Ham Pie

 I have been a consummate collector of recipes for many, many years.  As a girl I used to clip them out of my mother's True Story magazines and Women's Day, Chatelaine, The Star Weekly.  I don't know why. It is not like I was allowed to do any cooking until I was much older. 

I guess I have just always had a great interest in food and cooking. As a result I have a huge binder filled to overflowing with recipe writings and clippings, and several notebooks as well, the notebooks all being filling with handwritten recipes that I thought sounded tasty or interesting through the years and wanted to save. 

 

The recipe I am showing you today comes from one of my handwritten notebooks. I wish I had been a lot better at taking note of the sources for these, but alas I was not, so where it comes from I have no idea.  

I have had it for years and years however, and the fact that it is handwritten probably means it was either from a friend, or from a book I had borrowed from the library.

 

I had some ham that wanted using and I found this recipe and decided that after so many years of it collecting dust it was about time I tried it!  

So today was the day.  It is a simple recipe.  Simple recipes are often very tasty recipes.

 

It doesn't use anything you probably don't already have in your kitchen, except for maybe the ham, or maybe you got lucky and you already have that as well.

 

The ham is ground and mixed with mustard. I chose to chop it very fine in my mini food processor and I used Dijon Mustard because it has a nice bite to it. You could also use deli ham or flakes of ham from the tin.

 

This gets spread over a scone/pastry type of dough which you roll out very thinly.  I added some cheese to the filling, because we like cheese.  I toyed with adding some grated onion, but kept it simple this time, with just ham, mustard and cheese.

 

The filling gets rolled up in the dough somewhat like a cinnamon roll dough.  You then slice it and lay the slices in your pie/casserole dish.  

 

A rich cheese sauce then gets poured over top and some buttered bread crumbs are sprinkled over that, upon which the casserole gets put into a moderately to hot oven and baked for a good 40 to 45 minutes.

 

The pastry puffs up around the ham filling  . . . the cheese sauce oozes down in between the rolls and bubbles up, and those crumbs get golden brown.  

 

The flavours in this were very, VERY nice.   We both really enjoyed it.  Do be judicious with your use of salt, as the ham can be quite salty and so can the mustard and cheese.  

In fact, if I make it again, and I think I will, I would leave the salt out altogether.

 

I chose to serve it with some salad and cooked peas and carrots.  We both really enjoyed this.  It's also nice to know that you can cut the recipe in half, which I did quite successfully, for the smaller family.

 

*Ham Pie*

Serves 8

Printable Recipe 

 

This delicious pie is quite different than the usual pie.  It is composed of a flaky crust rolled around a flavourful ham filling, which is sliced into rounds and placed in the baking pan. It is topped with a cheese sauce, buttered crumbs and then baked.  Fabulous!  You can also very easily cut the recipe in half. 

For the filling:

1 1/4 pounds ground ham

125g prepared mustard (1/2 cup)

(I use Dijon)

60g grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup) 

For the crust:

310g plain flour (1 1/2 cups)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

55g white vegetable shortening (1/4 cup)

180ml milk (3/4 cup) 

For the sauce:

450ml milk (2 cups)

2 TBS plain flour

2 TBS butter

1 tsp salt

black pepper to taste

120g grated strong cheddar cheese (2 cups) 

To top:

15g dry bread crumbs (1/4 cup)

(I used panko)

1 tsp  melted butter 

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.  Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.  Set aside. 

Mix the ground ham and prepared mustard together until well combined. (I buy a chunk of roasted ham and grind it in the food processor. Works beautifully. You can also use leftover cooked ham.) 

Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder and salt.  Drop in the shortening and rub it in until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.  Stir the milk in usig a fork, to give you a soft dough.  Knead gently a few times and then roll out, on a lightly floured surface,  into a large rectangle which is 1/4 inch thick and about 8 by 24 inches in size. Spread the ham mixture evenly over top of the dough.  Sprinkle the cheese over top and press it gently into the ham. Roll up into a tight roll from long side to long side.  Cut into 16 evenly sized pieces. Place into the baking dish. 

Melt the butter for the sauce and whisk in the flour. Cook for one minute.  Slowly whisk in the milk.  Cook, stirring constantly over medium high heat, until the mixture bubbles and thickens.  Cook for a further minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.  Season with the salt and some black pepper.  Stir in the cheese to melt.  Pour this sauce evenly over top of the ham rolls.  Mix the crumbs together with the melted butter and sprinkle evenly over top of the cheese sauce. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes until golden brown and nicely risen.  Cut into squares to serve.

 

I love recipes like this.  They are simple and yet at the same time special. Not a lot of faffing about and something which the whole family will enjoy. I hope you will give it a go!  Bon Appetit!