RAGOUT FIN (SALTY XMAS PIES)

Ingredients (serves 6 persons)

Puff Pastry (for 6 small pies)
450 – 500g puff pastry, pre-made from supermarket, e.g. frozen (6 pies * 75g per pie)
1 Egg yolk
2 tablespoons of cream
Flour (a few table spoons for the table and hands to work with the pastry)

Filling
500 chicken breast (alternatively lean veal meat, fat removed e.g. parts used for a veal roast)
1 onion for the broth
2 bay leaves
3 cloves
½ teaspoon of black pepper corns
50g butter (3 – 4 tablespoons for the sauce)
15g butter (1 tablespoon to be used for stir-frying)
50g flour (2 – 3 generous tablespoons)
200g mushrooms
2 small onions (to be used for stir-frying)
1 clove of garlic
1 lemon (juice and peel)
6 tablespoons of white wine
a pinch of sugar
salt
pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
200g cream
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of Worcester sauce (optional, perhaps replace with soy sauce)
fresh dill (for decoration)

Preparation

Pastry (6 pies, Preparation time: 40mins, Baking Time: 20mins)

Step 1
For 6 round pies, lay out 6 pieces of puff pastry dough (around 75 g each) next to each other on a table. If the dough is frozen, let it unfreeze for 10 mins at room temperature.

Step 2 (Base of the pie)
From each of the 6 pieces of dough on the table cut out 2 discs.

Step 3
Put a baking sheet on a baking tray. Put the 6 discs on the baking sheet. Use a fork to perforate the discs slightly.

Step 4 (Rings to form the wall of the pie)
From each of the remaining 6 discs cut out some smaller sized discs (say 2-3 cm less in diameter) with the same center such that you create a ring (with a 1 – 1.5 cm wide border made up from dough). Put some flour on the table, stack the smaller discs that you cut out onto each other (do not knead them together!) and roll them out again with a rolling bin. From the resulting pastry sheet create again rings of the same size as before. For each pie you need 2 – 3 rings (of the same shape and size). From the last round keep the discs that you remove from the center to form the rings. They will be used to form the cover of each pie.

Step 5 (Assemble the pie)
Put on each pastry disc on the baking tray 2 – 3 pastry rings.

Step 6 (Cover of the pies)
Put 6 small discs that you kept in step 4 (when creating the pastry rings) on the baking tray. These will provide a cover for each pie.

Step 7
Mix one egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of cream.  Brush the ring at the top of each pie and the cover of each pie with the mix.

Step 8
Preheat the oven (Electric without fan: 225 °C, electric with fan: 200 °C,  Gas: 4 ). Then put the baking tray in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes. Take the pastry pies out and let them cool down.
They are then ready to be filled.

Filling (Preparation time: 60 mins, Cooking Time: 15 mins)

Step 1
Bring 1 liter of water to the boil. Peel an onion. Wash the chicken. Season the water with salt (should be mildly salty). Lower the heat. Put the onion, chicken, bay leaves, cloves, and black pepper corns into the water. Put a lid on. Let the chicken simmer for around 40 minutes.

Step 2
Take out the chicken and let it cool down. Use a sieve to separate the broth from all solid parts and keep the broth (should be around 750ml)
For the sauce heat up 50g of butter in a sauce pan, add flour, stir until the flour starts to get a bit of color.

Step 3
Slowly add the broth into the sauce pan and keep stirring to get a uniform mass without lumps. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Cook for 5mins. Add white wine, lemon juice and a bit of lemon peel. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and a bit of sugar to your liking.

Step 4
Cut the two small onions and a bit of garlic. Slice the mushroom.

Step 5
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in the pan and fry the onions, garlic and mushrooms for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 6
Cut the chicken into small cubes. Add the chicken cubes and the fried mushrooms to the sauce. Heat sauce up for 2-3 minutes. Heat up the puff pastry pies in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Season with Worcester Sauce to your liking.

When the sauce is not too hot any more, mix egg yolk with a little cream or milk and then add it to the sauce while mixing.

Step 7
Fill the puff pastry pies with the sauce, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice and (if available) some fresh dill on top. Put the puff pastry cover on top and serve.