Spinach and Ricotta pasty

Puffle ponders over a pasty

This may be a slightly controversial choice for pasty purists, but there is a splendid pie purveyor called Cornish Connection at the top end of Cheltenham High Street. I used to live very close by and am therefore well acquainted with their considerable range of pies and pasties. I live on the other side of town now so don’t get there so often, but it is always worth making the extra effort to get a pasty from them.

It pained me slightly to see that there was a queue out of the door of the nearby Greggs, but I was able to get served straight away in Cornish Connection. This is not to say they weren’t busy – they were – but this is a traditional outfit that puts at least 3 staff on the busy counter on a Saturday so you get served promptly and efficiently. To my mind, one Cornish Connection pie is worth a thousand Greggs air-and-mush so called pies.

You do have a huge choice in CC . They offer the traditional Cornish pasty in 3 sizes (small, medium and giant) and most other pasties in one size, which is closest to medium. Varieties on offer include steak and stilton, leek and ham, cheese and bacon, curried chicken, chuck steak, all day breakfast and my choice for the day, spinach and ricotta. I don’t usually choose a veggie pie if I’m honest, but I had a big meaty tea last night and didn’t fancy any more meat.

The pasty was very good; warm but served at a perfect temperature for immediate eating without scarring you for life, and with plenty of filling. The texture of the filling was a little mushy (a sprinkling of pine nuts would be a great addition) but this is a minor quibble. I do tend to find some of CC’s pies a little too salty (the cheese and bacon one especially) but they do sell cold drinks too so you can get a can to wash it down with. Today’s pasty was just about right though. The pastry could have been crisper, it was a little soggy at the rolled edge but not horribly so. I think the price was £1.85 and I felt this was good value for a good, filling hot snack.

7 out of 10

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Puffle reviews Tescos Finest Creamy Chicken Pies

Yesterday I decided pie was in order, so I got a brace of frozen chicken pies from Tesco, price £1.99.

The description on box makes the pie sound rather good. Would it live up to expectations?



The pie cooked in about 30 minutes so I lobbed in some big fat oven chips too. Heinz baked beans (first time I've had these in months, by 'eck they are sugary!)



The pie browned quite nicely on top and the puff pastry was light and crisp, but on cutting the pie in half, all the sauce came flooding out, leaving behind a few chunks of chicken breast meat. It was far runnier than I had expected frankly - you might be best advised to have some bread handy for mopping up.

Despite the thinness of the sauce, the flavour was OK, nothing special really and could really have done with some mushrooms, or maybe a bit of bacon to add interest. There was certainly no hint of the cheese that is mentioned on the box. But then, 2 pies for 2 quid ain't bad really. The pastry was thick enough to hold it all together but not so thick as to be claggy.

In summary, adequate but uninspired. I kind of wish I'd gone for the fresh Finest option with bacon, although that was twice the price.

5 out of 10.

Oh, and there are pie reviews here and here in today's Observer. Some controversial markings there. Some stupidly expensive pies there too!

Goblin Pie/pudding/whatever - 22nd January 09

Up until a few years ago, Goblin Pies were something that I'd wandered past the supermarket shelf of many a time and thought nothing of them. But on closer inspection, they are quite odd. For a start, they are miniscule. No right minded individual could be sated by one whole pie on its own. You could quite happily stuff a Fray Bentos pie down your craw and go about your day - these just seem to be singular lumps of stodge to gobble down for who knows what reason. Even as part of a meal, you'd get more out of the veg than you would these. They seem merely to exist to say you had some meat pie.

As for the look, Goblin seems to echo back to the days of wholesome food advertised with big solid lettering on the side, possibly with a rosy cheeked maiden on the side glowing from the goodness contained within. You can imagine soldiers marching off to the trenches armed with tins of the stuff to gobble down on a lonely night in a Ypres bombhole. Or possibly it could be used as a projectile to throw at the opposing trench a few metres away in the hope of making contact with the Boche cranium, and if it missed they'd maybe eat it and die bent double with food poisoning.






As you can see on the front, it can be microwaved in 90 seconds but as I kick it old school (and we had a power cut) I went for the boil in 20 minutes option. During said boil, part of the pie started glurping out the sides where I'd pierced hole to let out the steam. It wasn't pretty, but at least it didn't smell.




Finally, for the great unveiling:





A fairly unsuccessfuly exit from the can.

Taste

I don't know which was worse, the feeling of the rubbery damp pastry on the tongue or generic meaty taste of the muddy filling being reluctantly drawn down into my digestive tract. There's an aftertaste that will stay with you a good while longer than you'd like. It wasn't that surprising, as in this case you really do get for what you pay for.

Price

I lost the receipt but I think it was about 40p odd from Morrisions. For those interested, there's a steak and kidney version. Also, the website advertises a budget range which tastes like god knows what.

Meat and Potato Pie - Robinsons of Knaresborough

For our first bit of pie action, I’ve just been down the reliable local and got myself a large meat and tater.

For many a year, this has long been the standby pie of choice, often taken as fuel for long walks, round the river as a picnic bag stuffer or just for a quick and easy tea.

Inside is a no frills affair with the meat and potato separated into two solid layers, not mashed together to disguise its deficiencies. Best of all, there’s no gaping air pockets – it’s quite literally full to the top with meat and tatery goodness.

Surely a pie filled to the brim with this much could be quite stodgy? Far from it - as long as you’re not a right gannet with it and cane it all in one swift go, there’s nothing to substantially weigh you down should you need to skip away quickly.

All in all, a fine pie for pie fans everywhere.

Price - £2.50

You can find Robinsons here