Woolton pie sounds a lot like a meat and potato pie that my mother used to make (obviously with meat in but without the cauliflower or spring onions)
A cheap cut of meat (I think my mother used skirt) diced and slow cooked in the oven with sliced carrots and diced onion put into a big glass/ceramic bowl (such as the bowl used for baking) half filled with water and seasoning (salt and pepper) added. It looked more like a thin soup than a stew at this stage. The meat wasn't sealed or browned before going into the bowl - everything was raw.
Slow cooking for 2-3 hours reduced the water and gave it a more meaty flavour even though the amount of meat was really not that much for the size of bowl. Then lots of diced potato were added (probably more than half the contents of the meat and potato pie was potato), stir in then back into the oven until the potato was cooked (about another hour or slightly more) The potato would absorb all the flavour in the water. Then make a suet crust (2 parts flour to 1 part suet, a pinch of salt and just enough water added to make a dough which was rolled out to make a 1/4 inch thick pastry lid on top of the meat and potato right up to the edge of the bowl (if the rolled out bit didn't fit perfectly, you could use off cuts of the rest of the pastry to fit any gaps as it didn't really matter about appearance - then a quarter inch hole was made in the middle) Brush milk/water on the pastry dough to glaze. Turn the heat of the oven up to bake the pastry to golden brown (can't remember how long, maybe 10-15 minutes) The juice of the meat and potato pie would bubble up the side and middle and bake on the crust edges (hmmm, they were the best bits). Serve with cooked red cabbage and/or mushy peas. There was always plenty for everyone and enough for another meal (including a family of 4 with big appetites!)
Left overs next day were fried in a bit of butter (including the pastry chopped up ... though to be fair, the pastry was better on the first day and usually none left) and served with thick slices of bread with butter. The meat and potato seemed to taste even nicer the next day.
albertajune wrote:Don't like the idea of thickening with oats
There was no oats or thickener added to this dish - slow cooking reduced the water, and the potato absorbed the flavours. On a different subject, I've started adding a little oats as a thickener in some dishes I make (like spaggy bol or hash) - it doesn't come out thick like a porridge though it does have some "nutty" chewy bits in which are not that bad and add texture to a dish. The reason is to incorporate more oats into my diet because of the soluble fibre which helps to reduce cholesterol.