Woolton Pie

It was #BritishPieWeek this week so I searched the internet for a traditional British vegetarian pie and came across the Woolton Pie. It was born of necessity during the Second World War and named after Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food at the time. The recipe varied dependant on what was available but was essentially a root vegetable pie topped either with a pastry made with potatoes or just sliced / mashed potato if your rations for butter or lard had run out!

It wasn't the tastiest pie I'd ever eaten but at least I now know what living on rations must have tasted like!

Ingredients
serves 4
500g potatoes
500g swede
500g carrots
500g cauliflower
4 spring onions
1 tsp "vegetable extract", (or marmite)
1 tbsp oatmeal
parsely, chopped
ground black pepper
salt

for the pastry
150g flour
40g butter
40g vegetable shortening
50g potatoes
splash of milk

Method

Peel the potatoes, carrots and swede then dice into cubes, not too large not too small. Break the cauliflower into small florets and dice up the left over heart. Chop the spring onions.

Place all the vegetables into a large pan. Add a tablespoon of oatmeal then fill with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Put a teaspoon of marmite into pan to add some flavour. Cover with a lid and boil for ten minutes, stirring occasionally to stop any veg from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Remove from the heat, drain the water and set aside to cool.

Put the flour, butter and vegetable shortening in a large mixing bowl. Rub the fats into the flour by working it between the fingers. The end result should look like breadcrumbs.

Finely grate 50g of raw potatoes and add to the mixing bowl. Next add some water, a little at a time and work into a dough.   Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and set aside to rest.

Season the veg well with salt and pepper. Then put it all in a pie dish. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a reasonable thickness (about 3mm)

Place the pastry over the pie dish, trim off the excess and sealing the edges down with the back of a fork. With a sharp knife make one or two cuts in the pastry to let out the steam. Brush the pastry with some milk.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Bake for about half an hour when the pastry should have coloured a golden brown

Serve hot with onion gravy.