A TASTY WINTER PIE

How lovely it is to awake to bright sunshine and frost after all the dull grey days when it never really got light. I decided to make an old winter favourite from my child hood, a good old fashioned bacon pie.
WINTER BACON PIE
FOR THE FILLING
1 ham hock
3 carrots
1 onion
1 small parsnip
1 bay leaf
12 peppercorns
8 dried apricots (optional)
2 large leeks
3 large potatoes cut in to chunks.

Place the hock with the rest of the ingredients in to a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer until the meat falls from the bones. The time this will take depends upon the size of the hock but it will be at least two hours.

Strip the meat from the bone and set aside. Remove the vegetables from the stock and set aside with about a pint of the stock. The remaining stock may be frozen and makes a wonderful base for pea soup.
Cut the leeks in to rounds and fry in butter until softened. A little salt will prevent the leeks from burning. Cook the potato chunks in boiling water until almost cooked them drain ans=d set aside.

TO COMPLETE THE PIE
1 pack of ready rolled all butter puff pastry
1 dessert spoon of cornflour.

Grease a large pie dish and pile in the chunks of meat ,leek and potatoes. Mix about half the stock with the cornflour and pro over the filling. The liquid should come about half way up the dish and no more.
Cover with the pastry and glaze with beaten egg or milk then bake for twenty/ twenty five minutes at 400oC.

While the pie is cooking sieve the vegetables and the rest of the cooking liquid set aside to make the gravy, you may add more if you wish. The vegetables should thicken the gravy sufficiently but if you prefer a thicker sauce add some cornflour at this stage and cook for two minutes.


This pie was always served with steamed curly kale at our house but garden peas or Brussels sprouts are equally good. I hope you enjoy the pie.

We are all rather tired of fruit cake at the moment and so I made a pair of lemon drizzle cakes, one for us and one for our next door neighbours with who this cake is a great favourite. I have posted the recipe for this already so it will be somewhere in the archive,

We had a very lazy morning and a late breakfast which made a nice change from the usual flying start. Our pair of foxes are very chummy at the moment and and are repelling all comers to their territory. This is leading to a degree of disturbance during the not but it will be well worth it to see this years cubs playing in the orchard....even if they do damage the onions!

The lovely frosty weather has another benefit for me as my arthritis and rheumatism are much better , it is the damp drizzly weather that causes the trouble and it is good to be in less pain for a while. Twiggy dislikes the frost as it makes things difficult for her, the excavation of holes for toilet purposes is almost impossible at the moment which makes her rather cross.

We have placed a large tray of pellets outside the back-door for her especial use, unfortunately the cat Diamonds, an occasional visitor has once or twice availed himself of the facility much to Twiggy,s chagrin. She is a very particular little madam to be sure.

My sons working week is almost over and tomorrow will be the start of our home week. He is very busy during his off weeks and so far the results of his labours are encouraging. He has a great gift for writing and an amazing imagination. It will be good to be able to cosset him with hot chocolate and cups of coffee with cookies while he works.

Well there goes another week, how quickly time passes these days, I must be getting old.