How to make perfectpies,
In our BBC Good Food Podcast, Tom shares his tips for perfect pastry and fillings
PUT A LID ON IT
I know we get fish and cottage pie, but a real pie’s got to have a pastry lid. The types of pastry you can use are hot water, suet, short, sweet, filo... there are so many variants.
WHAT’S INSIDE COUNTS
Pies can be cheap and cheerful at a football match, or served in top-end restaurants, but either way the ingredients have to be lovely; they’ve still got to be treated with love and respect. Someone could make a chicken tikka pie with a lot of care, heart, and soul and make it delicious, and someone could make a really bad steak and ale pie – which one is going to be best? The one that’s been looked after and loved. That’s the one I’d rather eat, irrespective of what the filling is. A pie filling is also a cost-e ective way of using humble pieces of meat. You’re not going to buy a fillet of beef and put it in a pie – you might for beef en croute or in a wellington, but wrapping something in pastry doesn’t make it a pie.
I sound like a bloke that cooks loads of o al, but I’m not that guy. Give me the choice between a steak and kidney or steak and ale pie, and I’ll go with the latter. Kidneys have a strong, massive, overpowering flavour. At the Coach in Marlow, we do game, beef, and chicken and tarragon pies, and at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, we do a pig’s cheek pie shaped into a pig’s snout on top.
MAKE IT EASY
You can buy very, very good puff pastry from the supermarket that does a great job, but look for all-butter if you can find it. Same with filo – it’s light, fresh and crisp. I like making hot water pastry for pies. It’s very quick, easy and really forgiving. Mix lard or butter with hot water and bring to the boil, then pour in flour, bring it together and wrap it up. Stick it in the fridge and leave to rest. It’s very easy to roll.
PLAN AHEAD
You can blind-bake pastry for a pie before you need it. So much of good cookery is an understanding of structure and preparation. If you’re going to make a custard tart for Sunday, you can make the pastry on Wednesday, roll it out on Friday, blind-bake it on Saturday, and put the custard in it on Sunday.