Presentation Pies Recipes – Pithivier; Easter Pie; M’hancha
Presentation Pies Recipes
Our cookery classes are as much about learning to cook as they are a sociable experience. We hope you enjoyed your day and are ready to recreate the bakes at home.
We Cooked:
- Chicken & Wild Mushroom Pithivier
- Torta Pasqualina (Easter Pie)
- Moroccan M’hancha
Chicken & Wild Mushroom Pithivier
Ingredients – Makes 2 Pithiviers
- 6 x hispi/savoy/kale leaves.
- 300g chicken breast
- 75g wild or chestnut mushrooms
- 1 clove garlic
- Olive oil for frying
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 50ml double cream
- 1 x roll puff pastry 320g
- 1 x egg
- Salt
- Pepper
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 210 degrees.
- Blitz 100g of the chicken and the cream together in a blender until smooth to make a farce. Season with salt and pepper and spoon into a piping bag.
- Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling salted water for 1 minute, drain and pat dry.
- Mince the garlic with a little salt until you release the oils and have a puree. Sauté the mushrooms in a little oil for 2 minutes, add the garlic, scrunch the thyme with your hands to release the oils and throw in with the mushrooms. Saute for a 2-3 more minutes until the mushrooms are browned and all the flavours are released. Taste, add seasoning and leave to cool by spreading on a baking tray.
- Oil 2 teacups, then line with cling film, lining each with the cabbage leaves. Slice the remaining chicken breast to around 5mm thick. Layer up the farce with the sliced chicken and mushrooms. Fold the cabbage over to make a parcel, adding more cabbage leaf to enclose if needed. Gather up the clingfilm and twist to seal. Put in the fridge until needed.
- Cut two 12cm circles and two 16 cm circles from the pastry.
- Place the smaller circles onto a lined baking tray and top with the chicken parcels. Cover these with the other pastry circles, using the pinky side of your hands to press down to seal. Use a fork to press the two pieces of pastry together and use a larger round cutter to neatly trim. (Or use a knife.) Brush with beaten salted egg yolk and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check after 20 minutes; if the pastry has taken on too much colour, cover loosely with tin foil and return. Rest for 3 to 4 minutes.
Torta Pasqualina (Easter Pie)
Ingredients – Serves 2
- 150g Plain flour
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 75ml warm water
- 1 x clove garlic, minced with salt.
- 1 x banana shallot
- 5 stems swiss chard/spinach/kale. Stems removed, leaves chopped.
- 1/3 jar artichokes in oil.
- 65g pancetta cubes
- 125g ricotta cheese
- 25g grated Parmesan
- 3 eggs
- Salt
- Pepper
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees.
- Start by making the pastry. Put the flour in a mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt. Add the olive oil and warm water and mix using your fingertips until you have a ball of dough. Knead on a clean floured surface for 5 minutes until smooth. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for half an hour.
- Meanwhile put a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the pancetta, and fry up til the oils are released. Add the shallot, and sweat until translucent. Add the garlic, stir, followed by the chard and cook until the chard has wilted. Remove from the heat, spread the filling out on a baking tray to cool. Taste to check the saltiness of your bacon then season if needed.
- Mix the ricotta, 1 egg and Parmesan in bowl, season with salt and pepper. Add the cooled pancetta mix and stir thoroughly.
- Divide your olive oil pastry into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the bigger piece on a clean floured surface. Cut two circles out approximately 2cm larger than the diameter of your tart cases. Line the oiled tart cases making sure the pastry is pressed into the corners and theres a small overhang. Roll out the other piece of pastry and cut out two circles approx 1 cm larger than the tart case for the lids.
- Fill the pastry cases with the ricotta mixture leaving room for the artichokes and egg. Press 2-3 artichoke hearts into the mixture and break an egg into the middle trying to keep the yolk whole.
- Beat the remaining egg and brush the overhang from the pastry base. Carefully place the pastry lids on the tarts and crimp the pastry together to seal the tarts. Brush with lids with the beaten egg and put in the oven on a baking tray for 30-35 minutes. Check after 25 minutes. If pastry has too much colour then place some foil loosely over the top.
Moroccan M’hancha
Ingredients: Serves 6-8
- 1 x Butternut squash
- 100g pearl barley
- 2 red onions
- 1 red peppers
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 handfuls chopped kale
- 125 feta cheese
- Handful pistachios
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 50g dried apricots
- 50g dates
- 10 sheets filo
- Handful fresh coriander
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 lemon
- Olive oil 100ml
Method:
- Cook the pearl barley in salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain and cool.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Slice the squash into 8, (leave the seeds in, they’re easier to scoop out afterwards!) and roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes with some olive oil the spices, salt and chilli flakes, until its soft when pierced with a knife.
- Chop the peppers, red onions into large rustic pieces about 2cm square and mince the garlic with a little salt. Put a frying pan over a high heat with a little olive oil and cook the onions until they begin to char. Add the red peppers and cook until they begin to caramelise. Turn the heat down and add the garlic and kale and stir to distribute the flavours and wilt the greens. Leave to cool.
- Remove the squash from the oven, carefully scoop out the seeds and using a spoon, scrape the flesh onto a board and chop into 2cm cubes. Discard the skins and scrape the spiced cooking juices into the cooling vegetables. Remove the stones from the dates and finely chop the flesh with the apricots and coriander leaves. Fold into the vegetables with the drained pearl barley, squeeze in the juice of the lemon to taste. Season, then leave to cool.
- Reduce the heat on the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
- Lay out two clean damp tea towels on a large work surface, side-by-side, with the longest edges facing you. Lay out 3 sheets of filo side-by-side with the longest edges towards you, overlapping each one by 2.5cm and brushing between the overlaps with water.
- Lightly brush the sheets with oil, place 3 filo sheets directly on top, then repeat with another 3 sheets. Save the remaining sheet for patching up.
- As evenly as possible, spoon your filling in a line along the long edge closest to you leaving a pastry gap of 3cm. Crumble your feta cheese over the top of the veg. Brush the opposite long edge with a little oil.
- Use the tea towels to help you roll it up and away from you into a giant sausage roll shape, keeping it on the damp tea towel at all times. Then, (be brave!) and roll it into a large pinwheel, working quickly but handling it gently to avoid too many cracks.
- Gently slide it onto a large greased baking tray, and patch up any gaps, using your leftover filo and oil to stick, Brush all over with more oil and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until gorgeous, crisp and golden.
- Serve with a light dusting of icing sugar and a spiced tomato sauce.
Spicy tomato sauce
Ingredients: serves 6-8
- 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
- 1 x banana shallot
- Clove garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tsp sumac
- 1/2 Tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Method:
- Finely chop the banana shallot and mince one clove of garlic. Quarter the cherry tomatoes.
- Put a saucepan over a medium heat and add olive oil. Fry the shallots gently until translucent but not coloured, add the garlic, stir, and the remaining ingredients. Simmer until the cherry tomatoes have broken down, adding water if needed. Season and serve.
Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- 1 x Handful of chestnut or wild mushrooms, sliced finely
- 1 x knob butter
- 1 x tbsp olive oil
- 1 x clove of garlic, minced with salt.
- 2 x sprigs thyme.
- 1 x tsp plain flour.
- 300ml mushroom, vegetable or chicken stock.
Method:
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter.
- Once melted, add mushrooms, (don’t crowd them) garlic paste and thyme and fry until lightly browned.
- Stir in your plain flour to coat the mushrooms and cook gently for one minute to take the rawness out of the flour.
- Add hot stock gradually, stirring constantly to create a rich sauce with no lumps.
Taste and season.
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