Beetroot, Radish and Potato Pie
This is a recipe I made a little while ago now and recently rediscovered the photographs of. A combination of sweet beetrooty goodness and acidic pickled radish with the creaminess of potato and texture of a great short crust pasty, it’s hard to find a more pleasing pie for the season.
As usual, I served this pie with roasted cabbage and salady bits, along with a red wine and onion reduction. The mixture of sweet, savoury and acidic with a bit of fresh crunch is perfect.
But before we hop into the recipe, a word on short crust pastry. There is a golden ratio, five rules and a top secret with pastry. The ratio is half fat to flour, so whatever wait of flour you’re using, half that as a guide for how much fat to mix it with. The five rules are:
Keep you fats chilled
Use the shortest fats you can
Don’t over handle
Use plain flour
Let it rest
Let’s get into these a little more. Keeping your fat chilled is very important as it helps prevent toughness in the pastry. This was the first pastry lesson I learned as a kid and I remember my mum telling me to cool my hands under cold running water until my fingers turned numb (I’ve always been cursed with strong circulation and very hot blood!) For the second point, you might be wondering what a short fat is. Shortness means a crumbly, solid fat at room temperature. A lot of fat like butter or margarine have a higher water content bound to the fat which is released whilst cooking. This water escapes the pastry as steam, effectively boiling it and making it chewier and less crumbly. Think of the difference in texture between a bread bun and a bagel. That’s the effect of boiling flour. The shorter the fat, the more pure fat it is and the less moisture it has in it. This is why the best pastry is made using lard, but I find culinary coconut oil is also far superior to butter as well*. The last three points are all good technique concerning the same property of pastry, gluten. We don’t want to over handle or kneed pastry at all as this will activate the gluten in the flour by locking it up and tightening the dough. We use a plain flour because it has a lower gluten content in comparison to strong bread flour or 00, and we let it rest after we’ve made it so that any tightness we’ve introduced to the gluten has a chance to relax again.
*Note, culinary coconut oil is odorless and therefore doesn’t taste of coconut. Also, when making a softer pastry like sweet short crust, butter or margarine are used as the water present in them helps dissolve the icing sugar, which is in turn absorbed by the starches, resulting in a fluffier, softer pastry.
Lastly, the secret tip I didn’t learn until I worked for a bakery, was never use water to combine your dough. Once you’ve mixed your fat and flour you will be left with a grainy, sandy textured substance. Here, most recipes will tell you to add enough water to bring the pastry together into a dough, but replacing this with a full fat milk or egg yolk (or barista style plant milk) will introduce just a little more fat to the pastry, enough to make it extra short and crumbly.
So to close this section, remember these key points: Get a good quality fat, keep it cold, and don’t overwork.
Beetroot Pie Recipe
Serves 5
Pastry:
250g Wholemeal plain flour
125g Culinary coconut oil
20g (ish) of whole fat milk
A pinch of salt
Pie filling:
600g Potato
380g Beetroot
40g Pickled radish
200g Cheddar / strong plant-based cheese
Optional: 1tbs Horse radish / 1tsp wholegrain mustard
Onion reduction:
1 Onion
150ml Red wine
0.5tsp Yeast extract
Side:
Cabbage or cauliflower leaves, sautéed
1tsp Wholegrain mustard / sweet white miso
Any extra greens you need to use up
Step 1.
It’s time for a pastry hack. As you may have read above, I have ridiculously warm hands that are not pastry friendly. Because of this, I use a blender to combine the fat and flour, then mix the milk in by hand. The trick with this is to wait for your flour to climb the sides of the blender. Cut your fat into 1cm cubes and drop them into the blender with the flour and a pinch of salt. Turn it on and you’ll notice the flour gets thrown all over the place because of how light it is. As the fat is combined with it though it will begin to hold form, enabling it to rise up the inside of the blender. Once this starts to happen, give it 3 seconds more blending, then remove the lid to check for the correct graininess. It should be an even crumb texture with no visible signs of fat or lumps. If there are lumps you can either combine them by hand or blend for another 3-4 seconds.
Once done, tip the contents into a mixing bowl and add 10ml of the milk to begin with. Using a metal fork, mix the pastry and milk together until all the milk is absorbed before adding another 10ml of milk. If you need to add more milk then do so, but be warned, as obvious as it sounds, you can always add more but you cannot remove any. If you accidentally add too much then your pastry is ruined and you should start again (adding more flour won’t work as the unbound gluten acts differently to that which is combined with fat).
Once your pastry comes together, stop kneading it. Any over working of the pastry will cause the gluten to become tough. Divide your pastry into two halves (one a little larger than the other) and roughly shape them into flat, round discs and place them in the fridge to rest, covered, for 15 minutes. A lot of recipes call for pastry to be rested for at least 30 minutes but this will cause the short fat we’re using to become almost unworkable, so as a compromise we’ll settle for minimal handling.
Step 2.
Now we’re through that mammoth of a step, simply wash and mandoline your potatoes into 1-2mm thick slices. Store them in cold water to stop discolouring whilst you grate your beetroot. Finally, either slice fresh radish through the mandoline or use some pickled radish from our recipe here.
Step 3.
Preheat the oven at 190C / 375F.
Roll out the larger of your two pastry discs on a lightly dusted surface. If you stored your pastry in a flattened disc before resting it, this will be a lot easier (I’ve never understood why people store pastry in a block). To roll it out evenly, always keep the pin parallel to your shoulders and apply even pressure on both hands. Turn the pastry by 1/8ths every 3-4 rolls and by the time you’ve turned full circle it will be a nice, even, round shape.
Next, oil or butter a 22cm round tin and gently lay your pastry into it. If you’re struggling to pick your pastry up, gently roll it onto your rolling pin and use this to lift it into place. Push the edge of the pastry into the corners of the tin, then roll the pin over the whole thing to cut the pastry off where it overhangs. If you have any cracks or gaps, dap them with a drop of water and use the cut offs of pastry to repair them by pressing it into place.
Step 4.
Layer your potato, radish and beetroot up in layers, then grate cheese over the top of them. Mix a blob of mustard or horseradish into the cheese (this will melt and carry the flavour down throughout the layers as it cooks). Roll out the pastry as you did before, but this time a little smaller for the pie lid. Damp the edge of the pie crust with a little cold water and lift the lid into place. Using your fingers, crimp your way around the edge of the pie, pressing down where the two pieces of pastry meet to make a seal.
Glaze the pie with milk or an egg wash and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes.
Step 5.
Dice your onion and pop it in a saucepan with a small dash of oil and seasoning. Cook it for 10 minutes on a medium high heat until it begins to colour, then add the red wine and yeast extract. Let it come to the boil then turn it down to simmer and reduce until sticky and thick. If it looks like it’s going to thicken too much by the time the pie is ready, add a little water or stock to loosen again, then continue to reduce.
Step 6.
Roughly chop your cabbage and cauliflower leaves and season with a pinch of salt. Put them in a baking tray with a splash of oil and place them on the top shelf of the oven when the pie has 10 minutes left.
When they’re done, remove them from the oven and add the mustard and sweet white miso. Mix it all over and pop them on the plate as a side to the pie.
Step 7.
Delicately remove the pie from the tin after it has rested for 10 minutes on a cooling rack. Be careful when handling it as the combination of beetroot sugars and melted cheese are very hot if spilt. Cut the pie into 5 pieces and plate up with the roasted leaves and onion reduction.