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.