Olympic Food Challenge: Marshall Islands - Macadamia Nut Pie

I know that we are four days into the Olympic Food Challenge now but today really was a challenge.  Finding recipes for the Marshal Islands was harder than finding hen's teeth or rocking horse droppings.  Tonight's Menu has always been about the main meal of the day in our house, the main course to be precise, but I really struggled to find anything other than this Macadamia Nut Pie recipe.  In fact, it turned up on more than one website so I'm fairly sure it's a real Marshalees recipe.

Having found the only recipe that was available to me, the next challenge was to work out when to cook it and what the actual main course would be.  That was when good fortune shined upon me.  I have cancelled all plans for doing anything and seeing anyone during the course of the Olympic Food Challenge.  It's not that I'm some kind of recluse but writing takes time and so does pulling together the posts from the other bloggers.  The only thing that hadn't been cancelled was a pub crawl in York for one of Z's colleague's 30th birthday.

But what better present for a 30 year old than a pie?  As none of us are as match fit as we used to be in the drinking steaks we only had three pubs on the list and we only made two of those.  We then returned to the birthday boy's house for more drinks and some food.  This is where the pie made its appearance.   There were a dozen of us including toddlers but I'm sure we could have saved some for Marshall Islands' four Olympians.

Steak and Guinness Pie Revisited

Just a quick post tonight as we're eating the remains of the pie that we cooked for St. Patrick's Day.  We're even having it with similar accompaniments only served slightly differently.  The pie was warmed in the oven, wrapped up in tinfoil to make sure that the pastry didn't burn.  Tonight's potato and cabbage were boiled and steamed respectively and the whole lot was served with onion gravy.

As leftovers go, the pie was great.  The filling had improved the way that stew or curry made a couple of days ago does and the pastry hadn't gone soggy!  The down side was I'd completely run out of Guinness.  Still, you can't have everything.

Steak and Guinness Pie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know I'm not Irish but when has that ever stopped anybody from enjoying a drop of the black stuff on 17th March?  It has also given us the chance to make a pie.  We are pastry mad in this house.  Any excuse for a pie, flan, tart, pasty or vol-au-vent is grabbed with gusto.  This normally turns into a lunch dish or a dessert so a full pie for an evening meal is great news.

Such is our passion for pies we have discussed at length what constitutes the perfect pie.  This conversation normally takes place in a pub after a less than perfect example has been served.  A stew with a pastry lid is not a pie.  A pastry base with no lid is not a pie.  You need a bottom, top and sides before you can claim to have made a pie*.  This is when we start getting serious.  My ideal pie has a short crust base and a puff pastry lid.  The base is blind baked so that it doesn't go soggy, the filling is piled in and lovely flaky lid is added.

Our filling of braising steak, onions, celery, mushrooms and Guinness, was pre-cooked.  I know a true pie should all be cooked together but it's my kitchen and therefore my rules.  Once cooked, we served our pie with colcannon for that added nod to St. Patrick.

*There are of course exceptions that prove the rule, these include a fish pie, shepherd's pie or cottage pie.  For some reason these mashed potato topped cuddles in a dish, pass the pie test by being furthest from the definition.