Mmm..pie

There are a few places around here that make a delicious homity pie, Denby pottery café sells one, as does our favourite Bloomers Bakewell pudding shop in Bakewell. We have been known to detour to there just so we can eat warm homity pie whilst sitting by the river Wye watching the trout darting about.

This is my version of the lovely, originally vegetarian pie. I could not resist adding pancetta as it adds a great extra flavour but I am sure it would work without, or with bacon chunks instead. On a cold day this is great with baked beans and good cold or warmed up next day.

I have had a couple of quiche based disasters recently. I can’t seem to get them to be quite the right consistency and it can all go horribly wrong. With a Homity though, there is no need to worry about that as there is nothing to ‘set’ as such. Try it!

Cooked, styled and photographed for Center Parcs Village Life Magazine

Homity Pie

• Make up a batch of ‘rich pastry’ – recipe below, or use whatever pastry you fancy, or even leave out the pastry completely (see below).
• Refrigerate for 20 mins then roll out
• Butter a pie dish and line it with rolled out pastry with a good overhang as it will shrink, a lot
• Prong it with a fork and blind bake it for 10-15 mins on 200 degrees

I find that I don’t need to do the baking beans thing if I use wholemeal pastry

• Peel, cube (dice size) and slowly fry 1lb potatoes in olive oil until soft and browned, new potatoes stick a bit but are still nice
• Peel, finely slice and fry 1lb of onions until soft and browned
• Add 2 sliced garlic cloves to the onions near to the end of their cooking time
• Fry off a pack of cubetti di pancetta – easy to find in the shops with the deli meat, or use bacon (I keep packs in the freezer)

All of the above can be done in advance like this:

Mix all this together in a large bowl

• Add a small handful of chopped herbs: marjoram, thyme, that sort of thing
• Add plenty of salt and pepper, 2 really big pinches of each
• Stir in a small carton of double cream (100-150ml)
• Take off the heat
• Stir in 2oz mature grated cheese – like cheddar
• Pile into your blind baked pastry in the pie dish
• Add another 2oz cheese on top
• Cook in a hottish oven (180-190) for 25-30 mins until golden

Allow to cool for ½ an hour before you eat. It’s great for picnics too.

‘Rich Pastry’

Put 180g of flour in a bowl, I use a mix of 1/2 plain flour and 1/2 wholemeal

• Rub in 100g butter
• Add 50g grated parmesan and a pinch of salt
• Add some stripped thyme leaves if you have them
• Add 1 egg yolk mixed with 1tsp water gradually to bring it into a ball
• Wrap in cling film and put in fridge

You can cook any strips of leftover pastry with a bit of cheese on the top as impromptu cheese straws.

Sorry the photo’s are a bit blurry, it’s because I was in a real rush, light was fading and pie was begging to be eaten. I shall be having the rest of it cold for my lunch.

This recipe is also featured on the Fabulous Places Blog

STOP PRESS! I just made it again, but used filo pastry. Works a treat…, Filo crust is the version showed at the top of the page.

AND AGAIN! I made it this week without ANY pastry. Just topped it with panko crumbs (or breadcrumbs) and a cheese. Hey presto, Homity Crumble.