Chicken and Leek Pie

Pies to Australian food are the equivalent of fish and chips back home. Warm, comforting and what many outsiders think of as the dishes that typify the nation.

Above is my first effort at cooking a pie since arriving in Oz. Flying the flag for Britain I used a Jamie Oliver recipe. The pie was pretty easy to cook and tasted pukka!

There was blue cheese in the sauce, which added an interesting tang but next time I will go for a milder blue or scale back the quantity as I found it slightly over powering.

Can you spot the leaves I made and put on top of the pastry. Couldn't resist!

UPDATE: I have noticed that this post is getting quite a few hits and people are probably leaving disappointed because the post doesn't contain the recipe. Here you go....

Ingredients:
- Small knob of butter
- Olive Oil
- 4 leeks, cleaned and sliced
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 600g chicken thighs, diced
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1tbs plain flour
- 500ml dry cider
- 100g Stilton / blue cheese
- 375g puff pastry
- 1 egg

Method:
- Heat oven to 200 degrees
- Melt butter in a pan with the oil. Add leeks and garlic and sweat for 15mins
- In a large frying pan season and brown the chicken in batches with the thyme
- Add all the chicken back to frying pan, add the softened leeks and stir in the flour
- Pour in the cider and simmer gently for 20mins
- Remove from the heat and stir in the blue cheese
- Line the base of your pie dish with pastry and add the filling. Cover the top of the pie with the remaining pastry. Seal the edges together with the back of a fork
- Brush the pastry with egg wash and make a hole in the top of the pastry
- Bake for 30mins