Chicken Puff Pie

One of my general moans when I've flown back to the nest is how difficult it is to do 'proper cooking' at uni. By difficult I of course refer to a number of problems. Firstly, the lack of food funds: food is probably at number 3 on the priority list, below alcohol and event tickets. Secondly, the lack of fridge and freezer space. With only one little shelf I play a game of tetris after every single shopping trip. Number 3: the lack of kitchen implements. You've got 5 frying pans but no kitchen knives thanks to the lack of communication between house mates come packing time. When you do eventually find said frying pan it almost inevitably has pasta stuck to the bottom of it or the handle's fallen off. With all these problems chances are you're not going to bother spending a couple of hours making the perfect pie. However for a cheat's student pie that requires just a few ingredients, a baking tray and a mixing bowl, look no further. It also tastes absolutely fabulous- the vultures (aka my male housemates) swooped before I'd even finished my first slice.

Chicken Puff Pie

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

• 1 roll of shop-bought pre- rolled puff pastry
• 1/2 pack of passata 
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 red onion
• 1-2 chicken breasts depending on how big they are 
• 1 courgette 
• 1 red pepper 
• 2 tsp mixed italian herbs 
• 1 tsp garlic 
• 1 tsp chilli (or 1/2 a teaspoon if you're not into too much spice)
• Black pepper, to season 

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Chop up the onion, courgette and pepper and place into a mixing bowl. Make the chunks about 2cm in size. Chop the chicken into small chunks. 
• Pour the passata into the mixing oil and stir in. Add the tomato puree. The tomato puree is there to thicken the passata, so if the sauce is still fairly runny add some more tomato paste. You are looking for a consistency that is just a little bit thicker than a pasta sauce. 
• Add the spices and herbs and mix in.
• Roll out the puff pastry onto a baking tray lined with baking paper (I used foil because it was too much effort to walk to the Co-op and buy some baking paper).Fold over the edges by a couple of cm and pinch upwards, to make little pastry crusts. The edges should be high enough so that the mixture does not escape over them. 
• Spoon out the mixture evenly across the pastry. You may have a little left over but that's better than having too much on the pastry so that it seeps out everywhere. 
• Sprinkle a load of black pepper over the top and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until everything is fully cooked. 

Note, if you're short for time make the filling up earlier and leave in the fridge. 

Mini Veggie Pies

 Miniature food automatically tastes better. It's almost a scientific fact. Mince pies for instance- would you get as excited about them if you were presented with a massive slice of mince pie? No. The attraction is in its dinky little size (which seems to justify eating 3 or 4 in one sitting), the ability to eat it all in a few mushy mouthfuls, and the disproportionate pastry/filling ratio- you get way more flaky pastry topping instead of half a cracked slab of dried out pastry from when the host's poor pastry cutting skills. The same goes for almost any food. Mini toad-in-the-holes? Totally cool! Mini pizzas? Tastes even better all in one and you don't get the miserable half of a pizza slice that lacks any of the topping you ordered. You want pepperoni? You actually get pepperoni on the entire pizza with a mini one.
Following this theory, we present you the Mini Veggie Pie. Instantly even tastier purely because of its size. And, even better, we've given you 3 different combinations to try out!

Ingredients: (makes 3 medium pies and 3 small pies)

Note: You will need mini pie tins- 3 medium sized and 3 small. Our medium tins were 10cm in diameter, 3cm in depth. Our small tins were 8cm in diameter and 1cm in depth. 

For the pastry: (This is the BBC Good Food Basic Shortcrust Pastry recipe)

• 225g plain flour
• 100g butter (diced)
• 2-3 tbsp water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg/ dash of milk for low histamine

For the white sauce: (This is Mary Berry's white sauce recipe)

• 2 oz butter
• 2 oz flour
• 1/2 pint of milk 
• 2 oz Mozzarella Cheese for low histamine, or 1 oz Mozzarella and 1oz of Cheddar for those not on a low histamine diet. 

For the fillings: (Makes 2 of each)

• Carrot and beetroot filling: 1 carrot and 1 normal sized beetroot
• Leek and carrot filling: 1/3 of a leek and 1 carrot 
• Carrot and butternut squash: 1 carrot and 1/6 of a butternut squash 

Method:

For the pastry:

• Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. 
• Roll out the pastry cut to the size of the tins. Lightly grease the tins with some butter then fill the tins with the cuttings of pastry. Cut any excess pastry off using a knife. 
• Crack an egg into a bowl and beat. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg over the pastry. The egg wash gives the pastry a golden colour in the oven. Alternatively for low histamine dieters, use milk instead. 

For the sauce:

• Slowly melt the butter in a pan on a medium heat. Add the flour in slowly and stir constantly, then once the flour has been added pour in the milk. Keep stirring at all times to prevent the sauce from going lumpy and keep the pan on a low heat. 
• Once the milk and flour have completely combined and you have a lump-free sauce add the cheese and stir. Note, even those who are not low histamine should use some mozzarella as this will help hold the sauce together within the pastries and prevent the sauce from being too runny.
• Spoon the sauce into each of the pastry cups. For our pie tins we used 2.5 tbsp of sauce in the medium sized ones and 1.5 tbsp of sauce in the little ones.

For the filling:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Depending on which filling you choose, dice the vegetables into small chunks. You will need to peel the carrots, beetroot and butternut squash. 
• Spray some olive oil spray over the vegetables and roast for 15 minutes. 
• Once the vegetables are out of the oven and have cooled a bit, spoon the vegetables into each pastry case until nearly full. 
• Bake in the oven for 25 minutes on 180 degrees. 
• We served with roasted butternut squash chips.