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Turkey and Ham Pie with a Long Egg

Introduction & method

I recently made a long egg so that I could make a pie in a loaf tin with the egg in the middle. I've done the Pork version (a Gala Pie) and can't/won't make Grosvenor Pie (contains veal), so I came up my with own recipe using turkey mince, turkey chunks and sliced smoked gammon. Anybody who's not impressed by you making one of these has no soul.

 Turkey and Ham Pie with a Long Egg Recipe

Make the Jelly Stock


It's a good idea to make the stock ahead of time. You have three options for cooking the stock - a pressure cooker will take 30 minutes, a saucepan on the hob will take 3 hours, a slow cooker/crockpot will take 8 hours or overnight. Put the trotter into your chosen cooking vessel, along with the quartered onion and its skin, roughly chopped celery and carrot, bay leaves, peppercorns and any aromatics you fancy. If you have any skin and bones from prepping your turkey, put those in too. Add enough water to just cover everything, and cook it for the time indicated above. When cooked, strain off the liquid and boil it rapidly to reduce it by about half. Check for seasoning, add salt if necessary, and let the liquid cool down completely. When it sets, there'll likely be a layer of fat on top which you can scrape off and discard.

Make the Hot Water Pastry


Cut the lard and butter into 1cm (about half an inch) cubes. Place in a saucepan with the water and heat it on the stove until the fat has melted. You don't really want it to boil. In a large bowl, mix the salt and flour together. When the fat has melted, make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in half of the liquid. Mix it in, then add the remaining liquid and mix that in. wrap the dough in plastic film and leave it to cool down.

Make the Filling


I bought a turkey leg for this, but it was enormous so I only used the thigh, not the drumstick. Deskin and debone the thigh, take three-quarters of the meat and cut it into chunks that will go through your mincer. Mince it with the medium plate. Chop the remaining quarter of the turkey into small dice, about 1cm (half an inch). Mix together the salt, pepper, thyme and tarragon. In a large bowl, mix together the turkey mince and cubes, and the seasoning. You'll need to use your hand to get them properly mixed. Cut the gammon into 5mm (quarter inch) slices. Place all the meat in the fridge until you are ready for it.

Prep the Eggs


I used a Long Egg in my pie, but I would be astonished if any of you went to the effort of emulating that (but BRAVA/O if you do). So you'll want to boil 5 or 6 eggs instead. Bring a pan of water to the boil, lower the eggs into the water, turn off the heat, put a lid on and let the eggs sit for 8 minutes. Scoop them all out of the pan and into a bowl of iced water. When they are cool enough to handle, peel them and trim the pointy ends off, as close to the yolk as you can.

Roll Out the Pastry


I used a 2 pound loaf tin for this pie - you could get away with a smaller one. I also borrowed the slab construction technique from pottery, which enabled me to do some embossed decoration on the sides. On one side, I made a diamond pattern by pressing bamboo skewers into the pastry, on the other side I made fine cuts with the tip of a knife. To make the base of the pie, roll out a large rectangle of pastry that whose width equals the length of the tin. The length of the pastry will be the width of the tin's bottom plus twice the height of the tin plus 2cm (about an inch) margin. Confused? Watch the video!

To make the lid, roll out a rectangle of pastry that's a little bigger than the top dimensions of the tin. Invert the tin on the pastry and trim the edges straight with a ruler, leaving a margin of about 5mm around the edge of the tin. If you want to be really fancy, you can roll out another pastry panel, longer and thinner than the lid, and run a lattice roller over it. You can then expand the cut pastry to form a lattice overlay on the lid. Lightly coat the lid with egg yolk beaten with a splash of water and put it into the fridge to rest. We'll be adding jelly to the pie. The best way to do this is to use a flavour injector (syringe) - if you don't have one, make a hole in the centre of the lid that you can pour jelly into.

You'll also need to cut out 2 end panels to close the short ends of the pie base.

Assemble the Pie


Sprinkle plenty of flour on the decorated side of the main base panel. Fold the two long sides over the bottom and lift the whole thing into the loaf tin. Unwrap the sides and roll the pastry rim over the lip of the tin. Take your 2 end panels, moisten their edges with beaten egg yolk and press them into the tin making sure you have a good seal on the bottom and the corners.

Spoon a layer of turkey into the bottom of the pie. Use a potato masher to get the top of it even. Arrange a layer of ham over this, then a thin layer of turkey. Make a groove down the centre of this layer, and line the eggs up side by side. Build up a bit more turkey filling right up against the side of the eggs so there are no gaps. Use the rest of the ham to cover the eggs, and then the rest of the turkey to completely cover the eggs. Now moisten the top edge of the pastry base , carefully place the lid on top and squeeze the edge against the rim of the base with your finger and thumb. If you wish, crimp the edge, then paint it with the egg yolk glaze.

Bake and Finish the Pie


Heat your oven to 165°C (329°F) for a fan/convection oven, 185°C (365°F) conventional, gas 5. Put the pie in for 50-55 minutes, turning halfway through to get even browning. Let it cool down for half an hour or so, then add the jelly. You'll need to warm the jelly very gently to return it to its liquid state. If you have a flavour injector, fill it with stock and inject it into the four corners of the pie. If you don't have this, pour the jelly into the hole in the top with a funnel. Put the pie into the fridge to set the jelly, then remove it from the tin (if it sticks you might want to warm the tin up in a tray of hot water), wait for the admiration to die down, then cut a slice off and eat it. Good accompaniments would be piccallili, mustard, pease pudding, beer. Enjoy!


The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Turkey and Ham Pie with a Long Egg on YouTube.

 
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Ingredients & Info


JELLY STOCK
 1 pigs trotter
 1 medium onion
 2 sticks celery
 2 carrots
 2 bay leaves
 10 whole black peppercorns
 1 tsp salt
  water as required
HOT WATER PASTRY
 500 grams plain (all-purpose) flour
 125 grams lard
 125 grams butter
 175 ml water
 1 tsp salt
FILLING
 700 grams skinless boneless turkey meat or minced turkey
 300 grams smoked gammon
 half a tsp salt
 half a tsp white pepper
 1 tsp thyme
 1 tsp tarragon
  6 eggs or 1 long egg
PLUS

2 egg yolks for glazing


UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Makes 1 big pie!
Prep time: 30 minutes.
Resting/cooling time: 1 hour.
Cooking time: 4 hours.
Total time: 5 hours 30 minutes.