Corned Beef & Potato Pie

This recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie is very poignant, as it was my late father’s favourite pie. Mum used to make it for him regularly and he always enjoyed it with homemade chips and baked beans.

This recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie is very poignant, as it was my late father’s favourite pie. Mum used to make it for him regularly and he always enjoyed it with homemade chips and baked beans. This pie recipe is simplicity itself, and it only has three main ingredients in it, apart from the pastry, that’s corned beef, potatoes and onions.

Today recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie is made with my own shortcrust pastry recipe last time, but puff pastry also works well. Although my dad preferred a good buttery shortcrust pastry for pies and pasties, as do I. You can make one big pie with this recipe, or, you could make individual pasties if you and your family (or friends) are going out for a picnic, as they are easier to manage.

There is something very comforting about a pie, the anticipation of the “big reveal”, what’s in between the golden pastry case. I love pies, and I can honestly say that I have never met a homemade pie I have not liked. My mother (and maternal grandmother) was a pie maker extraordinaire. Her pastry was light, short and soft with a crumbly crumb, and luckily she taught me how to make pastry.

Her basic shortcrust recipe is a Be-Ro flour recipe, there’s no egg in it, but it’s wonderfully light and crisp. I have shared the recipe on Lavender & Lovage before, as well as adding it to today’s recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie, which is shared below at the end of this post. It’s a simple recipe that uses half the amount of fat to flour, with salt and cold water, and that’s it.

My recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie may be considered a Northern recipe, as in originating from the North of England, but corned beef was very much a Wartime ingredient. Not all meat was rationed during WW2, and my father remembered eating rabbit when he stayed with his Norfolk relatives during the summer holidays.

Even game and chicken was “off ration”, although you need to know where to get it from. Fish wasn’t rationed either, but again, it was hard to find sometimes. Corned Beef and SPAM® was a godsend for WW2 housewives from 1943 onward, and it wasn’t part of the fresh meat ration, so you just needed to save up your coupons to buy a tin or two. There were many popular corned beef recipes, with Corned Beef Hash being the most famous.

In my recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie I have suggested boiled potatoes, fried onions and corned beef. However, I have shared some other ideas below.

• For a Gluten Free version, use a ready-made GF pastry or GF flour.
• For a dairy free version, use margarine in the pastry in place of butter.
• For a wonderfully crisp pastry crust, use 80g of butter to 80g of white vegetable fat such as Trex.
• You can use pre-boiled or cold mashed potatoes, which makes great used of leftovers. Just mash or chop roughly before mixing with the remaining ingredients.
• I like the taste of the fried onions in this pie filling, but for an easier one pot way of cooking, you can add the chopped onions to the potatoes as they are boiling, and then drain and mash together with the corned beef.
• I think all that is needed for seasoning is salt and pepper, but Worcestershire sauce or a little dollop of brown sauce can be added for extra piquancy.
• Leftover cooked roast beef can be added, just shred it, or finely dice it.

Sunday, the 21st of June 2020, is is Father’s day. So, why not treat your dad to something special, whether that be a pint down the pub, a game of golf or some home-baked treats from your kitchen. My dad also used to love burgers and simple things such as egg and chips, pie and chips and corned beef and chips……he loved the simplicity of these recipes, and always had them with brown sauce, such as Daddies Sauce or HP Sauce.

You can make one big pie with this recipe, or, you could make individual pasties if you are taking your dad out for a picnic, as they are easier to manage. I made a single pie AND one pasty with the quantity of ingredients I had to hand, and I also had enough pastry left to decorate the top of the pie with pastry scraps. Or, if you have bags of time to hand and want to make your dad a spectacular showpiece pie, then why not have a bash at my Gala Gammon and Egg Raised Pie.

My recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie is shared at the end of this post, along with step by step preparation photos and instructions. I hope you enjoy this simple pie if you make it, please do let me know in the comments below. Have a lovely week, Karen

You’ll find the full and printable recipe at the end of this post.

• Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Grease and/or line a 10”/23cm pie plate or a large baking sheet for pasties.
• Mash the potatoes with salt and pepper and then add the corned beef; mash them together and then add the fried onions.

• Roll out the pastry and line the pie plate with half the pastry, trim off the edges and save the excess pastry for decorations.

• Spoon the corned beef filling into the middle of the pastry, leaving about 1”/2.5cm border around the edge. Roll out the remaining pastry and cover the filling with the pastry, sealing around the edges with your thumb, or with a knife/fork. (You can brush some beaten egg on the border before sealing)

• Trim the edges and brush the beaten egg all over the pie crust, make two a cuts for air holes in the top and decorate with excess pastry if desired.

• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and crisp; serve warm or cold with vegetables, salad and assorted pickles and sauces.

• Basic Shortcrust Pastry – my mum’s recipe for shortcrust pastry which uses SR flour and not plain flour for a lovely light texture

• Mix flour and salt in basin, rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Using a knife to cut and stir, mix with cold water to form a stiff dough. Do not over mix, light of hand is best. Allow pastry dough to chill and “relax” for 30 minutes, in a fridge or a cool place, cover the bowl or put the pastry in some cling film.
• Turn dough on to a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out and use as required.

I’ve added my recipe for Corned Beef & Potato Pie to CookBlogShare