Euros National Dishes - Do they Pie??

We thought we’d do a quick recap of this year’s Euros matches thus far, and as always, we’ve added a fun twist relating to pie. 🥧🥧🥧 We’ve really enjoyed finding out about the national dishes of some of the key teams we’ve already seen smashing it (or not!) or those that we’re eagerly awaiting to watch in the coming weeks! Now, believe it or not, not EVERYTHING works in a pie 😜 come with us on a journey of discovery around Europe to see if we think these dishes will taste good wrapped in yummy shortcrust pastry! We'll start with those countries that have played against the home nations in the Euros (and the Home Nations teams themselves) or we'd be here all day!

 

We’ll start with Germany, as it’s the host nation! They triumphed in their first game against the Scots (boo) then beat Hungary and drew with Switzerland in subsequent games. 

Bratwurst: When we think of German food, we think of sausages! Well, we tried pigs in blankets for Christmas, so we know they are pretty tasty in a pie, provided you have enough relish/sauce to make it moist inside. Mustard seems to feature heavily in a lot of German dishes so we’re sure chefs Marc and Andrew could come up with something special.

Schnitzel: Another German classic, essentially deep-fried, breaded pork! Now this one we could definitely see working with some sort of mustard-infused gravy (again) and a few potatoes, with some braised red cabbage (a Bavarian delicacy) thrown in?!

 

Moving onto the home nations, now… we were delighted when England won (just about) their first game against Serbia, then we drew with Denmark in our second match. Although renowned for its dreadful cuisine across the world, we think we’ve got some pretty tasty dishes that would work beautifully in a pie!

English breakfast: YUM (we’ve made one before – back in the days long before we had a website! – and it was pretty great!) Maybe it’s one to revamp and bring back!?

Roast dinner: Our Sheep Pie is loosely based on all the elements you’d find in a Sunday Roast Lamb, with mutton to amp up the flavour and oodles of mint sauce!

 

Next up, it’s Scotland who lost 5-1 against Germany and then played their best against Switzerland and Slovenia. Moving on swiftly from the football.... Scottish dishes! Haggis needs a mention. Does it pie? ABSOLUTELY – this one has been on our list for a while as a pie filling we’d love to dabble with! Watch this space.

 

England v Serbia 16^th June - in our first match we managed to just about beat Serbia 1-0 then they drew with Slovenia.

Sarma is a favourite dish of every Serb! We are reliably informed (by the internet) that a woman who can make it well is instant wife material. It’s a bit like Greek stuffed vine leaves but, in Serbia, they tend to use cabbage leaves. Original Sarma is prepared with pickled cabbage, minced meat and rice. It is often served with Ajvar which is a sauce made from red peppers found in every shop across the land! We think a combination of the two could potentially work in a pie but aren’t entirely convinced.

 

'Punjena Paprika' is another Serbian classic. Basically stuffed peppers with the same minced meat and rice combination inside – this sounds rather good and something we can potentially see working inside a crisp pastry casing. Bring on some interesting testing sessions!

 

Denmark drew 1-1 when they played Slovenia and again when they played us. There are several reports that Danish pastries (never to be turned down) aren’t actually from Denmark so we had to discount these! There are several other tasty dishes for which this country is known. 'stegt flæsk med persillesovs' (don't ask us to say that out loud!) is a dish comprised of crispy pork with parsley sauce and potatoes. This, we reckon, sounds pretty tasty wrapped in pastry!

Meatballs and oysters are two other renowned Danish dishes, both of which we’ve been dying to put in a pie for a while – although not together!

 

Slovenia have had 2 draws against Denmark and Serbia. Slovenia is known for its dumplings. We’re not so sure about dumplings in a pie! But never say never until Simon, Marc or Andrew have played around with some recipes and combined ingredients in a clever way.

Generally, sausages tend to feature quite highly in the list of commonly eaten foods in Slovenia and several of the famous dishes here include the things. 'Bujta repa' is haggis-style blood and meat sausages with turnip stew – this, we could get on board with!! And a cheeky dumpling in there wouldn't go a miss. Yes, we reckon it does pie 🥧

Now, technically we shouldn’t include France as neither Scotland nor England have played them yet HOWEVER we just couldn’t stop ourselves. France beat Austria then drew against Netherlands. Frogs legs pie or snails in a pie? No, thanks! But Beef Bourginon and Coq au Vin were simply made to pop inside pastry. In fact (massive spoiler alert), keep your eyes peeled in the not -too-distant-future for some rather special pies coming out of our kitchen!

 

That concludes our journey around Europe testing out national dishes for pie-filling potential! At least for now...