This is one of my absolute favourite pies. I used to make it with an old-fashioned suet crust pastry, which I love, but others prefer it with a rough puff and I eventually caved in. If you want to make it with suet crust, blend two parts flour with one part suet and a pinch of salt in a food processor until there are no more lumps. Keeping the motor running, spoon in a tablespoon of milk at a time, until the pastry starts to come together, before finishing it off with your hands.
Ingredients - serves 4
2 x 1kg ham hocks
200g carrots
200g onions
Court-bouillon, to cover
400g potatoes
½ small bunch of fresh curly parsley, leaves picked
2tbs Dijon mustard
Maldon sea salt flakes and fresh ground black pepper
1 free-range egg, beaten
Rough puff pastry - makes 800g
325g strong plain flour
1tsp fine sea salt
325g unsalted butter, diced
150ml cold water
Method
First make the pastry. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the diced butter. Rub together to mix but leave a few visible lumps of butter. Pour in the cold water and mix to combine and form into a firm dough, but do not overmix. Cover with clingfilm and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Turn the pastry dough onto a floured board and roll out into a square - there should be small streaks of butter running through the pastry. Fold the right-hand third halfway into the middle and repeat with the remaining left-hand side, roll out again and repeat the folding process. Cover with clingfilm and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, or until needed.
To make the pie, place the ham hocks, carrots and onions in a large flameproof pot and cover with court-bouillon. Do not season. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for an hour, then add the potatoes and cook for a further 20 minutes.
Remove the ham and vegetables to another dish and simmer the cooking liquid until reduced by half. Crush one of the potatoes and whisk into the liquid. Pass the now thick liquid through a sieve, pressing any potato bits through, then return it to the pan and add the chopped parsley and the mustard, adjusting the seasoning carefully and only if necessary.
Flake the ham, crush the potatoes and cut the onions and potatoes into chunks. Pour the parsley liquid over the top and pour into a suitable pie dish.
Roll out your pastry on a floured surface to 1cm thick. Cut a pastry strip the same width as the lip of the dish, then wet the edge of the dish with egg and fix the strip around it. Brush with more egg and lay the remaining pastry to the edge of the dish, then pinch the cut edges and cut a slit to let the steam escape. Brush all over the top with egg wash.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until hot, golden and risen, and eat with mustard on the side.
As featured in HOG by Mitchell Beazley.
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