Game pies

Sort of

I cheated and put the pastry inside tins instead of outside a jar. It's odd stuff to use and needs to be handled quickly as it's a bugger when it cools.

Pastry
265 g	Plain flour
55 g	Strong bread flour
55 g	Unsalted butter
65 g	Lard
1 tsp	Salt
135 ml	Boiling water
1	Egg, beaten

Filling
1	Big onion
300g	Mixed game
130g	Belly pork
	Herbs, salt, pepper
2 leaves	Gelatine
300 ml	Chicken stock

Filling

I used cooked game leftovers and raw pork.
Traditionally the game is cut into chunks but this results in big blobs of aspic which I don't like so I used a very coarse mincer plate with 8mm holes
Mince the game and the onion
Mince the belly pork and lightly fry with garlic and black pepper
Mix all the meats and add the herbs, salt and pepper

Pastry

Put the flours in the mixer bowl, mix and add the butter in cubes until it looks like breadcrumbs
Put the lard in a jug and melt in the microwave. Add the salt and boiling water and stir
Line the tins with lard
Pour into the mixer bowl and mix until it forms a ball
Divide the ball about 60% for the base and 40% for the tops. Put the 40% in a plastic bag and keep warm in hot water
Roll out the 60% until 3mm thick

Cut out the shapes and place into the tins. I used that yellow thing around a cardboard template
Fill
Roll out the 40% until 3mm thick
Cut out the lids and place over the fillings
Fold the bottoms over the lids and pinch every 30mm or so
Make a hole in the tops

The tins are 135mm x 100 ovals and 110mm circles, the chopstick made the holes

Brush the tops with the beaten egg and bake at Gas Mark 5, 190°C, for about 45 minutes.

Aspic

Soak 2 leaves of gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes.

Microwave the stock until just boiling.

Squeeze the water from the gelatine, add to the stock and stir well

Pour mixture into holes

Tada!

Based on Paul Hollywood's Pork Pie recipe on page 294 of 'How to Bake'.

There was too much aspic and some meat left over, I did make a note of the excess but I've lost it

Here's another of his recipes that I maybe should've found earlier