tips from pastry cooks or chip fryers welcome.
The pie came out "ok" in the end; the chips were a bit overcooked. It was a reasonably passable pie and chips, but nothing like the one ChrisC's mum makes. Still, she's had several decades of practice. I'll just have to make more pies :)
[*] In the interests of fairness and family honour, I should state that my mum also makes great pies. I pretty much manage to tow ChrisC north for Christmas each year on the strength of the mother's Christmas-leftovers pie. But I don't recall her ever making a steak pie.
