Betty's Baked Pie

Over this coming weekend of 8-10 May 2015, The Royal British Legion will join the nation in marking the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day. It is with this in mind that I made this pie. Its main ingredient is one of the most famous rationed meat from wartime England - corned beef. Its a little less popular these days but is still sometimes seen in a sandwich with pickles or as corned beef hash; fried with potatoes. Here it is used in my Bettys Baked Pie.

The recipe to this actually does comes from 1940 wartime. It was handed to me by a lovely old lady whose mother cooked it for her back in the day. I'm not sure where the 'Betty' comes from... maybe her mother was called Betty? I think its likely.

Either way - its a delicious little recipe and I have hardly changed it over the years. I just added a chilli as I think corned beef and chilli go very well together. But you can omit if you like. I think children would love this!

Ingredients:

1 tin corned beef, chopped
1 tsp. oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, seeds removed, chopped
pack of ready to roll pastry
3 large eggs
100g cheddar cheese, grated
dash of milk
salt & pepper

Method:

Set the oven to 180 C. Roll out your pastry to fit an 8-9 inch, loose bottomed quiche tin which has been greased. Lay the pastry in the tin, letting the pastry overhang the sides.

In 1 tsp. oil, fry the chopped onion and chilli until cooked.

Layer the corned beef, onion and cheese in the pastry case and season well with salt & pepper. Whisk together the eggs and a dash of milk and pour evenly over the top of the corned beef mix. Pop in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the egg is set in the middle. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and trim off the excess pastry.

You can serve this with a side salad, maybe with chips. Or take wedges of it packed in a picnic. I had it the way I have always had it. Still warm with some hot baked beans, Delicious! And a lovely remembrance of the war.