Paul Hollywood’s raised pork and egg pie

Serves: 8
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

  • FOR THE HOT WATER CRUST PASTRY
  • 100g lard, plus extra for
  • greasing
  • 450g plain flour
  • 100g strong white bread flour
  • 75g cold unsalted butter,
  • cut into roughly 1cm dice
  • 200ml water
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze
  • FOR THE FILLING
  • 300g good-quality
  • sausagemeat (or skinned
  • butcher’s sausages)
  • 300g minced pork
  • 150g cooked ham hock, cut
  • into roughly 1.5cm pieces
  • 2 eschalions (banana shallots),
  • finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 4 hard-boiled eggs, shelled
  • Salt and white pepper
  • Equipment
  • 1kg loaf tin (about 10 x 20cm base measurement)

Heat your oven to 200°C/gas 6. Grease a 1kg loaf tin (measuring about 10 x 20cm across the base) with lard, then strip-line it with baking parchment (i.e. cut one long strip of 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, seasoning lightly. Mix together thoroughly (the easiest way to do this is with your hands). Cook a little nuggetof the mixture in a frying pan and taste it to check the seasoning. Put the mix in the fridge while you make the pastry.

To make the pastry, combine the flours in a bowl, add the butter and rub in lightly with your fingertips. Heat the water, salt and lard in a saucepan until just boiling. Pour the mixture onto the flour and mix together with a wooden spoon. Once cool enough to handle, tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead to a smooth dough.

Working quickly (the pastry will become crumbly and more difficult to handle as it cools), roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use it to line the prepared tin, leaving the excess hanging over the edges. Press half the meat filling into the pastry-lined tin. Take a thin slice off the top and bottom of each boiled egg (this helps them sit next to each other and makes slicing the pie easier), then place the eggs lengthways down the middle of the pie. Add 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, place over the pie and trim away the excess. Pinch the pastry edges together to seal and crimp neatly. Cut leaves from the pastry trimmings to decorate the pie. Brush the pastry lid with beaten egg and make a couple of steam holes in the centre. Arrange the pastry decorations on top of the pie and brush these with egg too.

Bake for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to 180°C/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.

From Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds, published by Bloomsbury, £20