Welsh Cold Pork Pie Food

WELSH COLD PORK PIE

Steps:

• FOR THE FILLING: Mix all of the ingredients together, except the crust, and place in a 8 inch deep dish pie plate. Bake covered, in a preheated oven at 375°F for 1/2 hour. Remove from the oven and pour off the accumulated fat. Make the pie crust and use only 1/2 of the recipe, freeze the other half for future use. Cover with the crust and return to the oven for 45 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown and flaky.
• Allow to cool completely before serving.
• This is great for a first course, a midnight snack, or a luncheon dish.
• FOR THE BASIC EASY CRUST: In a medium size bowl stir the flour and salt together. Cut in the shortenings using a pastry blender. Keep working the flour and shortening until the mixture is rather grainy, like coarse cornmeal. Mix the egg and vinegar together and, using a wooden fork, stir the mixture into the flour. Add enough ice water so that the dough barely holds together. Place on a marble pastry board or a plastic countertop and knead for just a few turns, enough so that the dough holds together and becomes rollable.
• I roll out my dough on a piece of waxed paper. It is easy to handle that way. I sprinkle the table with water and then put a piece of waxed paper on top, this way the paper does not move around as I am rolling. If you have a marble rolling it will be even easier. If you a wooden rolling pin, be sure to dust a teaspoon of flour on it a couple of times when you are rolling out the dough.
• NOTE: This recipe will make enough dough for one 9-inch pie with two crust, top and bottom, or two single pie crusts. Serves 6.

EASY PORK PIE

Steps:

• Take pastry out of fridge. Preheat oven at 220C
• Mix mince and salt pepper and pork seasoning in a bowl. Use your hands to really spread the seasoning throughout the mince. Add a desert spoon of water to add more moisture to the mix.
• Roll out pastry and cut a circle big enough for the mince to fit in and have the sides brought up to make a pie shape.
• Cut a lid for the pie from the pastry and having beaten the whole egg use this as the glue to set the lid on top of the pie.
• Transfer pie onto metal tray with baking paper on and brush the whole pie with the egg wash and cut a whole in the top of the pie to let the heat out.
• Cook in an oven of 220 for 50 minutes or if fan oven check at 40 minutes or lower the heat. This is approximate as I have an aga.
• Bring pie out of oven and cool on the tray for about 30 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. Once cold cover in baking paper and tin foil and store in fridge.
• Eat cold as part of a picnic or just eat.
• Enjoy

WELSH DRAGON PIE

Steps:

• In a saucepan melt the butter and sweat the leeks without browning for five minutes on a medium heat until soft and buttery. Add the cumin and cayenne pepper and cook for a further five minutes. Put onto a tray to cool.
• In a bowl add the ground pork, leeks and season. Mix well and then divide into four balls. Cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge until needed.
• To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Bring the water and lard to the boil in a saucepan then stir it into the flour with a wooden spoon to form a smooth dough. Divide into four portions and leave the pastry for 10 minutes to cool.
• Lightly grease each individual pie pan. Place it on a baking tray.
• Take two thirds of each quarter of pastry and on a lightly floured table, roll it to fit the pie pan and overlap the edge. Carefully press into the corners and allow it to just hang over the edge. Roll the remaining pastry into an circle for the lid. Repeat this process with the remaining portions of dough.
• Fill each pie with the pork filling. Brush the pie edges with egg wash and place the lid on top. Pinch the lid edge and the top of the pastry edges together with your thumb to crimp the pie and create a seal. Trim the edge with a knife so no pastry is hanging over the edge.
• Pre-heat an oven to 350°F Brush the top of each pie all over with beaten egg yolk, make a hole in the middle of the pastry lid and cook for one hour.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once the pie is cold, refrigerate for two to three hours.
• Follow the instructions for the gelatin and add to the stock to make a firm jelly and refrigerate. Once the pie is cold, check around the pastry for any holes and fill them with softened butter so that the jelly doesn't escape. Take the jelly/stock from the fridge, remove the layer of fat from the surface and gently reheat to melt the jelly. Pour the stock into the round hole in the top of the pastry until the pie is filled. Cool in the fridge until the jelly is set.