Hey folks, it’s officially winter in New Zealand.

This week we have had bright cold days with beautiful blue skies. Now that we’ve hit the long weekend, the gloom has set in. The rain is relentless today. It’s 9am and as dark as night. We have the lights on, the heater cranking and it is good to be inside. Bring on the comfort food.

I’ve been craving pie lately and since leeks are in season (just a dollar each!) I decided to make a chicken and vegetable pie. The creamy white wine and tarragon sauce is stunning. This is a good one to have up your sleeve.

This recipe is very forgiving. I’m sorry, the ingredients list looks super long but you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand to the equivalent of about 2 litres (an ice cream container) of filling. Some other vegetables that would try are: mushrooms, silverbeet, pumpkin, and celery.

Read through the recipe ahead of time, as steps 2, 3 and 4 can be worked on simultaneously.

Chicken and vegetable pie

with creamy white wine and tarragon sauce

Makes four generous serves

Ingredients

• 3 sheets of frozen puff pastry
• Butter or cooking oil spray
• 1 kumara, peeled and diced
• 1 potato, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 leek, cut in half lengthwise and sliced thinly
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 500grams freerange chicken breast, diced
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup frozen peas or mixed vegetables
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg yolk, beaten

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Take pastry out from freezer to thaw.
2. Place diced kumara and potato in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then lower to simmer and simmer for 10 minutes until tender. Drain and reserve.
3. In the meantime, heat butter and 1 tablespoon of oil in a saute pan and once hot, add leek and onion. Cook for a few minutes until softened. Stir in the rest of the oil, chicken, flour, salt, black pepper and tarragon. Cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add wine and scrape the pan to combine. Add milk, frozen peas or mixed vegetables along with the kumara, potato and baby spinach. Stir to combine and once peas are hot and baby spinach has wilted, turn off heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if required.
4. To prep the pastry, once thawed, take one sheet and cut into 4 even strips. Place the long edge of each strip along the outer edge of a complete square, overlapping by 1 cm to piece to create a plus sign shape (see pie-agram). Pressing firmly all along the overlaps to seal.
   Take a square baking dish and rub with butter or spray with cooking oil. Line with pastry, making sure the extra pieces go up the sides and pinch the edge seams closed.
5. Carefully tip the pie filling into the dish and push to corners to distribute evenly. Lay the final piece of pastry over the top and fold over the edges to seal. Poke a knife or fork to allow steam to escape while cooking, brush pastry all over with egg yolk and bake for 30 minutes until golden and wonderful. Cut into quarters and devour.