RECIPE | CHUNKY TURKEY AND GAMMON PIE

I’m probably a bit late to inspire you how to use your Christmas turkey and ham leftovers by now, but some of you have been asking me to post this recipe so I’ll do it now in readiness for Christmas 2013! I reckon it’d make an excellent meal any time of year, of course. This is my Turkey and Gammon Pie, a bit of an amalgamation of four or five recipes I found online and in books.

Chunky Turkey and Gammon Pie

Ingredients

• Left over cooked turkey – I used about 400g of roast turkey crown
• Left over cooked gammon – I used about 200g of gammon I had slow cooked in apple juice
• An onion, diced
• Handful of button mushrooms (then they don’t need chopping!)
• A couple of leeks and couple of large carrots, chopped into pieces the size of those button mushrooms
• Equal parts double cream and (turkey, chicken or vegetable) stock – I used about 200-220 ml of each
• Cayenne pepper, (fresh or dried) tarragon and thyme
• A sheet of cheating puff pastry, some grated parmesan cheese, a beaten egg.

Method

Cook the onion in butter (or a little oil) for a couple of minutes so it softens. Add the carrot and leek and cook for another five minutes until they too start to soften.

Next make the sauce. Add the cream and stock to the pan and mix well. Allow to simmer until the liquid thickens – this takes quite a while so be patient.

Add the turkey, gammon and mushrooms and stir through. Now add a pinch of cayenne (to taste), a good handful of chopped tarragon and a few thyme leaves and ensure it is all mixed thoroughly. You may also wish to add some cracked black pepper to taste at this point.

Put the filling into your pie dish. Everything in the pan should be well coated but there shouldn’t be too much liquid left.

For the lid, cut the edges off your sheet of puff pastry and press onto the edges of the pie dish. Then use the rest of the sheet to cover the whole pie – use a little water to stick it to the pastry edges you already created. This means that your lid will puff up without coming away from your pie dish and so your filling won’t leak out.

Brush the lid with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the grated parmesan cheese. Put in a preheated oven (180C) for 25 minutes or until the pastry is cooked and the parmesan is golden on the top.

The pie will easily serve four, and because it’s got veg in it you don’t need to serve it with anything (we had it as is), although I’m sure it would taste good with some buttery mashed potato.

I have to say I was so proud of my pie, it was full of flavour and went down really well. Very easy if you have meat left over. Let me know if you give it a try.

Looking for something for dessert? Try this cheats ice cream.