My hens are in major egg-laying mode. While they've got oodles of eggs coming out of there unmentionables, I've got oodles of eggs coming out of my ears. I've told'em to slow production down or I might be making chicken pie.
NOTE: No chickens were harmed in the making of this pie.
Egg, Bacon and Potato Pie
adapted from Annabel Langbein's The Free Range Cook
Serves 6 - 8
For the Pastry:
300g cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
150g butter
About 4 tablespoons cold water
For the Filling:
250g bacon, cut into 2cm pieces and lightly fried
250g bacon, cut into 2cm pieces and lightly fried
2 medium potatoes, steamed and sliced thinly
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon chopped thyme leaves
12 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
Make the Pastry:
Put the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and blitz to fine crumbs. With the motor running, add the water a little at a time, adding more if necessary until mixture comes together in a ball.
Turn the dough out into a lightly floured bench and bring together. Divide the dough - 2/3 for the base of the pie, 1/3 for the lattice top - and cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour.
Make the Pie:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Slide a baking sheet in to heat up. Line a 23cm x 18cm pie tin with baking paper.
Roll the larger portion of pastry out so that it fits in and up the sides of the pie tin. Line the prepared pie tin with the pastry. Cover the bottom of the pastry with the lightly cooked bacon, then lay the cooked potato slices on top to cover the bacon. Crack 10 of the eggs on top, trying not to break the yolks. Sprinkle with herbs.
In a mixing bowl, break the remaining two eggs and lightly beat. Add the milk and season well, beat again to combine. Pour evenly over the whole eggs.
Roll out the remaining 1/3 of pastry and cut narrow strips. Arrange them in a lattice pattern on top of the pie, trimming off any excess.
Place the pie on top of the hot baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry starts to puff and turn golden. Reduce the temperature to 180 degrres C. and bake for a further 35-40 minutes.
You are hilarious. I loved this as a morning chuckle. What a great idea this recipe is. Fresh eggs are so much different than the pasteurized eggs in cartons - what beautiful color.
ReplyDeleteThanks Patty - you just can't beat eggs straight from the hens unmentionables.
DeleteI so want chickens!!! But the municipal law forbidden us to do it. But maybe someday I'll break the law haha :P This pie is really something, I would do it for a brunch or a lunch or a supper or...anytime in the day :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect breakfast, brunch, morning tea, lunch , afternoon tea, pre-dinner snack, dinner, after-dinner snack, supper, midnight snack... you get the drift. It's a shame you can't have your own chickens - you should start a riot.
DeleteThis looks so good! I love how you keep the yolks intact.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marcella. The whole eggs stay lovely and moist and they look pretty too, which is important, yes?
DeleteYou are a lucky duck (errr, chicken, I mean) to have such gorgeous fresh eggs!! I love a savory pie, and this one is gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Maria. My hens give wonderful eggs. Fresh, free range eggs from happy hens really do make a difference to my cooking and baking. The colour alone is worth the stern talking to I have to give my girls when they get into my vegetable garden or when they demand to be hand-fed rather than peck corn off the ground!
DeleteI wish I had hens. Two of my friends have a few chickens and they're in the same position - eating about 4 eggs for breakfast every morning! Unfortunately, they're both beefy men who like the extra protein so none of them get gifted to me for baking purposes :( Love the look of this egg and bacon pie. The layers are beautiful. As an offside (thinking about chicken pie) Aaron and his two brothers had a chicken each when they were boys, initially for egg laying purposes. One day, his mother decided that they'd be incrementally, uh, dismembered to make roast chicken. Aaron saw his chicken being killed whilst hiding next to a tree. When he bit into a chicken leg that night, he cried... because it was so tasty but... his chicken was dead. Now, that would mess with your mind (regardless, he still eats chicken!).
ReplyDeleteHaha. Does Aaron's Mum still pay for his therapy sessions? We've always had our own chickens...like, for ever. Even when Clint and I were kids, both our parents had chickens. We live in a big farming district so it's pretty common around these here parts. We've never "dispatched" them for meat though. Once I've named an animal I'd find it difficult to swallow. At the moment we have the cast of the Game of Thrones in our backyard. There's Cersei, Sansa, Arya, Talisa, Catelyn and Daenerys (or Danni as I like to call her)... and we still eat chicken too, just not these ones.
DeleteWow this looks so good, be lovely for brunch.
ReplyDeleteSimon
Thanks Simon. It's a perfect brunch dish. I can hear my hens are cackling as I type, I think they agree.
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