Pork Pies

(All Recipes have Gluten-Free Options)

Pork, Apple and Cider Pie (Serves 4)

This pie takes full advantage of the wonderful affinity between pork and apple. The apples give the pie a subtle sweetness – unsurprisingly it’s become a firm favourite in our household! The recipe is from Paul Hollywood’s cookbook ‘Pies & Puds’. The original recipe calls for a ‘cider pastry’, I have tried it with this, but I didn’t think it was that special and it definitely didn’t warrant the extra time needed to make it. So I use ready rolled puff pastry and I suggest you do the same!…(I’m gluten free so I can’t eat the pastry, occasionally I use ‘Jus Roll’s Gluten Free Puff Pastry’, but if I’m to be honest it’s not as delicious as the regular version, so I tend to eat the filling with some buttered new potatoes – thus leaving Nick and Felix to fight over my left over pastry!!)

1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium-large onion chopped

2 celery sticks, destringed and chopped

500g pork shoulder, cut into 3-4cm pieces

2 tablespoons plain flour (gluten-free if required)

175ml dry cider

175ml chicken stock

1 cooking apple, 150g, peeled, cored and sliced

2 eating apples, 225-250g, peeled, cored and sliced

6 large sage leaves, chopped

Sea salt and black pepper

320g Ready Rolled Puff Pastry (Gluten Free if required – see note above)

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon of milk (for a glaze)

(*1.2 litre pie dish)

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large, wide pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery and cook gently for 8-10 minutes until soft but not coloured. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.
  2. Add a little more oil if necessary to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high, add the half the pork. Brown it well on all sides, remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining pork.
  3. Turn the heat down a little. Return all the pork to the pan along with the onion and celery. Sprinkle in the flour, stir and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add the cider and stock, stirring so that the flour is absorbed. Add the apples, sage, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
  4. Spoon the pork and apple filling into a pie dish.
  5. For the pastry top, gently lay out the pastry. Cut it into a circular shape to top the pie dish. I find that by cutting strips of the remaining pastry, pressing them around the rim of the pie dish and then topping with the pastry top, helps the pastry rise. I also cut out a few leaves for decoration, but obviously, this doesn’t affect the flavour so if you’re in a hurry I’d leave this out! Lightly score the pastry with a criss-cross pattern to help it rise and make sure you cut out a deep cross in the centre to allow the steam to escape during cooking. Brush over with the egg and milk glaze.
  6. Bake in a preheated oven, 200’c fan, for about 35 minutes until golden and piping hot.