Pauper's Pie - Another of Mother's Recipes

Good Afternoon,

If you follow the lovely Di's blog,  Pixie's Crafty Workshop ,you will know that she isn't just crafter with a great sense of humour, she's not a bad cook too, and posts a weekly Friday Feast recipe for us to enjoy. One of her recent pasta recipes featured those store-cupboard essentials - tinned tuna fish and mushroom soup - you can see her recipe here - and that triggered a memory of a rather tasty pie my mother used to make. I promised Di I would post the recipe, so here it is.

It's inexpensive to make, hence the name Pauper's Pie! The original ingredients included bacon, however when that wasn't available Mum would substitute with tinned tuna fish and the soup she used was the condensed sort, as made by Campbell's. Over the years the recipe has been further adapted by substituting the soup with cheese sauce - my children preferred the taste of the cheese sauce. Of course, I had to get out my notebook and cook up the dish up for you all to see. Here's the instructions for this version:
    

Pauper’s Pie

 

Ingredients: 

• 1 Large onion – peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 Medium sized carrots – peeled and sliced 
• 4/5 Large potatoes – peeled and sliced
• Either: 8oz of bacon rashers - fat removed and chopped into bite size bits
• or: 1 large tin of tuna chunks in brine, drained and flaked
• Either:  1 tin of condensed soup, mushroom, chicken or celery flavour, mixed to a smooth consistency with half a tin of water or: 
• 1 pint cheese sauce already prepared
• 2oz Grated cheese
• Salt & pepper to taste 

 An oiled ovenproof dish - a lasagna dish is nice for this recipe

Directions:

• Set oven to moderately hot temperature (190°C in electric oven)
• Lightly oil ovenproof dish
• Layer potato slices, onion, bacon/tuna in dish – finish with a layer of potato slices. Add salt & pepper to taste over layers.
• Pour prepared condensed soup/cheese sauce over the layers
• Place in oven and cook for about 30 minutes
• Remove dish from oven and sprinkle grated cheese and return to oven for a further 15 minutes until melted and browned
• Remove dish from oven and check with skewer to ensure potato and carrot is thoroughly cooked through

Serve with a tomato salad and fresh crusty bread.

 

This is one of my DH's favourite suppers but he never makes it himself. He's not a half bad cook but prefers to prepare simple meals and won't cook what he calls composite dishes - he was a research chemist!! He refers to it as that 'fiddly cooking you like to do' :) I think he doesn't like all that slicing and layering of the veg, and he'd never make a cheese sauce unless it came out of a packet! When he chops onions he gets out his Nicer Dicer, when I chop onions I get out the sharpest knife :)

 

Hope those of you who try it enjoy this pie and find it as tasty as we do.  I'd be interested to know what version you make - bacon or tuna, soup or sauce?

 

September is another bumper month for birthdays, starting with my son's partner, Elaine's birthday soon, so a card for her will be my project for this evening.

 

Happy crafting (and cooking) to you all,