Cheese and onion pie
Golden puff pastry wrapped around sharp cheddar, soft sweet onions and tender potatoes, the proper British pie that makes a cold night feel better.
- 100 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.15 a serving
- 640 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 package puff pastry sheets, 2 sheets
- 1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 8 oz cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 large eggs, divided
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, for the counter
- 1 tbsp water
Each serving has about 640 calories, 19 g protein, 51 g carbs and 41 g fat, and costs about $2.15 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No Yukon Gold potatoes? Russet potatoes or red potatoes work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No cheddar cheese? Shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese or Mexican blend cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Thaw the puff pastry on the counter until it unfolds without cracking, about 40 minutes. Do the next three steps while it thaws.
Timer: 40 min
the potato in salted water over high heat until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. and let them steam dry.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 9 min
the butter in a large over medium heat and cook the onions with of salt, stirring now and then, until very soft and pale gold, about 10 minutes.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Medium heatTimer: 10 min
Mix the potatoes, onions, cheese, mustard, pepper and 1 egg in a bowl. Let it cool while the oven heats.
the oven to 400°F. Dust the counter with flour, roll one pastry sheet a little bigger and press it into a 9-inch pie plate, letting the edges hang over.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Spoon in the filling. Roll the second sheet a little bigger, lay it on top, the edges to about ½ inch and crimp them together with a fork.
Trim. Trimming means cutting off the parts you don’t eat, like stem ends, tough bits or thick fat. It keeps chewy or bitter bits out of the finished dish.
How you’ll know: What’s left is the good part, with no dry ends, woody stems or thick white fat.
Dolly’s tip: Brush the bottom edge with water first so the two sheets glue together.Beat the last egg with the water, brush it over the top and cut 3 small slits for steam.
35 to 40 minutes, until puffed and deep .
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 37 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: If the edges brown too fast, cover them with strips of foil.Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Let it 15 minutes before cutting, so the filling can set.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 15 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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