Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Pie, the Second

I've been wanting to revisit the idea of the pumpkin and blue cheese pie since the first time I made one. This time I changed the recipe a little, and used a rough puff pastry.

Half of the resulting pie

Pastry (rough puff)

• 180g unsalted butter, cut into <1cm cubes and chilled in freezer but not frozen
• 240g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup water, chilled

Filling

• Flesh of half a butternut pumpkin weighing about 1kg
• 2 brown onions, chopped finely
• 1 head of garlic, split into cloves and peeled
• 100g blue cheese (Stilton in this case), crumbled
• 50g parmesan, grated
• 150g or so spinach leaves, chopped finely

Method

• Make the pastry in advance: smoosh the butter into the flour with your fingers until all the pieces of butter are flattened. Then gradually mix the water into the flour with fingertips until the dough forms - don't add all the water if you don't need to. Now give it a gentle kneading before rolling out into about a 5x10cm piece. Fold it once into a square, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until well cooled. Over the next hours / days take the dough out, roll out until it can be folder in half (or thirds, or even quarters and halves, whatever you can to get lots of layers). If it's cool enough then do that again before returning to the plastic and the fridge. Fold at least 6-8 times - the more times the nicer the result will be. Because it's warm at the moment I did this over several days, getting a some folds in during the morning.
• Chop the pumpkin into small pieces, no larger than about 2cm at most a side.
• Roast pumpkin and garlic at 200ºC until both are nicely cooked (about 40 minutes). Give them a toss to mix up about half-way through.
• Place pumpkin and garlic in a mixing bowl, mash both together a little to mix and leave to cool.
• Fry the onion slowly for about 30 minutes (a fully hour if you want it fully caramelised) and then add to the bowl with the pumpkin and garlic.
• Fry the spinach until wilted and add to the bowl also. Add in parmesan and some salt and pepper, and mix well. Finally add the crumbled blue cheese and mix through gently (I find it smooshes through if mixed too much and it's nice to have blobs).
• Preheat your oven to 200ºC
• Roll out the pastry until it's a good 50cm across. Try for a circle if you can, but if you can't then a square will also work. Place in the middle of a baking tray that's at least 30cm across. Put the pumpkin filling from the bowl in the middle of the pastry, evenly spread out to leave about 5cm or more at the edges. Fold the pastry in to the centre, crimping together so it holds while baking. Brush the top with a beaten egg if you like to have a nice brown glazed finish.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is nice and cooked.

All up, I preferred this mix of ingredients to the last. It does take a while to cook, but a bunch of that can be only minimally supervised.