The Pie Room Recipe Book by Calum Franklin - Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion Pie Review

British Pie Week is a special time of year and the Pierate virtual pie night seemed a perfect excuse to go for something a bit fancy. One of the best known producers of fancy pies is Calum Franklin who we previously talked to about the beautiful pastry creations he makes for the Holborn Dining Room where he has created a specific 'Pie Room'. Calum has now released a recipe and guide book called 'The Pie Room' and given the time we are spending at home in the lockdown it seemed the perfect thing to try out for British Pie Week. Unfortunately on the Pierate Ship we are more known for eating pies and some of our creations have been far from beautiful so I was a bit concerned about how this would go. I also had to alternate from the recipe in that I made Gluten Free pastry so that Pierateer ALE could also enjoy the pie. We are moving house and had a glut of onions to use so I chose the Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion Pie. It also contained a lot of milk and cream which sounded great to me, being from a dairy farm I do love my milk. This was the first time I had ever made a freestanding pie, I was worried that it might completely fall apart but despite using notoriously crumbly gluten free pastry it only cracked slightly. The pie took absolutely ages to make so I didn't feel motivated to do more than a simple pastry homage to British Pie Week but it was still one of the best looking pies I have ever made (the competition isn't strong though). I slightly got the advice on egg glaze wrong which was a bit disappointing because I was keen to get a pie as deep brown as the ones Calum makes, but it was still a pleasing colour. The pie sliced like a dream which was one of the joys of making this free standing pie, it really still looked like pie when served up on your plate. I made the recipe with half the listed ingredients and Pierateer ALE and I had a quarter each.

But how did it taste? I always find it strange to review a pie I have made but if I give the credit to Calum I think I can say that this was delicious. I can't actually remember having a meat-free pie as tasty as this. It would definitely be worthy of a Pierate Highly Recommended award. There wasn't anything too fancy or difficult to source in the recipe except quite a lot of fresh rosemary and thyme. This, along with the onion and some garlic added a delicious taste to the creamy and cheesy filling. The filling was built in layers which adds to the appearance. Unfortunately with my smaller version I think it was too shallow to fully reveal the layers but it still looked good. It was quite remarkable how moist this pie was despite being free standing. The potato was soft but retained some bite giving it a satisfying consistency. A pie really befitting of British Pie Week and I would certainly recommend it if the meat free content sounds appealing to you.

Cheesy Dauphinoise & Caramelised Onion (The Pie Room Recipe by Calum Franklin)
6.25/7

SJL

P.S. A few words on the making of this pie, I really tried to follow the recipe to the letter which took me ages. Although the ingredients were simple the potato and onion were separately cooked on the hob, then also in the oven before being wrapped in pastry. The final pie then took 45 minutes in the oven. There was also a lot of times where you had to put things in the fridge to chill, it felt complicated to someone not used to these things. I think the pie would fall apart without following all the steps so overall allow plenty of time. I made the filling the day before which worked well. The main thing that I found really amazing was that the filling all held together when I turned it out of a dish on top of the pastry. Then through some miracle my gluten free pastry stayed in one piece as I turned this onto the filling. If making this kind of pie appeals to you I would recommend the book which is well written and includes plenty of general guides, tips and tricks as well as the actual recipes.

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The Ship's Cook once again cooks up a storm in the kitchen during British Pie Week to try out an intriguing new pie flavour we've yet to try before! For all 20+ of the previous reci-pies made by the Ship's Cook, check out our Reci-pie Page!

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Grab a pie, take a seat, and let me tell you a tale about a legendary pasta pie!


Many years ago, before I’d joined the Pierateers as Ship’s Cook, a television cookery show introduced me to a pie concept so fantastic that I spent the next decade dreaming about making it. Seriously, I just looked it up and it was an episode of the Hairy Bikers back in 2006. They went to Emilia Romagna in central Italy and made a recipe called “Pasticcio di Maccheroni” inspired by Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. “Pasticcio di Maccheroni” is a pasta pie – how brilliant is that?!

 
Ever since then I’ve been threatening to make my own pasta pie. Twelve years later and I’ve acquired an English translation of Pellegrino Artusi’s book and a husband who’s part-Italian, and I’ve put a four course dinner and a three-tiered cake in pastry, so this British Pie Week I decided it was finally time to tackle the Pasticcio di Maccheroni…

It didn’t quite go to plan.

For a start, the recipe has a very long list of ingredients that didn’t sound all that appealing. We’ve put a lot of things in pies over the years (pythons and crocodiles, for a start) but I really didn’t fancy chicken gizzards. I also didn’t have a clue where to get them from, and even if I had there was a bigger problem heading my way – some of the worst snow, ice and storms that the UK had seen in years. Getting to the shops proved to be pretty hazardous, but a Pierateer will not be stopped, so I decided I was going to make my very own pasta pie with whatever I could find in my kitchen cupboards.

The Recipe: 


This is probably one of the shortest ingredient lists you’ll ever see:

• Shortcrust pastry - I only had wholemeal flour, so that’s what I used, and I added some grated parmesan in an attempt to be a bit more Italian.
• Pasta – I used rigatoni but I see no reason why you couldn’t use spaghetti or any other type of pasta.
• Pasta sauce - I had some Dolmio Pasta Bake sauce, but you could use whatever you’ve got left in your cupboard after the Beast from the East.
• Cheese – I used Parmesan.
• Milk or egg to brush the top of the pie.

The method is just as simple. I rolled out two thirds of the pastry to line the pie dish, then blind baked the base.

 
Meanwhile, I cooked the pasta and added the sauce. Once the pie base was ready I filled it with pasta and sauce and grated some cheese on top.

 
Finally, I rolled out the rest of the pastry to make a lid, put it on top of the pasta and crimped the edges to make a proper pie. I didn’t have any eggs so I brushed the top with milk, then baked the pie until pastry was crisp and golden brown.

 
The Seven Cs:

Colour: A lovely golden brown – I find it a bit harder to tell when wholemeal pastry is cooked so I had to tap it to check it was nice and crisp.

Consistency: A little bit boring, as it was just pastry, pasta and sauce. It needed some meat or vegetables or something to add some more texture.

Capacity: Very full, but if you made this and really squashed the pasta down, or poured a really thick sauce over the top before adding the pie lid, you could probably get even more filling in here.

Chewiness: I’ll admit, this was a bit chewy, but then pasta is meant to have a bit of bite to it so if you’re going to put pasta in a pie then there’s not a lot you can do about the texture.

Content: Not the most exciting of fillings, but it tasted nice. I think Pellegrino Artusi might have been onto something with his much longer list of ingredients - pasta pie needs an interesting sauce (layers of Bolognese or cheese sauce would have been nice, I think).

Cheapness: Really cheap. In my case it was technically free because I had all the ingredients in the cupboard already. It’s also really filling because it’s pasta wrapped in pastry, so you get quite a few servings from one pie.

Condition: Surprisingly good! The first slice fell apart completely but the rest of the pie stayed intact and once it had cooled down a bit the slices held their shape really well – I think pasta pie needs time to set and should be served warm instead of hot.

 
So in the end, my pasta pie didn’t end up being anything like Pellegrino Artusi’s. It was a lot of fun to make, and it definitely fulfilled some of the key pie criteria of being warming, filling and tasty. Having said that, I’m not altogether sure that pasta needs to be in a pie after all.

Next British Pie Week perhaps I’ll try a pizza pie like SJL…

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This is quite possibly my favourite pie ever, and it might even be one of the best things I've ever baked - it was certainly worth the time and effort it took to make it! If you're looking for a way to celebrate British Pie Week, this is the way to do it!

The Ship's Cook

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British Pie Week is drawing to a close, and what an eventful week it was! The Pierateers have travelled round the UK, eaten pies in a variety of ways, taken on pie challenges and seen some serious pie drama as a PASTY won the British Pie Awards. After hearing about all their adventures, I needed a pretty good #PiePledge to keep up with them. And so, I am very proud to present....the Great British Pierate Ship!

The Recipe:

Not only did I want to bake a Pierate Ship, I wanted it to be a Great British Pierate Ship, so I chose ingredients from around Britain. Herefordshire beef from England, neeps and tatties from Scotland (there was some debate about whether neeps were swedes or turnips so I used both), leeks from Wales and cider from Ireland (Magners is actually made in the Rebublic of Ireland which really makes this a British Isles pie, but that was the only Irish cider I could get so I hope nobody will mind). What makes this recipe even more exciting is that a beef and cider pie is sometimes known as a Smugglers' Pie - what better filling for a Pierate ship?


I browned the beef with some salt, pepper and plain flour, then set it aside and cooked the leeks, neeps and tatties. Then it all went back in the pan with the cider for an hour and a half of very slow cooking. I also had some mushrooms lying around, so I added them for the last half hour even though I hadn't originally planned on using them.



I made the whole pie out of shortcrust pastry - a good pastry for structural integrity! I used an enamel pie dish, some baking parchment and lots of baking beans to support the hull of the ship.


Then it was time to fill the hull and put the lid on...


And finally, once it was golden brown, add a sail and the Pierateers' flag!


Colour: 
You can't really tell from the photos, but this was a lovely golden colour and very crispy, especially around the edges.

Consistency:
This pie had a really nice consistency - the cider cooked down to make a lovely thick, smooth sauce.

Capacity:
The capacity of this pie wasn't quite as good as it could be because of the unusual shape - if you ate the bow you go a lot of pastry. Still, I think it was worth it, and there was still quite a lot of filling packed in there.



Chewiness:
Cooking the filling for so long meant the beef was really tender and the leeks were lovely and soft. The neeps, tatties and mushrooms still had a little bit of bite left so they were soft but not too mushy.

Content:
This tasted really really good - the cider and leeks added a nice sweetness to the meaty beef flavour, and the neeps and tatties reminded me a bit of a Cornish pasty (although it might be best if I don't say that too loudly after the British Pie Awards!) The last minute addition of mushrooms turned out to be a good idea, as they added a nice earthy flavour. 

Cheapness:
This is a great value pie - root vegetables and stewing beef are cheap ingredients that taste great, and cider isn't too expensive either. I ended up with loads of spare filling as well, which means I can make another pie sometime!

Condition:
I have to give myself full marks here - look at that pie! The shape definitely makes an impression and the pie held together when it came out of the tin!

I'm incredibly pleased with the results of my #PiePledge -  although now I'm a bit worried about trying to beat it next year!

The Ship's Cook

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The Ship's Cook is making her way through pie recipes from the UK's major supermarkets and this British Pie Week outing is from Aldi. Check back this weekend to see how the Ship's Cook gets on with baking her own British Pierate Pie!

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If my calculations are correct, I must have baked my way around almost half of the UK's major supermarkets by now, and there are still more to come! That's a lot of pies, but never fear readers, because I'm happy to test them out so you don't have to (although I think you should anyway because pies are delicious).

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The Ship's Cook (aka @the_cookworm) is currently on a pie mission - to find the top rated pie recipes from our nations supermarket suggestions. It started with a tweet we were sent by @jimbolimbo9 suggesting we try two pork pastry recipes from the supermarket Morrisons and from this The Ship's Cook decided to select one reci-pie from each supermarket's website or magazine to make and rate. Today is the turn of Sainsbury's Chicken and Leek pie!

If there's one thing that searching for recipes has taught me, it's that supermarkets have some funny ideas about what constitutes a pie. There are a lot of tarts and a LOT of stews with pastry lids out there, and don't even get me started on the time Tesco put up a poster with a picture of some sausage rolls and called them pies!

In the absence of real pie options, but wanting to continue in my supermarket pie quest, I have adopted a new motto: If in doubt, add a crust. Which is exactly what I've done in my next reci-pie review.

The Recipe:

This time it's a chicken and leek pot pie from Sainsbury's - you can find it here: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/find-recipes/recipes/chicken-poultry-and-game/chicken-and-leek-pot-pies 

In case you're a 'dive right in and start cooking without reading the recipe to the end' sort of person, I think I should warn you that you need separate pans for the chicken and the sauce, and also a bowl or a plate to put the leeks on. If you're not prepared you risk slight pie-related chaos in your kitchen (I speak from experience...)

The original recipe suggests you serve this pie in individual dishes - this works well, but I used slightly bigger ones than suggested so I could add a shortcrust pastry base and ensure the filling was fully encased.


The 7 Cs of Pie Rating:

Colour:
I was really impressed with the colour of this pie! Obviously when you're baking your own pie you can leave it in the oven for as long as you need to make it turn a nice golden brown, but the scrunchy bits of filo pastry seemed to brown particularly nicely. I'm going to have to investigate some other filo pies now...

Consistency:
This had a nice thick sauce thanks to the addition of flour, and the cheese and milk mixture made it really creamy. Once I'd filled up the pies there was some sauce left in the pan to use like gravy, which I liked.


Capacity:
Sigh. A big fail here, as the original recipe was called a pie but was really a stew with a top crust. Once you add a bottom crust to turn it into a real pie, there's a lot of filling so you can get a really good crust:filling ratio.


Chewiness:
The chicken was lovely and tender, the leeks were soft but flavoursome and the peas added a bit of bite - lots of points scored here.

Cheapness:
The addition of filo pastry makes this a bit more expensive than your average pie, but the rest of the ingredients aren't too bad - a lot of them are things you might buy anyway, like garlic, mustard, and peas. The recipe does feed a lot of people - it says six and I think that's about right.

Content:
I really enjoyed the flavours of this pie. I thought the mustard might be a bit overwhelming, but it wasn't at all - you could still taste the chicken, leeks, and peas and the creamy sauce was lovely with the crispy filo pastry. Yum.

Condition:
Two words - soggy bottom. These pies looked absolutely delicious when they came out of the oven, with brown crispy tops and a tempting smell, but the shortcrust base was a bit soggy despite me blind baking it before adding the filling. I can see why this was originally a stew with a lid - but you could probably make the sauce a bit thicker and put the filling in the fridge before filling the pies to try and avoid this problem.


The Ship's Cook 

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Oh my apple pie! The Great British Bake Off is back on our TV!!!

What better sight than a row of freshly baked pies?

Oops... perhaps got a little carried away there! But anyway, unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll have no doubt heard that the Great British Bake Off kicks off at 8pm on Wednesday 5th August and we can't wait to get the party started! We of course have fond memories of the last two series (when we properly started getting into it). No doubt you can all remember Frances Quinn's amazing baking designs and fabulous picnic pie in the 2013 final (see link below if not or if you just want a reminder!) And of course last year we had the wonderful Kate Henry being awarded star baker in Pie Week - and we hope to try her pies in the coming months ahead!

But one thing many of you may remember from last year, away from the main Wednesday night show, was how we aboard the Pierate Ship got involved in the Bake Off - and Pie Week in particular! Not only did we have a steak pie-off between Paul and Mary that has had a whopping 1,600 views already but we also then got invited to star on Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice! Yes - those two odd people who cooked an exotic pie for Michel Roux Jnr to rate (we cooked a genuine crocodile pie, for goodness sake!!!) were in fact none other than Pierateer Rob (who has since been on BBC One's Rip Off Britain as a pie expert) and the Ship's Cook - who is about to reveal to the world how Mary and Paul's pies rate in her latest GBBO pie-off to see who will be crowned Star Baker in 2015! Bring on the pies!!!

Excellent news for all you cake, bread, biscuit, pastry and especially pie fans - The Great British Bake Off is back! The adverts have been counting down the days and I just couldn't resist any longer... I had to get into the kitchen and bake some pies.

You might remember that last year I pitted Paul Hollywood against Mary Berry by rating their steak pie recipes. Well it's time for a rematch and this time I've been testing their apple pie recipes.

The Recipes:

Mary Berry's Proper Apple Pie is a classic recipe - just apples, sugar and shortcrust pastry (you can find it here). Paul Hollywood, however, takes a more regional approach with a mix of apples and the surprising addition of cheese in his Yorkshire Apple and Wensleydale Pie (which you can find here).

So, which of the Bake Off judges did I crown Star Baker? Read on to find out!


The Seven Cs:

Colour:
Both pies were a beautiful golden brown and looked really appetising, although Paul's pies had some extra crispy patches from where the cheese had leaked out which I think just gives him the edge in this category.

Consistency:
Mary's pie was my favourite in this category, with a lovely jammy apple sauce alongside the chunks of apple. Paul's pies had a nice creamy texture from the cheese and certainly weren't dry, but they didn't have the same sauce-like quality as Mary's.

Capacity:
Both scored pretty highly in this category with plenty of filling, although if you make Paul's pies be sure to pack the slices of apple really firmly into the crust, otherwise when they cook down you get a bit of an air gap under the lid.

Chewiness:
Paul and Mary have slightly different ways of cooking the apple in their pies, but in both versions you end up with soft, mushy apple with just a little bit of bite left. The cheese in Paul's pies was soft and melted which added a nice creamy texture alongside the apple.

Cheapness:
These are both really cheap pies - some cooking apples and sugar won't cost you very much. Technically Mary wins in this category because you don't have to buy any Wensleydale, but the cheese isn't exactly going to cost a fortune!

Content:
Both pie fillings are delicious. Apples and sugar, great. Apples and cheese, also great. Paul just sneaks ahead with the novelty value of added cheese though.

Condition:
I made mini pies rather than large ones because even I can't eat two giant pies in one sitting, and they looked lovely - golden brown, the perfect round pie shape and the filling stayed put when I cut them in half. I think it's safe to assume that the full sized versions would work just as well.

And the winner is...

So here's the thing - Paul's apple and cheese pies are seriously delicious. I could not stop eating them. They're sweet and salty and melty and just really really good. However...if I'm having apple pie for pudding I want to put ice cream or custard on it, or even ice cream AND custard. I cannot do that if you've put cheese in my pie (well, I could, but it would be terrible). So if this was just a pie Bake Off then Paul would win hands down, because cheese and pastry makes the best combination. But unfortunately for Paul this is an apple pie Bake Off, so Mary's lovely traditional pies are going to be smothered in custard and she will be pronounced Star Baker!

The Ship's Cook

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