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Ingredients  

For the pastry

  • 250 g butter
  • 450 g plain flour
  • 50 ml very cold water

For the filling

  • 250 g diced veniham
  • 1 dessert spoon of flour
  • 350 ml cooking stock from veniham or milk if that has finished
  • 50 g butter
  • 1 leek
  • 1 egg beaten, with a dash of water
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp mustard - French, English or even Scottish!

Instructions

  • Place everything bar the water in a food processor and use the pulse function to begin to chop the butter into the flour– you do not want breadcrumbs in this instance, but quite obvious chunks of butter in the end dough – drizzle in half the water and pulse a couple more times, then the rest and pulse again – the mix should be starting to come together to a dough, if not add a little more water and pulse a couple more times – turn this mix out onto a lightly floured surface and work tother into a ball using your hands.
  • Using a rolling pin roll the dough out thoroughly 4 x its original size and fold the left edge into the middle, flip the right edge over the top and roll out again, fold again and then turn through 90degrees, fold again and then cover, and set aside in the fridge for use later.

For the filling

  • Slice the leek and wash it very well with warm water – we don’t want any sand or grit in our pies! Drain the sliced leek well.
  • In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and sweat the leek until it is tender. Add the flour and mustard along with the diced meat.Slowly add the stock or milk stirring all the time to make a very thick saucy mixture, season this well and set it aside to cool a little.
  • You could make this into one large pie – but here we have gone with wee pies – so much more fun and great for a ‘piece’ if required.
  • Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a 50p piece on a lightly floured surface and then use cutters to cut rounds large enough for your pie rings (if you don’t have pie or crumpet rings you can form the pies in your largest pastry cutter – just make sure you’ve cut all your pastry round first! ) If you don’t have cutter large enough, use the biggest you have and leave the pastry a little thicker – then roll out a little larger to fit your rings.
  • Line the pie rings with pastry, fill with filling, top withmore pastry and crimp gently round the edges, remove the pie rings.
  • Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and then egg wash the tops of the pies, prick each one with a fork and sprinkle over a little flakey sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper.
  • Bake the pies in the oven until golden brown – either servewith tatties and steamed broccoli or leave to cool a little and use as you wish.