We’re all trying to do more with less, and we know what food waste has become a huge issue. I, for one, am not the kind of person who can eat the same meal day in and out, so it pays to have a few ideas when it comes to transforming leftovers into new dishes.
This pie was made from about half a roast chicken I baked, along with the veg. I shredded the meat, and collected the leftover jelly/gravy and veg. In a deep frying pan, I sweated off half a leek and some brown onion, then threw in a cup of roughly chopped mushrooms. After a few minutes, throw in the leftovers with a cup of stock. To round out the gravy, I added a heaped tablespoon of cream cheese and a tablespoon of dijon mustard. Bring everything to a simmer, and thicken with a teaspoon of potato starch, or my favourite trick, liquid kombu. Season to taste and set aside to cool and there you have it, the easiest pie filling.
…but here’s the thing. You can use this process with so many leftovers. Whether it’s a curry, Bolognese (even with the pasta), stew, leftover veg… you can make pretty much anything into a pie filling.
Joe taught me an olive oil pastry recipe that bears sharing (thanks babe!), and it’s brilliant because you need zero pastry skills to pull it off. It’s based on the principle of halves. So for however much plain flour you have, add half that in grams of water, and half that again, of olive oil. So if you have 200g flour, mix in 100g water and 50g oil. It’s also a vegan friendly, should you need a good vegan dough recipe on hand.
For a galette style pie to serve 4:
Ingredients
200g plain flour
100g water
50g olive oil
Sea salt
Method
Make a well in the centre of your flour. Combine the water and oil, then add to the centre of your flour well with a good few pinches of sea salt and bring the dough together. Knead lightly until the dough is combined, soft and pliable. Cover with a clean damp tea towel until ready to use.
When ready to use, heat the oven to 200c. Roll out the dough to about 1/2cm thick and gently drape it over a lined or non stick pie tin. Spoon in your cooled (at least room temp) pie filling and then bring the edges over. brush the pastry with melted butter (you can use Nuttelex if you want to keep it vegan), milk, or egg). Garnish the pie with fresh tarragon or thyme leaves, and sea salt. Cover the exposed filling with a small piece of silicon bakeware or baking paper, and cook for 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
Allow to cool slightly so that the filling solidifies again and you can slice it neatly. You can eat it room temp, chilled a picnic, or simply reheat slices in the oven. Serve with cornichons and Dijon mustard.