Lamb and Red Wine pie

Nothing says ‘autumn is here’ like a home made pie. The recipe below is rich and delicious and has the easiest home made pastry that will guarantee you bragging rights at the dinner table   

Lamb and Red Wine Pie   

Serves 4   

INGREDIENTS  

FILLING  

2 lamb shanks  

2 cups beef stock  

1 cupred wine   

2onions, diced 

3 cloves of garlic, crushed  

1carrot, diced 

2 stalkscelery, diced 

1-2 small dried chilies 

1 table spoon plain flour   

salt and pepperto taste  

PASTRY  

150g salted butter (unsalted is also fine, just add a pinch or two into the mix)   

250gplain flour  

2 eggs (1 x whisked and set aside) 

METHOD:  

FILLING  
Place the shanks, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic and stock into a large baking dish. Cook at 160 degrees for 4 hours.  

Once cooked pull apart meat with two forks, remove bones.  

In a large pot on the stove place oil, the other onion and garlic in and cook until lightly golden. Add carrot and celery and cook until just soft. Add chillies and lamb then wine. Leave at a low simmer until ¾ of the liquid has be absorbed.  

PASTRY:  

While liquid is reducing, grate the cold butter into the flour*. Mix together with a fork until it resembles bread crumbs, the idea here is not to melt the butter –keep it as cool as possible.  

Add one egg and mix until it comes together into a ball. Flatted into a disc and rap in cling wrap and place in the fridge until required.  

*This whole process  can be quicker if you blitz it in a food processor (but remember to switch to a plastic dough blade rather than the sharp slicing blade).  

FILLING 

Once the majority of the liquid has reduced down pour the remaining into a small bowl (don’t 

worry about draining all of it, just enough to make the gravy). Place about 1 tablespoon of this 

liquid in a small bowl and stir in the flour with a fork. Once you have made this into a paste, add 

the remaining liquid. If you tip all the flour into the liquid at once it tends to come out lumpy with 

flour. 

Add this gravy back into the pot and stir. It will become noticeably thicker. Pour the filling into a 

pie dish and cool slightly.  

PASTY:  

On a lightly floured bench, roll pastry into a circle that covers your pie dish. A tip here would be 

to roll the dough then hold the dish over the top of the pastry to see that it’s wide enough. Carefully place the pastry over the top of the pie dish and score the top in a diamond pattern with a small sharp knife. Where the diamond points meet, pierce a few holes to allow the steam to escape while cooking. Brush the top with egg and place in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is golden. Enjoy!