This is my
third and final recipe that I have created as part of the Applewood Spreadable
#SpreadStirShare challenge in which 20 food bloggers have been tasked with
devising some interesting and delicious family recipes using Applewood Spreadable
as an ingredient. I have already posted my Cheesy
Pea, Leek and Pancetta Gnocchi Bake and the Creamy
Pea, Courgette and Mint Risotto, and my final recipe that I enjoyed last
night was a Cheese and Vegetable Pie with a side of Kale with Chorizo.
Of the
three recipes, this has to be my favourite – but then I do love anything
encased in gorgeous pastry, it’s so comforting on a cold, wet winter’s day, and
this is a delicious pie filling that I will absolutely be making again.
I used
pumpkin, broccoli and leeks in my pie, but you could experiment with whatever
you had to hand really. I made a traditional roux – mixing equal parts of
butter with plain flour as the basis for this unctuous, decadent cheese sauce,
as well as mixing equal parts of the smoky Applewood Spreadable
cheese with unsmoked Cheddar.
The kale
and chorizo side was to convince the boyfriend that we can sit down to dinner
without a big hunk of meat or fillet of fish and with, instead, just a little
smidge of meat-stuffs and I’m happy to report he agreed after this lovely meal.
This served the two of us comfortably with one portion left over for lunch
today – just increase the portion sizes to stretch further!
Here’s
how:
1 small
pumpkin
1 broccoli
head
2 leeks,
trimmed
50g plain
flour
50g salted
butter
65g
Cheddar (I used some Cathedral City I had in my fridge)
300ml milk
(I used full fat)
Salt &
Pepper
Pinch of
nutmeg
250g puff
pastry (I used Jus Rol)
1 beaten
egg
100g kale
100g
chorizo cooking sausages
Firstly
cut the pumpkin in half carefully, and scoop out all of the seeds. Either
retain to toast and enjoy later on or discard. Place on a piece of baking paper
on a baking sheet and place in the oven at around 180-200 degrees and bake for
30 minutes.
In the
meantime chop off the florets of broccoli and chop up into bite-size pieces.
Plunge into some boiling, salted water and cook for 3-4 minutes, to ensure
there will be no biting into rock hard vegetables in the pie. Then drain and
put to the side.
Once the
pumpkin is out of the oven and cool enough to handle, remove the skin and chop
into small, bite-sized chunks. Place into an ovenproof dish, and then add the
broccoli.
Chop the
leeks and then add these, raw to the pie dish with the broccoli and pumpkin.
Next up it’s
time to make your cheese sauce. Firstly weigh everything out equally in advance
so there is no mad scramble mid-sauce-making as it is a bit of a delicate
procedure and needs care and attention! Add the butter to the pan (a tip is to
add it in small little knobs so it takes less time to melt and is less likely
to burn) – keep on a low heat throughout.
Once the
butter is melted, gently add a little of the flour at a time stirring in each
time with a wooden spoon or whisk in gently with a balloon whisk. Keep
repeating this process until all of the flour has been mixed in.
Now you
will add your milk, a little at a time. You may not even need the 300ml, it
will depend on how you prefer the consistency of the sauce to be. Once you’ve
added about half, add the cheese. I firstly added the grated Cheddar and mixed
through until melted through and part of the now-thickening sauce. If you need
to, add a little more milk and then add the Applewood Spreadable,
again stirring all the while.
Once you
are happy with the consistency (it should be thick enough to coat the back of a
spoon and velvety smooth with no lumps), continue to cook on a low heat for a
further five minutes to ensure the flour is all cooked out.
Remove
from the heat, season generously and add a pinch of nutmeg or even cinnamon to
add a little warming spice. Taste at this point to ensure it has the right
flavour to your taste, if not add more cheese for a cheesier flavour or a
little more milk for a milder taste.
Now cover
the vegetables with the cheese sauce, using a spoon to ensure each piece of
vegetable is nicely coated and place to the side for a moment. If you hadn’t
already – get your oven pre-heating at this point at 180-200 degrees.
Now roll
your pastry out accordingly so it will fit snugly over the pie. I baked this as
a ‘pot pie’ with a just a pastry topping to cut the calories down a little, as
it still gives that huge comforting joy of eating a pie, but isn’t quite as
naughty. You could of course also top this with mashed potato and a little
grated cheese too, but for me puff pastry is king.
Once you’ve
covered the pie, egg wash it so it becomes lovely and golden and place into the
oven. If you are artistic you could try and make a beautiful puff pastry
garnish out of the excess pastry – if you are artistically challenged like
myself, you could create something less adventurous:
The pie
needs baking for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and ten minutes before the
end of baking you can start preparing the side dish.
Firstly chop 100g chorizo
sausages into small cubes and add to a dry pan on a medium heat. Chorizo always
exudes its own oils, so none is needed here. Once the chorizo has cooked for a
good few minutes and is nicely charred on all sides, add the washed kale to the
pan and mix continuously. It is more cabbage-like than spinach in the heat and
does retain its pretty shape, a few minutes of cooking and this is ready to
serve.
Remove the
pie from the oven and dish up. Enjoy!
To keep up
with the remaining Applewood
Spreadable challenge follow the #SpreadStirShare hash tag and check out the
Applewood blog for details on the winner due to be announced at the end of this
month: http://applewoodcheese.co.uk/blog.php
Looks excellent...fabulous! I love pie...x
ReplyDeleteThanks - it is a really tasty, comforting dish :-) x
ReplyDelete