My Pork and Apple Pie features pork shoulder cooked in a cider and whole grain mustard gravy and a golden puff pastry lid.
Savoury Pies.
I am sure that the British obsession with savoury pies is a little strange to my American readers.
We love them, sure we are down with a nice apple pie but our love of pie really is all savoury.
We genuinely cannot get enough of them, we have cornish pasties, picnic pies, plate pies, pot pies and cottage pies to name but a few!
Most of my pies feature just a pastry lid just like this one. There are some that will tell you that these are not pies, life is way too short for that negativity!
This one features an unusual but delicious pork and apple filling.
The gravy is made from cider and wholegrain mustard and is enriched with sour cream. You in?
The Pastry
I have somewhat of a hate-hate relationship with pastry.
I can make it but it is all so ugh… Life is way to short to be cleaning up that much mess in the kitchen most of the time!
As a result, I usually use store-bought puff pastry as my lid for this pie.
If you really are down with making your own puff pastry, the best recipe I have tried comes from my mate Jo.
You could also use a shortcrust or even hot crust pastry topping on this if you wanted.
Ingredient Guide.
The only ingredient likely to cause confusion here is the cider.
For those of you in the UK you want a good quality dry cider, you should avoid anything sweet.
If you are in the US that will sound odd until I say that cider in the UK is called hard cider in the US.
Yup this pie is made with booze!
Please do not try and make this with cold-pressed apple juice, it really will be quite unpleasant.
Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, however, you can sub out the sour cream for either creme fraiche or double cream if you wish.
Although I really do prefer the slight tartness that the sour cream adds to the gravy.
Pork and Apple Pie Recipe
Savoury pies really are comfort food heaven for us Brits, this pork and apple pie has the most delicious cider and mustard gravy!
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Cooking Oil
- 400 g Pork Shoulder
- 100 g Onion
- 330 ml Dry Cider
- 1 Tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
- 4 Sage Leaves
- 250 ml Chicken Stock
- 1 Apple
- 4 Tbsp Sour Cream
- 1 Packet of Puff Pastry
- 1 Egg
Instructions
- Cut the pork into 1.5 cm cubes.
- Peel and top and tail the onion, then cut it into quarters break it down to individual "leaves".
- Heat 1 Tbsp of flavourless cooking oil in a pan over a medium-high heat.
- Season the pork with salt.
- Batch cook the pork in the hot oil until nicely browned on all sides and set aside.
- Add the onion leaves to the hot pan and cook until translucent.
- Remove the onions and set aside with the pork.
- Return the heat to high and add the cider to the pan to deglaze and allow to reduce by two thirds.
- Scrape the pan as you go to remove the bits of pork stuck to the base, this should take around 10 minutes.
- Reduce the heat under the pan to low.
- Return the pork and onion mixture to the mix.
- Add the wholegrain mustard, sage and chicken stock.
- Place a lid on the pan and cook gently for 45 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Peel and core the apples and cut into 16 wedges.
- Stir the sour cream and apples into the mix.
- Transfer the pie filling to a 25cm x 15cm x 5cm pie dish and place a pie funnel in the middle.
- Roll the puff pastry out so that it is 3-5mm thick.
- When the pie filling is at room temperature cut thin strips of pastry about 5mm wide and stick to the edges of the pie dish with beaten egg.
- Layover the top sheet of puff pastry cutting a hole for the pie funnel and crimp the edges between thumb and forefinger.
- Brush the pastry with beaten egg.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 180°C or 350°F.
Notes
I went really 'old Skool' and served with buttered potatoes and peas.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1008Total Fat: 65gSaturated Fat: 21gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 38gCholesterol: 291mgSodium: 490mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 4gSugar: 32gProtein: 56g
Normally (more as a rule) when I run across a recipe on foodgawker that looks great in pictures and sounds interesting, it’s a bit of a lunch bag letdown upon trying it.
You Sir were an exception to the rule with this post. Nice shots and the pork pie turned out great! Thank you, the recipe is now in our “keepers” list of go to recipes.
Cheers, Keith… I hate it when recipes prove not to work, stoked that you like the recipe… I hope it provides a load of happy bellies in the future.
You didn’t mention in the recipe when to use the apple!
Quite an oversight… Thanks for taking the time to let me know John, I am a terrible proof reader!
Gotta say I love that pork pie. We are pork lovers here. I have never attempted pork pie. But dang Brian, this looks so amazing I’m going to have to! That crust is to die for. I went over to Every Nook and Cranny and took a look at that superior recipe. I’ve been thinking about making my own puff pastry. Really don’t want to buy it so I may be trying that myself someday! And,so you know… I have a pie bird like that! When you see mine, I didn’t copy. It came from my mom long ago:)
Haha, those pie funnels have been around for a great many years, I can’t remember where mine came from and am never surprised to see them in pie recipes… Purk is fairly unusual to make a pie out of but cooking it just right works wonderfully.
I had to give real puff pastry a go once and I know that Jo over at Every Nook and Cranny and she is a wizard of a baker, it worked wonderfully for me but it did look like a hurricane had swept through our kitchen 😀
I am in awe of your photos, your food and your blog. So much so that I want to lick my laptop screen.
Thank you so much for your kind words Patricia, glad you like my stuff… You should definitely be careful with your screen though 😉
What a fabulous pie Brian – proper winter fodder. The peas look so good and glossy on the side too :D. Of course, the pastry is the crowning touch 😉