Main: French Style Creamy Chicken Pie
Taste Magazine July 2020
Dessert: Dumplings with Salted Caramel
Taste Magazine July 2020
Hi Everyone!
Well, I don’t know about you but I have definitely been drawn to all the magazines at the checkout with beautiful winter recipes on the front covers. YES, I bought another one. TASTE is another of my “go to” recipe saviours. The July issue has a beautiful looking Chicken and Leek pie on the front cover. They are calling it “French Style” I guess because of the crème frâiche used in the sauce rather than traditional cream.
I have cooked many versions of chicken and leek pie even the MAV does a nice one which we all enjoy from time to time. This recipe just caught my eye, firstly because of the different way of presenting the pastry and also because it is a “do ahead” family style recipe. Something new to me was adding the cooked baby potatoes to the actual pie filling. The dijon mustard and crème frâiche certainly give it a savoury hit. This pie is anything but bland. All the favourites are there with bacon, mushrooms, leek, garlic and wine. The recipe says to cook the filling, cool for an hour and then place in the fridge for two hours. This could be done the day before needed or even cooked and frozen for another day.
Having said that, it is very quick to whip up so what if you wanted to do this after work? I think the reason the filling needs to be cold is so that the pastry doesn’t go soggy. So, if you do want to make it a post work meal just spoon the hot filling into your oven proof dish. Line an oven tray with baking paper and overlap your pastry squares. Brush the pastry squares with the egg yolk and cook until browned. Lift the sheet of pastry squares carefully onto the hot filling and present as if just cooked all together. Might be worth a try don’t you think? ( I experimented and include the photos).
The pie was absolutely delicious and I simply served it with honey carrots and beans. The boys went back for seconds and they gave it 9/10.
Dumplings!!!!!! Yum. Memories of my childhood with this one. I cooked these many times for my kids when they were little. The only difference was that I was used to doing them on the stove top whereas these were done in the slow cooker. It is certainly a time saver and the taste is equally as delicious, however, I found that the little dumplings didn’t puff up as much and were a little floury and dense. You can’t ever go wrong with caramel and ice-cream though. 7/10.
This menu is a warm and comforting family meal. Hope you try it soon.
Until next week.
From my table to yours with love. x
