The fresher ten happens for a reason – it’s your body’s way of protecting you and your vital organs from the cold and the damp in that ice box you call a flat as your body suffers through the shock of leaving your family home (just don’t start believing the lie that moving back home is a great idea). Being a student in winter sucks, so for the rest of the term these columns will look at filling, dense winter food, and will lead up to an epic Midwinter Christmas feast complete with boozy, creamy eggnog (in bulk). Start taking notes.
My mum used to make this freeform pumpkin and feta pie (oo fancy) when I was little and it ticks all of the winter comfort food boxes – cheap stodgy vegetables, cheese, pastry – and can be kept simple or flashed up depending on your preferred wank factor. Under perfect conditions, the onions caramelise and leak lovely sweet sticky goo out the holes in the pastry. It all needs a bit of organisation, and you still might need to wear your overcoat indoors, but this will warm up your puku. While the oven’s hot bake some potatoes and a crumble, for you are truly a kitchen deity.
Harvest pie
- One block of ready made puff pastry (or prerolled if you’re feeling lazy, but you might have to join the sheets together)
- 500g (ish) pumpkin
- 1 big onion (or more)
- 2 cloves of garlic (or more)
- ¼ cup white rice (uncooked)
- 1 egg
- A small block of feta (not the creamy stuff) – only use half a block if you find it a bit strong
- Oil, pepper
Getting sorted: Preheat the oven to 220°C. Prepare the pumpkin - remove the seeds, cut off the skin, and chop the pumpkin into pieces (about the size of half an ice cube). Dice the onion and peel then chop the garlic – I usually use heaps more than asked for. Parboil (halfway cook) the white rice – put it in a smallish bowl or jug with about half a cup of boiling water and microwave it for 5 minutes; drain it and let it cool. In another bowl , whisk up the egg. On a clean, floured surface, roll out your pastry into a something resembling a big circle. Place it on a baking tray ready to go – you can flour the tray or lay down some baking paper if you’re worried about things sticking. Have a beer, you’ve been very organised, well done.
Cooking things: Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan and over a moderate heat cook the onion and garlic until they are tender and beginning to go a little transparent. Add the pumpkin and cook until it’s beginning to go tender – give it a poke with a wooden spoon, and if the outside is a bit mushy and the inside is still a bit firm, you’re pretty much there. Take it off the heat and let it cool slightly. Mix the egg and parboiled rice together – yes, this sounds gross, but it acts as a binder and you won’t notice it once everything’s cooked.
Assembling things: Using nice clean hands, crumble the feta over the top of the pumpkin and give it a quick stir. Add the eggy rice mix, season well with pepper and mix everything together. (You probably won’t need any salt, the cheese is salty as it is.) Pile the whole lot into the middle of your pastry. Gently bring the rest of the pastry up over the filling, joining the edges together as you go – you should get a lumpy roundish pie with a bit of a hole in the middle. Poke the pastry all over with a fork. If you have milk and a pastry brush to hand, give the pie a bit of a glaze.
Baking things: Bake for ten minutes at 220°C, then lower the temperature to 180°C and cook until it’s done. This can take anywhere from 30 – 45 minutes, depending on how thin the pastry is. If it’s a nice golden brown, and looking flaky and a bit puffed up, you’re pretty much set. If you want to colour coordinate your meal, it works well with baked spuds and corn on the cob.
Extras: if you like vegetables, or think orange food is a bit off putting, then you can add sliced mushrooms and courgette when you start to cook the pumpkin, or some torn up spinach just before you take it off the heat. If you know your way around the kitchen, you can also use filo pastry in place of puff pastry – just be gentle, follow the instructions and work quickly or the pastry sheets start tearing. Messy fun though.
A word about gear: You can get away with an awful lot of cheap equipment in the kitchen – things like baking trays, tins and utensils can be bought cheaply from places such as the Super Shed or the Salvation Army. However, knives are a different matter. While some cheap knives are fine – I’ve been using a crappy paring knife I got from a $2 shop for about 5 years – if you really like faffing about in the kitchen the one thing you should not skimp on is a good sharp chef’s knife. Otherwise, chopping things like pumpkins, or carving roasts, or even slicing tomatoes, will end in frustration, mess and possibly blisters. A decent knife is one of those investments that will last you forever, and if you ask Santa nicely you might (like me) get one in your stocking. Creepy?
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