Thread: Gala pies.

I'm new to the forum but very interested in culinary delights.
A few more posts and I will be able to share some pictures of my 'creations.'
Charley.

I must admit I didn't know what a gala pie was, But just had a look on google and they look great!

So is cooking just a hobby for you or your business charleyboy?

Welcome to the forum

And if you want to get your post count up so you are able to share photos go and spend a few minutes and posts in the games room.

https://teakdoor.com/the-games-room/

Hello Satonic, nice to meet you.
What's that old adage...Necessity is the mother of invention.
I've been here for about ten years and miss a few of the old things from back home. I got into cooking pork pies about a year ago. Nothing too difficult with the Gala pie but a lot of work goes into one!
I usually try and make a couple per week...They don't last long!
Charley.

I look forward to you sharing your secrets with us then Charley

Teakdoor's kitchen is a great place to hang and out the more people posting in here the better!

Nice to meet you too

Cheers

Just having a few slurps and I'm on my fifth post already!

Pictures and recipe to follow....Tomorrow.

Charley.
PS. If you want a sneak preview, go to galleries!

Nice work! Glad to see you have got the hang of Teakdoor's photo system as well!

Just sent you a green to get you on your way with your reputation.

Welcome aboard

Cheers Satonic. Catch you tomorrow.

Making me hungry just thinking about pork pies!

Hmmm, pies you say?

Not Cornish pasties?

Let us not be discriminating, (except when it comes to taste.)



Posted via Tapatalk from Lancashire

Looking forward to this Charleyfarley ,,, I tried to make porkpies earlier in the year and FAILED miserably

I've been a Cornish pasty fan ever since a holiday in Newquay with my auntie. She made the real things. Welcome to TD, Charlie.

Gala pie: king of the picnic blanket?

Although it involves a number of culinary processes, it's surprisingly easy to make a great-looking gala pie. Tim Hayward shares his recipe and reveals the secret of the infinite egg

• In pictures: how to make gala pie

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Tim Hayward's gala pie. Photograph: Tim Hayward for the Guardian

I think I first encountered gala pie at family wedding, funeral or other licensed brawl. It was a symbol of celebration, an impossibly sophisticated refinement on the quotidian pub pork-pie. While uncles fought and boasted and aunts consoled themselves with Babycham, gin and recrimination, I sat under a table on beer-soaked carpet and wondered at the infinite egg. How was it possible that every slice of the yard long, loaf-shaped pie had a perfect slice of egg in it? What sort of yogic chicken could control its oviduct to that degree? Was it even a hen that laid it? Perhaps it was laid by a Gala … whatever that was. (I think I probably worried too much as a child.)

In my less troubled maturity, I discovered that the infinite egg is a simple trick, particularly if you consider the sort of ingredients to which a craftsman pork butcher has access. A quantity of eggs are separated and the yolks loosely beaten together before being poured into a narrow gauge of sausage skin - perhaps the sort of casing used for chipolatas. After a few minutes in hot water the yolk "sausage" can be peeled and then carefully inserted into a larger skin along with the combined white, for a further poaching. Of course the creation of the authentic unappetising grey ring around the yolk is, and must ever remain, a trade secret.
These days I love a good pie and, though the process has many steps, they are all simple and pretty much guarantee a good result. The gala pie is one of those projects that can happily take up an afternoon but the effect on the audience of wheeling it out is worth all the effort. I sometimes wish we English were as naturally poetic a race as the Scots then we'd certainly have penned some sort of "Address to the pie", maybe even a stirring song.
Rather than indulging in the admittedly hilarious shenanigans of poaching eggs in sausage skins, this recipe contains a simple trick for perfect presentation using whole eggs. It's also worth noting that some consider a gala pie should also contain chicken. You can, if you wish, introduce a layer of poached or leftover roast chicken above or below the eggs but we could no longer be friends. I personally consider this to be a ridiculous affectation - possibly even French.
Gala pie

For the filling:
1kg boned pork shoulder, skin on
200g commercial unsmoked bacon
2.5g each of sage, mace, nutmeg, allspice, black pepper
10g salt
4 eggs
For the jelly:
1 split pig trotter
1 carrot
1 stick celery
2 bay leaves
2.5g sage
For the pastry:
475g strong flour
5g salt
175g commercial lard or carefully hoarded beef fat
125g water

1. Chop a kilo of boned pork shoulder into rough 1cm dice. Trim out the skin and tough connective tissue and save it. These will be vital elements of the jelly later on.
2. Cut about 200g of bacon into similar size pieces. In commercially produced pies nitrates are added to keep the filling an appetising colour. There are enough residual preservatives in shop-bought bacon to keep the pie filling pink throughout. If this though worries you, you can leave out the bacon for an authentically rustic, grey pie interior.
3. To make the jelly, chuck your porky trimmings into a pot with a split pig's trotter, celery, carrot, some bay leaves and fresh sage. Cover with cold water and allow to barely simmer for 2-3 hrs until the trotter gives up the ghost and collapses. Strain the liquid through muslin and keep it in the fridge. Check that it sets to a good consistency - if it doesn't you can reduce it a little further. This will produce much more jelly than you need but it freezes well and I like to serve it chopped as a side dish with the pie
4. Season your meat with sage, mace, nutmeg, allspice, pepper and a good 10g of salt. Remember that the pie is a preserved product so this is as much about curing as flavouring.
5. Mix the meat and seasonings thoroughly by hand and then blitz half the mix in a food processor before recombining. I like chunks of pork in my pies but you can vary proportions here to suit your own taste
6. Mix 475g of strong flour in a bowl with 7.5g of salt. Melt 100g of lard or dripping in 175g of boiling water ...
7. ... then pour in the hot liquid and begin combining it with a palette knife.
8. As soon as the dough is cool enough to handle, work it together with your fingers, separate out about a quarter of it and then work both masses into flat round puck shapes. Leave to cool and rest for a few more minutes.
9. Meanwhile, place 4 eggs in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil, simmer for exactly 4 mins and then plunge them into iced water
10. Roll out the dough, fold, turn and reroll until it begins to feel smooth and elastic. Used the large piece to line your pie dish. You can grease it if you think there's not enough fat in this recipe already but it's not remotely necessary. My dish is 16 cm across, 7cm deep with a loose bottom. You shouldn't need a springform as the pie shrinks away from the sides as it cooks and pops out clean.
11. Put a thin layer of meat into the bottom of the pie case ...
12. ... followed by your peeled eggs. Now here's the cunning bit - make a pen mark on the side of the dish on the centre line of one of your eggs.
13. Carefully pack more filling around and over your eggs, trying to avoid any air gaps.
14. Glue on the lid with egg wash ...
15. ... and trim and crimp the edges. Cut a hole in the centre of the pie and, using the back of your knife, mark cutting guides along the centre line of each egg. Finally, egg wash and then bake in a 180C oven for 90 mins.
16. Once the pie is thoroughly cool, warm some of the jelly in a pan and pour it slowly trough a funnel to fill the air gap between filling and case. Take your time and keep tapping the pie gently on the bench to expel any air bubbles. Put back in the fridge so the jelly can set.
17. Slice neatly through the guide lines in the crust and serve.
I still get that idiotic little twinge of excitement cutting into my pie and seeing the perfect slice of egg, but what do you think of the gala pie? Is it a ghastly, sulphurous, eggy abomination or is there something that's just a tiny bit more celebratory about it than the average porkie that makes it perfect for parties and picnics? Is there anything finer to witness emerging from the hamper?


Gala pie: king of the picnic blanket? | Life and style | guardian.co.uk

Hmmm a pork pie with eggs in it. Genius!

The other fridge is full of 'girlie' things!

Jezus Charly,Please don't' tell me you drink Archa?

Peterpan. It's the nearest thing I can get to guiness!
Don't mind the Chang 'draught' though.

Now thats what you call a mans fridge ! two fcuk off slabs of pork pie and the rest filled up with beer. not a vegetable in sight.
I'm impressed Charley Boy impressed !

Originally Posted by charleyboy

Brilliant !!!!! sorry mate can't green again just yet

Originally Posted by The Big Fella

This last month I also have been spending lots of time in the kitchen. If I do say so myself I am a lot like Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen.

I'm sure we would all like to see some pics of your culinary skills BF

Your gonna fit in well around here Charley

Originally Posted by The Big Fella

Now thats what you call a mans fridge ! two fcuk off slabs of pork pie and the rest filled up with beer. not a vegetable in sight.
I'm impressed Charley Boy impressed !

I used to have a fridge like that....

then I got married and had children.

My fridge is now full of my wife's vegetables, fruits and yogurt milks. I'm not even allowed to touch it!

BTW PP I am ,, just eating me cereals mate before the off