Serve with a generous smear of hot English mustard

I’m completely obsessed with hot English mustard. I’m not eating it with a spoon…yet. It’s a fairly new obsession, which began late last year, when as part of a month-long, shared-eating RWC season when we gorged on sizzling bacon and hot English mustard sandwiches at work. Since then, my taste for hot English mustard has steadily grown more ravenous.

I’ve recruited The Koala and we’ve been enjoying mustard on almost everything. In New Zealand, we use both baby American mustard and real hot English mustard and if you ask for mustard, you would be presented with either one or asked for your preference. American mustard is very mild while hot English mustard has a mean kick that I liken to wasabi. Unlike the heat of a chili, mustard  doesn’t keep building up in heat as you eat burning so much that you can no longer enjoy your food.

Here’s a super easy pie to eat with mustard. It’s got everything you want in it and nothing you don’t.

We split this between 3 of us but in hindsight, between 4 would have been better.

Easy Bacon and Egg Pie

Ingredients

• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry (10 inch squares)
• 6 rashers of streaky bacon
• A little oil
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup cheese, grated
• 9 eggs
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Hot English mustard to serve

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Defrost 2 sheets of puff pastry. I just leave these out on the counter to thaw while I prepare my other ingredients.
3. Fry the bacon rashers in a bit of oil for a few minutes each side until suitably cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Add hot water to the peas, once thawed, drain and set aside.
5. Rub butter to the bottom and sides of a square 10-inch oven proof dish.
6. Lay 1 sheet of pastry into the dish. Add the rest of the ingredients in fairly even layers: first the grated cheese, then peas, then strips of bacon. Crack open the eggs and add each one to the pie. The eggs will slide around a bit – probably to the outer edges the the dish. Mush them back to where you want them to settle and pierce the yolks if you wish.
7. Cover with the second sheet of pastry, and using a small, sharp knife, stab steam holes into the top of the pastry. I perforated an X across the top of my pie. You could write a secret message or something witty if you prefer. Brush the top layer of pastry with milk.
8. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until golden. Cut into thirds horizontally and thirds vertically so that you end up with 9 smallish squares or cut the pie into quarters. Serve hot with a salad and a generous smear of hot English mustard or cool and serve cold as picnic food, breakfast or as a snack in between.