St Patrick’s Day Pie

St Patrick’s Day Pie is made at a time of the year when the core ingredients are still fresh, seasonal, and local. I accept it’s also a cheesy/corny name for a pie, but with the green, white, and gold colours what else could I call it?

Apparently it’s “Pie Week” in the UK. There’s a week for pies now? I just had to redeem myself after the whole Leftovers Pie affair a few weeks ago.

You could eat this pie still warm from the oven, or you could wait for it to go completely cold, wrap it in a snug covering of greaseproof paper, then put it in the fridge overnight. Then, as I did, stuff a hunk into the bottom of your bag for lunch-on-the-go the following day. Some meals are best if you can resist eating them for a while.

[recipe][recipe title=”St Patrick’s Day Pie” servings=”5″ time=”2 hours” difficulty=”medium”]

Ingredients

• 300g shortcrust pastry
• 20g butter
• 2 large leeks, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 head of savoy cabbage, finely sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 100g strong cheddar, cubed
• Beaten Egg (for decoration)

Method

Cut the pastry into 2 pieces – 200g & 100g. Roll out the larger piece of pastry on a floured smooth surface until about 1/2 cm thick. Line a medium (9cm diameter) springform tin with the rolled pastry, leaving the edges of the pastry hanging over the side. Place into the fridge. Cover the smaller piece of pastry and put it into the fridge until later.

Take a large frying pan, place it onto a medium heat and melt the butter. Gently fry off the leeks until they just begin to soften. Add the potatoes and coat in the leek/butter mixture. Stir around until the edges of the potatoes begin to soften. Add the finely sliced cabbage and ground nutmeg, stir well and remove the pan from the heat. Allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes before stirring in the cubes of cheese.

Preheat a (fan) oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Remove the lined tin from the fridge and trim the excess pastry. Fill the lining/pastry case with the cooked vegetable mixture. Roll out the reserved smaller piece of pastry and use this to cover the top of the pie. Tuck all the extra edges inside the casing and crimp (pin with your fingers) the edges together to create a seal.

Put the tin onto a baking tray and place into the oven for 50 minutes.

After 50 minutes, leaving the oven on, gently take out the pie and remove the tin. Put the pie back onto the baking tray. Brush with a little beaten egg and return the pie to the oven for a further 20-30 minutes, until a dark golden colour. Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool before serving (or see instructions above to keep the pie for the following day).[/recipe]

Notes

Why not use red cheddar for more “gold” colour? I try not to buy dyed cheddar and prefer to go with the plain version. You could if you wanted to.

What are the bumpy bits on top? The 3-year-old got involved and crumbled bits of cheese in lumps over the pastry top, rather than grating. Visual pie perfection is over-rated. If you close your eyes it’ll still taste the same.