Recipe : Pie ala Jamie Oliver

Hehehe, if not for [tag]Jamie Oliver’s [/tag]show, I thought pies are ‘un-do-able’ at home. But after a few episodes of Jamie Oliver’s show, I can now bake anything and call it a pie. I had made a Jamie Oliver fish pie earlier without using crust. Today, I baked one[tag] pie[/tag] with shortcrust pastry.

You can get this ready-made, frozen shortcrust pastry from the frozen section in bigger supermarkets.

We just need to roll it out to the thickness we want and bake. Easy, right?

Normally, I bake things in my Corningware casserole or some other ceramic dishes but I bought these aluminium pie casing to make the crust, err…crusty!

To cut a long recipe short, here’s what I do:

Roll the pastry till very thin and layout on the aluminium casing. Cut off the excess, roll up into a ball and roll them out to make the top.

I filled my pie with:

2 eggs, boiled and slice

2 potatoes, boiled and cut into cubes

2 pieces chicken ham, cut into small pieces

A few sprigs of thyme leaves (take the leaves and discard the hard stem)

Enough cream cheese or any type of cheese to bind the above up. Pour on some olive oil for added flavour.

Flavour with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce or any kind of [tag]English[/tag] seasonings

If you like vegetables, add some button mushrooms, peas, carrots and corns (those frozen mixture?) or spinach or whatever you can get hold of.

I just mix up the ingredients like a salad, pile them into the pie, cover with the other piece of pastry.

I pricked the top with a fork and glaze with beaten egg. Bake in 180 deg. C oven for less than 30 minutes (till golden brown).

I didn’t have time to trim it nicely or anything like that because my toddler was screaming for attention. Therefore, the pie does look a bit ‘harrassed’. Never mind, that’s how Jamie Oliver cooks. He just pile everything and bake minus the fuss of any bean baking or pretty trimmings.

What matter is the pie is tasty minus the oil that we find from store bought pies. Normally, I dislike buying pies from bakeries because the pies ooze oil with every mouthful. I made two pies, enough for dinner. If I have time, I had wanted to make one spicy pie with some curry powder, chicken, onion with the eggs and potatoes.

In short, with a store bought pastry, you can bake any kind of pie. Just keep the fillings dry minus any gravy and you will get a yummylicious, hearty pie within minutes.