A good pie is a marvellous thing: an all-in-one bundle with a flaky exterior and a beautifully seasoned filling, as sustaining as it is delicious. I like to make my own pie crust, but I often cheat with the filling. Here, I’ve used cheese, diced potatoes and plenty of softened leeks to bind the filling, avoiding any need to make a traditional roux. Just keep the pastry ingredients cold when mixing and rest the pie before baking – the key to a good crust.
Leek, tarragon and Ticklemore pie
These ingredients feel made for each other, with the salty, creamy, tangy acidity of the goat’s cheese a great counterbalance to the sweet sauteed leeks.
Prep 20 min
Chill 35 min
Cook 1 hr 20 min
Serves 8-10
60g salted butter
2 medium leeks (about 400g), thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
Salt and black pepper
½ a nutmeg, grated
350g potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
250ml double cream
1 heaped tbsp dijon mustard
A small handful chopped tarragon
180g hard goat’s or sheep’s’ cheese, such as Ticklemore or pecorino, roughly grated
For the pastry
400g spelt flour (I like a mix of 280g white spelt and 120g wholemeal spelt or kamut flour)
250g very cold butter, roughly diced
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme, 1 tbsp for the pastry, the other for the filling
Milk or egg, for washing
For the pastry, tip the flours into a food processor and blitz for a few seconds. Add the butter and half the thyme, and pulse briefly until you have a coarse crumb. Add six tablespoons of ice-cold water, and one or two extra, if need be, to bring the dough together into a rough ball (the amount of water required depends on the type of flour you use). Put inside a plastic bag, work the dough into a flat disc, then chill for half an hour.
For the filling, melt the butter in a wide saucepan on a medium-high heat. Add the leeks and onion, season generously with salt, pepper and the nutmeg, and fry for a few minutes. Add the remaining thyme, cover, lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes, until the leeks and onions are tender.
Meanwhile, steam the potato cubes for eight minutes, until tender. Stir these into the leeks, add the cream, mustard and tarragon, then season to taste.
Butter and line the bottom of a 25cm quiche or cake tin with a loose base. Break off two-thirds of the dough and put the remaining third back in the fridge in its bag. Flour a board and roll out the larger piece of dough into a 2-3mm-thick disc that’s wide enough to come up the sides of the pie dish. Lay it in the pie dish, pressing it in gently, then scatter in a third of the cheese. Layer over half the cooled leek filling, followed by more cheese, the rest of the leeks and a final scattering of cheese, then put in the fridge. Roll out the remaining dough to make the top. Use any pastry offcuts to make some petals for decoration, or any other shape, wet the edges of the lid and lay it on top of the pie to seal it to the pie dough base. Use a fork or your fingers to crimp around the edge, make a slit in the centre for steam to escape, and brush with milk or a little egg wash.
Refrigerate for 20 minutes while you heat the oven to 210C (190C fan)/410F/gas 6½. When hot, bake the pie for 40-45 minutes, until golden on top. Leave to rest for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a plate and serve with a green salad.
