Spanish Pork and Pepper Pie
Who doesn’t like a pie?
Many of the pies I make come from one book - simply called Pie.
I have made one major change to the recipe in the book, I use pork mince instead of pork loin. Two reasons for this, that it cooks better and you end up with a much more solid slice of pie when the pie has cooled. Also I just use whatever peppers we have, could be red, green or yellow. These quantities make enough for about a 23cm pie dish.
The Pastry
200g plain flour, pinch of salt, 100g cold unsalted butter (cut into cubes),
2 egg yolks (beaten), 2 tbsp water and a pinch of saffron.
Rub the butter into the flour quickly, but gently, until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Mix the egg yolks with the water, add the saffron and gradually add the egg mixture to the breadcrumbs, mixing with a knife. You probably won’t need all of the egg*, save what’s left to glaze the pie before cooking. Once the mixture comes together as a dough then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and put in the fridge until you need it.
The Pie
1 large onion - finely chopped
2 peppers - deseeded and chopped to between 1 or 2 cm square
1 red chilli (or to taste) - deseeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic - finely chopped
300g pork mince
200g Chorizo sausage - diced
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley (or coriander) - chopped
Enough Serrano ham to make a layer on top of the other ingredients
Butter to fry the onions
*Beaten egg to glaze
Heat the butter in a frying pan and cook the onions gently until they soften, then add the peppers, garlic and chilli and cook until the peppers soften
~ 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and mix in the parsley, season with salt and pepper.
Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C / 350 deg F / Gas mk 4
Roll out 2/3 of the pastry on a lightly floured surface, put this into the pie dish to form the bottom crust. Put the pork and pepper mixture into the pie crust and put a layer of Serrano ham across the top. Roll out the other third of the pastry to make the top of the pie.
Crimp the edges of the pie to make sure the pastry top sticks to the bottom and glaze with the remaining egg (or beat another if you don’t have enough). Add a little salt to your beaten egg to help get that nice rich golden colour.
Make 3 slits in the top of the pie and then put in the oven to cook for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave for at least 30 minutes before serving. I usually eat this cold.
Enjoy.