The Festive Season is a time for family, fun and festive meals. And who better to teach us the tricks of the trade than one of South Africa’s doyens of cookery, Ina Paarman.
Today Ina shares her recipe for South Africa’s favourite pie – this time made with an easy pour-over pastry, topped with a mushroom garnish.
- Serves: 6
You will need:
Roasting chicken
- 1 large free range chicken, fresh
- 1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman’s Lemon & Black Pepper Seasoning
- 1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman’s Chicken Flavour Stock Powder
- 1 cup (250 ml) dry white wine
- 1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
Pastry
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup (125 ml) oil
- 1 cup (250 ml) full cream milk
- 1 cup (250 ml) cake flour
- 2 t (10 ml) baking powder
- 2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman’s Lemon & Black Pepper Seasoning
- 3 – 4 button/portabellini mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 2 t (10 ml) olive oil
Sauce
- 1 t (5 ml) hot English mustard powder (or 1 T (15 ml) Dijon mustard, omitting the water below)
- 2 T (30 ml) water
- ¼ cup (60 ml) butter
- ¼ cup (60 ml) flour
- 2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock cooked from bones
(add fresh milk, if the stock is not enough) - 200 g – 250 g button/portabellini mushrooms, sliced (reserve a few for topping)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 x 200 ml Ina Paarman’s Ready To Serve Mushroom Sauce
Method:
Chicken:
Adjust the oven rack to one slot below the middle position, and preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place the chicken in an oven roasting pan. Season it with Lemon & Black Pepper Seasoning and Chicken Stock Powder.
Carefully pour the wine down the side of the pan and scatter the onion quarters around the chicken.
Roast for 1¼ hours, until the chicken is cooked.
Allow it to cool.
Remove the skin and bones, and flake or cut the meat into smaller pieces. Set aside the meat for later.
Put the skin and bones back into the roasting pan.
Add 2 cups (500 ml) water and bring to the boil to deglaze the pan and to extract all the flavour from the skin and bones. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the solids.
Blot the excess fat off the surface of the sauce with a double layer of absorbent kitchen paper, if necessary.
Sauce:
Soak the mustard powder in 2 T (30 ml) of cold tap water.
Melt the butter, add the flour, and cook over medium heat, while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.
The mixture must become “puffy”, full of air bubbles, and the colour will turn light cream.
Add all the strained chicken stock (and milk, if used) at once.
Using a wire whisk, stir the sauce until it thickens and comes to a slow boil.
Add the mushrooms, mustard, parsley, and Mushroom Sauce.
Season to taste.
Pour the sauce over the flaked chicken and stir to mix.
Place the mixture into a pie dish.
Pasty & Baking:
Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
Whisk the eggs, adding the oil gradually.
Whisk in the milk.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and 1 t (5 ml) Lemon & Black Pepper Seasoning onto baking paper.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and whisk until smooth.
Pour the batter over the hot chicken and mushroom filling in the dish.
Mix the thinly sliced mushrooms with the other 1 t (5 ml) Lemon & Black Pepper Seasoning and a little oil, and arrange on top of the batter.
Bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown.
