Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers and Betty Botter bought some butter, but it made her batter bitter, but Betty Botter was a bitter batter baker, and Peter Piper, a forgetful forager and truly neither were triumphant at their traditional trades. Perhaps if Betty Botter and Peter Piper had pooled their possessions to better their baking, then their businesses would be booming. When baking with pickled and preserved produce what’s principle is a balance of sweet, savoury and spicy seasonings, cased in a cracking crispy, crumbly crust.
Setting aside my thesaurus and accidently assuming assonance along with alliteration I’ll allay routine use of rhetorical devices.
Ahem.
I created this recipe by accident about 10 years ago while I was catering a feast for a social group I was involved in. A heap of ingredients were thrown at me and I was told I had to do something with them. This included some industrial sized cans of fruit and an esky full of pickled pork. Funny thing was that this improvised train smash was the most popular dish of the night and over the past decade I’ve refined it.
Dig in and enjoy The Culinary Barbarian’s “Pulled Pork Pie with Pureed Peas” otherwise known as “Alliteration Pie”.
Ingredients:
This Recipe makes 2 pies
Filling:
2kg roll pickled pork, rind removed and discarded, cut into ¼
2 tsp whole cloves
3 sticks cinnamon
4 garlic cloves, whole
1 x 400g can peaches, drained (juice reserved)
1x 400g can pears, drained (juice reserved)
2 cups cup dry white wine
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 leek, diced
Boiling water
2 tbsp plain flour
¼ cup vegetable oil
Pie Base:
For this recipe I made a short crust pastry base and toped it with a store bought puff pastry. You can easily skip this step a buy a savoury, pre-made pie crust. It is a little extra work but I think the end result is worth it.
3 ¼ cups plain flour
200g salted butter
Iced water
Pie Top:
4 sheets puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
Side Dish:
2 cups cooked peas
1tbsp butter
(mash and puree)
Method:
The filling-
- Bring the pickled pork, cloves and cinnamon to a boil in enough water to cover the meat and reduce to a simmer, topping up the water occasionally for about 2 hours, or the meat easily breaks apart with a fork. Remove the meat to cool and discard the cloves and cinnamon sticks. Reserve ½ of the left over liquid. This will be used to make a stock. Once cooled, pick apart the pork into shredded strands.
- In a heavy based pan, sauté the carrot, celery, and leek until tightly caramelised. Add the pork and mix through. Pour in 1 cup of white wine and the fruit and simmer. Until reduced and the pears are soft.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the vegetable oil and make a roux with the 2tbsp of flour, constantly whisking. Add the remaining wine, the fruit juice and a cup pf pork stock (reserved liquid from boiling the pork) and whisk until thickened. Pour the thickened sauce into the pork mixture and simmer for another 5 min or until the mixture is combined.
While the pork is boiling, it’s time to make the pastry base (if you bought a frozen pie crust you can skip this step and play some PlayStation, Xbox while the pork is cooking. Just be sure to pause your game and check on it every 10 min).
Pastry-
- Sift flour in a large mixing bowl and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs using the tips of your fingers. Mixing with a butter knife, stir in iced water 1tbsp at a time (about 6-8tbsp) until it forms clumps. Turn out on a cool, floured surface and lightly knead until smooth. Cut in 2 and make disks about 3-4 cm thick. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Once pastry has rested in the fridge, bring back to room temperature. Roll out the pastry evenly overed a floured surface until it reached the desired diameter and a thickness on about 1/3rd of a cm and carefully man over it into a greased pie dish. Crimp the overlapping edges of the pastry to form the edge of the crust. If you get cracks in the pastry, it’s not the end of the world, just press them together and seal the cracks. Cover with aluminium foil or baking paper and fill with dried beans or ceramic baking beads. This prevents the pie base from rising. Blind bake for 20-25min then allow to cool.
Assembly-
- Spoon the ingredients into the pie base, slightly mounded in the centre of the pie base.
- Arrange the puff pastry over the top and press the edges with a fork and cut off any excess and with a sharp knife, poke a few steam holes into the pastry.
- Brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds. Bake at 200°C for25 min or until brown.
Serve with pureed peas and a glass of your favourite tipple.
