British Pie Week Special - Could the Four Course Dinner Pie revolutionise pie eating?!

For those who aren't aware, while our main focus on Pierate - Pie Reviews is to rate commercially bought pies on the 7 Cs of pie rating, we do have our good friend The Ship's Cook who bakes pie recipes (or reci-pies) and gives them a rating on the 7 Cs of pie rating too! And while this is normally trying and testing commercially available pie recipes from cook books or websites, as a special #PiePledge for this year's British Pie Week she decided to make her own. Let's see how she got on:

My #PiePledge for British Pie Week was to try out a new pie recipe, so I thought I'd invent one all of my own! As British Pie Week drew to a close, I decided to celebrate in style with a four course meal. But of course this wasn't just any four course meal - this was a four course meal in a pie.

 
Yes, you read that correctly, an entire four course meal encased in delicious pastry!

The Recipe:


I did have to ask for some help on this one, as there was a pretty good chance that at least one course would leak into another through my pastry walls. Thanks to my very clever friends, I ended up with four courses that would work separately and together:

Starter - French onion soup
Main - Pork with apple and mushrooms
Pudding - Apple and raisin
Cheese course - Brie and cranberry

I started by making the pastry case and walls, out of shortcrust pastry because I thought that would be quite sturdy. I then blind baked the case while I made the fillings.



The French onion 'soup' was mostly onions slowly cooked in butter with salt, pepper and some flour, and then I made a very thick beef gravy with Worcestershire sauce to make it more like soup. The pork course was pork mince, onions, mushrooms, apple, salt, pepper and some dried herbs. The pudding (apple and raisin) was Bramley apples, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and brown sugar. Finally, the brie and cranberry was just that - layers of brie with cranberry sauce. I topped the whole thing off with a puff pastry lid, marked it with a series of holes to indicate courses 1- 4 and popped it in the oven until it was brown and crispy.

I'm not sure whether it's fair of me to rate my own pie, but I'm going to give it a go anyway - I'm afraid I am a bit biased and I think it was brilliant!


 The Seven Cs:

Colour: 
I'll be honest - this could have been a bit darker. I got over-excited and couldn't wait any longer to try the pie, so I took it out of the oven a bit early...

Consistency:
Mixed success here but mostly good. The onion soup section was lovely and moist, with soft onion and smooth gravy. The pork mince was a bit dry and needed some sauce. The apple and cheese layers were both moist without being too runny.

Capacity:
I packed this pie pretty tightly with filling, but it still felt like I was eating a lot of pastry. Still, if you're going to eat four courses of pie you probably love pastry, and I certainly didn't mind!

Chewiness:
No unpleasant chewiness here - I think I got it right with the mix of ingredients. The fairly large pieces of onion in the soup course meant it wasn't too runny, and the addition of mushrooms to the pork and raisins to the apple added a nice texture. The cheese was soft and gooey, which is exactly how melted cheese should be.

Content:
I'm giving myself (and my friends who helped with the recipe) full marks here. It was a FOUR COURSE MEAL in a pie, and it was absolutely delicious. 

Cheapness:
This isn't the cheapest pie ever because you have to buy quite a lot of different ingredients, but I did end up with loads of leftover fillings that didn't fit into the pie. So those are in the freezer ready for another meal, and I think the cost was worth it for the impact this pie makes.

Condition:
I was really impressed with this pie. I thought it was going to collapse and end up being an onion-pork-apple-and-cheese pie but amazingly the walls stayed solid and the courses stayed separate. I even managed to get a slice of each course onto a plate so you can see them properly!

Overall, my #PiePledge was a definite success. I strongly recommend that you all go and make your own four course meal pies. Try out different ingredients and let us know what you think! Be prepared to be very full though - I know I am!

The Ship's Cook

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Borneo Pie Reviews

For our last holiday Pierateer ALE and I decided to spend a few weeks in Malaysian Borneo. Before I left I was slightly apprehensive about how I would fare. Pierateer TJP had previously spent some time in Borneo and encountered no pies. I was aghast at the thought of spending three weeks without eating any pies. So how did I get on? Well the typical food doesn't involve pastry in any way. Rice and noodles are the staple foods with the fried varieties being particularly good. Malaysian curry was something I hadn't tried before but I came away with quite a taste for it. The omnipresent Laksa soup was also worth tasting but could be quite spicy. My favourite local food was Rendang, a rich, slow cooked beef curry. However, none of these culinary delights ticked the boxes that a pie does. There is a fulfilment that a pie can give and noodles don't even come close. Hence I was pleased to discover pie almost at the very start of my trip.

A Proboscis Monkey in Bako National Park looking out to sea, wishing Borneo had more pies

The trip commenced with a stop over in Kuala Lumpar, a brash clod-hopper of a city on mainland Malaysia. The heaving old parts of the city mix side by side with the gleaming modernity of the new city built by oil dollars (or oil Ringgits when in Malaysia). The iconic Petronas towers highlight how much Malaysia has developed from oil money. The photo below shows the view of the Petronas towers from the nearby KL radio Tower. We didn’t much like KL for a stop over though, it is hot and congested and it is pretty much not possible to walk even the shortest distances due to lack of pavements. It is certainly not designed for pedestrians.

View of the Petronas Towers from KL Tower

Then we got a flight over to Kuching, the largest city in the Malay state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. This place was a lot mellower with a lovely waterfront promenade. Actually, probably more mellow than normal because a lot of the shops were closed due to the Chinese New Year. The only places that were open were the very western shopping malls that Kuching had. Despite not feeling very authentically Malaysian this did lead to an opportunity for pie. I was amazed to discover the Kuching Starbucks actually stocked a couple of types of pie! (Despite their British outlets never selling our favourite pastry product.) I was quite excited to see both Beef and Onion Pie and a Curry Pie in the chiller cabinet and promptly got in the queue. I was keen to get the curry pie as I thought it might be more Asian in taste. Unfortunately there was a little girl behind me in the queue who told her Dad she really wanted a curry pie…. And there was only one left…. I just had to go with the beef and onion!

For some reason Starbucks in Borneo sell pies!

The pie came well presented on a plate although it had a strange vent hole which had made some of the gravy congeal. Sadly this pie was a bit of a disappointment to eat, there was a lot of pastry and it was a bit dry. This was not like the pastry on a British pie, it was more like Chinese pastry. The filling however was surprisingly similar to that found in a beef and onion pie at home and wasn’t bad and had plenty of gravy. This shows that meat pies are loved all around the world! Unfortunately there was also a piece of foil embedded in the pastry which didn’t inspire me to think that this pie was top quality! I can't quite remember the price but at the time I scored it only 3 out of 7 for cheapness. Starbucks prices were very expensive by Bornean standards. It wasn't a great pie for the price but one I would perhaps have bought again because there were no alternatives!


Colour 5
Consistency 5
Cheapness 3
Chewiness 3
Content 5
Capacity 4
Condition 2


Beef & Onion (Starbucks [Borneo])
3.86/7


After spending time in Kuching we headed to Bako national park and stayed there a night. This was in a beautiful setting by the beach. Here we saw plenty of monkeys including the Proboscis monkey with it’s incredible nose. The night walk was not to be missed with glow in the dark scorpions and a fantastic display by the fireflies. After Bako we went to Semongoko Orangutan Sanctuary and were lucky enough to see a large number of Orangutans. Heading north we spent time in a traditional longhouse on a homestay before taking a short flight into Mulu National Park. For me the caves in Mulu park were one of the highlights of the trip, especially Deer Cave with it’s huge entrance and the idealic Garden of Eden. The rooves of the caves were covered in bats which produced unbelievable quantities of poo, making the floor a sea of insects in some places. Enough to put you off eating pie! Treking on from there we got to the most challenging part of the trip, The Pinnacles. This impressive, spikey rock formation is worth seeing, but is hard to get to. The trail to the Pinnacles viewing point is only 2.4 km long but it rises 1,200m and the last section is near vertical with ropes and ladders to climb. The chances of rain are high which make it slippery.

The Pierateers reach The Pinnacles

Heading north to Limpang via the Headhunter’s Trail we took a ferry to Kota Kinnabalu. We stayed just outside of town and for one dinner headed to the nearby Langkah Syabas hotel where I was lucky enough to see another pie on the menu, although not really local cusine. The hotel is owned by an Australian so this was a traditional Aussie Meat Pie for 25 Ringgits (close to £5!). It was a good pie, however, at this price, which was very high for Borneo, it didn’t really do enough to impress. It was also a bit disconcerting for the menu not to tell me what the meat was. I will admit it was presented well and the pastry was nice and soft and slipped down easily. The filling was meaty without being exciting. I haven't tried pies in Australia but this wasn't as good as Aussie style pies I have had in the UK. See our article on Aussie pies.


Colour 5.3
Consistency 3.7
Cheapness 1.2
Chewiness 5
Content 3.5
Capacity 4
Condition 5.5


Aussie Meat (Langkah Syabas Hotel [Borneo])
4.03/7


Sadly the trip didn’t contain any more pie adventures. We just headed to the Tip of Borneo to Howard Stanton’s Tampat Do Aman eco-camp. It was very basic (compost toilets!), with some traditionally constructed long houses but this was a lovely place to relax. Howard is a British ex-pat who is only too happy to help sorting out trips and activities for you. There are beaches not too far away and Howard has a restaurant called Tip Top on one of the beaches. There are plenty of idealic coves to explore and you are certain to be able to find one to yourself as the Tip of Borneo still seems to be a bit of a secret. The only problem was that perhaps Howard should have brought some of his British influence to the menu at Tip Top and added a pie option. However, I didn't hold this against him too much as the food at Tip Top was exceptional. Head there while you can as it is sure to be taken over by beach resorts soon according to Howard.

Tip of Borneo tranquillity (but no pies)

In summary, the pies weren’t great but don’t let this put you off a trip to Malaysian Borneo. There is so much to do and in a relatively small space. It is great for a short trip but there was plenty more I wanted to see and I would have loved to have spent longer there.

Sadly we encountered no Gluten Free pies so Pierateer ALE was unable to join me in the pie rating experience. However, we didn't expect there to be any and we found that the locals were in general very understanding of her Coeliac disease and quite often spoke English.

SJL

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Chicken Pie Review and Steak and Onion Pie Review for Eric Lyons Ltd





Eric Lyons Pies



Eric Lyons Chicken and Steak and Onion Pies

The steak and onion was also full to the brim with tender meat, although sadly the content was overly onion-heavy for my liking. Sure, it's a steak AND onion pie, but I would always want to see the ratio more heavily weighted towards the steak! That said, the gravy was very good to and complimented the steak well. All in all the pie was one I would eat again (though an all steak would be more my cup of tea!)


Score: 6.14/7
[Colour 6.5/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6.5/7; Chewiness 6/7; Condition 6/7; Content 6/7; Capacity 6/7; Total: 6.14/7]

Score: 5.96/7
[Colour 6.5/7; Consistency 5.5/7; Cheapness 6.5/7; Chewiness 6/7; Condition 5.75/7; Content 5.5/7; Capacity 6/7; Total: 5.96/7]

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The final day of British Pie Week aimed to cap off a fine week of pie consumption for Pierateer RAS by also celebrating National Butchers Week, which happened to coincide with British Pie Week (4^th to 10^th March 2013). Having already picked up a pork pie from his local butchers, Berry Bros in Selly Oak (Birmingham), he was set to give the local produce a rating. We’ve no doubt all heard about the various controversies in the news about supermarket meat produce not always being what it was labelled as, so I was assured to get straight to the source (or at least as close as possible!) buy going to my local butchers for pie, who informed me that it was a local farm seller who produced the pork pies they sold.

However before I review, let me just point out that the final couple of Morrisons Apple Pies went down a treat on Sunday, having one for breakfast and then another to celebrate the end of a fantastic Yonex All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham, hosted once again by Badminton England.

PIE REVIEW:
Have a butchers at this: Would it be a Berry good pie?

Going to your local butchers, you hope to have a bit more confidence in getting exactly what it says on the tin, or in the case of this pork pie from Berry Bros in Selly Oak, exactly what is says on the sticker! Unfortunately it didn’t have anything on the sticker, but I was assured this was a locally sourced pork pie from a farmer near the Birmingham area.

The pork pie itself was golden brown, a little soft pastry-wise in places but still nice and fresh. The meat was on the whole very nice, not too grisly but a tad spicy (certainly left a bit of a kick after eating it, unlike some other pork pies I have tried recently). There was also certainly a layer of jelly around the cured meat in the pie, which I wasn’t too fond of but I recognise some pork pie fans would have enjoyed. All in all, a nice and fresh pie option from Berry Bros, but just a shame that they don’t sell meat-in-gravy pies too. I’m Berry disappointed as their pork pies are nice!

Berry Bros Butchers Pork Pie
Score: 4.0/7 (RAS)

So there we have it for Pierateer RAS: seven days, twenty pies and a whole lot of pastry boosted calories! Still, it was worth every second of it! More reviews to come, but for now, I hope everyone had a great British Pie Week and look forward to reviewing more next March!

RAS Pie Count Day Seven: 3
RAS BPW Total: 20

SJL started day seven with another Co-op Apple Pie and a cup of tea for pre-breakfast. A trip to Waitrose the day before meant lunch was planned. A Waitrose Essentials Beef & Onion pie in the same shallow shape the same as the 50p Asda ones reviewed on Day Three and Day Five. This pie cost a fair bit more at 89p but this meant that it contained a whopping 20% meat. The soft puff pastry was very much the same as the Asda ones. The extra meat certainly made a difference and the filling was more noticeable, but not much more. It didn't justify it's extra price tag and so sadly this pie will be left languishing in the bottom of the pie rate rankings. Not bad, but not great for the price and certainly not recommended to bother buying if at all possible. It tasted very similar to a Pukka Pie only not as good. It is interesting but not perhaps surprising to note that the Waitrose cheapest range is more expensive than the Asda standard range and also slightly better.

Later in the day to celebrate the end of British pie week SJL embarked on some pie baking. This time he opted for a much more normal type of pie in the form of a chicken and chorizo pie. The technique adopted was to boil the whole chicken for some hour and half with some onion, celery and seasoning. This made the meat nice and soft and also provided some stock for the filling. The stock was mixed with some fried chorizo and white sauce and a pie filling was born. Gluten free pastry was made especially for the pie. While this tends to be more crumbly and the texture isn't quite as good the taste is fine and the pastry did a fine job of containing the filling. All in all we were quite happy with this pie and the time put into it's preparation was worth it. There was also plenty of pie left over to ensure that while British Pie Week might have come to an end the pie consumption certainly has not.




Waitrose Essentials - Beef & Onion - 3.17

SJL Pie Count Day Seven: 3
SJL BPW Total: 24

Day Seven Total: 6
British Pie Week Total: 50

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