Indian Potato Raised Pie!

Recently I've become aware that my baking has placed a heavy emphasis on cupcakes and other "cakey" bakes, which of course there is nothing wrong with! However, I'm keen to try out a variety of different bakes to develop new techniques and find new flavours. So when I stumbled upon Bake Off's Chetna Makan's recipe for this Indian Potato Raised Pie I knew I had to give it a go! 

Although capybaras might have nothing
to do with India, I couldn't resist 
using my cute cookie cutter for decoration!

I've only made hot water crust pastry once before, back in January when I made a Garlic, Tarragon and Mushroom Pie! I was surprised at how easy I found making the dough then, however I remember that I didn't roll the dough out quickly enough. With hot water crust pastry the trick is to work quickly whilst the dough is warm and pliable after the just-boiling water and melted fat is added. This time I knew to move faster. 

Upon closer inspection you can see 
where I had to patch up the pastry
case!

A combination of butter and vegetable fat (in this case Trex) is used in this recipe. Here, the butter is rubbed into the flour to resemble breadcrumbs, whilst the vegetable fat is melted in the water before being poured into the flour mixture. I'm yet to see a recipe for this type of pastry that doesn't use lard (or vegetable fat as a veggie/vegan alternative if you're a vegetarian, like me). This seems to be because of the fat's higher melting point than butter, leading to a crispier texture on the final bake!

For the filling I had to make a few swaps for (as far as I know) there are no Indian supermarkets near me, and seeing as I don't have a car it's difficult to go shopping out of town. The world food isles at the local supermarkets are also very lackluster. I have to say I was still very excited to try this filling, which consisted of red potatoes, onion, fresh ginger, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, tomatoes, lentils, turmeric, red chilies, curry leaves and coriander. Safe to say it didn't disappoint, and the kitchen smelt phenomenal whilst I was preparing the filling! 

Packed full of the delicious filling!

As ever, this bake isn't perfect (I am an amateur after all). The plus side here is that I know now what to do on my next attempt. I think I rolled the pastry out a little too thin. Although the recipe doesn't actually say how thick to roll out the pastry I aimed for the size of a £1 coin as this is what other recipes called for, but I ended up rolling a little thinner. I also experienced a lot of tearing when lining the baking tin, probably because the pastry had cooled too much. Again, I'd taken too long.  

Nevertheless, I am still very pleased with how this pie turned out to say it was only my second ever raised pie! 

Gibby x

P.S. This pie is fully vegetarian and no capybaras were harmed in the making!