Tesco Vegetable Pie

About this time last year, my comrade SJL trialled a Tesco Chicken and Vegetable pie, and found it not to be to his satisfaction. His title "An Unfulfilling Situation" says it all really.

I want to see if Tesco have improved on their value pie range. Above, you can see the puff pastry has crisped nicely, and the pie is a nice golden brown colour. However, this pie is very small. The plate may look very large, but I can assure you that's a normal sized plate. The pie really is just that tiny.

The unsubstantial filling

Upon opening the pie, I note that there is a distinct lack of filling. As you can see from the picture above, the filling consists of almost exclusively carrot and broccoli, which appears to have gone mushy and fallen apart in the frothy white gravy. What's more, the quality of the vegetables looked very poor to me, and suspiciously not too dissimilar from what might come out of a value pack of frozen vegetables. The pastry was alright - very light and thin - but very standard.

Add Your Opinion 0 Opinions

New Zealand Pie Review - Gold Star Bakery

Here at Pierate we heard a claim that a small pie shop in a small town in a small country was delivering some top quality pies that could beat anything we've ever tried before. It's a claim we hear often, and obviously we're always willing to do what it takes to put the claims to the test. Even if it means travelling to a small pie shop in a small town in the small country of New Zealand...

 The Gold Star Bakery in Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand, boasts victory at the Supreme Pie Awards in 2003, 2004 and 2009. As we all well know, the Supreme Pie Awards are a pretty big deal, with many international Pierateers keeping a keen eye on the results each year. It was certainly a great privilege to have been given this opportunity by Pierate.co.uk to sample one of their pies firsthand.
 The Gold Star Bakery is very proud of its awards. Incidentally, Rotorua is a town built in a geothermally active area. Let's hope the pie doesn't smell of sulphur like the rest of the town does.
I buy a Chicken and Vegetable pie, which was awarded a Silver Medal at the 2009 NZ Supreme Pie Awards. The packaging informs me of the Gold Star's additional awards of NZ Pie Award Winner 2005, 2006 and 2007. I am very excited!
The pie contains genuine bits of chicken contained in a crispy crunchy delicious golden pastry package, along with some of the smoothest gravy known to the man. The consistency of the gravy is an absolute delight. Too many times I've had a pie that's fallen apart in my hands, but the texture of this pie holds it together perfectly. No fork needed! As you can see the pie is filled to the brim with delicious content. I'm not surprised it's an award winner! The cost was about NZ$4.00, which is about £2.00, not bad for a winning pie. While I would say that the pie is worth travelling to New Zealand for, it's not the best pie I've ever had. It's drawback? When you've had the likes of a Venison and Prune pie, the ingredients in this offering are just not really that inventive.


Score: 6.41/7
TJP

Add Your Opinion 3 Opinions

So as British Pie Week draws to a close I want to take time to reflect on what has been a wonderful festival of pastry and filling. What have I learnt from the week? Mainly that I can eat pie in quantities that surprise even me. It was like the rest of the year was the starter and British Pie Week the main course. Have a look at the photos of this top-crust vegetable pie that I made. Unfortunately I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo until I had eaten most of it, but you get the idea, vaguely. There were loads of different vegetables and I used a Covent Garden leek and potato soup as the base for the sauce which seemed to work well. I would say it was about family sized but I ate nearly the whole pie myself. Some of our regular readers might be surprised that I made a top crust pie. Previously I have come across as a fanatical pie purest who sounds like he is on the verge of advocating some sort of pie ethnic cleansing. I feel that maybe I am mellowing in my old age, I still wouldn't say this was a 'proper pie' (it didn't have meat, gravy or a pastry base) but it was tasty. Mainly though it was because I only had enough pastry for a lid so it was laziness more than anything.

Have a look at this other delightful looking specimen, it is a Raven's Den Chicken and Ham Pie. They are produced at Manor Farm in Buckinghamshire and sold at many farmers' markets around London. At about £5 they aren't the cheapest but they are pretty big, about twice the size of a standard individual pie. The meat is certainly of a consistently high quality and the capacity was packed with the content. The pastry colour looked as good as it tasted. The main downside to this pie was dryness. Take note Raven's Den, a good pie needs plenty of gravy! However this didn't stop me eating the first half with mash and veg and then going back and polishing off the second half. Overall I'd give it about 4.1/7.

So there you go, a fantastic week and a great reason to encourage more people to eat what can be part of a very balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. I leave you with some words taken from the Pie Week website. "A pie is not just a combination of tasty food and the best pastry, it is one of civilisation’s most cracking inventions created through a combination of genius and passion." 'Nuff said.

SJL

Add Your Opinion 0 Opinions