Cheddar cheese and onion pie

This is a really quick post about a recipe I have cooked a few times in the last few weeks and absolutely love! It's a straight forward Cheddar cheese and onion pie from the recipe book Tarts with Tops On by Tamasin Day-Lewis. Nothing special you might think, but it gets the balance of ingredients just right and is as yummy hot as cold. Don't let the pastry making put you off as the filling is pretty easy to throw together. Hopefully no one will mind me reproducing it as it's already featured on the web here and here.

Tamasin Day-Lewis's Cheddar cheese and onion pie
Serves 6

For the shortcrust pastry:
340g plain flour
170g butter

Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a food processor, then cut the cold butter into small pieces on top of it. I process it for 20-30 seconds, then add ice-cold water through the top, a tablespoon at a time, 2-21/2 should do it, with the machine running. If the paste is still in crumbly little bits after a minute or two, add a tablespoon more water. The moment the pastry has cohered into a single ball, stop it, remove it, wrap it in clingfilm and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

For the filling:
30g butter
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
285g good strong Cheddar, coarsely grated
110g potatoes, peeled, steamed and diced
2 large eggs
4 tbsp double cream
a sprig of thyme or a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
pinch of cayenne pepper
sea salt and black pepper
beaten egg for glaze

Divide the pastry into two balls, keeping one a little larger than the other. Melt the butter in a pan and gently fry the onion until translucent, then leave to cool. Throw the onions into a bowl with the grated cheese, potato, eggs, cream, thyme or parsley and the seasoning, and mix thoroughly with the seasoning.

Roll out the large ball of pastry and line a shallow, greased 23cm tart tin. Tip the cheese and onion mixture into the pastry shell. Moisten the edges of the pastry and cover with the rolled-out top piece, crimping the edges together carefully. Brush the beaten eggs over the top and bake for 30 minutes until crisp and golden brown.