This week, Alison Lambert shares how to make a rustic-looking pie packed with vegetables and covered in a cheesy sauce.
Cauliflower, broccoli and leek pie
Serves 6
Ingredients
Pastry
125g wholemeal flour
110g flour
125g cold butter, diced
2 eggs
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
pinch salt
Filling
½ cauliflower, separated into florets
1 head broccoli, separated into florets
1 leek, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
25g butter
½ cup milk
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
200g aged cheddar, crumbled into pieces
Method
Preheat oven to 200degC.
Pastry
Place the flours, salt and cheese into a food processor and mix briefly to combine.
Add the butter and process until coarse crumbs appear, add the eggs and mix briefly until the dough comes together.
Turn out on to your bench and mould together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Line a 25cm tart tin with baking paper.
Roll the dough into a 0.5cm-thin round and transfer into the tart tin and press to fit the base and up the sides.
Try not to stretch the dough, as this will make it shrink back when baked.
Cover with the plastic wrap and transfer to rest in the refrigerator for at least a half hour and up to half a day.
This step will help to prevent shrinking and it will give you a crispy pastry shell.
Filling
Begin by placing a large pot of lightly salted water on to boil.
Add the cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes or until tender, remove and drain.
Add the broccoli and cook for 2 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool.
Melt the butter in a frypan. Add the sliced leeks and garlic and cook for 2 minutes until they soften and sweeten.
Add the cooked cauliflower and broccoli and coat well in the leek-flavoured oil.
Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
While the cauliflower is cooling, whisk 3 eggs with half a cup of milk and the rest of the grated Parmesan.
Arrange the cauliflower mixture in the pastry shell and top with crumbled cheese.
Pour the egg mixture over the pie and transfer into the oven.
Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 160degC and continue to cook for another 20 minutes or until the crust is golden.
Serve straight from the oven.
Alison Lambert is one of the demonstrators at the Otago Farmers Market in Dunedin on Saturday mornings.
tasteofmylife.com
