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20th December 2016
12:18am GMT
Pie. Pork pie. Say that a few times and see how you feel... This is man food, bloke food, dude food - this is the type of thing you eat before wrestling a bear... Naked... In a thunder storm... Whilst drinking petrol.
This is tricky though and you will be working with hot water pastry so if you have delicate digits keep on scrolling. But if you are man enough and you can master this, you will be consider a naked-assed, bear-wrestling, petrol-guzzling Man-God.
All your pork pie, meat feast ingredients.
Combine the pancetta, pork, sage and season well with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
Split the mix into two balls - about the size of a tennis ball.
Bring 250 mls of water to the boil in a pan and add the lard until fully melted.
Combine the melted lard mix with the flour in a large bowl and get in with your hand to make a dough... DO NOT WIMP OUT!
Dump the dough ball out onto a floured board and roll out to about 1/2 cm thick. Work fast, this needs to stay warm if you are going to work it properly. When it cools it will crack and be harder to work.
Take a glass tumbler similar to the one shown in the pic here and cut out your lid first.
Next set the tumbler (which is your mold) in the center of the pastry and bring it up the sides to form you Pie case. This is tricky so work fast as the pastry cools it will stiffen which is what you want.
When the pastry holds under it's own weight you can trim off the edges making a 3 inch tall case. Jiggle the tumbler out.
Drop one of the pork balls into the case and press it down so it spreads into the edges of the case.
Drop in the lid and roughly crimp the case and the top of the lid - you don't need to be to precious with this - in fact the more rustic the better. Poke a whole in the top for steam and for pouring jelly.
Bake in a pre-heated oven 190c for 50 minutes or until the juices run clear.
Add the gelatine to the chicken stock and dissolve well.
Pour the jelly mix into the hole you made in the lid until it fills and runs out. Sling the pies into a fridge and leave to set for at least 2 hours.
Enjoy!
Done deal - now back to bear wrestling in the nip... Covered in mustard.
