CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION PIES

Boxing Day Buffet Pies

The most wonderful time for celebrating life and family with glorious food.  Food is my language of love and pie is what I’m famous for, you know how much you mean to me when I make you pies.

SHOW STOPPER PORK PIE

French Hot Water Crust Hand Raised Pie

This is a all at once cook, I start with the jelly first as it needs a couple of hours to render down while I make and cook the pork pie.  I think of pork pies as a two day tease, this is because the pork pie needs to rest over night before pouring in the jelly and setting again overnight in the fridge ready for the excitement of sharing, giving and eating with everyone on day two or three.

Ingredients 

(serves 6-8)

Hot Water Crust Pastry

600g strong plain flour

2 beaten eggs

7g Himalayan sea salt 

5g white pepper

1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

110g lard

110g butter

240ml water

The Pork Pie

800g pork shoulder diced

200g belly pork minced

200g bacon minced

10 sage leaves finely chopped

4 sprigs thyme chopped

1/2 tsp mace

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1 tsp black pepper

The Jelly

1 pork hock or 2 trotters

1 ltr water

1 onion skin on halved

1 carrot rough chopped

1/2 stick celery 

1 garlic clove bashed

8 peppercorns 

1 bay leaf

1 tsp mustard powder

1 pinch celery salt

2 leaves gelatine (optional) 

First get the jelly underway in a pressure cooker for 1 1/2 hrs or casserole dish for 3-4 hrs place all the ingredients in your pan, bring to a simmer and place on the lid.  Once cooked remove the trotters or pork hock, the latter makes a wonderful dinner with some buttery vinegar mashed potatoes and pease pudding or stuffed in a suet bacon and onion pudding roll, a memory straight from junior school dinners!

Now to check if your pork jelly will set without the need for gelatine, which it should once cooled, place a saucer in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, take a tablespoon on the jelly stock and place on the cold saucer on your work top, leave for two minutes and assess the thickness of the set cooled jelly.  If too running then add the gelatine leaves by soaking in water to soften for 5 minutes and then stirring in off the heat.  Leave your jelly to one side while you bake the pork pie.

Next make the pork pie filling mix all the ingredients together and reserve to one side to infuse their flavours while you make the hot water crust pastry.

To make the hot water crust is really simple place the lard, butter and water in a saucepan and melt without allowing a simmer, in a large mixing bowl place the flour, salt and ribbon through the beaten eggs, make a well in the centre and pour in the hot lard and butter mix, using a spoon gently bring together until just combined, using your hand knead the mix for a minute until a smooth ish ball is formed.  Take 2/3 of the dough and place in your tin pressing the sides up and forming the base, place in your pork pie meat, lay your pastry lid on the top and crimp the edges, I like to take my left hand ready to pinch the pastry from the underneath of the tin lip and pastry, while my right hand will push the top pie crust pastry in to the two pinch fingers, this gives a great crust finish.  Make a hole in the centre of the pie and decorate with leaves.

Place the pork pie in a pre heated oven 200 C for half an hour, then lower the heat to 160 C for one hour, remove the pork pie from the oven and remove the french tin, glaze the sides with egg wash and place back in the oven to cook for a further 10-15 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool, stuff with your homemade jelly then allow the jelly to set in the fridge overnight, then your good to go, enjoy this glorious pork pie it is a outstanding pie.

BEST EVER STEAK AND ALE PIE

These gorgeous little pies are perfect for buffets gorgeous melt in the mouth hot water crackling flakey crust pastry filled with my Nan’s slow braised steak and ale a perfect sumptuous bite.  These pies are just perfect.

My Nan's gorgeous slow braised steak in Guinness and a rich beef roasted bone stock, with mustard powder, onions, garlic, carrot, celery and Nan's move with the times ingredient curry powder is divine served as a dinner with gorgeous buttery vinegar mashed potatoes, (I have to eat this with a spoon so I can scoop as much as possible in every mouthful along with my nan's brown 1960's mug full of extra braised steak gravy on the side!) but this goes to a whole other level when stuffed in to a light crisp melt in your mouth suet crust crackling flakey pastry with bursts of intense flavour from the chewy spilt out gravy, just a perfick mouthful.

Ingredients 

(makes 36)

FOR THE BEST EVER SUET CRUST PASTRY

(This also makes 2 pie top crusts)

330g supreme self raising flour

100g cold butter grated

130g atora suet

Water as needed (150ml+)

1 tsp salt and white pepper 

2 eggs beaten for egg wash

Nan's Braised Steak

2 kg chuck or rump steak 2" square chunks

 1 onion finely chopped

1 stick celery fine chopped

1 carrots finely chopped

2 clove garlic chopped

1 glug of ooil

knob of butter

1 ltr rich beef stock

(homemade recipe below)

3 cans of Guinness 

2 tbsp mustard powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 bay leaf 

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp butter

Pre heat your oven to 160 C, in a large casserole dish add the olive oil and butter, on a medium heat add the onions and soften for ten minutes, then add the garlic, carrot and celery and soften for a further five minutes, crank up the heat and add the diced rump steak and let the steak catch a little browning off ever so slightly and catching the bottom of the pan creating more flavour, add the Guinness, stock, mustard, cayenne, curry powder and bay leaf, top up with water if needed to cover the meat by a inch, pop on a lid and place in the oven to slowly cook for 3-4 hrs, when your rump steak will fall apart when gently squeezed it's done.  Remove from the oven add the salt, pepper and butter.  Leave to cool before filling your pies.

The pastry will need to rest in the fridge for at half an hour before rolling.  Place all the ingredients except the water in a large bowl and very gently mix so that the ingredients are incorporated evenly, you do not want to over work the mix as this will make it tough in texture and this pastry is the best ever because it is light and crispy with a flakey texture finished off with a hint of almost dumpling flathat soaks up the gorgeous braise stake gravy.  Add the water probably 150ml ish and gently bring the pastry mix together to form a ball, wrap in baking paper and rest in the fridge for half an hour.

Cut 1/3 off your pastry ball, this is for the pie lids, roll out the larger piece of pastry on a lightly floured work top to as thin as you dare, using a standard scone cutter cut 36 circles, roll out the remaining pastry using a half size smaller cutter again cut 36 lids.  Taking your trays line each mini pie hole, brush all the pastry edges with egg wash, fill with a couple of teaspoons of your cold braised steak and press on the pastry lid.  Egg wash the tops of the pies and bake in the oven for 40 minutes, once cooked leave to cool in the tins for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool or enjoy hot and fresh.

These pies are great at parties, friends and family gatherings served cold made the day before from the fridge or fresh and warm on the day these are a crowd pleaser.

Homemade Roasted Beef Bone Stock

3 kg beef bones and marrow bones from butchers

2 carrots roughly chopped

2 onions quarterd skin on

6 cloves garlic bashed

1 stick celery bashed

10 whole peppercorns

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs fresh thyme

Water to cover the bones approx 4-6 ltrs

Either left over Sunday roasted beef bones or roast all the bones from the butchers for a hour or so then place in a large casserole dish, add the rest of the ingredients and cover with water, simmer very gently not a excitable bubble for around 4 hours, leave to cool slightly then strain and make sure to spoon out all the bone marrow jelly from the bones in to the strained stock, return to the pan and reduce down to about 1ltr this is a glorious abundance of flavour to add to your braised steak.

SCOTCH PIES

A traditional Scottish pie that 100’s are eaten every day in Scotland.  Always served hot these braised lamb and stock gravy pies are a great crowd pleaser.  These Gorgeous flaky hot water crust pastry pies stuffed with juicy lamb are just perfect for friends and family over the Christmas Holidays, make plenty as they go fast!  This is an old fashioned recipe with one modern ingredient that elevates the sumptuous lamb filling.  I am lucky enough to raise our own pork which means my home rendered crackling lard adds a whole other level of flavour to my pastry.  You can do this too by asking your butcher for some pork back fat and skin, then to make your own lard, roast the fat and skin for a hour or so until all the fat has rendered down, drain off and leave to cool then refrigerate until needed.

Ingredients

(makes 10 small pies)

(2-3 per person)

Pie Filling

500g organic lean minced lamb

1 onion fine fine diced

Good pinch of  Himalayan sea salt

3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

15ml worcestershire sauce or 1/2 tsp of umami paste

100ml lamb stock

1 beaten egg for pastry egg wash

Hot Water Crust Pastry

450g plain flour

110g lard

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

180ml water

 Place the flour and salt in a large bowl, bring the water to a gentle simmer, add the lard, don’t boil just a gentle simmer, once melted pour the hot lard over the flour and mix evenly with a spoon to start with and as soon as you can handle the heat finish mixing with your hands.

You don't need a special bit of kit (pie dolly) to do this, a small tin or upside down jam jar will do the job just fine.  When making your pastry have your jam jar or pie dolly ready as you will need to work quickly with the hot pastry.  If the pastry cools to much it can crack while working with it and even though I love a rustic pie you want to keep all the meat cooking juices in. 

To hand raise the pastry take a small tennis ball size of the pastry and place the mould on top of the centre of the pastry ball, push down which will squeeze the pastry out, using both hands in a cupping method squeeze the pastry up the sides of your mould using a twisting action.  You can also push this pastry on the base and up the insides of a standard pie tin, if fact you can even roll out the pastry with a rolling pin, it will affect the light crispy melt in your mouth texture the more you work the pastry.

For the lid take a gold ball size of pastry and press out with the heal of your hand until thin, cut to size, repeat as many times as pies you want to make, this recipe makes 10 small just more than one mouthful pies, now your ready to make the filling.

Place the minced lamb, onion, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and lamb stock in a large bowl and combine evenly, divide the lamb mixture equally between the pie cases, egg wash the rim's of the pie cases, place the pastry lid on top and crimp or press the edges together, then in the centre of each pie form a hole to allow the steam to escape, finish off with a egg wash over the top, sides and bake at 190 degrees for approx 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.  I like my pies to ooze their gorgeous self made gravy out of the top of the pies and caramelise on top of the pastry while baking I feel it makes the pies more comforting and gives you a expectation of the flavour that awaits your first bite.

Leave to cool slightly if you can wait that long, these pies are best eaten straight from the oven or within four hours at room temperature, after four hours these must be refrigerated, they will keep in the fridge but you loose a bit of the flavour and pastry texture once chilled.