INGREDIENTS
¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 large or 2 small leeks, thinly sliced
250g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
750g chicken thigh fillets, sliced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup (60ml) oloroso sherry or dry marsala
½ cup (125ml) chicken stock or consommé
1 tbsp cornflour
2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
125g frozen peas
200g fresh or drained, canned corn kernels
Rough puff pastry (makes 500g)
225g (1 ½ cups) plain white flour, preferably unbleached
½ tsp fine salt
225g ice-cold butter, coarsely grated
100–125ml iced water
METHOD
1. For rough puff pastry: place flour and salt in a large bowl. Gently stir in butter, leaving small lumps of butter in the mixture). Make a well in the centre, add 100ml iced water and use pastry scraper to just combine. Bring dough together with your hands. Add more water if necessary.
2. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to make a rectangle about 1.5cm thick. Keeping the longer side of the rectangle parallel to the bench, fold both ends into the centre, like a book-fold. Then fold one side over the other to close the book. Turn it 180º, roll it out thinner again, keeping the rectangular shape and refold as before. Repeat one more time. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate until just firm (20–30 minutes). Can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 3 months.
3. Make chicken filling while dough resting: heat half oil in a very large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring often, until soft. Add mushrooms and cook until tender. Remove from the pan.
4. Increase heat, add remaining oil to the pan and cook chicken, sprinkled with salt, stirring frequently until browned. Remove from the pan. Add mustard, sherry and stock to the pan, stirring to scrape up any residue and boil. Dissolve cornflour in ¼ cup buttermilk, whisk in until boiling, add remaining buttermilk and thyme and bring to the boil. Return chicken and mushrooms to the pan, bring to the boil, add peas and corn. Season to taste. Remove from the heat.
5. Cut pastry in two, one piece slightly bigger than the other. Roll out the bigger piece to fit a 23cm x 4cm pie tin. Prick all over with a fork and place in freezer. Pre-heat oven to 200ºC (180ºC fan-forced). When frozen after 15 minutes, line the pastry with baking paper and fill with beans or rice and blind bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the baking paper and beans. Protect the edges of the pastry with foil then return to the oven for a further 5–10 minutes to crisp the base.
6. Fill with chicken mixture. Roll out the remaining pastry and cover the pie, cutting an air vent in the middle. Brush with milk
(or egg yolk) and place in oven and cook for 45 minutes or until golden. Remove and rest 5 minutes before serving.