We’ve gone pie mad this issue with home cooks putting forward their brilliant pie recipes for perfect pastry and delicious fillings, both sweet and savoury especially this shoulder pie recipe. And if you’re looking for some inspiration for side dishes, salads or warming bowls, then look no further. There are some delicious ideas which will work well as stand-alone lunches or as part of a bigger picture.
“Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what’s for lunch.”
Orson Welles
Serves 8
Prep time 4 hours and 40 minutes.*
*Approximate cooking time 4 hours slow cook; 20 minutes prep time and 20 minutes baking the pie.
Ingredients
2 shoulders of lamb (or fresh locally grown pygmy goat meat)
4 cardamom pods
3 sticks of cinnamon
2 whole star anise
10 cloves of garlic
50 g palm sugar
7 dried figs
Parsley
Mixed peppercorns
Rock salt
1 inch ginger
A handful of capers
1 cup white wine
500 g pumpkin or squash
4 large potatoes
500 g puff pastry
Linseed oil
Method
Rub the shoulder of lamb (or goat) with pepper corns, salt, chopped ginger, and leave to marinade in the wine, parsley, and capers for at least 4 hours or overnight. Peel and chop the squash and potatoes and add to the dish. Also, add the figs together with the pan-roasted spices. In a saucepan over a medium heat, melt the palm sugar before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
Cook in a slow cooker for 4 hours; or roast in a hot oven in an earthenware dish covered with a lid until tender, for about 2 hours. If you will be using the animal fat, heat the fat in a saucepan and leave to turn completely into a liquid state and then add to the pot.
When ready, leave to cool and then remove the meat from the bones with your hands.
Remove the star anise, the cardamom and the cinnamon sticks before filling the pie.
On a floured flat surface, roll open the puff pastry. Butter the surface of a baking dish and line the dish with the puff pastry. Either flip edges over the edges of the dish, then cover the whole top of the pie; or add an extra piece of pastry as a lid. Cut any excess pastry away.
Coat the top of the pie with egg yolk and sprinkle some linseed on the surface.
Bake in a hot oven at 200°C with a fan for at least 20 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and the top is lightly browned.
