Start cooking 4 hours before serving
250g puff pastry
500 g beef thick crust
150g bacon
150 g lamb kidneys
1 onion
15 large mushrooms
2 glasses of meat broth
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp flour
Bunch of spices (parsley, thyme, bay leaf and garlic)
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 egg to grease
Step-by-step recipe
Step 1
Finely chop the onion and bacon. Cut the kidneys in half, cut out the fat with a sharp knife.
Step 2
Cut the kidneys and meat into small pieces, coat separately in flour. Fry the bacon and onion in a heavy-based pan until golden. Add the meat and fry further.
Then add the kidneys, then the spice bundle. Do this in small batches, spreading the meat out on a plate so that it doesn’t start to sap early.
Pour the contents of the pan with the stock and stir it up. Pour the resulting mass into a glass or ceramic ovenproof dish with a lid, close and place in a preheated 160°C oven for 2 hours.
Brush the mushrooms and remove the stalks. Cut the caps into quarters. Add the mushrooms to the mold, season with salt and pepper, stir and leave to cool completely in the mold. Don’t forget to take out the spice bundle.
Step 3
Roll out the dough into a flapjack, about 2 cm larger in diameter than the diameter of the mold with the meat. Carefully cut a thin strip around the circumference of the flatbread and pin it to the top edge of the cooled mold, trying to stick it close to the bottom of the pie. Moisten this ‘rim’ with water.
Step 4
Cover the top of the mold with the pastry, pinch the edges and scarify with the blunt edge of a knife or scissors. Make a small hole in the middle of the cake and brush the surface with beaten egg. Bake at 220°C for 20 minutes, then at 180°C for another 20 minutes until the cake is lightly browned.
If you know how to do it, you can put it on a plate – but you can also serve it hot in its tin.
A TIP
This pie has become a classic of world cuisine but it was invented and eaten by the British. And although it has no bottom, it’s still a real pie, with a capital letter