Chicken and Asparagus Pot Pie

A recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (30 grams) butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, chopped into small cubes

1 stick of celery, chopped into small cubes

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 cup sliced mushrooms

500 grams chicken breast, cut into small cubes

1 bunch asparagus, woody ends snapped off and the remainder cut into 2cm lengths

1 cup frozen peas

2 handfuls baby spinach leaves

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoons milk or cream

1 egg

1 sheet shortcrust or puff pastry (1/2 a sheet of Carême brand sour cream shortcrust, or a single sheet of Pampas or other supermarket brand)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the onion, carrot and celery, as well as some salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes or until softened.

Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

Add the mushrooms and cook until they have cooked down and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add the chicken pieces, turn the heat up and cook until they have lost all pink colour.

Stir in the asparagus pieces, peas and baby spinach leaves, followed by the flour. Stir the flour in so it's combined evenly with the liquid in the pan, and cook for a few minutes to remove any raw taste.

Add in the stock, tarragon and thyme. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook until the liquid is thickened and the chicken pieces are cooked through. (Approx. 5-10 minutes).

Stir through the milk or cream and turn off the heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Tip the hot mixture into a pie dish (mine is a 24x16x9cm oblong enamel dish), or into individual ramekins for the echt Pot Pie experience. 

Brush the rim(s) of the pie dish(es) with beaten egg, and cover with pastry, pressing along the edges to seal and trimming off any excess. Brush the tops with beaten egg, cut a few slits for air venting purposes, and put straight into the oven. (If the filling is hot, the pastry will start to melt so you'll need to move quickly).  If you want to assemble the pie in advance - let the filling cool completely before topping with the pastry, and keep it in the fridge until you want to bake it.

Bake the assembled pies for 30-45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is piping hot.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 1 large or 4 small pies, feeds 4

Potato and Raclette Tart
Recipe by Sarah Cooks, Pastry from Joy the Baker

Ingredients
For the pastry
160 grams plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
115 grams cold unsalted butter
¼ cup cold buttermilk, plus a few tablespoons extra if required
For the filling
4 medium kipfler potatoes
1 red onion, peeled and finely sliced
1 tablespoon butter
100 grams ham, roughly chopped
125 grams raclette cheese, grated
2 sprigs thyme
1½ cups cream
3 eggs

Method
To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Chop or grate the cold butter into small pieces. Add to the flour and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles damp sand and the butter is evenly distributed. Make a well in the centre and pour in the 1/4 cup buttermilk, stirring with a fork to combine. Once it comes together in a shaggy dough, knead together, and form into a disc. Wrap with clingfilm and refrigerate for one hour (or up to overnight). Roll the rested pastry out into a large circle, approximately 5 millimetres thick. Line a 24cm loose-bottomed flan tin with the pastry and trim the edges. Refrigerate for a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line the pastry case with foil and fill with baking beans or dried pulses. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. Set aside while you make the filling.
To make the filling, peel the potatoes and cut into 1-cm slices. Cook in boiling salted water for 5-10 minutes, or until just tender when poked with a skewer. Drain and set aside.
Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion slices and cook on a low heat until completely soft and dark brown. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Turn the oven down to 180C. Place the onions, potato slices, ham, and grated cheese into the pastry case. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over.
Whisk together the cream and eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the flan tin. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown and just set. Allow to cool slightly for the filling to set before slicing.
Serve with cornichons and green salad.
Makes 1 x 24cm tart

Pumpkin for roasting

There's also a cardamom-infused cream - you bash a few cardamom pods, then place them in a saucepan with some cream and bring it to the boil, take it off the heat and allow it to infuse for twenty minutes or so. This cream then gets strained and, once cooled, added to the eventual pie filling, and it adds a richness and a lovely subtle fragrant note.

Ok, so once you've got your blind-baked pastry case, your tahini-walnut paste, your pumpkin purée, and your cardamom cream (phew), you can finally assemble and bake your pie. (Do you see why I suggest splitting the work up over a couple of days?) But either way, once you get to this stage, you're on the home stretch. You can do it!

Pumpkin Pie Steps

You spread the tahini-walnut paste into the pastry case (use your fingers and wear food gloves; it's easier). You then whisk together the pumpkin purée and cardamom cream with some powdered spices, sugar, salt, polenta and eggs to make the filling, then pour it into the pastry case and bake.  You want it baked until it's juuuuuust set, with a little wobble to it but no obvious liquidness underneath the surface. Once it's out of the oven, decorate with black and white sesame seeds and let it cool completely. Apparently you can slice into it a couple of hours after it's out of the oven, but lots of people (myself included) like it fridge-cold. I left it in the fridge overnight before serving it, and I was glad I did - logistically it made more sense, and as the baker, it was nice to have a little break between the baking and the eating, so that I could actually appreciate it properly when it came time to serve it.

Cardamom-Tahini Pumpkin Pie

Cardamom-Tahini Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving Dinner

I was a little nervous serving this adventurous dessert to a group of friends, but it went down well. My friend Adri said the black layer was like the Asian black sesame dessert she enjoys, and she also went back for extra crust. She'd actually never had or seen a sweet pumpkin pie before (and when I brought it out after that turkey feast, she actually thought I might be pulling out a savoury pumpkin pie as a surprise second course!) German Sandra, who is generally not a fan of weird vegetable-based cakes and desserts, said "it was better than I thought it would be", woohoo.

However, my American friend Alaina described it as an "edible miracle" made from "PURE UNADULTERATED BLISS", and "the best pumpkin pie I have ever had". Hooray! (And I'm sure this was only partly because I spent a good portion of the night explaining how difficult it was to make, heh.)

Cardamom-Tahini Pumpkin Pie

Buttermilk pie crust adapted from Joy the Baker; Pie fillings adapted from Bloomberg (via Lisa Ludwinski of Sister Pie, Detroit)

Ingredients

For the Buttermilk Pie Crust

1.25 cups (160 grams) plain flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon + a pinch salt

113 grams cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup cold buttermilk, plus a few tablespoons extra if required

For the Pumpkin Purée

1.25kg (or more) Kent pumpkin

For the Tahini-Walnut Paste

1/2 cup walnuts

2.5 tablespoons tahini, preferably black

2.5 tablespoons light brown sugar

2.5 tablespoons cream cheese

For the Cardamom Cream

1 cup cream

1/2 tablespoon cardamom pods

For the Pie Filling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon fine polenta

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

To finish

1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds

Method

To make the buttermilk pie crust, place the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Chop or grate the cold butter into small pieces. Add to the flour and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles damp sand and the butter is evenly distributed. Make a well in the centre and pour in the 1/4 cup buttermilk, stirring with a fork to combine. Once it comes together in a shaggy dough, knead together and form into a squat disc. Wrap with clingfilm and refrigerate for one hour (or longer).

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a 5mm thick rough circle. Lift the dough off the bench between rolls to make sure it doesn't stick to the bench. Gently ease the pastry to line a 24x5cm loose-bottomed pie tin. Trim the edges to 1-cm higher than the tin, then fold the dough over and gently press it down so you have a slightly thicker border.

Cover with clingfilm again and refrigerate for another hour.

Now blind-bake the pie. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cover the pastry with foil, gently easing it to sit flush against the pastry, and making sure you cover the border. Fill the pie with pie weights, baking beans, or sugar. Place the dish on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, then carefully remove the foil and pie weights. Bake for another 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown and completely dry. Set aside to cool.

To make the pumpkin purée, preheat the oven to 175C. Peel and de-seed the pumpkin, cutting away any stringy bits in the centre. Cut into rough 4cm chunks. Line two baking sheets with baking paper and divide the pumpkin pieces between them. Bake for 35-45 minutes, swapping the pans halfway through, or until tender when pierced with a fork. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Whizz in a food processor (in batches if required), until completely smooth.

If your purée is quite wet, I would suggest draining it - place a sieve over a bowl, and line the sieve with muslin or coffee filters. Place the purée into the lined sieve and allow excess liquid to drain for an hour or so.

You will need 2 and 1/4 cups pumpkin purée for this recipe. Measure this amount and set aside. Freeze any remaining purée in ziplock bags for future recipes.

To make the tahini-walnut paste, toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan until fragrant, then set aside to cool. Place the walnuts, tahini, light brown sugar, and cream cheese in a blender or food processor and whizz to combine.

To make the cardamom cream, lightly crush the cardamom pods with a rolling pin or other heavy object. Place the cream and pods into a small saucepan, and place over a medium heat. As soon as it starts to bubble, turn the heat off and clamp on a lid. Allow to infuse for 20 minutes. Strain out the cardamom pieces and set aside to cool.

To assemble and bake the pie (finally!), preheat the oven to 160C.

Place the brown sugar, polenta, spices and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the 2 and 1/4 cup pumpkin purée, eggs, vanilla, and cooled cardamom cream.

Pour the egg mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until combined smoothly.

Place the pie crust, in its pie tin, onto a baking tray. Gently pour the mixture into the prepared pie crust (you might not need all of the mixture; don't overfill the crust).

Transfer the pie into the oven, and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the filling is just set, with a little jiggle to it.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sesame seeds and allow to cool for at least 2 hours. I suggest chilling it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Serve with epic amounts of whipped cream.

Makes 1 x 24cm pie, serves 8-12