Chicken, Leak and Mushroom Pie with Short Crust Pastry
I decided to be inspired by a recipe I saw in my local Coles supermarket for a chicken and leak pie. I've modified it a fair but to make it Gluten Free. In the interests of giving credit where it is due, special thanks must go to Curtis Stone and Coles for publishing a great family classic and inspiring my gluten free version.
Can I just say, that this recipe turned out great. Particularly considering this was my first attempt at making a chicken and leak pie.I did seriously misjudge how long this recipe would take to prepare and cook because I added in a gluten free Short Pastry which required some blind baking. All up itt took me about two and a half hours from preparation time to sitting down to eat it. It was well worth it in the end as it did cement my position as the family's uber cook. (Which is always a good thing when you're serving dinner to the parents in law) :-)
So here's my gluten free version of a chicken and leak pie with the addition mushrooms and gluten free short pastry.
Ingredients:
Pie filling:
- 1 x Leak
- 1 x onion finely chopped
- 2 x tablespoon of olive oil
- 10 x regular mushrooms
- 50 grams butter
- 1/4 x cup of thickened cream
- 400 to 500 grams of Chicken thighs
- 3 x teaspoons of gluten free mustard (check it's gluten free. I use Masterfoods).
- 1/4 x cup of plain flour (GF)
- 1 x cup of Massel chicken stock (GF) (I prefer the pre made liquid tetra packs as they are less salty than Massel cubes)
- 120 grams White Wings Gluten Free Self Raising Flour(Orange Packet)
- 120 grams of White Wings Gluten Free Plain Flour (Orange Packet)
- 120 grams of Almond Meal
- 4 x dessert spoons of GF Corn Flour
- 2 x teaspoons of Xanthum Gum
- 2 x tablespoons Castor Sugar
- 1 x teaspoon of salt
- 1 x teaspoon of vinegar
- 4 x eggs
- 80 mls good quality olive oil
- Wash the leak (No, that's not me being rude):-) they usually pretty dirty on the inside, so a good rinse under the kitchen sink is warranted.
- The white storks on leaks are created by continuously piling up dirt around the base during the growing process so as to always cover the stem. That's why they're usually dirty on the inside and white.
- Slice down the centre then thinly slice across ways creating little half moons.
- Place straight into a hot saucepan with 2 x tablespoons of oil and a knob (50 grams) of melted butter and begin sweating the leaks on a medium heat.
- Finely chop your onion and add to the saucepan and mix with the leaks.
- Finely slice your mushrooms. The finer the slice, the stronger the mushroom flavour in the pie.
- On a fresh cutting board, cut your chicken thighs into long thin strips and add to the vegetable mix.
- Cook for 5 minutes to ensure your chicken is cooked through.
- Add 3 x teaspoons of seeded mustard and stir again
- There should be quite a bit of available pan juices at this point. So we want to capture all that flavour, but not have a runny pie filling. So, slowly tip in 1/4 of a cup of gluten free plan flour stirring between each go.
- Once you have added all your flour, add in your thickened cream and stir again.
- Now pop on the saucepan lid and drop the temperature of the hotplate to a low simmer. Check it occasionally to stir it through. It should thicken up nicely now over the next 20 minutes.
- Turn up your oven to around 300 degrees (yes very hot)
- With you pie filling pretty much prepared (simmering away), you now need to make your pastry. My gluten free shortcut pastry is a pretty simple recipe to follow and has never failed me yet.
- In your food processor add all seven dry ingredients (above) and briefly blend.
- Next, crack in theour eggs, add a teaspoon of vinegar and blend again.
- Pour in around 80 mls of good olive oil. Add your oil slowly. Stop when the pastry almost forms a ball in the food processor. That's perfect. Time to stop.
- Spray a sheet of grease proof paper and turn out your dough ball onto the sheet.
- Knead the dough for 2 minutes
- Cut off a thirds of the dough ball and place the 2/3rds piece in cling film and leave it to one side.
- Roughly spread out the dough with your knuckles and then spray another sheet of grease proof paper and place on top.
- With a rolling pin, roll the dough between the two sheets. The secret here is to get it as thin as you can. It should end up being about 2 to 3 mls thick and much larger that you probably need.
- Peel off the top sheet of grease proof paper and place it to one side. Now grab a hold of the bottom sheet of paper and flip the pastry upside down into your deep pie dish the peel off the grease proof paper.
- Now it's time to blind bake your pastry base.
- Remember, the oven is extremely hot, so don't over bake it. You just want to get the baking of the base started. So stick to just the five minutes of blind baking.
- Once five minutes has past, remove the pie shell from the oven and immediately turn your oven back down to around 180 degrees Celsius.
- Fill the pie shell with the chicken, leak and mushroom filling.
- With a second piece of the dough ball, repeat the process to roll out the roof of your pie.
- Remove the top sheet of grease proof paper, then pick up the pastry and flip it over to form the pie lid.
- Press the pie lid pastry to the exposed pastry shell.
- Brush lightly with an egg wash (a scrambled egg) to ensure the pastry comes out a lovely brown. cut a few small slits in the pastry lid to let the steam out.
- Place it back in the oven and bake your pie for about 25 to 35 minutes. Basically, remove it from the oven when the pie lid pastry is a beautiful golden brown.
- Allow the pie to stand and cool for 5 minutes.
- Cut and serve with mashed potato and steamed vegetables.
- Take the third piece of pastry, roll it into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and freeze it. The pasty keeps really well for several weeks in the freezer. It's great to thaw to make a quick apple tart dessert when you;re pressed for time (see my next post).
Oh, and please let me know what you think. Post comments below.
Thanks,
Lee :-)
0 comments:
Post a Comment