Hunza Pie - The Australian Women's Weekly Way

You may remember that I'm in an online cookbook club, and also as of this month, a new, real-life one too.  Our book last month was any of the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks - of which there are many!  This recipe is from the Cooking Class Cookbook (no publishing date but from the '80s I think).  I chose to make this Hunza Pie, which was popular in my student, vego days.

There's a version of this recipe on their website, which fancies it up for the modern cook, adding in chicken and other goodies.  So I decided to fancy it up a wee bit, too.  The recipe in the book is very spartan though, just the way I remember it :=)  This pie is named after the Hunza Valley in the Himalayas (supposedly), where people are said to live till well over one hundred!  So give this a try, my friends, and longevity will be yours.

slather with relish if you fancy

Serves 6:

ingredients:

For the pastry:

280g/2 cups wholemeal plain flour

1 tsp sea salt

100g./1 cup wheatgerm

1 Tbs nutritional yeast flakes (optional)

1/2 tsp vegetable or chicken stock powder

250g./8 oz cold butter, chopped into chunks

1/4 cup (62 mL) cold water (+ 2-3 tsp more if needed)

2 Tbs milk for glazing the pastry

Filling:

300g./10.5 oz chicken tenderloins 

720g./25 oz washed potatoes

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (optional)

150g./5.5 oz baby spinach leaves, snipped into pieces

180g./6.5 oz fetta, chopped into chunks

1 tsp sea salt

2 Tbs EV olive oil

2 tsp dried chives

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1-2 Tbs lightly dried (or fresh) parsley, chopped roughly

Method:

For the pastry:

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl

Whisk the wheatgerm, yeast flakes and stock powder into the flour mix

Rub the butter in with your fingertips till your bowl looks like it's full of breadcrumbs (or use your food processor)

Add in the 1/4 cup of water, and mix (by hand) or process till you have a firm dough (use the extra water if needed)

Knead lightly on a floured surface, pat into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for twenty minutes - I suggest you get onto the filling while you wait!

After the twenty minutes, grab a 23cm/9 inch pie plate/tin, butter the base lightly, roll out HALF of the dough (I had 2 halves x 350g.), and push it gently over the base and sides of the pie tin

And back it goes into the fridge for another 20 minutes to settle down

For the filling:

Cook up the chicken by baking at 185C/365F for about twelve minutes, then put aside 

Peel the spuds (potatoes), cut them into large chunks, boil till tender, then drain them

Let them cool for a few minutes, tip into a large bowl, mash lightly and add the chicken

And in goes the mustard seeds, spinach, fetta, salt, olive oil, chives, pepper, oregano and parsley

Give it all a firm but kindly mix till well combined

Spoon the filling into the pastry case, give it a bit of a gentle press down, roll out the other pastry half,  place it over the top of the filling, seal the edges with your fingers or a fork, and brush the pie with milk to glaze

Oh, don't forget to cut a few slits in the top of the pie so it can breathe while baking

Bake at 200C/390F for fifteen to twenty minutes, then lower the oven to 180C/355F and bake for another fifteen to twenty minutes till golden brown (mine took 25 mins. at 180C 'cos my gas oven is soooo slow)

Serve with relish - as in, tomato relish etc, and as much gusto as you like, and maybe a salad

Notes:

I am going with their measurements, even tho' modern day ones are a bit different! as in - 250 grams is really closer to 9 ounces, etc

Use chicken breasts if you prefer, and slice them thinly

I actually baked the chicken the day before!  And I whizzed the pastry in my food processor till it formed a ball, then tipped it onto the bench to press into a ball

Back in the day, we used silverbeet (Swiss chard) as English spinach was not really a thing then.  I suggest you buy pre-washed baby spinach as it is soooo much easier, as you just snip and tip into the filling

bake @185C for around 12 minutes

potato and chicken

snip your spinach

push half the pastry into the tin

and fill the pastry with your healthy mix

glazed and ready for baking

golden brown and gorgeous

thin, crispy pastry and a hearty filling

This pie really brings back the memories!  Of living with many and varied people, in houses that had no locked doors, where we lived on cheap foods like mountains of potatoes and huge tubs of yoghurt.  Where feral possums would climb into the kitchen window in search of fruit, where the lawn was cut with kitchen scissors and knives (no mower!), and nudity, and a lively sex life was the norm.  Not me, not me! :=)  Tee hee...

potatoes and baby spinach