Riesling pork pies (Rieslingspaschteit)
This is a traditional Luxembourg dish – a wonderful meat pie into which a fragrant Riesling jelly is poured and left to set. We were very keen to track down this recipe, as when Dave worked in Luxembourg for a couple of years a while back, he used to eat one of these pies for his lunch every day.
Ingredients
Filling
- 200g/7oz beef mince
- 500g/1lb 2oz pork mince
- 2 medium carrots, finely diced
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- ½ tsp flaked sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp brandy
- 1 medium egg, beaten, to glaze
- 300ml/½ pint Riesling wine
- 3 sheets of leaf gelatine
Pastry
- 200g/7oz butter
- 600g/1lb 5oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 medium egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 150ml/¼ pint water
Method
For the filling, mix the beef and pork mince with the carrots, onion, parsley, marjoram, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the brandy, cover and chill for 2–3 hours, or overnight.
To make the pastry, melt the butter over a low heat, then set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Put the flour in a large bowl and stir in the salt. Beat the egg and egg yolk with the water in a separate bowl. Stir the eggs and water into the flour, then gradually add the melted butter and form into a ball. Put this in a bowl and leave to rest for 2 hours.
Divide the pastry into 6 portions and roll them out into rectangles measuring about 18 x 20cm. Trim them neatly and keep the trimmings to make pastry chimneys. Divide the mince mixture into 6 sausage shapes and place 1 sausage in the centre of each piece of pastry. Brush the edges lightly with beaten egg.
Fold up the 2 short sides of the pastry and then bring the long sides up and over the filling to enclose and fully seal the meat inside. Turn the parcel over, with the edges underneath, and place it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Very lightly score the pastry with the point of a sharp knife – don’t go too deep or the pastry will split when it bakes. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Using the point of a knife, make a small hole in the centre of each parcel and enlarge the hole with the tip of your little finger. Roll out the pastry trimmings and cut into strips about 1.5cm wide. Roll these around your little finger, then place a rolled strip in each hole to make a ‘chimney’, rising roughly 1cm out of the pastry. Brush generously with beaten egg and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Put the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water and leave them for 5 minutes until softened, then squeeze out the excess water over the sink. Meanwhile, heat the wine very gently until just warm enough to melt the gelatine, plop the squeezed gelatine sheets into the warm wine and stir until dissolved. Transfer the mixture to a jug and leave to cool.
Put a small plastic funnel in one of the pastry ‘chimneys’ and pour the wine into the pie. Take it slowly and let the wine find its way through the pie for a few seconds before adding more. Stop when the wine reaches halfway up the chimney. Repeat with all the pies.
Put in the fridge and leave to set for at least 3 hours.
