LAN’CEN PIE  [Launceston]

Once more I set off into the unknown, along with my old recipe book and commonsense. And once more there are few details to go by, so I will quote:

“Pieces of meat placed at the bottom of a pie dish, with salt and pepper”  tick. I decided to use rump, especially as it was on offer in Lidl. After trimming, I think it was about 12 oz. Of course I used sea salt and fresh ground pepper. But, I could not help myself! - I flash browned the pieces of meat first in a hot pan. It seals in the flavour, as I have been taught. You should always brown your meat! I also added a finely chopped shallot. Hey ho! I wonder why our forebears did not do this? Then placed them in the bottom of the pie dish.

“then sliced potatoes to nearly fill the dish, more seasoning and a little water”.

Well, you can see where this is going. I had to add stock. I love these stock pots.

So one of those will go in as well.

“Add a few small whole potatoes on the top and a roll of pastry as a ring of crust round the edge of the dish”. I decided to try an often used crust in the book, that I had used before cooking the old recipes. It really is good.

4 oz plain flour.

1 oz suet

1 oz lard

5 tablespoons very cold water.

Salt and pepper

Rub in the fats, add the water, form into a ball, then chill until ready. At least half an hour.

I sliced about 6 potatoes, thinly  [I have a very handy small mandolin - Oxo Good Grips, in Lakeland. Brilliant]  and layered them up as instructed on top of the steak and shallot. I used 3 layers, seasoning between each layer. After pouring in the stock I tossed some baby new potatoes in oil and placed them in the middle, on top, then rolled out the pastry and cut a hole in the centre to accomodate the baby potatoes. See pictures on my Blog. I then made a pattern on the edge to tart it up a bit and brushed the top with a little milk.

“Bake under a kettle in the open chimney” - I think I will pop it into the oven for about 45-50mins. I guessed at about 200 deg C, turning down to 190 after first 10 mins, then down to 170 for last 15 mins. In the end I left it in for almost an hour.

Footnote: The small potatoes on the top were just daft and made it difficult to cut through to get a proper slice. I will definitely make this again as the steak, sliced potatoes and pastry were just beautiful. [is this down to the stock?!!] My husband loved it. I was delighted with the tasty and easy pastry. It has been added to my own base recipes!!

It was good in fact. Not sure about just water for stock though. I apologise to the folk of Launceston for calling their dish daft!

NOW I have returned [a couple of weeks later] after making this Pie once more. This time as per the FB photo, without those silly small whole potatoes. I just made up the crust and rolled it out to fit over the top, then trim, after adding the sliced potatoes. Don’t forget to season between each layer. Just delicious.