Though in reality you can put whatever you want to put into it, the principles are the same.
Cooking time: about 1 hour, depends on the ingredients used
Serves 2–4 depending on portion size.
Ingredients
handful of chicken from the roast, chopped
1 onion (chopped)
2 slices of bacon (chopped)
½ pint of ale
leftover gravy from roast chicken
3 Mushrooms (sliced)
1 ball of pastry (see Pastry recipe here)
1 egg white (beaten)
This is pretty much a catch-all recipe, if you don’t eat bacon for whatever reason, don’t use it, and the same with the Ale, if you don’t drink, then use water.
If you want you can add sweetcorn or peas or whatever you want.
Method
1. Fry the bacon in a pan on a medium heat until it starts to brown, this should take about 3–4 minutes.
2. Add in the Onion and fry this as well until it goes translucent, about 3–4 minutes again for this part.
3. Put the mushrooms and the leftover gravy into the pan with some of the beer, stir it around until the gravy has turned to liquid again.
4. Add in the rest of the ½ pint of ale, and then put the rest in a glass and enjoy.
5. Turn the oven on to 150 C, this is a good time to do it so that the oven is pre-heated when you need it.
6. Now is time to look at the pasty, take it out of the fridge and put it on the counter, remembering to put flour down so that the pastry doesn’t stick.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry until it is the desired thickness, I generally go for about 4–5 mm thick.
8. Stir the filling in the pan, making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan.
9. Use the Rolling pin a second time and roll the pastry round the pin, this is the easiest way to move rolled out pastry.
10. Un-roll the pastry over the dish you are going to use and then gently start lifting the sides up and letting gravity help the pastry fall into the dish.
11. Gently push the pastry into the corners of the dish, then using a knife chop off the excess pastry and roll this up into a ball, this will be used as the pie top.
12. Stir the filling in the pan again, it should take about 15–20 minutes for the gravy mixture to reduce down enough, once this has been achieved then pour the filling into the pie.
13. Roll out the pastry ball that you have left to a similar thickness, using the same method as above.
14. Get the egg white and paint around the top edge of the pie base — this is to help the base and lid stick together, then add the pie lid you have just rolled out over the top, remove any excess.
15. Paint the egg white all over the top of the pie — this time it is done to help brown the top appealingly, and then create two small slits or holes in the top.
16. If you wish, you can get creative and using the excess pastry make some shapes for the top of the pie, or you can just throw it.
17. Put the Pie into the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown on the top.
18. Either eat straight away, or place on a heatproof surface to cool down and enjoy later on.
