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Showing posts with label cider. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cider. Show all posts
Friday, 19 June 2015
Reci-pie Review: Morrisons Pork and Cider Pies
The Ship's Cook (aka @the_cookworm) is currently on a pie mission - to find the top rated pie recipes from our nations supermarket suggestions. It started with a tweet we were sent by @jimbolimbo9 suggesting we try two pork pastry recipes from the supermarket Morrisons and from this The Ship's Cook decided to select one reci-pie from each supermarket's website or magazine to make and rate. Today is the turn of Morrisons Pork and Cider pie!
Check out all our Supermarket Pie Recipes rated to date by The Ship's Cook right here:Morrisons - Pork and Cider | Tesco - Beef and Stilton | Waitrose - Black Pudding |
Hello fellow pie-lovers!
It's been a while since my last pie recipe review - it's all going on in my family at the moment so I've been away from my kitchen and all over the country celebrating weddings, birthdays and babies (not mine, I hasten to add!)
But this weekend I was back home with time to bake, and what could be better than a pie for Sunday lunch?
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| Morrisons Pork and Cider Pie Review |
The recipe:
This week it was the turn of Morrisons' pork and cider pot pies. You can find the recipe here:
http://www.morrisonsmag.co.uk/september_2014/pork_and_cider_pot_pies
If you're going to try out this recipe, I'd advise you to completely ignore the part where it says it serves four people. It might serve four people if they're really hungry and they really REALLY like pie, but I'm pretty sure you could feed eight people easily. I was trying to make one big pie instead of four small ones, and even though I used an absolutely massive pie dish and stuffed it as full of filling as I could, I still ended up having to make a second one.
Still, having more pie than you expected is hardly something to complain about!
You won't be sur-pie-sed to hear we have rated a whole host of Morrisons pies on the web's leading pie review site, especially as they have their own pie counter! So why not check out all our Morrisons Pie Reviews or see where they rate in our Pie Rankings table? |
The 7 Cs of pie rating:
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| I definitely should have remembered the egg-wash... |
Erm...a bit of a confession here...this should have been a nice golden brown, only once I'd made the pie and was about to put it in the oven I realised I didn't have any eggs for the egg-wash. The pastry still came out nice and crispy, but if you make a proper shopping list and add the egg it'll be even better and much more golden!
Consistency:
The cider in this pie makes for a lovely gravy, especially as it mixes with the flour coating the pork which thickens it and stops it being too runny. No extra gravy needed on this pie!
Capacity:
Morrisons failed at the first hurdle here because their original recipe was for a top crust only pie (there are a lot of those about!) However I fixed that by adding a shortcrust pastry base. There was so much filling for this pie that I was struggling to fit it in (despite making two pies!) so this scores really highly because it's absolutely packed full of meat, vegetables and gravy.
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| Absolutely stuffed full of filling! |
Simmering the pork in the cider made the meat in this pie really tender, and the vegetables were nice and soft but still added a bit of texture.
Cheapness:
Morrisons reckons this costs £1.89 per serving, which isn't bad. Seeing as I got twice as much pie as expected, though, that's less than £1 a (massive) portion! Excellent work, Morrisons.
Content:
Pork and cider is a classic combination, and this was pretty tasty. With the addition of the carrots and celery it was a little bit too sweet, so I'd suggest adding a bit more mustard to cut through the sweetness or choosing a dry cider for the gravy. Despite that, it was still very tasty and it was lovely cold with some chutney the next day - it would probably make quite a good picnic pie if you left it to cool before serving it.
Condition:
This pie fell apart a bit when I served it hot, which made it look a bit messy, but the filling looks quite appealing with the green and orange vegetables and the mustard seeds in the sauce, so I don't think that detracted from the pie-eating experience too much. Served cold, however, this pie sliced beautifully and looked amazing, so I really would recommend trying it both ways.
And with that, I'm off to get started on eating that second pie!
The Ship's Cook
Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Mad Not to Try this Scrum-ptious Pie
Phil Vickery & Mad About Pies - Wild Boar & Cider Pie Review
Phil Vickery was a character that confused me for a long time. It gives away my interests but to me Phil Vickery is a Rugby player. A few years ago I discovered that there was another Phil Vickery that was a chef. However, then I realised that these were both the same person, Phil Vickery the Rugby player having won Celebrity Masterchef in 2011. I was then pleased to find out that Phil Vickery loves pies which led to him being a judge at the British Pie Awards. After the British Pie Awards I saw the photos, quickly realising it clearly was not the Rugby player Phil Vickery, there must be two after all! As if this wasn't already confusing enough, it turns out that Phil Vickery the Rugby player turned chef also has a love of pies, in fact you could say he was Mad About Pies. The Rugby legend has teamed up with Gloucestershire's own Mad About Pies. They have produced a range of gourmet pies which claim to have been recipients of the aforementioned mentioned British Pie Awards. The confusion was enough to drive me mad...
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But would having the Gloucester legend on board make me go mad for these pies? Initial impressions are good, you can see from the picture that the pie had an interesting mottled brown Colour and the letters 'WB' printed on the top. This lettering system on top of pies is becoming ever more popular with Paul's Pies, Lovett's, Farmcafe Food Market (and others) trying between them to create the world's tastiest alphabet using only pies. Condition was nearly perfect although the pie had a small amount of sagging in the lid and base. The Capacity was good with this being a fairly large pie at 270g although it could have been a bit taller. There was no air gap at all with it being full to the brim. I was impressed by the fact that I could cut a section out of this pie without it falling apart.
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But now onto the taste and texture. I was delighted by the Content of this pie, the cider and mustard made it a flavour sensation. It was great that you could really taste the cider, often these sorts of additions get lost amongst the other flavours, I often find this with ale in a steak and ale pie. In this instance the cider gave the pie a slightly sour taste which complemented the wild boar. The Wild Boar meat itself was great quality, tender and not at all Chewy. Much better than the other wild boar pie I previously tried. The inclusion of carrot added a nice variety to the taste. So far so good but this pie was not Consistently brilliant, but only due to some minor criticism. The shortcrust pastry tasted nice, especially on the sides and base. However, the lid was slightly dry and tasted a little doughy in places. There was a nice crispiness to the pastry, I appreciate it is difficult to get pastry with a nice crunch which avoids dryness completely.
Wild Boar & Cider (Phil Vickery & Mad About Pies)
5.87/7
SJL
continue reading "Mad Not to Try this Scrum-ptious Pie"
Phil Vickery was a character that confused me for a long time. It gives away my interests but to me Phil Vickery is a Rugby player. A few years ago I discovered that there was another Phil Vickery that was a chef. However, then I realised that these were both the same person, Phil Vickery the Rugby player having won Celebrity Masterchef in 2011. I was then pleased to find out that Phil Vickery loves pies which led to him being a judge at the British Pie Awards. After the British Pie Awards I saw the photos, quickly realising it clearly was not the Rugby player Phil Vickery, there must be two after all! As if this wasn't already confusing enough, it turns out that Phil Vickery the Rugby player turned chef also has a love of pies, in fact you could say he was Mad About Pies. The Rugby legend has teamed up with Gloucestershire's own Mad About Pies. They have produced a range of gourmet pies which claim to have been recipients of the aforementioned mentioned British Pie Awards. The confusion was enough to drive me mad...
But would having the Gloucester legend on board make me go mad for these pies? Initial impressions are good, you can see from the picture that the pie had an interesting mottled brown Colour and the letters 'WB' printed on the top. This lettering system on top of pies is becoming ever more popular with Paul's Pies, Lovett's, Farmcafe Food Market (and others) trying between them to create the world's tastiest alphabet using only pies. Condition was nearly perfect although the pie had a small amount of sagging in the lid and base. The Capacity was good with this being a fairly large pie at 270g although it could have been a bit taller. There was no air gap at all with it being full to the brim. I was impressed by the fact that I could cut a section out of this pie without it falling apart.
But now onto the taste and texture. I was delighted by the Content of this pie, the cider and mustard made it a flavour sensation. It was great that you could really taste the cider, often these sorts of additions get lost amongst the other flavours, I often find this with ale in a steak and ale pie. In this instance the cider gave the pie a slightly sour taste which complemented the wild boar. The Wild Boar meat itself was great quality, tender and not at all Chewy. Much better than the other wild boar pie I previously tried. The inclusion of carrot added a nice variety to the taste. So far so good but this pie was not Consistently brilliant, but only due to some minor criticism. The shortcrust pastry tasted nice, especially on the sides and base. However, the lid was slightly dry and tasted a little doughy in places. There was a nice crispiness to the pastry, I appreciate it is difficult to get pastry with a nice crunch which avoids dryness completely.
So, overall this was a pie I really enjoyed eating, I would buy it again so it is fully deserving of 'Pierate Recommended' pie status. I purchased it for £2.99 from my local Gloucestershire co-op and I think this price is decent with other premium pie options, such as Higgidy, also pricing at this level. Phil Vickery seems to have worked his magic again and I am pleased to see that Mad About Pies have plenty more pies in their range as I think this could be the start of something special!
Mad About Pies is owned by the same people as The Farmers Boy Inn in Gloucestershire where the pies originated from. They have a wine and pie shop; a visit to which is now high up on my pie-orities!
Mad About Pies is owned by the same people as The Farmers Boy Inn in Gloucestershire where the pies originated from. They have a wine and pie shop; a visit to which is now high up on my pie-orities!
Wild Boar & Cider (Phil Vickery & Mad About Pies)
5.87/7
SJL
See where this pie ended up in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find other pies of a similar flavour.
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