The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (35 page)

Cut the butter into small lumps.

Rub the butter into the flour, using your fingertips …

… and lifting the mixture up to get as much air into it as possible. Stop as soon as you have a fine mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the water very slowly and evenly, mixing as you go with a round-bladed knife or a spatula and finally with your hands, until you have a ball of pliable dough that just holds together.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and leave it in the fridge to relax for at least half an hour.

To roll out the pastry, dust both the clean work surface and your rolling pin with a little flour.

Use an even, gentle pressure on the rolling pin, rolling until the pastry is about 3-5mm thick. Chill the pastry in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before filling.

Whatever kind of filling you choose, be it meat, fish, vegetable or fruit, pies come in all shapes and sizes. In every case you should let the pastry rest in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before filling it – this should prevent it shrinking during the cooking time.

It is really important to make sure the filling is cool before using it, so it is useful to make the filling first, allowing it time to cool while you roll and rest the pastry.

Once you have covered a pie with pastry, brush the top with beaten egg or – easier – milk to make it shiny and golden when it emerges from the oven.

Any of the pie filling recipes and variations on
pages 115
-
19
can be made up into different kinds of ‘pie’, according to what you like the look of:

Pasties
The simplest, no-pot pie is a pastry envelope in the shape of a Cornish pasty or half-moon. It’s like scrunching up a rather badly wrapped parcel and whatever you do it can’t fail to look amazing. For a pasty big enough to serve 2, roll out the pastry to a rectangle roughly 30 x 20cm and about 3-5mm thick. Transfer this to a lightly greased baking tray and let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Plonk the (cooled) filling into the centre and draw up the longest sides over the top until they meet in the middle. Then pinch and squash the edges together until you get to each end. Curl these ‘tails’ around, squash them down and cut off any excess.