I'm going to show you how to make individual chip shop style cheese and onion pies.
They're lovely and cheesy and melt in the middle and perfect for a meat-free dinner.
Hi I'm Nicky, welcome back to our kitchen where we show you how to make delicious
family-friendly recipes. Chris and I are both from the north of England where pie is practically part
of the culture. We now live on the south coast and it's very hard to beat fish and chips by the sea,
but I do really miss those pies sometimes and it can be quite hard to get hold of them down here.
So let's get cooking, we're going to start by preheating the oven to 200c or 400f.
For this recipe I'm using shop bought short crust pastry
but if you wanted to make your own you can check out my Cornish pasty
video where I make my own pastry and that will work just fine for this recipe too.
Unroll a 320 gram roll, which is about 11 ounces, of pastry and slice it into four squares.
Line four individual pie dishes with the pastry squares so the
pastry covers the base and size and overhangs slightly.
So you use these extra bits at the end of the roll just to ensure you're completely covering the base
and size of the pie dish. Now if you wanted to go with a large pie you can go ahead and do that
but I wanted to go with that individual chip shop vibe so i'm using these little cheap tin foil tins.
Once the pie dishes are covered in pastry use a
fork to prick several holes in the base section of the pastry.
Cover each pie case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans.
I like to scrunch up the baking parchment so it gets right into the edges of the pie.
For the baking beans, you can actually buy baking beans or
you can use any kind of dried beans or rice. This is so we can blind bake the
base of the pie so it's going to be lovely and crispy all the way around.
Place on a tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes to par-cook the base of the pies.
Whilst the pastry cases are baking in the oven we're going to start on the filling,
so I've got a potato here that's been diced into quite small pieces
and we're going to add that to a pan and cover with cold water.
Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes
until the potatoes very tender and starting to break apart.
Once the pastry's cooked for 10 minutes remove the pie bases from the oven and leave to cool for
10 minutes. Now those potatoes should be ready so we're going to drain them and put them to one side.
Now we're going to make the gooey, cheesy filling for the pies.
Take two tablespoons of unsalted butter and add that to a pan over a medium heat.
Add a finely sliced onion into the pan stir and cook
for five minutes until the onion starts to soften.
Chris's mum used to make these for him when he was a little boy but he didn't
like the texture of the onions so she used to replace the onions with a good
pinch of onion powder instead, so you get the flavour of the onions without the texture.
Once the onions have softened sprinkle over two tablespoons of plain all-purpose flour
and cook for another minute continuously stirring.
Now we're going to add in 180ml, which is about three-quarters of a cup, of whole milk. We're
going to add this in a splash at a time while stirring until the milk is fully incorporated.
Once the milk is fully incorporated and at this consistency we're going to add in 50ml
which is a little over three tablespoons of double or heavy cream plus 150 grams or a cup
and a half of mature cheddar cheese, a quarter of a teaspoon each of mustard powder and salt
and half a teaspoon of black pepper, we'll also add in those cooked potatoes too.
Stir together until the cheese is melted and the potatoes break down.
The filling should be thick and only just pourable.
Divide the filling between the four pie cases.
So now we're going to trim these edges, that's the cook's treat, and then we're
going to brush the edges with a little bit of egg wash so the top adheres.
Add a square of short crust pastry on top of each pie.
Now cut off any excess pastry again and crimp the edges of the pastry together using a fork.
Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash and pierce two holes in the top
of each part using a sharp knife to let out any steam.
Place the pies back in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
Just look at that they're gonna be so delicious. I love to serve them
just like this warm from the oven. And another absolute classic that we love
is Cornish pasties in that video I'll show you how to make your own pastry too, see you next time!