RECIPE: Cape chicken & sago pie

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

1 medium free-range chicken or equivalent chicken pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

2 large onions, chopped finely

500ml (2 cups) hot water

125ml (½ cup) white wine

8 peppercorns

Pinch of ground mace

5 allspice berries

45ml (3 tbsp) sago

30ml (2 tbsp) butter

1 egg yolk

Juice of 1 lemon

2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced (optional)

1 roll of puff pastry

15ml (1 tbsp) milk

Method:

1) Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and place in heavy saucepan. Add the onions with the hot water and wine. Tie the spices in cheesecloth or muslin cloth and add. Simmer gently until meat falls off the bones.

2) Add the sago and ½ the butter, stirring to ensure the sago does not burn. Remove the spice bag as well as the bones.

3) Preheat the oven to 190°C.

4) Beat the egg yolk, set 1 tsp aside, and mix the rest with the lemon juice and add the egg/lemon mixture to the chicken. Stir until thick and creamy then remove from heat.

5) Place chicken in a pie dish (with sliced hard-boiled egg if using) and dot with remaining butter. Cover with puff pastry, pushing down the edges, and brush pastry with the reserved yolk and milk. Make slits in the pastry to let steam escape. Bake until golden.