The world’s poshest gala pie

**Update – auction now includes a free bag of my posh pork Crackle. Smoked paprika & rosemary seasoned**

Once in a while, if you talk food on Twitter, someone sends you something lovely as a present (and once in a while I send someone a pie) but I really wasn’t expecting a message to arrive a week ago asking if I wanted to have a truffle. As in the truffles that they send pigs and dogs out to find.

I wasn’t really sure whether to bite the excellent man’s hand off or just fall on him in gratitude. Dear Reader, I behaved and just said please and thank you interminably. The said man is Mister Truffle on Twitter and he’s setting up a new business, born of his passion for truffles, offering mail-order fresh truffles by the gram so people can order tiny amounts and feel more comfortable about using such a luxurious ingredient at home. Possibly in more “British” foods than you’d normally associate with a truffle. Hence a humble pork pie maker striking very lucky.

His challenge to me was to make a pork pie with truffle.

“I’m just sending you a sample – 10g” he said. After the merriment of picking up a parcel from the Post Office addressed like this, I discovered that 10g of truffle is a very decent, if not generous, sized little lump. How very lucky!

Imagine the hilarity...

I had some ideas about how to make the most of the truffle in a pie but early on decided two things

a) I could do with some help

b) This uniquely fabulous pie should have a purpose, so I’d auction it for East Anglian Children’s Hospices. A cause close to Norfolk Twitterers hearts.

So, on Friday, foodie friends Derek from Naked Wines and Jenni from Northcote Brewery came over to Pie HQ and we spent the day alternately playing with roast pig skin and a vast sea of herbs and spices (a whole other story) and making the world’s poshest gala pie.

How to make the world’s poshest gala pie

Firstly put the truffle in a bowl with some hen eggs and quails eggs, cover the bowl with cling film and leave for a couple of days so that the eggs absorb the incredible musky smell of the truffle.

Truffle and eggs

Buy about a kilo of outdoor pork – this was outside our normal run of pie production and I didn’t have any of our own meat at HQ so I went to work via 2010 EDP butcher of the year (and most other years since awards were invented) and good friend James Rutland and he coarsely minced a shoulder and ran a bit of bacon through with the meat. To which I later added my mix of herbs & spices.

Stand around in Butchers shop whilst three generations of Rutlands sniff the truffle and generally coo over it.

At HQ we boiled and peeled the truffle infused quails eggs and @degs123 put the hens eggs in his sous vide water bath so he could make his famous flat egg. Derek’s flat eggs are a work of art (some may say of a deranged mind) and make the most gorgeous, unctious eggy richness. Truffley eggy richness in this case.

Truffle infused quail eggs

We then layered the 7″ pie (should you wish to try this at home Dan Lepard’s hot water crust pastry recipe is the one I advise for domestic purposes). We put in a layer of pork, nestled the quails eggs, covered them with another layer of pork, a circle of flat egg with the truffle shaved over it and then a final layer of porkiness.

Flat truffly, eggyness and mandolined truffle

We popped on the lid, crimped, added some pastry truffle-pigs for whimsy and baked it.

And this lovingly made truffly, porky, eggy, pastry gorgeousness could be yours. Bids close today (Sunday Feb 13th) at 6 p.m. and I will post the pie (using our usual mail order cold boxes and ice method) to you tomorrow. Or deliver if local.

Follow the auction on Twitter using hashtag #truffleporkpie and either bid here or on Twitter – send me a normal tweet or DM as you prefer.

*Update* Bids since Friday curently stand at £95 (Edit 11.31 a.m. Sunday)

£100 (Edit 12.39 Sunday)

£110 (Edit 14.33 Sunday)

£120 (Edit 14.59 Sunday)

£125 (Edit 16.05 Sunday)

£130 (Edit 17.43 Sunday)

£150 (Edit 17.49 Sunday)

£175 (Edit 17.48 Sunday) readjustment of time realising bloomin’ pad clock fast!

£180 (Edit 17.49 Sunday)

 

Go on, go mad. you know you want it and it’s for a hugely good cause…