Wild boar pies w/ creamed silverbeet and horseradish

A great pie is simplicity personified, and for me there is no better filling than slowly cooked wild boar shoulder, coupled with winter herbs, root vegetables, port, and a rich gravy. Riding shotgun with these culinary works of art, is the wonderful but often overlooked, silver beet, with a little cream and horseradish to kick it along.

Serves 6.

Step 1: Wild Boar Pie Mix

Take a large saucepan and place on medium heat. Once hot, add a little canola oil followed by the rough chopped bacon. Cook this for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden and a lot of the fat has rendered out. Add the celery, carrot, onion, garlic and herbs. Stir through and turn down the heat. Sweat the vegetables for 15 to 20 minutes.

Take a skillet or sauté pan and place on high heat. Season the diced wild boar. Add a little oil to the pan then sear the boar in batches until golden. Remove and add to the vegetables. Repeat the process with the last of the chopped boar, then deglaze the pan at the end with the cup of port, and pour this into the saucepan of vegetables and boar.

Add the apple syrup, chicken stock, demi glaze and chopped button mushrooms to the boar and vegetable mix. Bring the saucepan up to a light boil, then immediately turn the heat right down to a simmer. Cook for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally. Add the chopped kumara and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, strain off the cooking liquid into a bowl and set both aside.

Take a clean saucepan and place on a low heat. Melt the butter in the pan and then add the flour and whisk to make a roux. Slowly pour in the cooking liquid, whisking continuously to form a smooth silky gravy.

Pour the gravy back over the boar mix, add the peas, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Cool, then refrigerate until required.

Step 2: Making the Pies

Dust a clean work surface with liberal amounts of flour. Roll out the pastry to a 2-3mm thickness. Find a plate or bowl with a diameter of approximately 12cm, and cut out 12 circles. It's fine to heap together the off cuts and roll them out again, but use the offcut circles for bases because they won't puff up as well.

Take a heaped pile of the boar mix and place in the centre of 6 of the circles. Leave about a centimeter of pastry around the edge of the pastry circle. Brush the edges liberally with egg white. Carefully take the remaining 6 pastry circles and gently place them on top of the boar filling. Pinch 6 evenly spaced crimps on each top pastry layer, then fold the base layer over and pinch this layer together with the other crimps.

Refrigerate the pies until ready to cook.

Step 3: Creamed Silverbeet and Horseradish

Take the silver beet and remove the white stems from the green leafy part. Dice the stems into small pieces and roughly chop the green leaves. Take a large saucepan and add the 2 tablespoons of water. Add the prepared silver beet, top with a lid and place on a high heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes until wilted and soft. Pour into a colander and squeeze as much of the water out as you can. Place the silver beet back in the saucepan and add the cream of horseradish and the cream. Stir and cook with the lid off for a couple more minutes. Remove from the heat and blitz with a wand blender or food processor. I like to keep it a little chunky and rustic. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm until required.

Step 4: Cooking and Serving

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Place the 6 pies on a greaseproof paper lined baking tray. Spread them out so they have space to expand. Brush with the egg yolks, and snip a couple of holes in the top of each pie.

Place in the centre of the oven and cook until golden and flakey.  They should take about 20 to 25 minutes. Check after 15 and turn the tray around to ensure they cook evenly. Once cooked remove and let stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly, this will eliminate top of the mouth burns! While the pies are standing, heat up your creamed silver beet and horseradish.

To serve, spoon out some of the hot creamed silver beet onto each plate then top with a pie. Serve now!

THE INGREDIENTS

Photography by Kieran Scott