New Year Season: Pastry-Offcut Decorated Pies.

- 2 pies serve 4 twice - As a hot dinner one night (NYE) and as a cold lunch the next day - Ready in 1 hour 15 minutes -

Gather together for the Turkey Pies…

1 tbsp butter (to grease the pie tin with).

2 onions, thinly sliced - to save time day-to-day, I keep a big box of onions I've chopped ahead-of-time, in the freezer, so I use 4 handfuls of those.

200g raw mushrooms (circa 12 medium ones, cut into approx. 8 pieces each). i.e. 100g per pie.

240ml gravy freshly made or from instant granules.

8 tbsp plain flour, for dusting the work top and rolling pin.

2 x packs of Jus-Rol ready made pastry 320g each ready-rolled shortcrust pastry

Pinch of ground, black pepper.

350g cooked-then-frozen-then-defrosted-in-microwave turkey breast (white) meat, torn up into BITE-SIZE chunks. i.e. 175g per pie.

200g bag of ready-to-eat chestnuts, quartered. i.e. 100g per pie.

4 tbsp leftover cranberry sauce.

2 tbsp milk (to brush the pie tops).

Serve the Turkey Pies with…

Thinly sliced carrot rounds (microwaved on HIGH in 1 tbsp water for 5 -8 minutes).

Peas, covered with 200ml boiling water from the kettle and microwaved on HIGH until hot (circa 5 minutes if cooking from frozen).

Gravy - I like Bisto Original Gravy Powder as is in a cardboard box - and follow the packet instructions.

Get cooking the Turkey Pies…

1. Use 2 raw onions, peel, finely slice, dice and microwave with 1 tbsp water for 3 minutes on HIGH to soften (in a microwave-safe bowl with a vented lid). Then drain away the excess water from the onion pieces and allow the onion pieces to cool with the lid off, until you are ready to use them.

2. Meanwhile, grease TWO 20cm diameter, shallow, metal cake tin / pie tin with 1 tbsp of butter, including the top lip.

3. Wipe clean, then dry, then flour your worksurface and flour your rolling pin (or use a wiped-clean wine bottle as a makeshift rolling pin).

DO THE PASTRY PREP TWICE, ONCE FOR EACH TIN...

4. Roll out a (ready rolled) pastry sheet wider than it is already rolled. Keep rolling it out until it is quite a bit bigger than the tin (so it will adequately and easily go up the sides). I suggest you use rolling pin guides (miraculous silicone circles that fit over the end of your rolling pin) to ensure the pastry is an even thickness.

5. Roll the pastry onto the (well floured) rolling pin and manoeuvre the pastry over the tin. Ease the pastry into the greased tin gently, using a lump of spare pastry to push the rolled-out pastry around the edge of the tin's base.

6. Don't neaten the edges too much yet (just cut off any bits of pastry touching the work surface and add them to your unused pastry) as the pastry will shrink and settle as it sits waiting in the tin.

7. Scrape clean the worksurface, re-flour it and roll out the remaining pastry to make the lid, to £1 thickness again, roll it out a bit bigger than you think it needs to be. Set aside.

8. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or gas mark 6.

9. The turkey-pie filling is made by combining the microwaved onion pieces, the 200g of chopped mushrooms, the pinch of ground pepper and the 350g of shredded cooked turkey, with 160g of gravy - DON'T ADD ALL THE GRAVY YET! (i.e. add the 160g but keep 2 further 80g in reserve.) Now also add the pack of quartered ready-to-eat chestnuts. Stir.

DIVIDE THE FILLING BETWEEN THE TWO LINED PIE CASES

10. Press the filling down firmly into the pastry-lined tin. Spoon 2 tbsp gravy on top of each pie filling and spread the gravy out. You can now add 2 tbsp of cranberry sauce if you want to, spread that out too and then put the pastry lid in position on top of the pies.

11. Wet the top edges of the pastry (which is on the lip of the tin) with a water-soaked pastry brush (or just wet it by dipping your fingers in water and running them around the top lip of the pastry in the tin).

12. Use the (well floured) rolling pin to manoeuvre the lids gently onto the pies.

13. Push the edges down gently with your fingers, so the pastry edges start to stick together.

14. Trim off the excess pastry using a knife held vertically, guided by the lip of the pie dishes / tins.

15. Use the knife to make little cuts all around the edge of each pie lid (see the photo at the top of the page)- they don't have to be deep cuts, they make the two layers of pastry merge together so the filling doesn't escape during cooking.

16. Use the knife to make two 1cm-long slits in the lid of each pie for steam to escape out of.

17. Brush the top of the pies sparingly with 1 tbsp of milk each (you don't want to make it soggy) - the milk will help the pie to brown nicely.

18. Decorate the top of the pies with stars and numbers, cut from any leftover pastry. As you've already brushed the pie top with milk, the stars will stick on easily. Be sure to brush the stars themselves (sparingly) to ensure they are baked golden in the oven. I like to use a mixture of randomly placed small and medium pastry stars. I use small stainless steel numbers similar to these Tala ones.

19. Bake the pies on a low-down shelf in the oven for 50 minutes (turn the heat right up for the final 10 minutes to brown the top of the pie, if needed).

20. Leave the pies to cool for 5 minutes on a cooling rack in the tin (so you don't burn your fingers) then ease a dinner-table knife down the sides of the tin, all the way around. Tip the pie tins upside down onto a folded clean tea towel and the pies should (hopefully!) come out. If not, use a slice/flat knife to excavate the first (messy) piece from the tin. Further slices will then come out more neatly. LEAVE ONE PIE UNCUT FOR A COLD LUNCH TREAT THE NEXT DAY.

21. Serve with cooked carrots, peas and gravy.

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