Cheesey Cornbread Pie

Pies this week! (Go check out Recipe Shed for a whole selection of them.) I love pies, I could eat an old boot if it were wrapped in pastry. However, I couldn't find a good recipe for Old Boot Pie and anyway, I really wanted to look for something a little different. You can put almost anything between two pastry crusts and it's a pie by definition. But what else is there? Well I found a recipe for a pot-pie with a cheesey cornbread lid. It was with a hot chilli filling and called Mexican. I'd love it but I'm cooking for a 3yo so I dispensed with the Mexican element and came up with the following. I'm very excited to be sharing this, it's delicious and satisfying in a vegetarian meaty sort of way.

Cheesey Cornbread Pie

Select a variety of pulses and vegetables for the filling. I happened to find garlic, a potato, some aubergine, frozen sweet corn, frozen chick-peas, onion, frozen green beans, and some red pepper. You will also need tomato puree or crushed tomatoes.

Cube the vegetables and saute the vegetables (and pulses) in cooking oil. Then add the tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes) and salt, pepper, and soy sauce to taste, a generous tsp of onion soup powder (or a stock cube), and a cup of water (maybe 2 cups I can't remember). Let it simmer for about 15 minutes while you make the cornbread topping.

Mix in a bowl: 2/3 cup cornmeal, 1tbsp flour, 2tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Beat 1 egg with 1/3 cup milk and 2 tbsp corn oil.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and combine to make the cornbread batter.

Put the filling in an oven-proof dish (I made 5 individual pies each measuring about 1cup) and top with the cornbread batter. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese over the top.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, until golden brown on top.

As I'd made individual pies it was easy to go round the edge with a sharp knife and tip the pie upsidedown onto the plate. This meant that the filling was on top of the cornbread and it soaked up some of the gravy. Also it was an easier and delicious way to eat the cornbread and filling together.

Yum!