Apologies, Mrs Miggins, this one isn’t actually pie-shaped.

Here in this household, we have a book about pies.  It’s got a very imaginative title…

Can you guess where I got the cover picture from?

We’ve made several from in here, but our favourite by far is…

Freeform cheese, bacon and onion pie

Following the recipe in the book it serves 4.  We generally double it!  Leftovers have never been a problem.

Ingredients

• 500g ready-made puff pastry
• Beaten egg (for glazing/general sticking together)
• 2 large floury potatoes
• 1 tbsp veg oil
• 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon cut into 2cm strips
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 200g mature Cheddar, grated
• 3 tbsp double cream
• Ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  Drain and, when cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes into thin slices.  (Alternatively, put the potatoes into a microwave-proof dish, cover and blast in your microwave until they’re done).  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the bacon, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes, until beginning to colour.  Add the onions and cook for 4-5 minutes until softened but not coloured.  Set aside to cool.
3. Divide the pastry into 2 portions (this is where doubling up the recipe makes things really easy!).  Roll out one half to form a 25cm square.  Lay the pastry square on a lightly greased baking tray and brush the edges lightly with the beaten egg.  Spread the sliced potatoes over the pastry, then top with the bacon and onions, leaving a 2-3cm border all the way around.  Sprinkle with the grated cheese, season with ground black pepper.  Drizzle over the cream.
4. Roll out the second piece of pastry to form a 28cm square.  Place over the filling and press the edges together to join.  Trim away any excess and cut a cross in the middle of the pie.  Brush all over lightly with the beaten egg and bake in the top of the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C and cook for a further half hour or so, or until golden and risen.
5. Serve cut into wedges.

This is one of our staple Saturday/Sunday lunches.  Any leftovers from Sunday go into the kids’ packed lunches for Monday.  There’s not usually much left!

If you like pies and don’t have a copy of the book, please purchase one immediately.  Or put it on your birthday/Christmas list.  It’s excellent.  Other highlights include (p62) Spanish pepper and chorizo pie and  (p56) Chicken, leek and tarragon pie.  We’ve been working our way through and there’s some superb sweet pies at the back that we’re dying to try out once this diet has finished for the year!

Now head over to the Recipe Shed and see what other people have done with their pies today!