A pork pie is a buffet treat for any time of the year, but I love these around the festive period!
It is quite fitting that I made these pies and am posting this recipe at the end of a week that included me meeting, cooking for and slightly cooking with Her Majesty Queen Camilla. It really was an honour to meet and chat with Her Majesty: a memory that will stay with me forever. I made her some special ginger honey biscuits and she decorated some – recipe to come soon – but these Coronation pork pies popped into my head for making shortly after her visit.
These are pies I make every few months, varying the size and filling somewhat (such as using different spices or curry pastes). The photos are of mini ones I made a while ago (the recipe,makes about 24 of those) and slightly larger ones.
These pies are my take on the delicious Coronation Chicken Pies from Marks and Spencer. I have added some simple curry spices to the hot watercrust pastry so that it takes on more flavour. Sometimes I bake them as miniatures (one or two bites and they are gone!) but I quite like these on the larger side, too.
The topping:
There is no lid to these pies; instead you have a mango chutney or a chutney of choice: and it really works having this as a topping rather than on the side.
A good quality chutney really makes these pork pies shine, literally! I love using mango chutney, but you can use different chutneys and the like as a topping either individually or even mix several chutneys together. Some of my favourites include:
- lime pickle (crushed up a bit of it is too chunky)
- spicy aubergine pickle
- redcurrant jelly or cranberry sauce mixed with a little curry paste, warmed up slightly to become smooth
The filling:
The filling is really easy and uses good quality bought curry paste mixed with pork. A good quality curry paste and chutneys of choice really makes these pies come alive. The combination of pork mince (not lean, otherwise the filling becomes dry) and sausage meat is wonderful here.
I also like to add additional spices for added oomph and sometimes finely chopped dried apricots. One of my favourite spices is popped mustard seeds: this is simply mustard seeds added to a pan of hot oil for a minute or so – just until they start to pop and jump: a lid on top as soon as they start is important! I sometimes like to add a few fresh curry leaves to the oil, which crackle, curl up and add the most wonderful flavour.
Tins:
I use the loose-bottomed vertical sided cake tins from Lakeland, but you can use tins you would normally use for muffins. For mini ones, use the mini muffin tins that you can buy.
Either way, the tins need to be brushed with oil or melted lard and to help the baked pies remove easily, place a strip of greaseproof into each one – as in the photo below. Without these strips it’s fiddly to get them out without tipping them upside down and losing the precious juice!
That said, you can bake them in smaller tins (taking about 20 minutes to cook initially) or larger tins of whichever size or shape you have: in which case you might need about an hour of cooking time. But as the temperature is not too high, there is little danger of the pastry burning.
Recipe: Coronation pork pies – makes 12
Hot watercrust pastry:
- 300g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 80g lard
- 50g unsalted butter
- 85ml water
Filling:
- 200g pork mince, 20% fat
- 200g good quality pork sausagemeat
- 2 tablespoons curry paste of choice
- 2 teaspoons aubergine chutney or mango chutney
- small onion, peeled and finely grated
- handful (half a small bag) of fresh coriander, chopped
- 1 tablespoon popped mustard seeds, optional – see above
Topping:
- about 3 tablespoons either mango chutney, lime pickle or aubergine chutney (or even blend these together!)
- 2 teaspoons onion seeds
- a little spring onion or coriander stalk, finely chopped – optional
– you will need a deep 12-hole cake cake tin or similar, brushed with melted lard with strips of greaseproof in the base, plus a baking tray for this to stand on to catch any drips.
– you should preheat the oven to 170°C(fan).
(1) Make the filling by mixing together the ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside until needed.
(2) For the pastry, add the flours, salt and spices to a bowl.
(3) Heat the butter, lard and water in a pan until the fats melt and it all comes to the simmer. Pour over the flour mixture and stir well to give a smooth, shiny dough.
(4) Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and leave for about 5-10 minutes to cool slightly. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.
NB: the dough will be slightly warm as you work with it but even if it fully cools, it will still roll out and give great pies!
(5) Roll each piece of dough out fairly thinly and cut out circles with a 10cm cutter. Fold the pastry a little to get it into the holes. Alternatively, pop these unrolled out balls of dough straight into the tin holes.
(6) Use your fingers to smooth out the pastry on the base and the sides, pressing gently to ease it up if needed. If using balls of dough, use a bit more pressure to ease the dough up the sides. It really does not need to be perfectly smooth inside – just make sure there are no tears. You can neaten the pastry at the top rim of you wish eg) pinching, pleating, using fork impressions etc or for ease simply leave it as it is.
(7) Take dessertspoons of the mixture and pat down well into the pastry. You want to come just a little below the top.
(8) Place on a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the pies from their holes by lifting them up using the strips – they should come out easily. Place the pies onto a baking tray and continue to cook for 10 more minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool fully. I love the random juice leaks down the sides, adding what I think is a lovely visual to the pies.
(9) For the topping, add about teaspoon of chutney on top of each pie. Sprinkle over a little spring onion or coriander stalk, if using.
