Pierate's Crocodile Pie Recipe attempt!

Crocodile Pie Recipe Attempt and Review!

I have to admit, when I woke up a few days ago, I was not expecting to be attempting to make a Crocodile pie this Saturday! But - follow a number of very exciting emails - I have been tasked with making an "exotic pie - like the Pie-thon pie you made before". Now, we all know how badly the Pie-thon (Python meat pie) turned out... so my challenge is to attempt to create a crocodile pie reciPIE that is both presentable and edible - a bit like the homemade Horse and Zebra pies we made last year!

Our not so successful Pie-thon (Python Pie)

Regulars to our pie blog will know that we have eaten a whole menagerie of exotic animals in commercially available pies during our time on the Pierate Ship - including Camel, Ostrich, Bison, Kangaroo, Zebra, Horse, Wild Squirrel and a Crocodile Pie! And the last one is kind of the issue... The Nice Pie Crocodile pie was so well rated that I don't think I'll ever be able to match it! At 6.39/7, that is an incredible score for an exotic pie (or pie in general) on our 7 Cs of pie rating! But I'm willing to sink my teeth into the challenge and see if I can make a half-decent crocodile pie for my special guest pie raters!

So here we go then...

The crocodile meat was already purchased from www.exoticmeats.co.uk and came in a frozen state as part of their "African Selection Box" - hence already making a Zebra pie, Springbok pie and Wildebeest pie.

Having defrosted the crocodile meat, the first step I took was to find a suitable recipe to vaguely follow, but as there were no obvious choices of crocodile pie recipes, I decided to head for the BBC Good Food's website and follow this "Creamy chicken, ham and leek pie" recipe - but ditch the ham and substitute the chicken for crocodile meat! Apologies in advance to the Hairy Bikers if I end up ruining their lovely recipe in attempting to adapt chicken to crocodile...

I nipped to my local supermarket to get the items I didn't already have in the house. Sadly when I asked for some crocodile meat juices, they didn't have any in stock... (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

But back at home with my ingredients at hand, I was ready to attempt a first on the Pierate Ship - Crocodile Pie!

Crocodile Steak

Step 1 - Heat the chicken stock in a lidded saucepan and then add the chicken crocodile meat for 10 minutes.

Step 2 - Create the creamy sauce, containing leeks.

Step 3 - Cut up the cooked crocodile meat and add to the sauce. Here's where I then went a bit AWOL and decided to slow cook the pie filling for four hours, just to add a bit more tenderness to the meat.

Step 4 - Make the pastry using flour, butter and egg. Make sure you line the whole dish - we are DEFINITELY not making a top-crust here!

Crocodile Pie Filling

Step 5 - Input the filling into the pastry casing. You will notice that I actually added some additional peas into the mix, just to baulk out the filling slightly (crocodile steaks aren't exactly the biggest!) and add a bit of extra texture plus one of your 5-a-day!

Step 6 - Add the pastry lid and, if you're feeling creative, a pastry crocodile to the top! (Just in case you forget what's inside the pie!) An egg glaze will help improve the colour of the pie.

Step 7 - Cook in the oven for 35-40 minutes on Gas Mark 6.

Step 8 - Serve an extra slice to your guests!

The finished Crocodile Pie!

RAS