Before this year is gone...
... there is just enough time to squeeze one more post that may come handy in the days to come as this recipe is equally fit and useful for a table for celebration as it is to salvage your trimmings and leftovers.
Use any kind of roast meat that you may have accompanied with enough sausage and minced meat to "hold" the pieces together. For this pie I used roast turkey, courtesy of my friend Clare who thought that seven of us can eat "an elephant" in one sitting and when we failed to do so, we were handed our packed Boxing Day lunches on the way out.
The pie is made with hot water crust pastry and if you work fast and handle the off-cuts properly you might have enough pastry to make another smaller ( and cuter looking) pie.
Raised Meat Pie
- 450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 100g strong white flour
- 75g unsalted butter
- ½ tsp salt
- 100g lard plus extra for greasing
- 1 free-range egg yolk, beaten
- 300g good-quality sausages,or sausage meat
- 250g pork mince
- 250g roast meat (pork, turkey, chicken..) diced
- cranberry sauce, pickled walnuts, pickled pears ( optional)
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or another herb of your choice
- 4 boiled eggs, shelled
- salt and white pepper
Preparation method
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease a 1kg/2lb loaf tin (measuring about 10x20cm across the base) with lard, then cut one long strip of baking parchment, the width of the tin, and place it in the tin so that there’s an overhang of parchment at each end, which will help you remove the pie later.
- First make the filling. Put all the ingredients, except the hard-boiled eggs, into a large bowl and season lightly with salt and white pepper and mix thoroughly.
- To make the pastry, heat 200ml water, the salt , butter and lard in a saucepan until just boiling. Add the flour and beat to get a smooth dough.
- Working as quickly as you can (the pastry will become more crumbly as it cools), roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use it to line the prepared tin, leaving any excess hanging over the edges.
- Press half of the meat filling into the pastry-lined tin, then place the eggs lengthways down the middle of the pie. Add some pickled fruit if you wish, then the remaining meat filling and pat it down.
- Brush the overhanging pastry edge with egg yolk. Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid and place over the pie. Pinch the pastry edges together to seal and trim the edges neatly. Make a steam hole in the top of the pie and brush with more egg yolk.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and bake for a further hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
- To remove the pie, turn the tin on its side and use the parchment paper to slide out the pie. Serve in thick slices.
The recipe was adapted from here
