Tag Archives: pork

English Pork Pie Redux

Robbie here! After spending a year abroad in London, I wanted to pay homage to my second home across the pond by making an English pie. While I had eaten and enjoyed the English pork pie amongst other delicious pies in London, I was never enamored with the dish since it is eaten cold. Although that is the way that the many English pies are served, I am a hot food kind of guy. So, I decided to take the traditional English pork pie and put my own American twist on it. Instead of serving this pie cold, I served it piping hot. With that in mind, I followed saveurs recipe which you can see below for my meat mixture:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/English-Pork-Pie

Yet since I would not be serving the pie cold, I completely discarded the directions on making a broth which would later become a gelatinous mixture that helps to firm up the traditionally cold pie.

Furthermore, though I am a carnivore, I wanted to make the pie about more than just the meat alone and give it some nuance while putting my own spin on the dish. In turn, I decided to caramelize some onions, stew some apples in apple cider, and grate cheddar cheese to put on top in addition to making the aforementioned pork mixture from saveur.com.

Hopefully the flavors will meld together as a pie version of pork chops and apple sauce. It’s like peanut butter and jelly: the two things just go well together!

I know the pie might not need it, but I also very excited that there will also be true English mustard, Coleman’s, to accompany my dish. It will knock your socks off with the kick and cure any sinus problems one may have.

Hopefully this will pay homage to the city I have grown to love. For as Samuel Johnson once said, “he who is tired of London is tired of life.”

ApplesStewed ApplesOnionsCaramelized OnionsMeat!

Meat FillingApple Filling

Carmelized Onion FillingCheddar on Top

Pie Pre OvenPie Baked

David’s medieval-style pork, onion & apple pie

…a.k.a. pork chops and applesauce in a double coffin.

20131014-pork-onion-apple-pie-1 20131014-pork-onion-apple-pie-2So I totally just made this one up, based on reading and thinking about the medieval predilection for mixing sweet and savory. I thought of how much I love homemade applesauce with my pork chops, and decided that would be a brilliant pie—with the addition of onions, because I’ve always thought onions and apples went well together.

I checked out some very British recipes for pork pies because I wanted (again, in the medieval vein) where to cook the pork IN the pie not BEFOREHAND. The answer for that turned out to be lower temps (like 250° or 275°) for longer times (2-3 hours). Tin foil to prevent over browning of the crust. Also, a full egg (yolk and white) glaze gave the lid the characteristic golden, glossy look. Rosemary, sage, pepper and salt for spicing. I should check what else I used.

Basically, this pie was absolute heaven—so much so that I was unwilling to share it with anyone! Best lunches ever.

One change for next time: try it with a lard crust instead of the basic flaky, butter-and-shortening crust. I mean really, this is what a lard crust was born to surround.