Pie Monday

Who doesn’t love a good pie? A traditional British favourite, we are indebted to the Romans for bringing us this culinary classic following their conquest of our isle. Served up at football matches and at Michelin-star restaurants alike, the British public’s love affair with the pie seems to be standing the test of time.

Not so for the Coeliac. Suddenly you see the pie in a new, less-forgiving light. It is as though you’ve caught your beau in a clinch with someone else and this time, that someone else is your worst enemy: gluten. The pie has been deceiving you throughout your entire relationship. You feel betrayed. Angry. You glower at the pie and you wish that the British public didn’t love pies quite so much, but even more, you wish you didn’t love pies quite as much. Despite knowing what the pie has done to you, you still want it.

But wait…you still can have it! All you have to do is re-address your relationship with the pie by putting a permanent end to its dalliances with gluten and suddenly, you and the pie will be getting on better than ever!

After a lengthy separation of 6 months, I was finally reunited with the pie when I decided to make one from scratch earlier this week. It was my first attempt at pie-making and surprisingly, it turned out to be not only edible but actually really nice! It turns out pies are still great gluten free (and dairy-free if needed). I also made my pie low-FODMAP but feel free to alter my recipe as you like. I was particularly daunted at the prospect of making pastry from scratch after a previously disastrous gluten free pastry making experience in which my pastry ended up in a big blobby mush that I couldn’t prize off the work surface. However, no one was more shocked than I when my boyfriend, appointed as official pie-taster for the evening, rated the pie a success and declared that the pastry was the best bit! The moral of the story is that you definitely shouldn’t be put off from either making your own short-crust pastry or making a pie from scratch – it sounds a bit intimidating, but it is relatively straightforward and not as time-consuming as you might imagine.

Grace’s Gluten-Free Beef Mince Pie

Serves 4

For the Pastry:

125g Butter

200g Gluten Free Plain Flour

1 tsp Xantham Gum

1 Egg

Pinch of Salt

For the Filling:

500g beef mince

2 parsnips

2 carrots

1 courgette

Passata

250ml Vegetable Stock Cube

Cornflour

Pepper for seasoning

Olive oil

Preparation Method

1.      Make the pastry: rub together the butter, flour and xanthan gum in a bowl until it forms fine breadcrumbs. Crack the egg into the bowl and mix to form a dough with a round-bladed knife. Add in a pinch of salt. Wrap in cling-film and stick in the fridge for a few minutes whilst you prepare the pie filling.

2.      Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (180 if you have a fan oven).

3.      Slice the carrots and chop the parsnips into chunks and boil them in a pan.

4.      Whilst the carrots and parsnips are boiling, heat some olive oil in a pan. Add in the beef mince and fry until brown.

5.      Chop up the courgettes and pop them in with the carrots and parsnips. Courgettes cook very quickly so they only need a couple of minutes. Drain the veg and add it into the mince pan.

6.      Spoon in some passata (quantity is up to you depending on how tomatoey you like it). Pour in the vegetable stock. Add in a spoonful of cornflour to thicken. Grind in some pepper to season.

7.      Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for five minutes.

8.      Pour the mixture into a pie dish.

9.      Roll out your pastry onto a chopping board into a shape roughly similar but slightly larger than the pie dish. Turn the chopping board upside down over the dish and the pastry should hopefully peel away and drop onto the top of the pie dish. If this step goes a bit awry, don’t worry. As long as the top of the pie is completely covered with the pastry it will still taste nice so you can patch the pastry up as needed.

10.  Brush the pie lightly with milk and prick it in the centre with a fork.

11.  Cook in the oven for 25 minutes (or until the pastry looks golden brown).

12.  Serve up with plenty of mash potato to the hopeful delight of your friends/family/housemates/partner.

So there you have it, a gluten-free pie!

A quick pie fact to finish off: the apple pie made its first appearance in English literature in 1589 as the Elizabethan dramatist Robert Greene wrote in his poem ‘Arcadia’, “Thy breath is like the steeme [sic] of apple pies.” Steamy stuff all round!