Left-overs

Pork & Veal Pie (or Pâté Chaud en Croûte)

What did we have for dinner?
When friends come, we hope for  left-overs the following night. (This time we had pie, tomatoes and salad.)
​Last dinner, we served...
Pappadams as pre-prandial nibbles with Cloudy Bay Pelorus sparkling (fried off 30 minutes beforehand and arranged in a teak bowl - the pappadams, that is, not the sparkling.)
 
Eggs mayonnaise (from our girls out the back), my mayonnaise, topped with anchovy and capers.
 
Pork & veal pie (but one guest suggested  it be called Hot Pâté en Croûte), red wine gravy, tomatoes baked with parsley, garlic & breadcrumbs, ragout of assorted mushrooms in sour ceam.
 
Cheese - Irish blue cheese (Cashel), a washed rind & a goats’ cheese (or to be posh, Chèvre) the latter two made by me, large golden sultanas and a salad of baby cos and “frizzé” dressed with vinaigrette.
 
Coffee and tisane of lemon verbena (from our garden bush) and various bonbons & sweeties brought by Rosa.
 
Standout wines (amongst others) Pierre Brévin Puilly Fumé 2014,  Bleasdale “Generations” Malbec 2014 (Langhorn Creek), a Spring Vale Pinot Noir 2014 (Freycinet Coast Tasmania).
 
Pie Recipe  (there are no secrets) - for 8 guests
1 ½ kilos Italian-style pork and veal hamburgers
1 packet Carême sour cream pastry
2 eggs
​quatre épices (optional)
 
Mix together the hamburger mix with one egg and ½ tsp quatre épices. (Blend some up yourself.)
Make the pie with the just de-frosted pastry, brushed with a beaten egg.  Hold in the refrigerator until needed.
Bake until golden. (Put into the oven when the last guest arrives). I loathe anaemic pastry.
 
Sour Cream Pastry – We first made it in 1986 at Petaluma Restaurant, recipe brought to the kitchen by Libby Tinsely who thinks her mother got it years ago from the Women’s Weekly.  (Back then, fabulous recipes, all tested twice in the “Test Kitchen”.)  It’s now become well-known enough to be part of this frozen pastry range.  It’s a great, no compromise product.  If I’m tired I use it.  It has a strange quality, probably from the sour cream (and butter).  It doesn’t need resting and it flakes deliciously.
 
My pie filling came from Marino Meat & Food Store, a high quality butcher in the Adelaide Market.  If I’m tired I use this.
Any good Italian-style butcher will be able to offer you sausages (squeeze out the filling) or meatballs or hamburger.  Doctor them at will with more herbs, orange zest or spice.  Play.
 
Notes on the tomato recipe to follow with “Parsley”.