My Higgidy Special Guest Pie

Oh yes.   It was a fabulous day at Barrow Towers when the goodie bag below arrived.  You see I love a bag.   I have several hundred logo’ed shopping bags and have to be restrained when I am out shopping somewhere that sells one I might not have.   The squeal from seeing the bag was nothing compared to the squeal when I saw the personalised rolling pin.   That is a sign like no other that as a blogger you have arrived let me tell you.   I may have even sent an email to the PR company organising it all that started “runs around room with pants on head” such was my excitement.

Anyway, I am waffling.   The purpose of the bag was to ask me if I would like to join the Higgidy Recipe Hunt, where I can design my own pie or encourage you to do the same.    There is going to be a Special Guest Pie available next year but first of all Higgidy have to find that pie.   Well I do love a challenge.

I did think about doing a sweet pie initially as I couldn’t see one on the Higgidy website.   And I love a pie for pudding, or maybe even a pie bottom on and crumbly top.   With a sachet of custard like those little ones of ketchup or mayonnaise you get in cafes.   But that would probably be too much of a faff for Higgidy to make.

Then I thought about a Christmas pie.   Turkey, cranberries and a bit of stuffing maybe?   Or a good old fashioned mincemeat pie.   Which then lead me onto thinking about doing a proper mince meat pie, like a cottage pie but crossed with a Cornish pasty so the potato is in small chunks inside the pie and there is still a pastry lid.

But then I realised that when this pie goes on sale in Sainsburys it will be the spring so nobody will really want to be buying what will appear to be leftovers from three months ago.   Or a “deconstructed pasty”.

Given that Higgidy could potentially market this pie (let’s face it, they won’t, but humour me), it needs to be made in a way that is easy for them to sell.   Which means it really needs a pastry bottom as well as a top.   We don’t really want to go down the foil dish with a lid on I don’t think.   This needs to be a pie with a top AND a bottom.

So with that in mind I then thought about the nation’s favourite dish.  Mr B suggested fish and chips but another retailer has just launched that idea and whilst there is obviously room for competition it would look like I had just copied their idea and not thought about this.  And after all it is a competition.   Which lead me to thinking about curry.   I am sure I read recently that the nation’s favourite dish is chicken tikka masala.   But would that work in a pie?

In the spring?   Chicken doesn’t say spring to me.

But lamb does.   Which is when the lamb rogan josh pie was born.

Oh yes people.   Look in wonderment at the pie that is a curry with nine spices

5.0 from 1 reviews

Lamb Rogan Josh Pie

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

A pie with lamb curry in it. Could be the taste sensation you have been waiting for. Or not. I have used a slow cooker but you could just cook it in the oven

Author: Mummy Barrow

Recipe type: potential disaster

Cuisine: Fusion

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1kg boned lamb cut into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 125g natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tsps ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 8 tablespoons lentils
• 225ml water
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 1 pack of ready to roll shortcrust pastry
• 1 pack of ready to roll puff pastry
• 1 egg beaten
• pinch of fresh coriander

Instructions

1. Fry the onions until sweated (I do this in my slow cooker to keep all the flavours in)
2. Stir in the yogurt
3. Add all the spices and stir and allow to cook into the yogurt a bit. Probably ten minutes or so.
4. Add the lamb and stir until all coated with the sauce.
5. Tip in the can of tomatoes and give it one last stir.
6. Leave it to cook for two hours
7. Add the lentils and water and allow to cook for another two hours.
8. Allow curry to cool (preferably overnight so it is completely cold as any warmth could melt the pastry)
9. Grease pie dish and put in a preheated oven at 180 degrees to warm (that's a tip from Camilla at Higgidy) as it helps to stop soggy bottoms.
10. Roll out shortcrust pastry
11. Line pastry dish with the shortcrust pastry, prick the base with a fork and put some rice on top to keep it flat (or baking beans if you have them) and bake in the oven for ten minutes.
12. Remove from oven and fill pie dish with lamb rogan josh
13. Sprinkle chopped coriander on top of curry.
14. Roll out puff pastry and add a lid to the pie dish, coating edges where the two pastries will meet with egg wash to help them stick. Use a pie funnel to make an air hole, or cut a hole in the pastry to allow air to escape.
15. Brush egg over top of pie
16. Cook in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3.2.2802

And yes, I have used ready made pastry.   I know my limitations and making pastry is beyond my limits.   Ready to roll pastry is better than anything I could make so I have gone with it.   Don’t judge.

What do you think?

Higgidy’s new Special Guest Pie or a waste of good pastry?