I have lots of “foodie heroes” that I look to for inspiration, and Huge Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage (UK) fame is definitely one of them. I have all of his cookbooks, and in particular I love his “Veg Every Day” book which was released in 2011 (see here). So on page 51 of that book, Hugh makes a “Courgette and Rice Filo Pie” and on reading that I was taken with the use of rice in the filling to help absorb the moisture you get when using zucchini in a baked product.
Hugh uses filo pastry for his pie, but I opted to use a cream cheese pastry as I felt that would marry well with the veggie filling. But if you choose to use filo then that is definitely what you could do … simply use a 375g packet of filo and 120g of butter to brush on the sheets of filo. Layer 2/3 of the packet of filo on the base of the tart tin, rotating the sheets in a circular fashion as you lightly brush them with butter, fill with the mixture, then top with the remaining sheets, again lightly brushing with butter (don’t forget the top sheet which should also be brushed with butter) and bake as per the recipe until the pie top is nice and golden.
The herbs I have chosen to use in this pie have soft stems (mint, dill and parsley) so include those, but discard any stems that are tough.
Whilst the rice helps to absorb most of the liquid in the pie as it is cooking, I also included a small amount of cornflour to create a firmer texture when you cut into the pie.
This recipe makes a large pie so you will need to use a 26cm to 27cm (base measurement) round loose bottomed tart tin for this recipe. It is delicious served cold the next day, and keeps well in the fridge for a few days.
The pie is lovely just on it’s own, but to complete the dish I like to serve it with a Lemon Yoghurt Sauce (see here) drizzled over, and a large green salad.
- 225g full fat cream cheese, cubed, cold from the fridge
- 225g butter, cubed, cold from the fridge
- 160g white spelt flour, or plain white flour
- 160g whole meal spelt flour, or plain whole meal flour
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- ½ tsp cracked pepper
- Water for sealing the pastry edges together
- Cream for brushing over the pastry top
- Nigella seeds (optional), sea salt flakes and cracked pepper to sprinkle over pie before baking
- 1 lemon, zest only (save juice for lemon yoghurt sauce)
- 150g white basmati rice
- 800g zucchini, halved and cut into 4cm chunks
- 4 spring onions, cut into chunks
- 5g fresh mint, soft stems included
- 5g fresh dill, soft stems included
- 10g fresh parsley, soft stems included
- 200g Danish feta, crumbled
- 3 x 60g eggs
- 60g olive oil
- 30g cornflour
- 2 tsp sea flakes, or 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp cracked pepper
- Place cream cheese, butter, flours and seasonings into TM bowl and mix 6 seconds / speed 6
- Knead 30 to 40 seconds until dough starts to clump together (if it doesn't clump together in this time continue for another 10 seconds)
- Place dough onto a silicon mat or baking paper, and use it to help bring the dough together into a round (fold up the sides of the mat or baking paper pressing onto the dough to shape it into a round ... this saves you handling the dough and adding more flour to shape it) NB: do not clean TM bowl
- Weigh the dough … it should weigh about 760g … divide into two pieces: 480g for the base of the pie, and 280g for the top (you can add the scrapes from the base, if you have any, into the top when rolling out the top cover of the pie)
- Shape each portion into a round disk, cover in Glad Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes
- Prepare filling
- In a large mixing bowl, place the lemon zest and the basmati rice
- Put the zucchini into the TM bowl and chop 2 seconds / speed 5, scrape around bowl and repeat 1 second / speed 5 (you still want the mix to be a little chunky)
- Add zucchini to the large mixing bowl with the zest and the rice … if there are any large chunks of zucchini left (sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn't) place them back into the TM bowl and chop 1 second / speed 5, do not clean TM bowl
- Add spring onions and herbs to TM bowl and chop 2 seconds / speed 5, scrape around bowl and repeat 1 second / speed 5
- Add onion and herb mixture to the large mixing bowl with the zucchini, rice and lemon zest
- Put the feta, eggs, olive oil, cornflour and seasoning into the TM bowl and blend 3 seconds / reverse / speed 5 (I do this on reverse so that I still have some chunks of cheese)
- Add to the zucchini mix and stir everything together, it will look quite wet
- Put bowl into the fridge whilst you wait for the pastry to rest
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees fan forced and arrange rack into middle of oven
- Place tart tin (see notes on size of tin recommended) onto a baking tray (no need to grease it, but it is important to bake it on a tray to catch any juices that may - or may not - come out of the pie)
- Remove the pastry pieces from the fridge
- Flour your bench well and starting with the 480g pastry portion roll the dough from the centre out, rotating a ¼ turn as you go, and flouring your bench as needed to prevent sticking, until you get a round big enough to fit the base of your tin (to confirm the size, place the tart tin on top of the pastry round to ensure you have enough pastry to line the sides of the tart tin with a very slight overhang)
- Use your rolling pin to lift the pastry into the tart tin, lifting the pastry edges to allow you to gently press the pastry into the edges of the base so that the pastry is not being “stretched” into position
- Use a knife or kitchen scissors to remove excess pastry from the edges leaving a 1 cm overhang so that you can stick the top pastry sheet to the base to trim before baking
- Combine the scrapes into a single piece, and place on top of the second portion of dough rolling it out large enough to cover the top of the pie
- Get a small container of water ready to help seal the pastry edges together
- Pour the filling into the base
- Before covering the pie, use your finger to dip into the water and run your wet finger over the edge of the pastry sitting in the base
- Use your rolling pin to lift the top pastry piece and place it over the filling
- Use your fingers to gently press the edges of the pastry together, rotating as you go and pressing down on the edges to cut through the two layers of pastry, securing the two edges together and creating a nice neat edge
- Use a ruler to guide you cutting five lines across the top of the pie to allow steam to escape during baking (to make them evenly spaced, cut the middle line first, then do two either side of that)
- Brush top of pie with cream, then sprinkle with Nigella seeds, if using, sea salt flakes and cracked pepper
- Place pie in oven and bake for 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 180 degrees fan forced and continue baking for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is a deep golden colour (it bakes for an extra 55 minutes in my oven)
- Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving
- Serve with a lovely big garden salad, and lemon yoghurt sauce
It is delicious served cold the next day, and keeps well in the fridge for a few days.
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