Cook the Book: Chicken and Leek Pasties
The recipe Cook the Book: Chicken and Leek Pasties could satisfy your Scottish craving in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. This recipe serves 4. One portion of this dish contains roughly 29g of protein, 28g of fat, and a total of 629 calories. This recipe covers 30% of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. It works well as a rather inexpensive main course. If you have sea salt and pepper, egg, flour, and a few other ingredients on hand, you can make it. To use up the sea-salt you could follow this main course with the Raspberry Sea Salt Brownies as a dessert.
Instructions
To make the pastry, mix the flour with the salt, then add the cubed butter and toss until the pieces are coated with flour. Stir in just enough ice water (8 to 10 tablespoons) to bring the mixture together into a fairly firm dough.
Shape the dough into a rectangle with your hands and, on a well-floured surface, roll it out in one direction, away from you, so you end up with a rectangle about 3/8 inch thick. Fold the far third towards you, then fold the nearest third over that (rather like folding a business letter), so that you now have a rectangle made up of 3 equal layers. Give the pastry a quarter-turn, then repeat the rolling, folding, and turning process 5 more times. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and rest it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or up to an hour.
To make the filling, melt the butter in a frying pan, add the leeks and thyme, and cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes, until the leeks are very tender. Stir in the cream and cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes to reduce and thicken. Stir in the mustard, season well, and let cool.
If using fresh chicken, season well and fry in the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat until evenly browned. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a plate or a cake pan as a template, cut out four 8-inch circles; you may have to gather up the trimmings and reroll them to get your fourth circle.
Spoon the leek mixture on to one half of each circle and pile the chicken on top.
Brush the pastry edges with a little water, fold the other half of the pastry over the filling to form a half-moon shape, and crimp well to seal.
Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and brush the tops of the pasties with the egg wash.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. Eat hot or cold.