Shortcut Pastry, by Catherine Mah

Pork Pie - A Tribute to Pork, by Catherine Mah

These two recipes are compliments of one of our most valued regular customers.  Catherine is amongst an elite group of foodies that endevour to create food masterpieces, regardless of the time and effort required. 

The first recipe is a fantastic and simple  Shortcrust Pastry; the second we have dubbed a Tribute to Pork - after a three week prep time, including making your own bacon, pork stock, and crust from rendered lard,
the result is the ultimate tribute to pork.

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SHORTCRUST PASTRY, by Catherine Mah

After experimenting with many recipes, this formula seems to be the easiest to remember and most consistent. I use this basic pastry for savoury and sweet pies. Rub together cold fat and salted (a good pinch), unbleached all-purpose flour in a ratio of 1 part fat to 2 parts flour by weight (100g fat, 200g flour). The fat should ideally be a combination of rendered pork lard and butter (60g lard, 40g butter). Shortening is fine, but with shortening, the finished crust will be softer and melting while the lard contributes crispness and flakiness. Be gentle and rapid in your motions, using only your fingertips. When the mixture feels like large flake oatmeal, you are ready to add liquid. I like to use one large egg, beaten, blended with very cold tap water 1:1 by volume. Add only half the liquid at first and blend evenly with a fork. Watch and feel the dough come
together, adding more liquid, a little at a time, as necessary. In the summer, you will likely need only half of the liquid. In the middle of a dry February, when the heat is on in the house, I have used nearly all the liquid. Watch and see. The dough is ready when it comes together easily in a soft ball that is not at all sticky or chalky. You should not have to press the dough at all to make the ball – just gather the dough together with your fingers. Wrap in plastic film and place in the fridge. Chill for 20-30 minutes before using.

PORK PIE - A TRIBUTE TO PORK,

by Catherine Mah

This pork pie recipe is a subtle variation on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe for raised pork pie, from the River Cottage Meat Book (Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton, 2004). This is a great book. If you are passionate about food, and meat, you should get this book. It will inform your meat cookery immeasurably. The jellied stock recipe below is an adaptation of Jennifer McLagan’s pork stock recipe from her excellent Bones: Recipes, History, & Lore book (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).

Of course, there are many other kinds of raised crust savory pies you could make once you’ve mastered this one. You could use various combinations of chopped fresh meats and/or game for the filling, and different types of jellied stock. Nigella Lawson in How to Be a Domestic Goddess (Toronto: Knopf, 2000), for example, does one with pork, veal, bacon, and grouse – now that is winter hibernation food. The presence of cured meats (e.g. bacon) in the raised crust pie, as opposed to all fresh meat, seems to be a point of contention among pie traditionalists. Indeed, an EU controversy arose recently over “protected geographic indication status” for the Melton Mowbray pork pie, famous for its all-fresh-pork construction. Trade disputes aside, the pie below has a bit of bacon in it, if only for the excuse of having you make your own bacon!

I think there are a few key points to think about if you are going to experiment with various meats for the filling. The first is to ensure a fairly high proportion of fat/fattier meats (e.g. pork fat back or belly) to blend with your leaner meats so that the pie will have a beautiful texture and mouth feel when it is eaten cold (as it traditionally is). This is even more important if you are going the game route, given that game meats tend to have a much lower fat content already. I also think that it is nice to hand-chop some of your meats and fats, as per the directions below. By hand-chopping a portion rather than having everything ground, you will create a French country pate texture – a meaty one – rather than meat loaf in a crust.

A final caveat – this is a long recipe. Most of the work is done on the last day of cooking, however, so don’t be put off. The rest of the activities can easily be squeezed in on weekday evenings or while you are doing laundry. It is not fiddly at all, and the product is very rewarding.

Three Weeks Ahead

Start thinking about pigs, pork, and charcuterie. Read Peter Kaminsky’s Pig Perfect (New York: Hyperion, 2005) on a Saturday morning over eggs and double-smoked bacon from The Healthy Butcher. Stop by Spadina Avenue on your way home from work so that you can gaze at the enormous sides of roast pork with crackling hanging in the Chinese barbeque restaurant windows.

Two Weeks Ahead

You are going to make bacon. Tell all of your friends that you are making your own bacon and the positive reinforcement will be excellent. Don’t tell them how easy it is. Unless you have your own backyard smoker – or, for that matter, a backyard – you will be making only unsmoked bacon. Unsmoked bacon is what you need for your pork pie.

You will need:

1 manageable (say, 8 x 8 inches) piece of pork belly with the skin (rind) on
1kg coarse kosher salt
200g light brown sugar
1 tbsp black peppercorns
20 juniper berries
3 dried bay leaves

Prep:
Take out a shallow non-reactive dish such as a glass baking pan or a wide shallow bowl with a flattish bottom, large enough to fit your piece of pork belly. Set aside enough room in your fridge to accommodate this vessel – you will need it to sit there over 5 nights. Take out a large freezer-zipper bag.

Rinse the piece of pork belly under cold running water. Pat very dry with paper towels and set aside.

Coarsely grind the peppercorns, juniper berries, and bay leaves together in a clean coffee grinder or spice mill. Alternately you could bash them up in a mortar and pestle along with 1-2 tbsp of the coarse salt. Blend the rest of the 1kg salt, the ground spices, and the light brown sugar in a large bowl. Reserve 1/3 of the salt mixture to be used right away today. Put away the remaining 2/3 in a clean airtight container for use over the rest of the week.

Making the Bacon:
Rub the 1/3 of the salt mixture that you’ve reserved for today onto all sides of the pork belly. Give it a nice, 10-15 minute massage. Place the belly into the freezer-zip bag, remove most of the air, and seal the bag. Place in your shallow dish. Place in the fridge.

The next evening, take out a few tablespoons of the salt mixture that you’ve put away. Take your pork belly out of the fridge. Pour off all of the liquid in the bag that has leached out of the pork belly. Rub the belly with the fresh salt mixture, put it back in the bag, in the dish, and into the fridge.

Repeat this process for a total of four nights. Alternate the belly skin-side-up and skin-side down on successive nights.

On the fifth night, take the pork belly out of the bag and rinse off the salt thoroughly with cold water. Pat the belly dry with paper towels. Rub the belly with a few fresh tablespoons of your salt mixture and place on a clean (non-metallic) plate. Do not cover. Put it back in the fridge for one more night.

The next day, you will have bacon! Rinse off the salt thoroughly and pat the belly dry. Taste your bacon: slice off a rasher and fry it up. Having the rind on your bacon will help you to slice your bacon easily at home. Use a sharp, long, but fairly narrow blade such as a boning knife or a sturdy carving knife. Hold the bacon up, lengthwise, with the rind facing away from you. Start with the base of your knife at the top of the bacon and slice a rasher off in one or two long strokes, pulling the blade towards you.

Your bacon will be far too salty to eat by itself, but it will be perfect for cooking with. If you can’t resist, soak a few rashers for an hour or so in cold water, drain, rinse, and then cook as per usual.

Don’t forget to save enough for the pork pie.

To store the bacon, wrap it in parchment paper and set in the main compartment of your fridge. Do NOT use plastic wrap or a zipper bag at this point, as moisture will collect in the plastic and ruin your bacon. If you treat the bacon right (read: dry), it will last for a month in your fridge wrapped in the parchment.

One Week Ahead

Call up The Healthy Butcher to order the pork ingredients for the pork pie. Get the remaining ingredients together so you will be ready.

The pork pie is composed of three components: a thick hot water pastry crust; the pork filling; and a pork jelly that will nestle in between the crust and the filling.

For the pastry you will need:

100g rendered pork lard, luckily available at The Healthy Butcher
100g tasty unsalted butter
200mL cold water
550g all-purpose flour (bleached is okay and might even be preferable for this pastry)
1½ tsp salt
2 large eggs + 1 large egg (set aside) for the glaze

For the pork filling you will need:

250g unsmoked bacon – which you have just made!
250g fresh pork belly
1 kg pork butt (pork shoulder)
12-15 sage leaves
2 large thyme sprigs
2 tsp Maldon salt
1 tbsp black peppercorns, freshly ground
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf

For the pork stock jelly you will need:

2 pork leg bones, whole (about 2kg total weight)
1 pork trotter, chopped into a few large pieces
1 large Spanish onion
2 medium-sized carrots
1 stalk of celery, with a few leaves
1 leek or 1 large bunch of onion tops (at the farmer’s market in the summer, you can get cooking onions with the top greens attached; if you separate and freeze these you will have a quick aromatic stock booster for the winter)
6-8 cloves garlic
1 large thyme sprig
2 dried bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 large (1/2 inch x 2 inch) piece of lemon zest
12 cups cold water
1 tbsp Maldon salt

Three Days Ahead

You are going to start your pork pie today with the pork stock jelly.

Prep:
Rinse the bones, including the trotter, under cold running water and pat dry. Make sure you clean off any stray bristles that might be hanging about on the trotter. Set the bones aside.

Thoroughly clean, but do not peel, the carrots and the onion. Clean the celery. Clean the leek, if using, thoroughly under cold running water; otherwise, rinse off your onion tops.

Chop the carrots and celery into a few large pieces. Quarter the onion. Peel the garlic cloves but leave the cloves whole. Collect the spices and the lemon zest.

Cooking:
Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a large baking sheet (a jelly-roll or half-sheet pan is perfect) with parchment paper.

Strew the carrots, onion, celery, leek, and garlic evenly over the baking sheet. Place the pork bones and trotter on top of the vegetables. Roast in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

Place the thyme sprig, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, and lemon zest into a large stockpot. Place the roasted bones, trotter, and vegetables into the pot. Scrape off any brown bits on the parchment paper and add to the pot. Pour in the 12 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that might rise. Reduce the heat to a gentle bubbling simmer and simmer for 5 hours.

Finish:
Strain the stock and allow it to cool. Set it in the fridge overnight. The next day, you will be able to easily remove the layer of congealed fat on the top of the stock. You will notice that using the pig’s trotter has imparted a very satisfying, jellied texture to your stock. Set aside about 500mL of the stock and keep it in the fridge to use in the final assembly of your pork pie. Freeze the rest of the stock in 250mL portions for use in other recipes.

One Day Ahead

Today, you are going to put together the pork pie.

First, make the hot-water pastry.

Dice the butter and lard. Place in a small saucepan with the 200mL water. Melt the butter and lard over slow, gentle heat – do not let it boil.

In the meantime, sift together the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a little well in the middle of the flour and crack in the two eggs. Fold in the eggs gently with a fork, much like making bread or pasta dough. Make another little well. Pour in the hot water-fat mixture. Fold the water-fat in gradually with your fork, and once cooled slightly, carefully with your hands. Give the dough a few kneads and form it into a rough rectangular shape. The dough will be strangely smooth and stretchy, and quite forgiving, compared to other pastry you have worked with. It should not be sticky. I would liken the consistency to very soft homemade play-doh. Wrap the dough in two layers of plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Now, prepare the pork filling.

Make sure your meats are cold. Cut the various pork meats as follows: unsmoked bacon (don’t forget to cut the rind off), ¼ inch dice; pork belly, ¼ inch dice or coarsely ground through a grinder; pork butt, ½ inch dice. Chill the meats again in the fridge.

Finely chop the sage leaves. Remove the thyme leaves from the sprigs and give them a quick mince. Get your dry spices together.

Combine the chilled meats, sage, thyme, salt, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and cayenne pepper. Use your hands and blend the seasonings thoroughly with the meat. When you think you have mixed it enough, give it another short mix for good measure. Pop the lot back into the fridge.

You are now ready to assemble your pork pie.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Take out a 9-inch springform pan.

Take the pastry out of the fridge. Cut off a generous ¼ and reserve in the fridge for the pie top. Roll out the remaining pastry into a large circle, enough to line the bottom and most of the side of the springform pan. Because this dough is so stretchy, it will help to fold the circle into quarters before you transfer it from your work surface to the pan. Unfold the pastry in the pan.

Take your filling out of the fridge. Spoon the filling into the prepared pastry in the pan. You should have about ½ inch edge of pastry still left up the side of the pan. You don’t want a lot of air space in your filling – a smooth texture is nice – but you don’t want a very densely packed filling either. Gently smooth out the top of the filling. Give the pan a rap or two on the counter to settle the filling in.

Crack your remaining 1 egg and beat lightly.

Take the remaining ¼ of the pastry out of the fridge and roll it into a circle for the pie top. Brush the top edge of the filled pastry with a little bit of beaten egg and place the pie top on. Reserve the rest of the beaten egg in the fridge. Press the pastry to seal and then crimp the edge. You might have to pull up the sides of the stretchy pastry a little to crimp with the pastry top. Be gentle: it is a bit like pulling up nylon stockings.

Slice a ¾ inch hole in the top of the pie. This is for the jellied stock that you will pour in after the pie is baked. Nigella Lawson has a great little trick at this point which is to take a fairly large stainless steel icing tip and pop it into the hole before baking in order to facilitate the jelly pouring later. I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems like a nifty idea.

Bake your pie at 350F (325F convection) for 30 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 325F (300 convection) and bake for a further 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Take the pie out of the oven and place it on a baking sheet. Remove the side portion of the springform pan. Brush the top and sides of the pie quickly with the rest of the beaten egg. Pop your pie back into the oven for another 20 minutes at 325F (300 convection).

Take the pie out of the oven. Take a butter knife or a pair of chopsticks and make sure the little hole that you’ve cut in the middle of the pie is still patent. Set the pie aside to cool a bit, about 15 minutes. In the meantime, heat up the 500 mL pork stock jelly that you’ve reserved in the fridge. Use a small saucepan and use low heat. You are not boiling, just liquefying.

Now here is the fun part. Lift up the edge of the hole gently with a butter knife or chopsticks. Using a turkey baster or a small ladle with a pouring spout, slowly pour the liquid stock into the hole (pour it right into the icing tip, if you decided on it). You are filling up the cavity between the pie filling, which has shrunken during cooking, and the crust.

Set the pie aside to cool at room temperature. Once it is completely cool, take off the bottom of the springform pan and cover the pie with plastic wrap or place in an airtight container. Put it in the fridge overnight to let the stock set to jelly.

Pork Pie Day

This is your shining moment! You have made a raised crust pork pie. Call your friends over, because there will be plenty to share. Don’t worry if you have lots left, because your pie will last for two weeks in the fridge and makes a nice packed lunch. It is also nice for breakfast. Or a late dinner.

Slice the pie and serve it at cool room temperature. It is perfect with a bit of something sweetly sour; sweet pickles, for instance, or a celery root salad. (Shave or julienne equal parts celery root and crisp, tart winter apple. Dress with lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, a pinch of ground coriander seed, a pinch of cayenne, freshly ground black pepper, and your favourite salad salt.)

Enjoy!