Jellied chicken and ham pie

You might not be familiar with hot water pastry, but it's the same pastry, but it's the same pastry used for pork pies. It's not commonly made at home any more, and I don't know why as it's so simple to make and really very good.

Ham hocks are about the cheapest meat you can buy from the butcher and they go a long way. Mixing this with some cooked chicken and baking it makes for a delicious cold meal. For me, this is a fantastic summer lunchtime recipe. It goes beautifully with a spoonful of English mustard, a crisp green salad, a side of pickled onions and half a pint of mild.

Serves 4

1 x 350g ham hock

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

450g chicken thighs and legs

1 large leek, thoroughly rinsed and chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped

bunch of fresh curly parsley, chopped

1/2 teaspoon mace

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

500g hot water pastry

Flour, for dusting

Beef dripping or vegetable oil

Salt

Place the ham hock in a large pan. Add the vinegar and 2 litres water and cook for 3 hours. Remove the ham, allow to cool and place the chicken into the pan. Poach the chicken for 30 minutes in the ham stock, then lift out of the pan and allow to cool. strip the ham and chicken meat from the bone and place into a large bowl.

Put the leek, onion and carrots into the stock, bring to the boil and allow to cook for 10 minutes. Drain the vegetables, reserving the stock, and place in the bowl with the meat. Add the chopped parsley, mace, pepper, mustard powder and celery salt and mix everything together.

Place the stock back on the hob and reduce down to a concentrated stock of about 300ml. Allow to cool. Stir 6 tablespoons of this reduced stock into the vegetable and meat mixture.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface. Grease a pie plate liberally with salt and line with the rolled out pastry. Trim off the excess and roll out again to make the pie lid. Push in the filling until the plate is full. Cover with a pastry lid.

Place a flat, greased baking sheet over the pie plate and flip upside down. Remove the pie plate, seal the edges of the pastry and make a hole in the centre of the pie. Roll some leftover pastry into an 8cm long worm and place around the hole. Put the pie into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Bake the pie in the oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, then place into the fridge and chill for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, take a funnel and place into the central hole of the pie. Slowly pour 4 tablespoons of the remaining concentrated ham stock into the pie, then chill again. As the stock hits the cold pie filling, it will form a jelly and set. Continue to do this until you can get no more stock into the pie -- think of it like a pork pie.

Photo: www.donaldrussel.com