Shropshire pie with a suet crust

Serves 4-6

Preparation time 30 minutes

Cooking time 2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of goose fat from Le Marche du Quartier

1 onion, peeled and sliced

4 thick rashers streaky bacon, cut in to 1cm pieces from Sillfield Farm

300g plain flour plus 3 tablespoons

450g diced rabbit from Shellseekers Fish & Game

1 lemon

1 1/2 teaspoons of ground mixed spice from Spice Mountain

150ml red wine from Borough Wines

350ml stock

3 bay leaves

3 sprigs thyme

2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced - coxes are good from Elsey & Bent

50g currants

8 oysters, shucked from Furness Fish & Game

300g belly pork, minced from Northfield Farm

50g breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

150g grated fresh suet, but dried is fine

Preparation Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / gas mark 4. Heat a casserole dish along with the goose fat. Add the onion and bacon and cook for around 5 minutes until the onion is starting to soften and the bacon is taking on a little colour.

Dust the rabbit with the 3 tablespoons of flour and add to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Cut a couple of thick slivers from the lemon and add to pan along with the mixed spice. Reserve the rest of the lemon.

Cook for a few minutes then pour in the red wine. Bring up to the boil then cook for a few minutes before adding the stock, bay and thyme. Season well, cover, then transfer to the oven and cook for 1 hour until the rabbit is beginning to become tender.

Scatter in the apple and currants and cook for a further 30 minutes. Cool then stir in the oysters and the juice of the lemon.

To make forcemeat balls, mix together the belly pork, breadcrumbs and parsley. Finely grate the reserved lemon skin until you have about 2 teaspoons. Add to the forcemeat, season well and squidge together. Form in to 8 balls.

Stir the remaining flour and suet together with 150ml cold water bringing everything together in to a pastry.

Cut into 2 pieces, one of them 1/3 of the overall lump of dough to use for the lid. Roll the larger piece to line a 20cm metal pie dish that is 5-6cm deep or use a 20cm springform cake tin. Spoon in the rabbit mixture then nestle the forcemeat balls amongst the rabbit, pushing them gently down in to the gravy.

Damp around the edges of the base pastry then roll out the smaller piece of pastry laying it over the filling and pressing down well to seal the edges.

Crimp then bake for an hour placing a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven to catch any drips.

Classically, this would not have been served with vegetables as we do today, but would be delicious with mixed buttered greens.