Leftover Pie

Without repeating myself too much (see the Suet Shortcrust Pastry intro), this recipe was born on a late Christmas night. Faced with a mountain of leftovers, I decided to make a pie. The beauty of this recipe is its flexibility—you can throw in whatever you have on hand, which is why I haven’t specified quantities. Here’s what I recommend: A layer of stuffing to create a cushion between the pie crust and the filling. A generous spread of cranberry jelly (or mint sauce for lamb, dijonnaise for beef or chicken—you get the idea). Your meat, broken up and coated with thick gravy to keep it moist. For the large pie, I got the idea to bake it in a cake tin from a friend’s mum—it makes life so much easier! As for the individual pies, they’re a bit more challenging. If you don’t have mini springform tins, you can make makeshift cases with foil. As Mary Berry would say, they’re “rustic.” They’re a little fiddly, but as long as you don’t puncture the foil and fill them generously, they won’t leak or collapse. One pie can easily serve two people, so they go a long way.