Pie and peas and Bonfire Night memories shared with friends

Each week has a theme and pastry week coincided with our bonfire night celebrations. Not that we do the bonfire and fireworks so much these days as our children are grown up and flown the nest, but I do like to make something to eat that is traditional at this time of the year.

Being pastry week, it just had to be pie and peas. I think it must be a very northern thing the mushy peas on the side. I know they are another one of those love them or loathe them things, but I love them. Of course, there days you can buy them in tins, and I sometimes do but this year I bought a pack of dried peas with those tablets in the box that you soak with the peas to hydrate them, very old school!

I made two pies; one was just a shortcrust pastry that I made a pretty lattice effect on the top. The other was a stand pie, that is what our friends over the water called it anyway. Like a pork pie in structure, I made it with a hot water crust but instead of lard I used oil and some paprika to give it an unusual colour. For the filling I did a freezer raid as I knew that I had frozen a big chunk of cooked gammon and some roast chicken from previous Sunday lunches. It is all about using up food and trying to avoid waste. So, the filling was delicious and could easily have been served without being encased in pastry. This is what I did. In a frying pan I soften some leeks, mushrooms and garlic using butter. I added thyme, salt and pepper and Dijon mustard. I chopped up the meat and added it to the pan with a little chicken stock, a splash of white wine and finished it with some double cream. It was so scrumptious, just the right consistency for pie, you need it to be just right to avoid a dry pie or at the other end of the scale a soggy bottom if your filling is too wet, nobody wants a soggy bottom do they!! We really enjoyed our pie and peas and as we ate, we could see the night sky alight with bursts of fireworks and we could hear our neighbours’ children enjoying a bit of bonfire fun in their garden. We found ourselves chatting about our memories of bonfire nights when we were kids too, we always had a huge bonfire with friends and family.