Pork And Apple Pie - think a lighter textured pork pie!

The moment I saw this recipe in the Take a Break - My Favourite Recipes magazine, I knew I had to give it a go.  I've done a couple of variations on a pork and apple pie already - Kentish Pie and Ham & Apple Pie - both of which are really popular with the family, so I reckoned this would also be a hit.  Little did I know just how much of a hit it would prove to be!  It's hard to say which way I like it best - room temperature, or direct from the fridge.  All I know is that it is delicious and especially good with mustard or piccalilli!

Of course, apart from the delicious flavour of this pie and the lightness of the gorgeous pastry, one of the very best things about it is just how simple it is to make.  I suppose it all hinges on your using a tasty sausagemeat for it as you won't get good things back if you don't put good things in to begin with!  I picked a 72% pork sausagemeat, which was seasoned with sage, nutmeg, mace and black pepper.  Inevitably, I tinkered about with the quantities, plus I used smoked back bacon, which inevitably has more flavour than unsmoked and more meat than fat, I swapped the leek for a small red onion because hubby hates leek and also added more sage until my nose told me there was enough.

Contrary to the original recipe, I pan fried the bacon before adding it to the filling mix as I was a bit nervous about it discharging too much water in the cooking.  I also baked the pie in a loose bottomed sandwich tin (the recipe states to bake it free form on a baking tray) basically because my crimping is rubbish and I would have hated for it to have come apart during the baking or got washed away by all the water from the bacon.

All of my tinkering about with the recipe worked perfectly, resulting in a nicely shaped, full of filling, golden baked pie that will grace our Boxing Day buffet table very nicely thank you.  It will be lovely with the pickles and salad that accompanies the cold meats and cheeses and make a fabulous centre piece for the table.

Many thanks to Laurie Burley of Cornwall for sending in her delicious pie recipe to the magazine - I know it has instantly become a family favourite!

PORK AND APPLE PIE   (serves 6)

Ingredients :

For the pastry :

225g plain flour
140g cold diced butter
a pinch of sea salt
a quarter tsp of black pepper
1 tsp English mustard powder
2 egg yolks kept separate - one for the pastry and another for glazing
2 tbsp or thereabouts, of cold water (I used carbonated mineral water).

For the filling :

400g of your favourite pork sausagemeat
100g smoked back bacon, finely diced
1 sharp eating apple (I used a Braeburn), peeled, cored and finely diced
1 small red onion, finely diced
2 heaped tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp dried sage
half a tsp ground black pepper.

Method :

Using a food processor (you can opt to rub in the butter, if you prefer), put the flour, diced butter, sea salt, black pepper and mustard powder in to the bowl and whizz for as long as it takes to get to tiny breadcrumb stage.  Add the one egg yolk and half the water and blitz again.  You are aiming for the crumbs to clump together and form a mass.  You may need to add the remainder of the water and continue blitzing until the clumps form.  Don't add too much water too soon, or you will potentially end up with a too wet mixture.  Some loose mixture is acceptable as it will all come together in the cling film.

Spread a large piece of cling film out across the worktop and tip the contents of the processor on top.  Fold the cling film over the top and gently press and pat the pastry together so that it forms a cohesive whole.  Then fold each end up to seal and place into the fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas 5.

Heat a frying pan and add the diced bacon.  Dry fry until all the moisture has evaporated and the pieces are beginning to turn golden.  Set aside.

Taking a large bowl, add the sausagemeat, cooked bacon, diced apple, diced onion, chopped parsley, dried sage and pepper.  Using your hand, squish and mix the ingredients together until everything is evenly distributed.  Try not to massage the mixture into a lump, but keep the texture light and broken up.

Reclaim your pastry from the fridge and roll out half of it to line an 8" sandwich tin - a loose bottomed one helps to get the pie out at the end of baking.  Trim the pastry off neatly and level with the top edge of the tin.

Place the sausagemeat mixture gently into the pastry case and distribute it evenly, making sure to not press down too hard.  Remember, you want to keep the texture light.  Level off with the top of the tin.

Taking your egg intended for glazing, brush a little egg around the inside edge of the small amount of pastry above the level of the meat.

Roll out the second piece of pastry and place over the top of the tin to create the pie's lid.  Ease the pastry down onto the top of the meat filling and press lightly to create a seal around the edge where the egg wash is.  Trim off neatly and crimp the edges in a pretty pattern.

Cut a cross into the centre of the pastry and turn back each quarter of the cross, to allow the steam to escape whilst baking.  You can decorate the surface with pastry leaves or whatever you want, at this stage.

Finally, egg wash the surface of the pastry and place into the oven for 30 minutes.  When the time is up, reduce the oven temperature down to 170degC/325degF/gas 3 and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre of the meat sends back some resistance, indicating that the meat is cooked, and the pie is lovely and golden in colour.

Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack.  While the pie is still quite warm, remove from the tin (this is where the loose bottomed tin comes in SO handy) and gently place back onto the wire rack to cool.

Serve at room temperature with pickles and salad, or chips and baked beans.  The pie is just as good served directly from the fridge, to have with pickles and salad or to take on a picnic.

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Rabbit & parsnip pie

Rabbit and parsnip pie.  Insert very big grin here.

Many moons ago, we bought a wild rabbit from a local butcher and it turned out to be the mankiest, smelliest, half cleaned and extremely tough bit of ancient rabbit you could ask for.  Perhaps not surprisingly, that put me off dealing with whole rabbits for quite some time.  However, when Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd offered me a chance to have another go with some quality wild rabbit, how could I say no?  After all, I'd had a rabbit pie quietly baking in my imagination for quite some time.

Now I wanted this rabbit pie to be one that anyone could make, made with ingredients that are readily accessible or that could be in anyone's kitchen.  No wild and wacky ingredients, just good honest rabbit compatible flavours that would make this pie acceptable to most people, might even go as far as demystifying rabbit a little - and who knows, perhaps even rabbitophobes might consider giving it a go.

Beautiful rabbit, dredged in seasoned flour and in the pan

The Farmer's Choice rabbit was beautiful.  Clean as a whistle and smelling as fresh as a daisy, it was no more cringe inducing to handle than a fresh chicken - and even easier to joint up into pieces.

Oh and I must add, my three mobile dustbins were VERY interested in it and were there begging for offcuts within seconds of removing the rabbit from its packaging.  However, they were all out of luck as rabbit has negligible amounts of fat on it and they arrive unzipped, undressed and ready to go.  (The rabbit, that is, not the dogs).

The smell that wafted from the cooker as the rabbit slow cooked in the casserole dish was utterly mouthwatering - and we had to suffer that for two hours.
 

Seared, in the casserole and into the oven for the next 2 hours

Naturally, as a cook it is entirely your responsibility to taste your ingredients as the cooking proceeds ~koff~ and I can confirm that the flavour of the rabbit was sublime.  Everyone says that rabbit is a sweet flavoured meat and I can see that, yes - but it isn't sweetly sweet in a sugary way, it is mild, slightly woodland with a touch of earthy and reminds me very much of the texture of a chicken thigh, but no - it doesn't taste chickeny at all.  It is really lovely and something I would be very happy to entertain regularly on the menu plan.

No spare space for anything other than a bit of gravy

I will admit that this recipe involves a lot of steps.  It took me best part of a day - although I wasn't in the kitchen for the entirety of the day.  First making the pastry, then preparing the meat for the casserole, then a bit of a pause while the casserole did its thing, then it was all go through to the end.  So it isn't a recipe for when you're in a hurry! It would be perfectly possible to split the preparation between two days - make the filling on the first day, then refrigerate it until the following day when you can make the pastry, fill the pie and bake it.  Just remember to get the filling out of the fridge to come to room temperature in good time, or the baking time will be incorrect.

Golden and crisp, a thing of absolute beauty

I'm fairly sure that the ingredients are as economical as possible, with most wild rabbits costing between £5-£7 each (February 2015 prices) and currently £6.71 for a 1kg rabbit from Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd.  Of course, you would need to factor in the delivery charge there, too - but rabbit is still one of those few fairly economical meats.

The pie would serve 5-6 hungry people and go further if children were involved.  So far as I can see, the only expense in the cooking is your time and the power required to fire up your oven.

Now, I have a few Cook's Tips for you.

I have stated to use "strong" stock and by that I mean stock that has rather more stock powder (once again, I thoroughly recommend Essential Cuisine's chicken or vegetable stock) than one would ordinarily use.  In order to gain the intensity of flavour, I made up my chicken stock with 1.5 tsp of stock powder for 500ml of water instead of the customary 1 tsp.  For this reason - and the reduction of the stock for gravy - it is essential to use a low salt stock cube (and Essential Cuisine's stocks are all naturally low salt).  It would be an easy thing to spoil the pie by making the stock too salty. 

My second cook's note is not to work the dough more than is absolutely necessary and certainly do not knead it at all.  The less you work the flour and the smaller the amount of water you use to hold it all together, the lighter the end result will be.  Incidentally, you won't need the egg until much later in the pie making process so keep it standing by!

This was son & heir's first taste of rabbit and he was very happy with it.  Everyone cleaned their plate and gave the dish a big thumbs up.  The leftovers of the pie even stood up well to being microwaved for lunch the following day.  The pastry stayed crisp and the filling was just as yummy.

Rabbits aren't as easy to get hold of as they once were, but if you see some rabbit in the shops - or even better, would like to order one from Farmer's Choice - do consider giving this pie a try.  If I can turn out a fabulous pie like this, anyone can. 

RABBIT & PARSNIP PIE   (serves 5-6)

Ingredients :

1 leek, quartered and chopped
3 tbsp olive oil (each tbsp used individually)
1 wild rabbit, jointed into 6 pieces, or 500g diced rabbit
2-3 tbsp plain flour
half a tsp sea salt
half a tsp black pepper
3 rashers back bacon, diced finely
1 small carrot, peeled & finely diced
1 stick celery, de-strung and finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
3 mushrooms, halved and sliced
2-3 bay leaves
half a tsp dried thyme
1 parsnip, cut into bite sized pieces
500ml strong chicken or vegetable low salt stock
3 semi dried prunes, sliced finely
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped finely.

For the pastry :

300g plain flour

100g Atora shredded suet (I use vegetable suet)

100g butter

120ml sparkling mineral water (although tap water will do)

sea salt

an egg, beaten, to glaze.

Method :

1.  Begin by making the pastry.  Place the flour into a large bowl and add the suet, butter and sea salt.  Rub the fat into the pastry by rubbing it between your fingertips, until you have what appears to be a cross between cornflake shapes and breadcrumbs.

2.  Add the water gradually - you may not need the whole amount, or you may need a little more - mixing with a knife and patting and pushing the dough together to form a ball.

3.  Once the pastry has formed a ball, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest.

4.  Take a large, deep frying pan and add enough olive oil - up to 1 tbsp - to cook the leek in.  Heat over a moderate heat and add the leek.  The object of the exercise is to cook the leek without any browning or caramelisation.  You want soft leeks with bright green colour still.  Once cooked (around 10 mins) remove from the pan and reserve.

5.  If the rabbit isn't already jointed, cut it into six joints - the two back legs, saddle, ribcage and two front legs.

6.  Place the flour, sea salt & black pepper into a large plastic bag and shake to combine.  Add the rabbit pieces and give a good old shake about, to dredge the rabbit with the flour.

7.  Add another tbsp of olive oil to the pan and heat over a high heat.  Once really hot, add the first three rabbit joints and sear them until golden.  Remove into a casserole dish and retain.  Repeat the process for the next three rabbit joints.

8.  Reduce the heat under the pan and add the bacon.  Cook until the fat has rendered and the bacon is just beginning to colour.

9.  Add onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and bay leaves and a little (100ml) water to mobilise whatever oil is in the pan and deglaze the pan base, which will steam the vegetables until the water has evaporated, then fry the vegetables.  Aim for a slight colouring and softened vegetables.  Add the thyme and parsnip and decant the vegetables into the casserole dish.

10.  Pour the stock into the frying pan and heat it through until just boiling.  Decant into the casserole dish, cover the casserole and place into a pre-heated oven at 170degC/325degF/Gas 3 for the next 2 hours.

11.  When the two hours are up, remove the rabbit onto a plate and using a slotted spoon, sieve out the vegetables into a bowl.  Decant the remaining stock into a small saucepan and reserve.

12.  Place the stock onto a moderate heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce the quantity until the flavour of the stock is sufficiently intense - you will probably have reduced it by half and it will have thickened somewhat.  You can then spoon any excess oil from the top of the stock.

13.  Remove the meat from the rabbit bones and discard the bones.  Place the chunks of meat into another bowl and add the leek, prunes and parsley along with sufficient of the casserole vegetables to make up the quantities for your pie dish.

14.  Add two or three tbsp of reduced stock to the pie filling and stir gently to combine.  Set aside to cool completely while you roll out the pastry.

15.  Cut the pastry ball into one third/two thirds and re-wrap the two thirds.  Roll out the one third to the correct size to line your pie dish.  Lay it into the pie dish and make sure no air bubbles are between the pastry and the dish.  Trim to size.

16.  Add the cooled pie filling, heaping it towards the centre of the dish.  Press down lightly as you go, you want to have as deeply filled a pie as is possible.

17.  Using the beaten egg, brush a little egg wash around the pastry edge.

18.  Roll out the two thirds piece of pastry to a size larger than the pie dish, that will cover the filling and comfortably meet the edges of the pastry.   Lay the rolled out pastry over the pie and smooth it down to the edges.  Press the pastry lightly over the egg washed edges, then using a decorative knife point, or fork, or any other method of your choosing, press an attractive pattern into the edge which will not only look nice but will secure the two pastry pieces together.  Trim the pastry neatly and remove the excess.

19.  Neatly cut a hole into the top of the pie and give the pastry a good coating with egg wash.  If you're feeling creative, you can now cut some leaves, or a likkle rabbit, out of the excess pastry to decorate your pie with.  Lay the decoration onto the egg washed pastry and give them their own coating of egg wash.

20.  The pie is now ready for baking!  Place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 45 - 50 minutes or so.  Keep an eye on the pastry in the last 10 minutes, you are aiming for a golden top with discernibly golden pastry sides (presuming your pie dish is transparent, that is!).

Once baked and when you remove your pie from the oven, remember to take a moment to appreciate your creation.  You've taken enough time to bring it to life, a bit of appreciation before you cut it and destroy its natural beauty, is only right and proper.

Serve the pie with seasonal vegetables of your choice and the remaining stock as gravy.

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