Raised pork, rosemary and apricot pie

Ingredients

1 x 420g pack pork shoulder steaks
75g dry-cured streaky bacon
1 x 500g pork mince (20% fat)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3 rosemary sprigs, leaves only, finely chopped
2 tsp sea salt
100g dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 medium egg, beaten, for brushing the pastry

For the pastry

450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
275g chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 medium eggs
1 medium egg yolk

For the jelly

2 sheets Dr Oetker gelatine
200ml fresh chicken stock

Step by step

Get ahead

The pie can be made up to the end of step 4 and chilled overnight before baking.

For the pie filling, cut the pork steaks into 1cm pieces. Put the streaky bacon into a food processor and process until finely chopped. Put them both into a large mixing bowl with the pork mince, chopped onion, nutmeg, rosemary, sea salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Mix the ingredients together well with your hands, then add the dried apricots and mix together once more.
For the pastry, put the flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and the butter in a food processor. Whiz until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs then tip into a clean mixing bowl. Beat the whole eggs with the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of water, and gradually stir into the dry ingredients to make a soft dough – add a little more water if needed. Knead briefly in the bowl until smooth, then cut off one third of the mixture and set it aside for the lid.
Line the base and sides of a 11cm x 21cm rectangular raised pie tin or a 20cm x 9cm 8cm-deep loaf tin with a double layer of baking paper, leaving enough paper overhanging to lift the cooked pie out later. Roll out the larger piece of pastry and cut into a 21cm x 42cm rectangle. Cut a 12cm piece off the top of the rectangle and cut this in half into 2 almost-square pieces – these will form the 2 short ends of the pie. Set aside. Lay the larger piece of pastry across the tin and press it onto the base and up the long sides, leaving the excess pastry overhanging. Brush the corner edges of the pastry with a little of the beaten egg and then lay one of the reserved pieces of pastry at each end, with the edges overlapping, and the excess pastry overhanging the top edge. Press all the seams together well to make a good seal. This sounds complicated but makes sense when you do it!
Spoon the filling into the tin and press it down with the back of a spoon. Brush the top edge of the pastry with a little more of the beaten egg. Roll out the pastry you set aside for the lid into a 12cm x 24cm rectangle and use to cover the top of the pie. Squeeze the edges together to make a good seal, then trim away most of the excess pastry and crimp to give the pie an attractive finish. Make 3 small holes down the centre of the lid (a plain 10mm piping nozzle is ideal) and decorate around them with leaves made from the pastry trimmings, attaching them with a little more of the beaten egg. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6.
Brush the top of the pie with more of the beaten egg. Bake the pie for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4, and continue to cook for another 1 hour, or until the juices run clear when the meat filling is pierced with a skewer. Remove the pie from the oven and leave it to cool on a wire rack.
Soak the leaves of gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes. Bring the chicken stock to the boil in a small pan, then remove from the heat. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine leaves, add them to the hot stock and stir until dissolved. Cool for 30 minutes. Using a small funnel or the piping nozzle, slowly pour a little of the stock through each of the holes in the top of the pie (the filling will have shrunk during cooking leaving space for the jelly) until the pie is full. You might not need to use it all. Transfer the pie to the fridge and chill overnight.

Rectangular raised pie tins, with their straight sides and angled corners, are available from Lakeland (lakeland.co.uk), but you can also use a 20cm x 9cm 8cm-deep loaf tin. Serve cut into slices with chutneys and salads.

Videos

Strawberry cheesecake bowl

See more videos

Lifestyle

Shopping with a foodie: Tommy Banks