My Mother's Recipes

This is the recipe for the corned beef pie I described in my previous work, "My Mother's Pots."

My mother would make this as part of our tea on Sunday. She'd also make a minced beef and gravy or steak and mushroom pie, a quiche, sausage rolls, home made bread and jam, fruit pie—either apple or apple and blackberry (if we'd been foraging for blackberries), several cakes—chocolate, Victoria sponge, fresh cream eclairs, gateaux and fresh scones. If we were really lucky we would also be treated to her delicious melt-in-the-mouth Viennese tartlets—dotted with fresh raspberry jam and dusted with icing "snow."

Other favourites of my family included crisp, flaky, lightly spiced Eccles cakes—not a cake as such—but buttery puff pastry rounds, stuffed with spiced fruits and sprinkled with caramelised brown sugar. My brother's favourite was her squidgy custard tart—crisp short crust pastry baked with a rich egg custard filling and dusted with aromatic nutmeg.

We'd also have sandwiches—usually egg and tomato (or mayonnaise), canned red salmon with a little bit of vinegar and white pepper, boiled ham or cold cuts left over from the Sunday lunch. Oh yes! This was all served following a full Sunday roast at lunchtime!

And everything would be served in the formal dining room, with the table laid with the best linen, and nanna's best crockery taken down from the cabinet. The kettle would be ceremoniously boiled, and several cups of tea would accompany the feast.

Afterwards, everyone got a doggy bag of cakes and pies—to serve as suppers and afternoon tea throughout the week.

This is a very simple recipe and relies on a couple of pantry shortcuts—ready rolled puff pastry and canned corned beef. It can be made with flaky or short crust pastry—although the flaky version is the version my mother would make more often.

Make sure you use white pepper and not black pepper—it does make a difference.

Ingredients

• 2 packs of fresh or frozen ready rolled puff pastry
• 6 large boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 medium onion, chopped small
• 1 medium can corned beef
• Salt and white pepper
• Small amount of butter or lard
• 1 egg (beaten) to glaze

Method

Place the potatoes into a large pan of water and bring to boil. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, till soft.

Drain potatoes and return to the pan.

Mash roughly and crumble in the whole can of corned beef, the onion and plenty of pepper. Mix well with a fork till all combined. Season with the salt last—taste the filling first as corned beef can be salty. Set the filling aside till cold.

Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C fan) or equivalent.

Take a dinner plate and grease it generously with butter or lard.

You may need to roll the pastry some more so that it covers the plate. Line the plate with one sheet of pastry.

Trim the pastry flush with the plate, reserving trimmings.

Spoon the cooled filling over the pastry leaving a two inch border.

Moisten the border with ice cold water.

Cover with the other pastry sheet, re-rolling as before if necessary.

Press the pastry lid into the border, all around the edges.

Trim as before.

Crimp pastry edges—or do as my mother did and press a fork into the border all the way round.

Push a sharp knife tip into the centre to make a small vent hole.

Use the trimmings to cut out leaves and vines, (or anything you fancy!) and decorate the pie, using water to fix.

Brush the whole surface with beaten egg.

Bake on a lower shelf—low and slow—for one hour—or until golden brown and puffed up and risen.

Enjoy! My mother liked hers with sweet sandwich chutney. This is equally delicious served as a meal with potatoes and vegetables, or baked beans and chunky chips.

Freezes beautifully—either made up and unbaked, baked as a pie, or sliced into individual portions. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat till piping hot.