Charter Pie

• Makes: 4 individual pies or 1 large one
• Cooks in : 5 hours
• Difficulty: Hard

Looking for the perfect pie to make at home? Look no further, we’ve the perfect classic pub charter pie.

Ingredients

Meat filling

• • 1 garlic clove
• • 1 medium onion, chopped  
• • Sprig of thyme, rubbed
• • 1 celery stick, chopped  
• • 1 leek, chopped      
• • 3L cold water
• • 1 ham hock
• • 1 teaspoon of cloves
• • 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns• 1 chicken leg (approx. 240-260g)

Vegetable filling

• • 60ml vegetable oil 
• • 120g button mushrooms, sliced
• • 1 large onion, chopped
• • 2 leeks (white only), finely sliced 
• • Sprig of thyme, rubbed

Velouté sauce

• • 30g unsalted butter
• • 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• • 50ml white wine
• • 500ml stock (made from ham hock and chicken as part of meat filling recipe)

Hot crust pastry

• • 80g unsalted butter
• • 80ml lard 
• • 150ml water
• • 3 eggs
• • 500g plain flour
• • Pinch of salt

Method

Meat filling

1. Peel and dice all the vegetables, and put in a large pan with the water, ham hock, spices and seasoning.
2. Slowly bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and gently simmer for 2.5 hours until the meat starts to loosen. If you lose too much water, you can top it up.
3. Add the chicken leg, and simmer for a further 30 minutes.
4. Remove the ham and chicken from the stock. Leave the stock to simmer to reduce by half. Skim off all the fat as you reduce.
5. Remove the stock from the heat, pass through a fine chinois or sieve, and cool.
6. Break up the meat and remove the bone and skin from the chicken.

Vegetable filling

1. Add the vegetable oil to the pan and lightly cook the vegetables . Take off the heat and cool.

Velouté sauce

1. Melt butter in a pan, gently add the flour and cook, stirring until it is a paste.
2. Add the white wine, stirring constantly, then add the ham and chicken stock, still stirring until the sauce is smooth.
3. Now you can mix the meat, vegetables and 250ml of the sauce (or enough to bind the meat and vegetables together) together.

Hot crust pastry

1. Cut butter and lard into small pieces, then add to a pan with the water and bring to the boil.
2. Lightly whisk two eggs together. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, create a well and add the whisked eggs, then cover with flour.
3. Pour the boiling water mixture around the edge of the bowl, then mix in with a table knife.
4. Knead the pastry lightly until it becomes smooth, wrap in cling film and then chill in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C
6. Roll out ¾ of the pastry and line the bottom of either your ring or pie dish. Make sure you leave an overhang of pastry over the edge of your ring/dish and fill about ¾ full with the pie mix. Roll out your remaining ¼ of pastry for the top and crimp it with the overhang you have left on the base.
7. Beat the remaining egg, wash the pastry with the beaten egg mixture and cut in a small steam hole. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes for individual pies, or 35-40 minutes for a large one, or until golden brown and the pastry is cooked.
8. Serve with mashed potato.