Wednesday 31 October 2007

Designer Halloween Pie


Sophie Conran (Sir Terence's daughter) devised this special Halloween Pie recipe. It’s scarily easy to make and perfect for spooky suppers.

Ingredients (serves six)

800g (1 lb. 12 oz.) pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
½ tsp. dried red chilli flakes
2 tsp. cumin seeds
3 tbsp. olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g (7 oz.) firm goat’s cheese, crumbled
2 tsp. fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1 handful walnut halves
1 handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
150g (5 oz.) filo pastry
50g (2 oz.) butter, melted, or 3 tbsp. olive oil, for brushing the pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
2. Place pumpkin pieces on nonstick baking tray.
3. Sprinkle with chilli flakes, cumin seeds; drizzle with olive oil and coat well. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Cook in preheated oven 25-30 minutes or until pumpkin is tender and starting to brown. Remove from oven and leave to cool.
5. Once it’s cooled, place pumpkin in a bowl. Stir through goat’s cheese, sage, walnuts and parsley. Spoon mixture into a pie dish and set aside.
6. Brush both sheets of filo with melted butter or olive oil. Cover the top of the pie dish by lifting up each piece of filo in the centre with your thumb and index finger and placing it on top of the filling, making little crumpled hills.
7. Bake 20 minutes, until top is golden and centre piping hot.

Adapted from Sophie Conran's Pies.

1 comment:

Milena Petrovic said...

It's a good combination with fillo but pumpkin is also ideal for a fruity fillo dessert. The easiest recipe for homemade pumpkin pie is to finely grate peeled wedges of this vegetable. Lightly sautéed with some butter until just soft and cooled before adding 2 whole beaten eggs, tthe pumpkin mixture is ready to spread over prepared buttered and layered fillo pastry sheets. Sprinkled on top with sugar and spicy cinnamon the pumpkin filled pastry can be rolled over into long cylinders and baked in the oven for 35 minutes until golden and crisp. Dusted when cool with icing sugar and vanilla, then cut diagonally into bite-sized pieces, the naturally sweet pumpkin pie also makes is a good appetiser for parties.

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