Dr Mobeus
Homity Pie
Homity pie is the old West Country answer to using up a bag of potatoes and the end of a cheese block, and it has outlived every trendy vegetable tart since. It is an open shortcrust case filled with rough mashed potato, slow-softened onions, mustard and a serious amount of cheddar, baked until the top goes crisp and the middle stays soft. It came to fame through the vegetarian cookbooks of the sixties, but it tastes older than that, like something a farmer’s wife would have made with whatever the dairy had going spare. Two pounds of ingredients feeds six, and it is just as good cold in a lunchbox the next day as it is warm from the oven.
Homity Pie
Ingredients
Method
- Rub the butter into the flour and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs, add the water and bring it together into a dough. Roll out and line a 20 cm loose-bottomed tart or pie tin, then chill for 20 minutes.
- Boil the potatoes for 12 to 15 minutes until tender, then drain well and leave them to steam dry in the colander.
- Meanwhile, soften the onions and garlic in a little oil over a low heat for 10 minutes until sweet and just golden at the edges.
- Blind bake the case at 200C (180C fan) for 15 minutes with baking paper and baking beans, then 5 minutes more without.
- Mash the potatoes roughly, then stir through the onions, two-thirds of the cheese, the mustard, the milk and the thyme. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Pile the filling into the case, level the top and scatter over the remaining cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Tips and Variations
A splash of cream in place of the milk is the deluxe version. A few spring onions folded through the filling at the end add freshness. The pie reheats well covered in foil in the oven for 20 minutes, and it freezes whole or in slices. If the pastry cracks on the rim after blind baking, do not worry, the filling forgives it, this is a forgiving pie all round.
