Sunday, September 2, 2012

Hunza Pie


    

I made this pie the other night and took it over to a friends house for dinner. No one there had ever heard of Hunza pie, I'm sure lots haven't but that was funny for me as it would have to be a dish that has had the most longevity in my life and one that ignites many memories.
My mother learnt how to make it in the late 60's in Sydney. My father came across his first Hunza pie around the same time in Nimbin, they hadn't met yet. At this time they had both separately chosen a vegetarian lifestyle along with hundreds of thousands of youth across the western globe in the wave of a then new counter culture, Hippies.
Hunza pie was born from this movement and was named after the Hunzakuts, a tribe in North Pakistan that apparently had a good organic diet and long life span. However they never made Hunza pie.
I have eaten and made many a version of this pie, below is my current version that I'm pretty pleased with. My very clever, very good friend brought her Hunza pie over earlier this year with the genius inclusion of turmeric. I have not made one without it since.


INGREDIENTS
serves 8

Pastry

2 1/2 cups of wholemeal spelt flour
130g of virgin coconut butter*
cold water
a pinch of salt

Filling

a big bunch of silverbeet *
1 cup (uncooked) of brown rice cooked and cooled
1 large onion diced
2 eggs (organic, local and free range)
2 cups of grated cheese (rennet free I use Nimbin)
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of tumeric

*Use virgin coconut butter in savoury cooking as appose to extra virgin which has a strong coconut flavour. Virgin coconut butter has no odour or flavour when cooked
* you can use any green leafy vegetable I think silverbeet works best in this though. I grow my own, it's super easy to grow. It grows all year round and once you get it going it continues to be bountiful.

DIRECTION

Place flour and salt in a bowl, grate the coconut butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add water a little at a time, working the dough with your hands until you have ball. Roll pastry out with a rolling pin and place the pastry into a greased and floured pie dish (24cm). Put it into the fridge for at least 30 mins.
For the filling put the silverbeet in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Drain immediately, squeeze out excess liquid and roughly chop. Mix all the filling ingredients except for 1 cup of cheese. Fill the pastry and top with the remaining cup of cheese. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for around 50 minutes or until golden.
Serve with a tomato relish or chutney and a green salad
Keeps for a few days in the fridge and reheats well in the oven.


Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Hi there. Could you use coconut oil instead of coconut butter? And if one didn't have coconut butter, could you substitute with salted butter? Thanks

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