Leftover turkey and ham pie
- Prepare
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Cook
- 1 to 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 6
- Dietary
- Nut-free
You'll be glad of all that leftover turkey when you taste this delicious pie! It will also use up ham, gravy and a little sherry. A brilliant Boxing Day feast.
For this recipe you will need a 1.2–1.5 litre/2–2½ pint pie dish.
Ingredients
For the quick rough puff pastry
- 400g/14oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- pinch of salt
- 65g/2¼oz chilled butter
- 160g/5¾oz frozen butter
For the filling
- 45g/1½oz butter
- 2 large leeks, washed and roughly sliced
- 1 orange, juice and finely grated zest only
- 50ml/2fl oz medium sherry
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- 500ml/18fl oz chicken stock (or 250ml/9fl oz leftover gravy and 250ml/9fl oz stock)
- 1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
- 600g/1lb 5oz leftover turkey meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 250g/9oz cooked ham, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped tarragon
- 200ml/7fl oz single cream
- 1 free-range egg, beaten for egg wash
- salt and white pepper
Method
For the pastry, mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Rub in the chilled butter using your fingertips. Gradually add enough cold water to form a dough (about 150–180ml/5–6fl oz).
Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle. Turn the pastry so a short side is nearest you. Grate 60g/2¼oz of the frozen butter over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Fold down the top third and fold up the top third as if folding a letter. Turn by 90 degrees and roll out again. Repeat, adding the remaining frozen butter and fold as before. Rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
For the filling, melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks, orange juice, orange zest and sherry. Cover and cook gently for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally until the leeks are just tender.
Remove the lid and increase the heat. Cook until the volume of liquid has reduced to a few spoonfuls of buttery liquid. Sprinkle the flour over the leeks and stir to mix evenly. Gradually stir in the stock and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly. Add the mustard, turkey and ham and stir. Finally add the tarragon and cream. Season to taste with a little pepper and salt.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Pour the pie filling and sauce into a 1.2–1.5 litre/2–2½ pint pie dish dish and allow to cool. If you have a pie funnel, put it in the middle of the filling.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to about 5mm/¼in thick. Cut a long 2cm/¾in-wide strip of pastry. Brush the rim of the pie dish with egg wash, then place the pastry strip onto the rim and brush with more egg wash.
To make the pie lid, cut the remaining pastry a little larger than the dish and lift it into place (use the rolling pin to help you). Make a hole in the middle to allow steam to escape (and to expose the funnel, if using). Press the edges to seal, then trim away any excess pastry. You can re-roll any trimmings and use them to make decorations. Brush the pastry with egg wash, arrange any decorations on top of the pie and brush these with egg too.
Bake for 35–40 minutes until the pastry is risen and golden-brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
Recipe tips
When reheating cold meat it's important to get it piping hot to ensure any bacteria has been killed.
Rough puff pastry has the light flakiness of puff pastry, but it's much easier to make. If you're short of time, you can use shop bought 500g block of puff pastry instead, but there is something special about homemade pastry.
Paul seasons the sauce with white pepper to avoid getting dark flecks of black pepper in a white sauce. It doesn't affect the flavour though, so feel free to use black pepper if that's easier.
Freezing butter makes it much easier to grate. After an hour in the freezer it should be hard enough to grate.
