Jaime Oliver's Pastry Lid for Stew

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Transfer your fully cooked stew to a large pie dish and let it cool completely. Remove the puff pastry from the refrigerator 10 minutes before you need to roll it out. Dust a clean work surface and your rolling pin with flour and lay one sheet on top of the other, then roll out the pastry until it's 1/8 inch thick and large enough to cover your pie dish easily. Crack the egg into a small bowl, add a splash of milk, and beat with a fork. Brush the edge of the pie dish with a little of the egg mixture -- this will help the pastry to stick. Wind the pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it over the dish (if it tears, don't worry, just patch it up and keep going). Run a knife around the side of the dish to trim off any excess pastry. Using a fork, lightly press down around the edge of the pastry to "crimp" it. Brush the top of the pie with a little more of the egg mixture. Using the tip of a knife, make a small hole in the middle of the pastry to let the steam escape. Bake in the bottom of the oven for 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp.

*Recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver from Jamie's Food Revolution; Hyperion, 2009.