Bacon And Egg Pie - The Kiwi Way - a là Chelsea & Annabel

Some time ago I mentioned that I'd make more recipes from Bacon the Cookbook by the Irish blogger Niamh Shields.  This is not that recipe!  This recipe is a hybrid from two Kiwi cooks - Chelsea Winter and Annabel Langbein.  Aussies and Kiwis always argue about who first created recipes like pavlova, lamingtons and a flat white.  We did, we did!!  But who cares really?  I love New Zealand, and strongly recommend a visit there. The land of mountains and snow, glacial rivers, glaciers, bungee jumping, possum pies, sheep and Hobbits!  What's not to love about all that, my friends?

Hilarious story about the couple who ran a West Coast café selling possum pies.  The people who supplied the possum meat (possums are an introduced pest in NZ) were going out of business so they sold 6 tonnes of meat to this couple.  They ran out of meat eventually so he went out shooting his own supply.  They were then charged with selling 'unregulated meat'.  The charges were dropped, their defence being they hadn't been told they were doing something illegal.  You gotta laugh!!

I suggest tackling this pie on a lazy Sunday afternoon as Mr P. and I did this weekend.  You won't regret it, as you will have leftovers for days!  And that's a very good thing.  It's not a difficult recipe, but it does take a bit of time.  And I love it cold, straight out of the fridge.  Mr P. thinks I'm nuts:-)  I also love cold stew on hot toast with lots of melting butter.  I've almost convinced him that this is a great thing.

golden, crispy, comforting pie

Serves 6-8, if you're really hungry, otherwise 1 or 2 more:

ingredients:

3 medium potatoes, peeled

1-2 tbs EV olive oil or vegetable oil

1 large red or brown onion, diced

250g./9 oz rindless bacon, diced or cut into strips

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2-3 tbs plain flour

4 sheets of ready-rolled puff pastry, thawed

3-4 tbs of cornflake crumbs, or semolina or almond meal

1/2 cup of tomato or red capsicum relish

12 large eggs

1-2 ripe tomatoes, sliced or diced

1/2 cup of roasted capsicum (out of a jar), cut into strips

2 tbs of wholegrain or Dijon mustard (optional)

1/2 cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 tbs thyme leaves and/or 3 tbs of chives, finely chopped, and a dessertspoon of dried oregano

1½ cups of cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup of fetta, crumbled

copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper, and a generous sprinkling of sea salt

2-3 tbs of cream or a lightly beaten egg, for glazing at the end

sesame and/or poppy seeds for sprinkling over the glazed pie

Method:

First, boil the whole peeled potatoes for 10-15 minutes till tender (but not fall-apart squishy); let them cool enough so you're able to slice them

Heat the oil in a frypan, add the onion and bacon and stir for about 5 minutes; add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes till your kitchen smells wonderfully fragrant

Turn on your oven to 190C/375F; place a large baking tray on the middle shelf to get hot (your pie dish will sit on this, to help the bottom crisp up)

Grab a big baking dish (Annabel uses one that measures 30cm x 40cm/12 in x 16 in); mine was a wee bit smaller than Annabel's but it worked out fine

Measure out and chop off a big piece of baking paper - enough to cover the base and most of the sides of the dish

Screw it up in your hands (for easy handling), smooth it out, then place it on your bench; throw on the plain flour, place 2 sheets of pastry on the paper, and press the pastry together to form one big pastry sheet - if you have too much pastry on the bottom, trim it and keep for the top of the pie

Get your Mr P. to lightly butter the sides of the baking dish (if you're lucky enough to have a Mister P.)

Pick up the whole shebang, paper and pastry, place it into the baking dish, sprinkle on the cornflake crumbs, and into the oven (on the hot tray) it goes for 10 minutes - don't worry if it puffs up, the filling will flatten it out

Take out the baking dish, and let it cool for a few minutes

Layer the potato slices over the bottom of the pastry, then spoon the relish over the potatoes

Break each egg into a cup (to be sure they're okay), then into the pie dish

Place the tomato and capsicum evenly over the eggs and potatoes

Add dabs of the mustard over everything

Now spread over the onion, bacon and garlic mix

And sprinkle on the herbs, the cheddar and fetta, and the pepper and salt

Either place 2 joined sheets of pastry over the top and trim them so they fit neatly over the pie OR if you have a savvy, spatially-inclined spouse like Mr P., get them to make pretty lattice strips and lace them beautifully over the whole thing

Paint on the cream or eggwash, and throw the seeds all over the top layer of pastry (make a couple of slits in the pastry for steam if using one big sheet rather than lattice)

Bake at 190C for about 50-60 minutes or till golden-brown and crisp on top

Serve with salad or steamed veg.

Notes:

Chelsea suggests using 5-6 tomatoes, but as I'm not a fan, I used 1 tomato, some roasted capsicum, and a mix of tomato and capsicum relish instead

You could use a really big round pie dish for this, if you have one

gather your ingredients

puff pastry goes into the baking dish

potatoes and relish onto the partly-cooked pastry

12 eggs over the potatoes and relish

add the mustard, bacon mix, herbs, tomato, capsicum and fetta

grated cheese sprinkled over all

latticed, and sprinkled with seeds

after 50-60 mins. at 190C

golden, crunchy, delicious!

© Sherry M.

Brush-tailed possum
 (Author: Andrew Mercer - Wikimedia Commons)