Rainbow chard pie.
Comfort food at it's best. Feel free to use any leafy green for this recipe as it all works the same.
A very Rough Puff pastry ( You can use pre bought pastry if you like to save time. )
300g plain flour
250g cold unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
About 150ml Cold water to form a dough
Egg wash for baking
Pie filling
4tbsp olive oil
2 onions sliced
1 clove garlic chopped
500g rainbow chard roughly chopped into 1 – 2cm strips
Cheese sauce
50g Butter
50g flour
300g milk
100g grated cheese / chedder or any cheese you like really
2 bay leaves
1/4tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1tsp salt
1tbs seeded mustard
Start by making the pastry and pre heating your oven to 180°c.
Put plain flour and salt into a large bowl. Using a cheese grater, grate the cold butter into the flour mix.
Using your hands work the pastry between your fingers to break up any big chunks of butter.
You are looking to achieve an almond meal like texture at this point before adding the water.
When you have the desired texture pour in about 50ml of cold water at a time mixing until you have a firm rough dough adding extra water if needed. It can take up to about 150ml.
Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle.
Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Turn out onto a lightly floured work bench and roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width. Keep edges straight as you can.
Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length.
Fold as before, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 mins before using.
While the pastry is chilling make the pie filling.
Sweat off your onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pan on a medium heat making sure you don’t get much colour on the onions for about 10 minutes or until soft.
Wash and roughly chop rainbow chard or any leafy green into 1 to 2cm strips and add to the pan with the onions. Stir well and wild down for 5 minutes and then take off the heat.
In a separate pan make a roux for the cheese sauce.
Heat up in a sauce pan the butter until melted on a medium high heat.
Add the flour to melted butter and stir well with a whisk, then cook out for 1 minute while stirring.
Add the milk in 3 stages while whisking to avoid any lumps.
Once the sauce is thickened add the rest of the cheese sauce ingredients and stir well.
Stir in the cheese sauce with the pie filling and check for seasoning.
On a lightly floured work bench and roll 1/2 the dough into a round shape about 12”inches in diameter and about 2 to 3mm thickness. Place the rolled out dough into a 8”inch pie dish and press down the lip to get nice edges. There should be a good bit of over hanging pastry you can trim this off and keep the pastry for another time.
Fill the pie with the filling and roll out another bit of pastry to go on top about a 8” circle this time. Place it on top pinch the lid in place. Give it a prick in the middle to let some steam out and then brush it with egg wash.
Bake in a 180°c oven for about 1hour 20 minutes or until fully golden brown.
Enjoy
Any left over pastry can be frozen and re used next time.