Pieminister - Moo Pie {by @NLi10} (Ocado)

Welcome back to the Pieminister & Fentimans portion of this blog where I get to try other products in the ranges that I like because technically they are new finds.

This time round though I've made it to the beef end of the pie section, where traditional pies tend to be found. It's not that I don't like beef pies, prior to my Pieminister addiction I was very fond of Asda's Beef pie with puff pastry and always had one of those next to the chicken version in my freezer for when playing on Xbox Live seemed more important than cooking did.

Compared to a lot of the other flavours though this one does seem a little tame - the real ale being the only unfamiliar ingredient, but ale pie is a popular pub favourite. Saying that, this is pretty much a pub Sunday lunch in a pie. Sure you don't get the Yorkshire puddings, but the gravy is there in abundance as can be seen by the mini volcano that came out of the top when I spiked it to check it was cooked through.

As with all the Pieminister varieties you can taste the individual ingredients and there are distinct chunks of everything, especially the meat. If I was out in a pub and got this with chunky chips I wouldn't be disappointed, but sitting at home I think I prefer the previous Pieminister pies I’ve tried. I'm not a massive fan of pub Sunday lunches, and while this recreates the flavours well I'd just be happier with something that did something a little more exciting with the beef.

Saying this is my least favourite Pieminister pie so far is like saying that £10 is my least favourite amount to win on the lottery, it's still an excellent pie that is worth the money and one I will probably eat again.

by @NLi10

PieMinister: Brazilian - Trentham Gardens (@pieminister) [By @Cinabar]

I have heard about Pieminister from NLi10’s reviews on this blog. Although I’ve seen the pies in the supermarkets, I’ve never actually purchased one, I’m ashamed to say. Spectre and I went for day out to Trentham Gardens, and what caught our eye was a Pieminister cafe, and we suddenly new where we were going to have lunch!
The sign on the door declared that there was a new pie in town for the world cup, The Brazilian, so I knew where I was going to start. Spectre looked a little shocked by the amount of choice on the menu, and after perusing it for some time chose the Moo and Blue (beef and stilton).
The ladies in the shop were remarkably excited that I’d ordered the new pie, and were really keen to see what I thought of it. I didn’t even mention the blog, they were just very attentive staff which was lovely, and they were keen to see how the new flavour was going to go down.

I decided to have my pie with a salad, as it was a surprisingly warm day, we even chose a table outside to eat at. Fear not they did of course have the British tradition upheld and mash was available as a side if you wanted it, plus there was indoor tables if the traditional weather were to kick in too!

We didn’t have to wait very long before we were served, again by a very friendly staff member. The pie had beautiful pastry, it was light but buttery and tasty. I think I’m put off the concept of pies for the pastry, always assuming they would be quite stodgy, but this was an absolute pleasure to eat. The filling was fun and well themed for the world cup. It contained a tomato sauce base, with chicken and chorizo mixed in to give it a delicious meaty mix. The tomato sauce left a fab hot spice on the palette, and had a good tingle from the chilli. It turns out the salad was a nice touch to cool down my taste buds afterwards! Spectre was practically at a point of licking his plate he enjoyed his pie so much, so it is fair to say the Moo and Blue went down rather well too.
We had such a fab meal in Pieminister that when were home I had a look online to ensure I ordered some Pieminister pies on the online grocery order, as they had been that good. If you do happen to be having a day out at Trentham Gardens I don’t think you would find a nicer place to eat, or a better selection of freshly cooked pies anywhere to be honest. I can’t wait to try the ones from the supermarket either.

By Cinabar

Pieminister - Mr Porky Pie {by @Nli10} (Ocado/Waitrose)

Pieminister via Ocado number 2, Mr Porky Pie is as you'd suspect a pig based affair. I decided to go halves this time after I was almost beaten by the Thai Chook Pie on the last review. As you can see not only is the pie full of filling, but the filling is in large, recognisable chunks.

Hot pork pies are not really that common, beef and chicken seem to be the popular choices where as the pork pie is eaten cold with salad. There is no logical reason for this, it's probably a tradition or an old charter or something but I think that Pieminister aim to change this. After sampling the wonderfully thick pastry on top and having a few pasta wheels the pie had cooled to the point where I could tuck into the filling.

I think the greatest complement that I can make about Pieminister pies is that you can taste all the ingredients. If it's written on the front of the box then you will get subtle or strong hits of it as you eat. The larger chunks of ingredient mean that the flavour is different with each mouthful and you may get more pork or more apple and cider depending on where you bite.

Half a pie with a mountain of pasta really is a good meal, proving that Pieminister pies really are twice as good as your typical store bought pie.

by @Nli10

Pieminister - Thai Chook Pie - Ocado [By @Nli10] (Waitrose online home delivery)

Like most UK homeowners I get a lot of junk mail. Most of it is addressed to previous occupants and as this is a Victorian house you get quite a variety of names. One of the pieces of junk was for home food delivery service Ocado - the mail order arm of the high class supermarket Waitrose. As the voucher promised £30 off your first order and free delivery I gave it a shot and have been very pleased with the results.

While the prices of brand name food is similar to other hyper-global-mega-market Tesco where Waitrose gets its reputation is by having an own brand product that costs more than the average brand due to being high quality. Also they stock a few smaller brands like the Fentimans colas & Lizi cereals. Also in stock are the range of Pieminister pies.

I know of Pieminister for the same reason I know about Brothers cider - Glastonbury. Over by the former Jazz stage these both have stands selling the perfect mix of laid back fuels - cider & pies. Brothers have successfully launched their brand to the high-street and it's looking like the Pieminister boys are doing the same.

Each pie is a little bit more unusual than your typical pie - no kidneys here! Thai chook pie is Thai green curry in their famous thick pastry case and really quite a satisfying eat. The chunks of chicken are large enough to attract the attention of our cat, although the curry meant that he only ate the one bit before looking a bit confused and going back to sleep. For the rest of us this pie is large enough to be a meal in itself, most of the chips I added as a side were left uneaten. The flavour is spicy, but not overbearing and you can still taste the pastry.

Best of all there was no mud involved and I can now slowly work my way through their range from home. More oddities from the home pie delivery service to come.

By Nli10

Tipsy Chick Pie (PieMinister) [By @Cinabar]

We are big fans of Pieminister at Foodstuff Finds, so when we heard that there was a new variety coming out for the season we couldn’t wait to give it a go. I’ve had quite a few Pieminister pies at home and have re-purchased them as they do taste so much better than the cheaper varieties do. The pastry is always well balanced, firm and tasty, but not too thick. The ingredients contain an interesting mix too, I love their beef and blue cheese edition for example.
The new pie is called “Tipsy Chick” as it has a sauce based with cider and of course the main meat is chicken, but that part is a bit more obvious. Also in the pie are ham, peas and broad beans which does sound like a lovely summery mix. They heat up easily in the oven and make a quick but tasty tea. We had ours with baked beans and chips, just for that authentic feel.

As usual with Pieminister the filling was very generous and there was plenty of goodies inside the pie. The chicken was moist and tasty, and the veggies worked surprisingly well. The sauce base was slightly acidic from the cider, and a had a hint of lemon, but there was a lovely fresh aftertaste of garden mint. This is very much a summer pie, and would go really well with a bowl of fresh salad on a summer’s night, which I wasn’t expecting. The seasoning is so fragrant and delicate, but the chicken and vegetables make it feel substantial but healthy which is the perfect balance. I have to say I was very impressed, and it is certainly a pie I’d want to buy again.
Their other new pie, also with a good hint of cider, is the ScrumPea. It has a cider sauce and is a vegetarian pie filled with peas, asparagus and fennel. It is definitely next on my to try list.

By Cinabar

Pieminister: The Cracker (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

This Pieminister The Cracker pie represents Christmas dinner in pie. The contents include turkey, ham, cranberry, parsnips and even sherry all packed into Pieminister pastry. As wonderful as all this sounds the thing that really caught my eye was the packaging. It isn’t that exciting in terms of the Christmas design, yes there are nice pink Christmas trees in a repeat pattern, but it was the simple window looking down at the pie, it looks like plastic but it isn’t plastic which seems quite impressive. It is actually made from wood pulp and is compostable, which is much better for the environment.
We had the The Cracker pie for dinner and was impressed by it. The pastry was a little crispy on the top, but the right texture around the sides. It was soft enough to pick up the sauce, which went really well with it. The pieces of turkey are generous and moist, and the cranberries added a nice tangy sweetness to the base flavour. I did pick up on a bit of parsnip and warmth from the sherry, but the turkey and the ham were the main flavours and it was a lovely meaty pie.
I have had Pieminister’s pies before and would gladly have this one again. I like the innovation with the packaging, but do have the thought that perhaps the window just isn’t needed at all in the box, that way the whole thing would go into recycling without having to worry about the compostable element.

Pieminister Crispy Filo! Souk Chook & Maroc Star [@NLi10]

Pieminister are certainly a favourite - and over the years they've come up with some exciting variations - but maybe non so exciting as using Filo pastry.

I'm not sure exactly what the reason is for this - maybe it's a health thing -but I do love crispy light pastry.  And filling it with Pieminister's signature chunky ingredients has to be great.

They look like big filo parcels - and both have outer decorations too.

Spicy up top, and then more seeds below - both suiting the flavours inside.

Hopefully you can read what's in these - the font to backing didn't really work under my kitchen lights.  Oh no - we'll have to have these again to update the records.

And they look great - a Pieminister is a meal in itself so we tend just to add a few light veggies.  The restaurant tends to over do it with mash.

And as usual the fillings are great quality.  Very unusual with both pies having a star anise - aniseed flavour underneath it all.  This made it quite different in flavour as well as texture and was a nice touch.  Overall these are a little lighter than the traditional short-crust pies but I think there is definitely times when I'd prefer both.

Another one for the repeat purchase list then - a hit in both the meaty and veggie versions.

Pieminister Pie Pots - 4 flavours [by @NLi10] @pieminister

I spotted a tweet by someone who had received a box of some new Pieminister goodies and contacted them to see if we could have a box too - they said yes!

It turns out that the new products are not so much pies as the bits inside a pie in a pot - Pie Pots!  Realistically they have a few tweaks that i'll get to, but as a concept it should work quite well. Even better than this it only takes 4 mins in the microwave to cook - which means I can eat these at work!  I took the first one on the very day I received them in the post.  We've recently suffered from a massive downsizing of the available catering at our hospital so decent hot filling lunches require planning and a trek to find. Bringing your own in is becoming an increasingly appealing idea.

I ate the first half during a presentation (in the dark!) but after we escaped I still had some of the Matador pot left.  The most noticeable difference is that there is potato in here instead of pastry around the outside - a LOT of potato.  Luckily they soak up the sauce and have a lovely flavour. Also they cook really well in the microwave unlike pastry.  In typical Pieminister fashion everything is large and distinct from the potatoes and meat down to the beans.  This was a spot on lunch, spicy enough to be interesting but easily eatable, and with a variety of textures and tastes floating around.  I'd rather have the equivalent pie but I can't do that at work.

The following day I varied things up by going for the Chicken version.  Essentially this is cock-a-leekie but with potatoes and again huge chunks of ingredient.  The flavour was much milder than the Spanish themed pie, but still nice.  There was probably more chicken in here than steak and chorizo in the other pie, but it was still mostly potato.

I'm not sure whether I preferred this to the first one or not.  They are very different takes on the same idea.  Again - I'd rather have the pie, but that's not going to happen.

My third pot was the Moo & Brew which is the steak and ale version of the pots. 

Kind of somewhere between the two above pies as it's sauce based but not spicy - more of a gravy and similar to the Moo pie (that again I'd have rather had).  There was more steak here than the first one.  And again the mix and ingredients were lovely.  This was my least favourite of the three, but still a great lunch and when I reordered these from Ocado for this week I still added one of each.

The final pot was eaten by my partner.  She is a vegetarian - and the Meany Bean was suitable for vegetarians so I thought it only fair that she had a quality lunch too.  In all pots the potato still has the skins on too which I'm not usually that keen on, but here it works.  My partner prefers potato this way so she was happy with this too.  She suggested it was very tasty, and filling enough to reduce snacking in the afternoon and to want more.  I ordered three of these so I could try one and she could have a couple.

And we even used the strong refrigerated box to build a fort for our new kitten!

While pies are not suitable for kittens the padded box they came in was perfect for hiding from the bigger cats after she's spent a while terrorising them.

My main problem with the pie pots (apart from the fact that they are really stew pots and not pie related) was that I thought they may be too costly for lunch every day - but Ocado has them on two for £6 at the moment and £3 a day is very comparable to buying food at work and cheaper than the meal deals in the shop.

While I won't have them every day, in the winter it's certainly a nice surprise of a range and something that I plan on having often.

PieMinister - Gluten Free Moo, Steak & Ale (@NLi10)

We are big fans of Pieminister in this house, so much so that we have a massive stash of the VIP points ready to cash in.  Luckily my partner saved them  - there are actually some good things to be redeemed for!

You'd need to basically buy two pies a week for a whole year to get to the good stuff though - which is luckily something that I (almost) manage to do!

Ocado had some of the newer Gluten Free pies in stock for this month's order so I jumped on board!  My partner had a Heidi.

So far so normal.  The gluten free one comes in a tray as if it's pretending to be a Higedy pie.  Maybe it's a little crumblier.

And they bake up fine too.  It looks a little less Pieminister than usual, but it's still a good pie.

And the inside is still the same - come to think of it - why wouldn't it be!  

The pastry has almost a more short-crust feel to it, a little drier and crispier.  It's actually a nice change in texture, and not detrimental to the experience at all.  I'm not sure that Gluten free helps anyone that isn't gluten intolerant (there isn't much evidence to support it) but if me buying this and enjoying it means that my friends who are sufferers can find the crucial brands on the shelf a little easier then I'm happy to join in - especially when they are as crispy as this!  Yum!

PieMinister - but not pies! Chana-rama, Vegan Patties (by @NLi10)

This happens a lot with foods.  A brand you trust comes out with some slightly tangential foods, that while they don't really suit their name - do suit their ethos.

pieMinister make Pies, and pub food taste better.  Now they make Patties.  Not Pasties, which is interesting.

I chose the vegan one so my partner could join me in the eating.  Sounds great.

Full of nutrition and actual lumps of food, which is kind of the PieMinister trademark.  We even get a Pie token for eating the not-pie.

And they look pretty great too - even if I did blatantly add more poppadom crisps after I took the photo.

As predicted, they are chunky beasts!  Although I did wish I'd got us two each - even as a lunch.  The flavours are strong and exciting, and the textures are crispy and crunchy.

Also - because Ocado sell them I can just add them to the order once a fortnight and stay safely locked down away from the bugs (always clean your shopping on delivery!).

I'll try to get the meat versions of these added to the next order and see if they add a different dimension.  as it is, this is basically a hand-held lunch pie and a great addition to the range.

Fry's Family Meat Free Pepper steak style pies - @NLi10

Today we continue the dig through the 'things I've bought in special offers' section of the freezer, this particular one being Ocado's offer to buy a whole bunch of things from the Fry's family range for one low price.

This enabled me to take a few more 'risks' with what I've picked up - and I've gone for things that vegan/vegetarian options have traditionally done very poorly on.  Today - pies! Frozen pies are very hard to get right, even in the carnivorous world.



Here we get two fairly flat looking pies, that really don't look like much when compared to a Pieminister option but do have a promising look of quality to them.

And when cooked they look like this:



My veggie partner was a little put off by the authenticity of the meat free steak filling of the pie, but for us meat eaters the filling here was a little too much like a mince based pie.  There were certainly other things going on here too - and indeed the sauce was maybe a little bit too peppery for me.

But the pastry was glorious! Not in a thick, crispy, pieminister way, but here it's a much more delicate layered approach which is really impressive for a frozen pie.  The base too was as you'd want, solid enough to keep everything in place and crumbly enough to satisfy.

So while this is possibly the least impressive of the Fry's products I've reviewed so far, it's still easily of high enough quality to buy and serve.  Maybe I'll look for one of the 'white meat' style varieties that I'm sure exist.  It's always great to have some pies that can sit in the freezer for a few months without effecting the quality, and ones that can be shared by the veggies and vegans are even more flexible.  So much better than the equivalent £1 corner shop meat pies!

I think that the non-frozen (but you can freeze at home) pies by Higgedy and Pieminister have upped the game (and my expectations) of what makes a good 'at home' pie experience.  If you do need to stash away some rainy-day vegan pies though then now there is at least an option that you can look forwards to eating.

Glastonbury Festivals - Food Highlights 2014! [Review by @NLi10] @pieminister @BrothersCider

I was at the Glastonbury Festivals all of last week and took a few pictures of foods and snacks that I got while I was there.  Here is a summary of the more normal ones, with some other write ups to follow.

First up - the site is a dairy farm for the rest of the year so has plenty of fresh milk available.  While it's £1 for a pint (instead of for 2 litres back home) the convenience and freshness of it all is well worth it.  I tried to have one a day, but missed a few as we were on the opposite side of the site from the shops.

One thing that was on our side of the site was Brothers Bar - home of the now commercially available Festival Strength Pear Cider.  There are now 3 variations on the festival cider (strawberry, toffee apple and lemon) and the plain version (which is still nice).

We went for strawberry and for lemon.  I think we chose well, but it made me far too sleepy with the shifts I'd been working for Oxfam so I didn't go back for a second pint later in the week.  This is the least Brothers Cider I have drunk at the festival in years!  They have stopped selling the 2 litre bottles which means there is a lot less waste plastic in the field.  I didn't feel the need to have a years worth of cider in 7 days now I have the bottles at home in the cupboard and this can only be a positive thing.

What I was drinking instead was water (it's free!) and lots of fruit based things that the stalls had on offer - many of which we've already reviewed but some of the more quirky ones deserve their own write up later.  I saw more people drinking coconut water than I'd ever expected to see - is it really that fashionable now?  Note the Cawston Press goodies - happy to see these in the wild.

And to go with this - Pieminister of course!  In the golden days this was practically next to the Brothers Bar and they both fed off each other.  Now the Pies are next to the main stage and a really inconvenient walk for techno hippies like me, but massively popular non the less.  They were the only stall with a queue and it really didn't take long to get served at all so that's all happy customers.

In our solitary single visit my partner and I got a Heidi (goat cheese) and I got the Hope & Glory beer /meat one (without the potato).  Both were amazingly good for festival food, and up to the standard of those you'd get in a Pieminister shop.

If you are trying to only buy one big meal a day like we did as students at the festival then this sort of thing is the holy grail.  As a grown up though I made many visits to other stalls and had things like Argentinean steak strips, pulled pork and apple burgers (in a diner in a plane no less) and plenty of complementary meals from the Oxfam tent we were working for.

Anyone who says festival food/drink is bad is clearly going to the wrong festivals or stalls!

Pieminister Xmas Pies in Nellie Dean pub in Soho (@NLi10)

While in London for a visit to the Apollo for the Christmas Compendium of Reason we popped into a small unassuming pub which promised to sell us PieMinister Pies

The Christmas menu looked exciting so I deliberately chose one that Cinabar hadn't written about (The Cracker is here) and went for the vegan option of 'turkey' in The Good Elf.  Naturally I went for the option that added crackling and a pig in blanket (singular - booo).

The Nellie Dean is a nice little pub with actual window views.  You can imagine that this location was a pub during the Ghost Map era of London - maybe John Snow (not those ones) drank here!

Bare bricks are somehow comforting in a pub.

And here is the pie! The crackling was a good size and not scary so I ate it.  The tiny pig in blanket was less impressive, but the swede mash was great so all is forgiven.  The normal mash was fine but a little rock hard in places!

The pie was naturally demolished.  It went really well with the random IPA that I had - with the port flavour mixing well.  The vegan turkey had a good texture and would pass for low quality meat, but I'd have not guessed it was turkey and could easily tell it wasn't the usual thick chunks of chicken or beef that Pieminister usually brings.

Absolutely loved it though and will happily grab one or two to eat at home as it's seasonally appropriate to do so.

Merry Christmas indeed.

We need to talk about Kevin the pie (Ocado) by @NLi10

Pieminister make the best pies on the high street, that’s not really up for debate. At least not in the meat category. There are lots of very good veggie and vegan options out there by people like Higedy that give them a good run for their money there.

And that’s where Kevin comes in. Yes - it’s a vegan pie, but like Fry’s food it’s not designed to exclusively appeal to people just wanting to eat vegetables. This is gateway vegan food, the stuff you can give Tom normals and tell the, that it’s vegan afterwards and they won’t believe you.

Unfortunately it’s got mushrooms in it so I won’t touch it! This is where living with a veggie comes in handy. She was more than happy to try a new Pieminister option.

Although she did render it non vegan by putting cheese in the waffle stack!

 

Either way, we had some lovely McSweens vegetarian haggis alongside so we were always going to have a lovely meal.

Her verdict was that it was very good. She particularly liked the spring onions, but was confused as to why it was trying so hard to feel meaty! The pastry was the usual high quality Pieminister style so overall it was a win. So if you know someone who likes mushrooms and wants to try a vegan pie then here is a good place to start.

PieMinister Christmas - Three Kings & Christingle (by @NLi10)

It's beginning to look a lot like Piemas in the FoodStuffFinds kitchen, as Ocado have PieMinister on a 2 for £6 deal and it includes the new seasonal offerings.  We have chose one meaty and one vegetarian option.

The meat option of Three Kings was for me and was a posh Christmas dinner with Turkey, bacon, parsnip and cranberry.  My partner had the Christingle pie with roast parsnip, cheddar, leek and a sneaky few chestnuts.

Here we see the naked pies ready to be heated meaty on the left, veggie on the right. 

And here we see them cooked with a few chantilley carrots. Well you have to have some vitamins after all. 

Here is the insides of the Three Kings, unusually for PieMinister there are much smaller bits and much more of a mix of things. This works pretty well though and there isn't a mix of flavours and it's definitely got the taste of a big fork-full of Christmas. 

The veggie pie was similarly high quality, with the chestnuts being an unusual texture for veggie foods and causing some concern. Overall though, possibly the equivalent of a forkful of veggie Christmas dinner.

Both are great seasonal additions to the range and something I hope to sneak in again before the range hibernates for another year.