Monday 8 March 2010

Sausage and leek pie



Sometimes you just need pastry.

As I was moaning to my culinary compatriots at Nigella.com earlier, I was struck by a bubble of PhD blues today, a chronic condition suffered by masochistic folks who put themselves through an extra 4 years of university than is entirely necessary... In my experience there are 3 successful ways to pull yourself out of this malaise: prayer (probably most effective!), long walks (the healthy option), and cooking (not always the healthy option). I went for cooking today, prayer will come tomorrow morning...


Ingredients
  • 240g plain flour
  • 120g butter
  • 3-5 tablespoons iced water
  • 6 good beef sausages, skins removed and broken into small lumps
  • 3-4 small leeks, rinsed well and finely sliced
  • 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • Zest 1/2 lemon
  • Good bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
Method
  • Cut the butter into small lumps, mix through the flour and freeze them together for 10 minutes.
  • After 10 minutes tip the whole lot into a food processor and blitz to rubble, then add tablespoonfuls of icy water, pulsing, until the pastry comes together.
  • Turn out and knead briefly, then divide into 2 disks, wrap them in cling and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
  • Cook the onion, leek and sausage together in a large frying pan until the veg are softened and the meat cooked and getting slightly crispy. Pepper well and set aside.
  • Mix the egg with the parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan.
  • Using one disk of pastry, line a 20cm pie plate or low sided cake tin, leaving a little overhang of pastry.
  • Tumble in the leek and sausage mixture, spreading it evenly in the pasty base, then pour over the egg mix.
  • Roll out the second pastry disk to form a lid, and attach it to the overhang of the base using a little cold water. Cut off the excess pastry and crimp all round the edges to seal the lid. Made a hole in the centre of the pie with a fork to release trapped steam.
  • Sit the pie plate or cake tin on a baking tray and cook in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes until golden.
  • Let sit for 10 minutes before eating.

3 comments:

  1. I finshed my MA last year and people keep asking if I'm going to do PHD - the answer is always NO! Hubby would love this pie

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  2. lol! Well done on the MA :-)

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  3. keep trucking with the studies, you'll get there! :) This looks totally delish, and I am sure this raised your spirits! Lucie x

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