Best savoury pie I've ever made!

[Macky]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/Macky77/DSC_2223.jpg

St. Stephen's Day pie... a day late, mind you, but hey. :P~ I found a bunch of recipes online, then kind of winged it. The common thread in all the recipes was a combination of leftover Christmas turkey, ham, mushrooms, cream and tarragon. Most of them had mashed potato toppings (like a shepherd's pie), but a few had actual pastry, which I was going for. Smash 'em all together and voila... mmmmmmm!

ETA: Obviously I've got to thicken the sauce more next time, but otherwise good to go.

[Singingmom]

YUM. :yum

[charla]

That looks delicious. Do you have a recipe?

[Macky]

I'll try to remember what I did... keep in mind, though, that the sauce was too thin, so until I try this again, I won't be able to give exact measurements on that part.

St. Stephen's Day Pie (Robin's version)

4 cups chopped leftover holiday turkey (or chicken)
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups diced potatoes (cover with water if you're prepping veggies first and setting aside)
1 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (if using dried, use a scant 1/2 teaspoon)
3 1/2 cups hot turkey (or chicken) broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the above ingredients in a large pan. Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce heat to gentle simmer. Cook for 15 minutes or until vegetables are cooked, but not too soft – they need to keep their shape with further stirring and baking in the oven.

Set a colander over a large bowl and dump the contents of the pan. Reserve 2 cups of the broth and refrigerate the rest for something else. Why bother using more broth at the start than you need in the end, you ask? Because you need that much liquid to cover all the vegetables in the first step.

4 tablespoons butter
1 pound of fresh mushroom, sliced or chopped
1 cup chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Put your pan back on the stove and melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onions and saute until cooked through and all juices released have been reabsorbed (important step for really good mushroom flavour; most people get rushed and don't wait for juices to reabsorb).

2 tablespoons flour *Note: Will try doubling this to 1/4 cup next time to thicken sauce more.
Broth, 2 cups reserved from previous step
1 cup cream

Sprinkle flour over the onion/mushroom mixture and cook for a minute or so. Slowly add the broth, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Then stir in the cream. Cook until thickened (we're targeting the consistency of a thick gravy). *As per above note, I don't know the perfect amount of flour to get this yet as I haven't tried this a second time yet. If it's still thin, you could add more flour or try cornstarch (don't forget to mix with water first and add gradually).

2 cups chopped, already-cooked ham
chicken and vegetables, reserved from previous step
1 tablespoon lemon juice (double this if you like pronounced lemon-chicken flavour)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

When sauce is good to go, add all the above ingredients and combine well, but gently. Turn filling into pie plates; depending on the size of your plates, this is ample filling for 2 pies.

Since a traditional St. Stephen's Day pie's purpose is to help use up Christmas dinner leftovers, the traditional topping here would be potato mash. Since I didn't host Christmas dinner this year, we had no leftovers to use up, so I went with a pastry crust. Used the pate brisee recipe from my Joy of Cooking cookbook. You can use whatever recipe you like or buy a puff pastry from the store.

Whatever you use (if you're going with pastry), beat up an egg and brush the edge of the pie plate with it before laying the crust on top (helps keep the gravy from bubbling up and over the crust). Pinch the edges or press with a fork... whatever seals it down to the pie plate. Cut vents in the top and brush all over the top with beaten egg.

Bake pies (I did one at a time, putting the second in the fridge while it waited it's turn) at 400˚F until the pastry is golden. With my oven, that was about 25 minutes for the first pie and slightly less for the second.

Gosh, I think that's it... just going from memory here. ;)

[Singingmom]

Lots of good tips in that recipe! :ty

[swimming with sharks]

looks delish.....