Bacon and Egg Open Top Pie

I was having a little chat with my housemates today as they had just come back up to Sunderland after spending a long weekend at their parent's and I was asked, "So Steph, what have you been baking this weekend?" I told them about the my Sausage and Leek pie, my rubbish second attempt at an Apple and Cinnamon Crumble and my plans to make a Cherry Loaf and Andy reminded me about an open topped pie that I had made ages ago, that I professed I had never made, so he said "Check your blog if you don't believe me." Well...I've checked it and can't find it, yet I have a picture of it on my phone. So here is a very delayed recipe for my very Mediterranean looking Bacon and Egg Open Top Pie.

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Ingredients

I used my loose bottomed flan tin for this recipe: about 24cm-26cm

For the Filling:                                                                      For the Pastry:

5 Eggs                                                                                      200g Plain Flour

5 Bacon Rashers                                                                  50g Lard

4 Large Tomatoes (Or lots of cherry toms)              50g Butter

6 Large Mushrooms                                                           Pinch of Salt

1/2 Onion                                                                               3-4 tbsp Cold Water

8 tbsp Single Cream

Salt

Pepper

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut up the pieces of fat into little cubes and massage into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water, little by little until you can knead the mixture into a ball and clean the bowl. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about 30mins.

2.  Preheat the oven to 200degreesC.

3. Roll out the pastry and line your flan/pie tin. Place some baking paper in the centre, making sure the edges of the pastry are covered and sprinkle in some baking beans/rice and blind bake for 20mins. 

4. Remove from the oven and using one of the eggs, egg wash the pastry and place bake in the oven for 5mins UNCOVERED. (This will further support the pastry to avoid soggy bottoms!)

5. Meanwhile gently fry the bacon and onion and chop into little pieces. Line the bottom of the pastry case, scattering the pieces fairly evenly. Add the chopped, uncooked tomatoes and mushrooms, leaving space to crack the eggs into. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Crack one egg into each quarter of the pie...it will feel a bit odd adding raw eggs at this stage, but it looks pretty special when cooked. Then drizzle over the single cream. At this point, I thought the pie looked a bit to dry and I thought the mushrooms were going to burn, so I kept on adding cream til I was happy...but then when I cut into it later, it was a bit too liquidy. You just have to use your best judgement about how much cream to add.

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It was such a yummy pie!! I didn't serve it with anything special - just a bit of salad, but as a whole, it really reminds me of a cross between a quiche/pie that you would have in the warmer months. Normally, Andy's mum would whisk the eggs so it was more quiche based, but presentation wise, I think the eggs add another dimension to the pie. If you want, you can always add more eggs depending on how many people you are cooking for. You can also adapt this recipe so that you can add whatever vegetables that you like. Yum, yum yum!

Bon Appetit!!