British food-lover Keef shows you how to cook amazing food with easy to follow recipes and videos. So stop wasting your time and money on takeaways or supermarket ready meals, and Get Cooking!
Pork pies and apple pies are brilliant on their own, so surely a pork sausage and apple pie would be twice as good! Eat this hot or cold.
Make the pastry
Mix the salt and flour together. Cut the butter and lard into small pieces and rub them into the flour with your fingertips - you should end up with a mixture that looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add just enough water to make the dough come together in a ball. By the way, you can use all butter or all lard or shortening if you wish. Wrap the dough in plastic film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Make the seasoning mix
Spoon all of the seasoning mix ingredients into a screw-top jar and shake vigorously. This amount of seasoning will give quite an intense flavour - you might want to use a bit less for a more delicate flavour!
Make the meat filling
Peel and dice the onion. Sauté it gently in oil for 5-10 minutes until softened but not browned. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Mix the seasoning, onion and minced pork together. Place in fridge until needed.
Make the apple filling
Peel, core and dice the apple. Melt the butter in a frying pan on low heat, then stir in the sugar and the water. Mix those together then add the apples and the cinnamon. Let that bubble away for about ten minutes until the apples are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Assemble and bake the pie
You'll need a suitable dish to make your pie in. The one I used was actually a cake tin with a removable bottom - 18½ cm (7½ inches) diameter. Sprinkle flour on your worktop and roll out a disc of pastry to be the lid, and a larger disc to form the pastry case. Sprinkle one side of the disc with rice flour or semolina and place it into the tin. Trim off any excess around the rim. Spoon the meat filling into the case and spread the apple filling over it. Moisten the rim of the case with water and position the lid on top. Press and crimp the edges to form a good seal.
Heat your oven to 180° Celsius (356° Fahrenheit) for a fan/convection/airfryer oven, or 200° Celsius (392° Fahrenheit) for a conventional one, or gas 6. Whisk together an egg with a splash of milk, and paint the top of the pie with it. Put the pie in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. When the pie is baked, allow to cool a little then remove it from the tin. This pie can be eaten hot or cold.