Hot Water Crust Meat Pie {Roll the Dough}

This is one of those recipes that are pleasurably time-consuming. One of those recipes you need to be in the mood for. One of those recipes you need to dive into undisturbed to enjoy every simple ingredient, savor it, knead it, smell it.

That week-end, there were only to two of us. Our little girls were on a holiday of their own, and so were we. To celebrate this exceptional course of events, I returned to the captivating pages of The River Cottage MEAT book. A bible kind of a book, a thick and uncompromising reference. 

The facts exposed about current animal breeding techniques and diktats in the agribusiness industry are highly disturbing and the outcome is double: on the one hand you feel that giving up a meat-based diet is the only way to salvation; on the other hand, trying to source proper breeders, farmers and butchers is the only way to keep sane and healthy, or so it seems. I do believe - and apply my belief to my everyday life - that a varied diet with a little bit of everything is what suits our lifestyle and taste better, so quite naturally, and also out of sheer practicality, we embraced the second option. This too, is time-consuming and requires patience and efficient research.

So what do we do now? Aside from reading some of the pages of the book again every now and then for a sound reality check - as abrupt as it may be - we set meat aside, go for alternatives, shift our preferences and when there is no other choice possible, we just buy meat at the supermarket and enjoy it too. When going for "real" meat, we make a feast of it, a true celebration and dedicate the required time to source it and order it from a trusted butcher.

That wintry week-end, we had the solace and the quality ingredients to go for the long coveted Hot Water Crust Meat Pie or Raised Pork Pie.

Kneeding is therapeutic and highly rewarding; it is repetitive, mind absorbing and sensual. 

Quick and light kneeding also requires very few utensils - if any. And rolling out the dough requires one of my favorite, aside from my good old hands: the rolling pin. Mine is a wooden one, solid and plain as this perfect symbol of domesticity should be; and perfectly suited to this task given that making home-made crust is an essential gesture and tradition going back to our roots (Italian mamma speaking here, bear with me).

This is then all too naturally how I also invite you to go back to your roots (and be a tiny bit adventurous by slightly changing the original recipe):

     Click to enlarge


Credits: TheDaydreamer