Poverty Pie 1940s Recipes

Steps:

• Mix all the flour and butter together with your fingertips until you end up with something that looks like breadcrumbs.
• Gradually, add enough cold water to form a dough; refrigerate for an hour (optional).
• While the dough is chilling, boil the cubed potatoes till very soft and fry the onions and garlic together in a little oil.
• Drain potatoes.
• Add the soy sauce and black pepper; mix onions with the potatoes, plus with a little of the potato water to make the mixture really creamy.
• Add half the cheese.
• Roll the pastry to about one cm or 1/4" thick and put in a lighty greased pie pan.
• Spread the mixture out in the pastry lined pan and top with the last of the cheese and the parsley.
• Bake in an oven preheated to gas mark 5/190C/375F for 40 minutes.

Steps:

• To make filling.
• In a large saucepan bring stock, water, onion and bouquet garni to the boil and then turn down heat and add rabbit and gently simmer, covered for 45 minutes.
• Remove rabbit and cool and then pull meat from the bones and cut into bite sized chunks.
• Meanwhile return liquid to heat and boil briskly to reduce to 1 1/2 cups, this usually takes 5 to 10 minutes.
• In a saucepan melt butter and then add leak, mushroom and celery and sweat until soft and then add flour and cook for a further minutes and then gradually add warm stock, stirring well until sauce boils and thickens and then stir in cream and check for seasoning, fold rabbit through the sauce and allow to cool slightly.
• To make the pies.
• Roll out the shortcrust pastry and line small pie tins, filled with meat mixture and then cover with puff pastry. sealing edges with egg wash.
• Cut a slit in the middle of the pastry top to let steam escape and brush the pies with egg wash and put into the oven for 15 minutes at 220C and then turn down to 200C for a further 10 minutes.