Sausage and Leek Pie

So, it's been a while since I made some pastry and I kinda thought it was one of those things were you either 'use it, or lose it' so I asked Andy for some ideas of a pie filling he would like me to try out. We had some leeks in the fridge that I got for a bargain price of 69p and they were looking a bit worse for wear, so we researched some leek pie ideas. Alot were cheese based (Andy can't have cheese based sauces) and others involved using chicken (chicken is really expensive so kind of ruins the idea of making a poor man's pie) so we came up with the idea of combining sausages and leeks - we thought why not, afterall you have sausages with onion gravy and leeks are from the same family, so I gave it a shot.

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Ingredients

(I used the same sized dish as with the Minced Beef and Potato Pie - serves 6)

Pie Filling                                       Pastry

8 Pork Sausages                           400g Plain Flour

3 Leeks                                          200g Butter

30g Butter                                     2 Pinches of Salt

30g Plain Flour                             4 tbsp Cold Water

300ml Milk

3 tsp Mustard (your choice)
Salt
Pepper
1 egg

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the butter in SMALL CUBES (you will see why I stress this later!) Crumble with your fingers until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the water, little by little and when the pastry begins to combine and can 'clean' the side of the bowl, you know it's ready. Knead into a ball and wrap in cling film. Leave in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour. (If you make the pastry like this, you will have enough for a pie bottom AND lid, so when it gets to just after step 3, you will be able to line your pie dish with your pastry here....however I messed it up, as you will see!)

2. Preheat the oven to 180degreesC.

3. Grill/fry the sausages until browned on the outside. Chop into chunks and place in your pie dish.

4. Fry the chopped leeks in the butter and season with salt and pepper. Once all the butter has melted sprinkle the flour over the leeks and stir continuously. Leave to cook for 3mins or so. Take off the heat and add the milk slowly, yet again, stirring continuously. Add the mustard and season with the salt and pepper.

5. Pour the creamy leek mixture over the sausages that are already cut up in the pie dish.

6. Roll out the pastry and lay on the top of your pie. Use the beaten egg wash and a pastry brush to spread it evenly on the pie lid to get a lovely golden colour. Place on a backing tray in the oven for about 40-45mins.

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We both absolutely loved this pie hot, with a bit of mash and some boiled carrots, however, Andy wasn't so keen on it cold as apparently the leeks tasted like 'jellied slimey eels'....I thought it was scrummy though. 

But, I must admit I MAJORLY cocked up the pastry this time (I told you - use it or lose it!) because I was trying to be clever and take a short cut, so instead of adding the butter in small cubes, I added it all in one go. Consequently when I tried to roll out the pastry it kept crumbling, so I added water then it kept sticking...basically it was a right old mess!!! Furthermore, because I cheated the gluten didn't form properly and therefore the pastry didn't expand to the right quantity, so instead of having a pastry bottom and top, we only had the lid. Whoops!!!

So....because I cocked the pastry up so much, I didn't take a photo, sorry! It just looked like a completely botched up 'pie', but trust me when I say it tasted yummy!!

Why don't you give it a go and add your piccies?? Let me know how it goes guys :)

Bon Appetit!!