Spring is here but that doesn’t mean that it’s too late for some filling home cooked comfort food, like this rather decadent Parma Ham wrapped camembert pie with cranberry and apple chutney.
Ingredients
Pie
Wheel of Camembert
5 slices of Parma ham
1 pack of shortcrust pastry
2 tbsp of oil
Chutney – makes 1 pot
375g apples, peeled and chopped into little chunks
110g onions, sliced
15g fresh ginger, finely chopped
125g caster sugar
70ml vinegar
125g dried cranberries
Equipment
Baking tray, Frying Pan, Saucepan, Chopping Board, Sharp Knife, Wooden Spoon, Peeler, Measuring Jug, Scales
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400 F/ gas mark 6
- Firstly make the chutney, place all the ingredients in a saucepan on a low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Then leave for about 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally until the chutney reduces and the apples and onions are tender.
- While the chutney is cooking, make the pie. Wrap the cheese with the ham. Heat the oil in a frying pan on a high heat. Once the oil is hot put the ham wrapped cheese on the pan and fry for a minute or two on each side until the ham crisps up nicely.
- Leave the ham to cool for about 10 minutes, even put it in the fridge. This is just allowing the cheese to firm back up so it doesn’t spill out of the pastry once it’s being cooked.
- After it has cooled, unroll the pastry and place the cheese in the centre. Fold in every corner to the centre of the pie until the pie is completely wrapped. Most pastry is rectangular shaped, I cut mine more of a square which makes it fit better. With the extra pastry I made the rose and the leaves.
- Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden.
- Serve with the chutney.
- Another variation you could do, perhaps for the budding vegetarian or just to mix things up, would be honey and thyme! In which case, place fresh thyme on top of the cheese before covering with pastry and then drizzle with honey before putting it in the oven.
Genevieve Levy