Chicken, apricot & pork pie

Method

• step 1

  First, make the filling. Put the sausagemeat, bacon and roughly chopped ham into a food processor with the mace, 1 tsp ground pepper and ¹/2 tsp salt. Pulse until it is all coarsely chopped. Stir in the 1cm pieces of ham and the parsley.

• step 2

  To make the pastry, tip the flour into a bowl with 2 tsp salt. Put the lard and milk in a pan with 150ml water, then heat gently until the lard has melted, but don’t let it boil. Pour the hot liquid into the flour mixture, while beating with a wooden spoon.

• step 3

  When the mixture starts to clump use your hands to knead until the dough comes together smoothly. Use a little more lard inside the loaf tin, then line with a long strip of baking parchment that comes well over the edge at each end – this will help you to lift out the pie later. Lightly dust the inside of the tin with flour, too.

• step 4

  Dust your work surface with flour. Wrap a third of the dough in baking paper, then a tea towel to keep warm and malleable, then roll out the rest into a rectangle roughly 1.5cm thick. Use the rolling pin to help lift it into the tin, then use your hands to mould the pastry into the tin, pressing it firmly into the corners and easing it up the sides to give an even thickness and overhang all the way around.

• step 5

  Start layering the pie with roughly a quarter of the pork filling, packing it into an even layer at the bottom. Top with just over half of the chicken – you can cut it to fit if you need to.

• step 6

  Follow the chicken with another quarter of the pork – again, in a well-packed, even layer without disturbing the pastry too much – then layer in the apricots. Fit them in snugly with no visible gaps.

• step 7

  Top the apricots with just over half the remaining pork mixture – this will probably take you over the top of the tin. Add the remaining chicken fillets down the middle. Finally, pile on the remaining pork and mould with your hands into a firm dome.

• step 8

  Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Roll out the remaining pastry on a floured surface to a rectangle a little bigger than the top of the pie. Brush the egg over the overhanging pastry, then cover with the pastry lid.

• step 9

  Use your hands to smooth over the top, pressing out any air, then press the edges well to seal. Using a small, sharp knife, and holding the tin in your hand so you can rotate it, cut away the excess pastry by running your knife along the edge of the tin.

• step 10

  Crimp the edge of the pastry by using your index finger to create a ‘divot’, while pinching around it with two fingers. This helps seal the edges.

• step 11

  Make a small hole in the centre of the pie and insert a metal piping nozzle. Brush the top with more beaten egg, then bake in a shallow roasting tin for 30 mins, then lower to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and cook for another 1 hr until golden. Leave to cool completely in the tin, then use the paper to help lift out the pie.

• step 12

  Submerge the gelatine leaves in cold water and leave to soak until soft, around 5 mins. Pour around 300ml boiling water over the stock cube to make stock. Squeeze the excess water from the leaves and stir into the stock to dissolve. Cool to room temperature, then sit a small funnel into the nozzle and pour slowly into the pie until no more will go in. Remove the nozzle and chill for at least 4 hrs, or overnight.