Sunday, June 8, 2008

A Lovely Pork Pie Recipe

This pork pie tastes great served hot with mashed potato & gravy, or cold the next day with salad as a light lunch

I’m not really a pie person. (Except when it comes to an apple pie !) But my husband is. He loves pork pies especially, so this is a recipe I came up with for him years ago, and I make it for him at least once a month.

Sometimes I use this exact same recipe to make individual mini pork pies, which are great when you are traveling as they are easy to pack and eat on the road. I use muffin pans as my mini pork pie ‘dishes’ or moulds, which work perfectly !

There is a lady in the city who makes Puff Pastry at home and packages it simply and sells it to some of the local shops. I make sure that I always have a few packets in my deep freeze for recipes like this. I love working with – and creating - pastry and dough but let’s be honest here – making your own puff pastry is a real fiddle ! (Life’s just too short, you know ?)


Pork Pie Recipe

1 kg Pork Fillet- cleaned, trimmed & cubed
2 Onions, sliced
Olive oil (for frying)
2 tsp dried Sage
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
2 heaped tbsp Gravy Granules (any flavour)
¼ cup cold Water
3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 packet of ready made Puff Pastry (enough for a pie top & bottom, about +- 600 gm’s)

Pan fry the cubed pork fillet and the onion slices in the olive oil. Once they begin to brown, add the sage, crushed garlic, salt & pepper. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes and then add the Gravy Granules, cold water and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until a nice thick gravy forms. Remove from the heat. (The pork does not have to be completely cooked as it will cook through in the oven later.)

Grease a 25 cm round pie dish. Split the puff pastry into 2 pieces, and roll each piece into a fairly thin round. Place the first round on the base of the pie dish, and press to cover the dish & sides of the dish completely. Pour the meat/gravy filling on top of this. Top with the 2nd pastry round, neaten the edges and add any patterns which you’d like on the top of the pie crust, using excess bits of pastry. Make a few small holes/slashes in the top of the pie with a knife*, and then baste with a beaten egg. Bake at Gas mark 5/190’C/375’F for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot with mashed potato, gravy & vegetables.

* I make small slashes on the top of my pie before baking, as I just feel it cooks better this way as the steam can escape and the gravy inside won’t overflow.