Guernsey Potato Peel Pie, not just a book club review, but a recipe too

I am extremely lucky to live in a road with the most brilliant neighbours. They are fun, generous, don’t live in your pocket but are always there if you need them. Even better, we have our own neighbourhood book club which nicely complements our Tomato Growing contest (more to follow on that later in the year) in ensuring we all see each other regularly. Once a month, we meet and discuss the merits of a designated book, which is always a lively discussion aided by lots of wine and the fact that we all love a good debate. Last month, the lovely Helen, pictured below was our host.The designated book was ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society’ which was a light and enjoyable read. The book is set in Guernsey during the Occupation and highlighted many of the hardships that the islanders went through, many of which I have to confess to being completely unaware of, however it also highlighted the extremes they went to to feed themselves and in the course of the book, a potato peel pie is mentioned. Having a few old King Edwards knocking around in the fridge, I thought it might be fun to try and create a potato peel pie to take with me to book club, instead of the usual bottle of wine. I confess that in the interest of making it taste good, I have not used the austerity measures that the original recipe called for and have liberally added cheese, cream and garlic, and the result was that it tasted really good! So if your book club is reading this and you fancy trying to make one for the occasion, or you want a very simple vegetarian potato and cheese pie, give it a try!

My attempt at the Guernsey Potato Peel Pie: You will need:

For the pie crust:

3 large potatoes – skin grated, including some of the white flesh
Teaspoon of oil to grease the pie dish
1 small, finely chopped white onion
1 large egg, beaten
25g plain flour
25g grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of paprika

For the filling

Remainder of the potatoes above
1 clove of garlic
1 egg yolk
100g cheddar grated
50g parmesan grated
1 tablespoon of cream
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the over to Gas mark 6/220 fan/240 non-fan
Grease a small pie dish with the oil
In a bowl, mix up all of the ingredients for the pie crust
Press in to the pie dish, to form a nice thick crust and place in the oven for 20 minutes
In the meantime, place some water in a saucepan and add the chopped potatoes and garlic. Bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender
Drain and allow to cool slightly
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well
Turn the mixture out in to to the cooked pie crust and smooth out so it looks like a flan
Reduce the Oven to Gas Mark 4/160 fan/180 non-fan and cook for a further 12 to 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown
Serve immediately