IN SEASON


CHICKEN, JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE AND LEEK FILO PIE


Serves 4


500g Jerusalem artichokes, scrubbed clean, unpeeled


Squeeze of lemon juice 2 tbsp sunflower, vegetable or olive oil


2 chicken breasts (about 300g), cut into bite- sized pieces 75g butter 2 leeks, washed and sliced 4 sage leaves, finely shredded 3 tbsp plain flour 400ml milk


1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard Leaves from 4 sprigs of fresh thyme 250g pack of ready-made filo pastry 50g butter, melted Salt and black pepper


1 Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4. Cut the Jerusalem artichokes into thin wedges, putting them in a bowl of cold water with a good squeeze of lemon juice to stop them


discolouring. Cook in boiling salted water for 8 mins, until just tender, then drain.


2 Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy based pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken and fry for a few mins on each side – just long enough to brown the pieces; they’ll finish cooking in the oven. Remove to a plate.


3 Add the butter, leeks and sage to the same pan. Cook gently for a few mins to soften the leeks. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for a couple more mins. Gradually add the milk, stirring continually, until the sauce has started to thicken. Let it bubble for a few mins to cook out the raw flour flavour.


4 Stir in the Jerusalem artichokes, chicken, mustard and thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer to a pie dish, allowing the mixture to cool.


5 Lightly brush a sheet of filo pastry with some of the melted butter and place it flat on top of the pie mixture. Trim away any excess, bearing in mind it will shrink very slightly in the oven. Unless you’re a very quick pastry worker, lay


a lightly dampened clean tea towel over the stack of waiting filo sheets to stop them drying out.


6 Working with a sheet of filo at a time, brush it with butter, cut it into 5–6cm strips and layer the strips over the pie to make a ruffled pattern. Keep going until you have created at least a couple of layers of ruffled pastry, tucking it in around the edges and making sure the pie filling is completely covered.


7 Bake for 45 mins, until the top is golden brown. www.riverford.co.uk


Cook’s tip:


Jerusalem artichokes come in lots of odd shapes, so you may need to cook them in different ways. If they are shaped like an egg, you’ll want to cut them in half. If they are the little knobbly ones that look like


ginger, break the nodules from each other and cook whole.


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