Every cook should learn to make good pastry.
This recipe is for one small homity pie which can be made by a pair of children in the school kitchen. It’s not as complicated as it looks and there is plenty to keep little hands occupied. The results should be tasty too.
The squash should be roasted in advance and a jug of water should be cooling in the fridge for the pastry. Any left over squash flesh could be used for soup or pancakes.
Ingredients
4 heaped tablespoons (40 grams) white flour
10 grams vegetarian lard
10 grams hard margarine
Pinch of salt
Vegetable oil
A little cold water (from the fridge)
½ small onion
40 grams cheddar cheese
½ tablespoon of chopped parsley
1 medium potato
½ tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of milk
2 tablespooons of roasted squash
1 clove of garlic (optional)
01Preheat the oven to 180°c.
02Peel potato and cut into chunks.
03Put the potato in to a saucepan (if this is being done at school, all the potatoes could go in together) and boil until tender but not flaky.
04Chop the onion into very small pieces and crush or finely chop the garlic.
05Gently fry the onion and garlic in a little oil.
06Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl with the fats. Chop the fats into small pieces. Rub the fats into the flour using the ends of your fingers. You’ve finished when all the lumps of fat have disappeared. Add cold water a teaspoon at a time and mix with a spoon until you can shape into a soft dough.
07Sprinkle a little flour onto the work surface and roll out the pastry using a rolling pin or jam jar. The pastry should be about ½ cm thick.
08Using a little margarine, grease the pie tin.
09Line the tin with pastry. If the pastry tears you can patch it by wetting one edge with a little water and sticking back together.
10Bake the pastry in the oven for 5 minutes (this is called blind baking).
11Chop the parsley finely.
12Grate the cheese.
13When the potatoes are cooked cut into smaller chunks and mix in a bowl with some chunks of squash, the milk, butter, half the cheese, parsley, fried onions and garlic.
14Fill the pastry cases with this mixture and top with the remaining cheese.
