Rosie Makes Pig Pie A La Ruhlman.

Rosie's making Pig Pie today, or, more properly called, English Pork Pie, recipe courtesy of Michael Ruhlman. Here's the article Ruhlman wrote about his Uncle Bill from Shropshire, England and his great grandmother's pork pie. What is pork pie? Basically, meatloaf on steroids.

Here's Ruhlman's recipe:

Ingredients

Dough:

• 24 Tbsp. (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour , plus more for rolling
• 1 large egg
• 4 to 6 Tbsp. ice water

Filling:

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup finely diced onion (about 1 small onion)
• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
• 1 cup diced smoked ham
• 1 Tbsp. coarse salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or canned broth , plus 1 cup for aspic (optional), chilled
• 2 tsp. gelatin for aspic (optional)

Egg Wash:

• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. whole milk

Directions

To make dough: Dice butter. In a mixing bowl, combine flour and butter. With your fingers, press butter into flour until the mixture looks mealy. Crack egg into a dish; add 4 tablespoons ice water. Beat just to combine. Add to flour mixture and mix just until a paste forms (if dough isn't coming together, add remaining ice water as needed). Alternatively, put flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a knife blade, and process until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, add egg and water through feed tube until mixture just comes together. Shape 1/3 of the dough into a disk and wrap with plastic; repeat with remaining 2/3 dough. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day before using. To make meat filling: In a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add onion and garlic and sauté, stirring often, until soft but not at all browned, about 4 minutes. Set aside to cool; refrigerate until chilled. Put pork, ham, salt, pepper, thyme, and onion-garlic mixture in a bowl. Using a spatula (or your hands), mix well. Slowly add chicken stock, a few tablespoons at a time, until incorporated. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425°. On a floured work surface, roll larger piece of dough into a 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Brush off excess flour and place on a baking sheet. Shape meat mixture into a 5" x 2 1/2" disk and place in the center of the dough. Carefully lift edges of dough and wrap around meat so that it partially covers top of meat. Roll out remaining dough until it's 1/8 inch thick; cut a 6-inch circle from it. Cut a 3/4-inch hole in the center of the circle; set aside. To make egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk egg, egg yolk, and milk until uniformly blended. Using a pastry brush, paint the edges of the dough encasing the meat, then paint one side of the 6-inch circle of dough. Lift the circle and place egg-wash-side down on meat. Crimp edges of dough together with bottom crust to seal. Brush entire top with egg wash. Bake pie 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust begins to brown. Reduce oven temperature to 350°, and bake until pie reaches an internal temperature of 150°, about 50 minutes longer. Remove pie from oven and let sit 15 minutes. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled (see below). To serve chilled, make aspic: In a measuring cup, combine chicken stock with gelatin. Microwave until hot and gelatin is dissolved. Slowly pour through steam vent in top of cooked pie. Let cool; refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

I started out making the meat filling.

2 garlic cloves and 1 onion, of which I used half

I chopped the onion and minced the garlic ...

... and added them to a tablespoon of melted butter.

Saute for about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool and continue with the filling ingredients. This is the smoked ham I'm using. Actually, it's double-smoked. Mr. Hawthorne fixed one for Christmas and we've decided it's one of the best we've had.

The recipe called for 1 1/2 pounds of pork and I only had a pound, so I added in more of the smoked ham.

I diced the ham (a packed cup) and added it to my bowl with the pound of ground pork and a tablespoon of coarse salt.

Some pepper.

Fresh thyme going in.

Sauteed onions and garlic join the party.

Combine all together. The best way to do this is with your hands.

Half a cup of chicken broth. Add a few tablespoons at a time, working it in with your hands.

Mix well, cover, and refrigerate until cold - about 30 minutes. To make the dough:

3 cups flour 3 sticks cold, unsalted butter, diced 1 large egg 6 TB ice water You know this has to be good. It's got 3 sticks of butter.

Dice the butter ...

... and add to the flour.

Working with your fingers, press the butter into the flour. You want multiple-sized morsels of dough.

After a little work by hand, I finished it off with my pastry blender. Donna? Fellow blogger, Donna, of My Tasty Treasures blogdom. Are you with me here? You want a coarse meal. Actually, you want multi-sized coarseness. This allows for a flakier crust.

I added 4 TB ice water to the egg and beat to just combine.

Add the egg to the flour mixture.

And I needed to add in the extra 2 tablespoons of ice water.

Form into a ball.

Cut out a third of the dough and shape into a disk and wrap in plastic. Repeat with the remaining 2/3 dough.

Refrigerate the dough at least an hour or up to a day before using.

After an hour of refrigeration (of the dough, not me), I began assembly of my pie. I preheated my oven to 425 degrees, took out the larger disk and let Mr. Hawthorne have his way with it. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.

This bowl has a 12-inch diameter, so I placed it on top of the dough and cut around it.

Pull up excess dough, wrap it, and save.

To place the dough in a baking pan, simply roll up on your rolling pin ...

... and unroll in the pan.

Form the meat mixture into a 5 inch x 2 1/2 inch disk and place in the center of the dough.

Carefully lift edges of dough around top of meat.

As for those folds ...

... I snipped them off and added them to my excess dough ball.

I firmed the mass.

I rolled out the remaining dough and cut out a 6 inch circle.

Remove excess dough and add to the saved dough ball.

Cut a 3/4 inch steam vent in the top. Next, make the egg wash:

1 large egg 1 egg yolk

And 1 tablespoon heavy cream. (Ruhlman called for whole milk, which I never have on hand, but I always have heavy cream.) Whisk egg, yolk, and cream until blended.

Paint dough encasing the meat mixture.

Paint top circle of dough ...

... and place painted side down over top of pie.

Crimp edges together to seal.

And paint the top with the egg wash.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until crust begins to brown. Then reduce temp to 350 and bake until the internal temperature is 150 degrees, according to Ruhlman, about 50 minutes. I should have checked the temperature earlier since at 45 minutes it was 160 degrees.

Let sit for 15 minutes before slicing.

I used a paper towel to soak up some of the grease.

We had this for dinner while it was still warm. This is one super hearty meal. As for the flavors, I love the thyme accent in this. The crust is divine, but then it does have 3 sticks of buttah in it, so one would expect that.

This was the pie at dinner, still warm.

This is the pie the next day, cold. Notice the texture is more of a pate.

Ruhlman recommended making an aspic, which I didn't do. If you're of the aspic school, combine 1 cup chicken stock with 2 teaspoons gelatin. Microwave until gelatin is dissolved then slowly pour through steam vent in top of cooked pie. Refrigerate until firm, about three hours, and serve chilled.

As good as this was for dinner, warm, it was even better the next day, cold, with hot mustard. As I'm writing this now, La Grande Dame, Julia, is on The Cooking Channel, making Pate en Croute. I think I'll try her recipe next time. It's more like my meatloaf in that it includes ground veal as well. Plus there's pork, duck, or chicken fat mixed in. I think the fat would have helped this. Probably wouldn't need it if I hadn't overcooked this or if I had used the aspic. Live and learn. Overcooked or not, it was still pretty darn good. And here's dessert for you. Don't miss it!