Red-cooked pork pot pies

These are East-meets-West pot pie love babies. The pie crust hides finely sliced scallions [spring onions] and a touch of Shaoxing rice wine in its flakes, which results in the best pie crust I have maybe ever made.

Credit: Cynthia C

• serves

  4

• prep

  1 hour

• cook

  2:30 hours

• difficulty

  Mid

The pies are filled with Shanghainese red-cooked pork, or hong shao rou, which is one of my all-time favourite dishes. It’s traditionally made with fat-laced pork belly, pan-fried in a bit of sugar until deliciously caramelised, then slowly braised (oh, how I love braised meat) in soy sauce and magical aromatics until fork-tender and coated in amber syrup. My favourite iterations serve it with hard-boiled eggs and knots of toothsome tofu skin to soak up all that pork flavour.

For these, I went with a simple pork-only filling, and to balance out the buttery pie crust, I used (barely) leaner pork ribs. The result was even better than I expected. It turns out that rich, flaky pie crust and savoury-sweet, garlicky-soy meat fillings are meant to be together.

Ingredients

Spring onion pie dough (see Note)

• 225 g unsalted butter, frozen
• 315 g plain flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 1 spring onion (scallion), very finely sliced and patted dry
• 2 tbsp ice-cold water, plus 1-2 tbsp more in case dough is dry
• 2 tbsp ice-cold Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing), sake or vodka

Red-cooked pork

• 1 kg boneless pork ribs, cubed (or 3 kg regular pork ribs)
• 75 g (⅓ cup) white sugar
• 6-8 garlic cloves, halved
• 4-5 spring onions (scallions), sliced into 2.5 cm-long pieces
• 5 whole star anise
• 125 ml (½ cup) soy sauce (if possible, use half light and half dark soy sauce)
• 80 ml (⅓ cup) Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) or sake
• 2 tsp cornflour

 

• 1 egg
• a splash of milk
• flaky salt, for sprinkling

Chilling time 1 hour or overnight

Makes 4 x 12 cm pies

Instructions

To make the pie dough, remove the butter from the freezer and let it thaw briefly while you prepare the dry ingredients.

Sift together the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Sprinkle the spring onion over the mixture and mix briefly to incorporate. Using the coarsest holes on a box grater, grate the frozen butter over the flour, then mix gently with your fingers to incorporate it into the flour until no clumps larger than peas remain.

Sprinkle the ice-cold water and rice wine evenly over the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate. When the mixture holds together when squeezed, it has enough moisture. Knead gently a few times to gather into a dough.

Separate into two balls and pat each into a flat disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour or up to 1 day ahead. For longer than a day in advance, freeze the dough.

To make the red-cooked pork filling, fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the pork, making sure that there is enough water to cover it. Boil for about 5 minutes, skimming off any scum as it forms on top of the water. Drain the pork and rinse to remove any scum, then let cool. If the pork is in strips, cut into 2.5 cm cubes.

Place the sugar and 60 ml (¼ cup) water into a large saucepan or wok over medium-high heat and stir until just dissolved. The mixture will begin to bubble after a few minutes. Swirl the mixture without stirring just until it begins to turn pale golden. Add the cubed pork to the caramelised sugar and cook for 4-5 minutes or until the pork is nicely browned.

Add the garlic, spring onions, star anise, soy sauce and rice wine to the wok, then add just enough water to barely cover the pork. Stir, then cover the wok and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the pork is tender. The liquid shouldn't simmer down too much, but if the pan looks like it's starting to boil dry, add enough water to cover the pork again.

Remove the lid and increase the heat to medium-high. Remove 2 tablespoons of braising liquid and whisk with the cornflour in a small bowl until incorporated. Set aside. Meanwhile, simmer the pork mixture until the liquid reduces to a thick and glossy consistency, about 10-15 minutes, depending on the amount of liquid. Add the cornflour mixture to the pork mixture and stir to incorporate. When the sauce is thick and viscous, turn off the heat and set aside to cool. Whisk an extra 1 teaspoon of cornflour with a little braising liquid and add to the mixture if necessary to thicken. 

To assemble, discard the star anise and garlic from the pork filling. Dice some of the larger pork pieces into smaller pieces or shred using a fork. If you used ribs with the bone in, remove the bones.

Preheat your oven to 200ºC. Remove the pie dough from the fridge and let it thaw for a few minutes. Place 1 dough disk between 2 lightly floured sheets of baking paper and roll out to 3 mm thick. Remove the top sheet and cut the dough into 18–20 cm circles for the base of your pies so that there is overhang on the edges once placed into the pie tins. Using the baking paper, transfer the dough circles to the tins (turning the paper upside-down and peeling the circle off works well for me). Repeat this step as necessary until all your tins are lined. Roll out the remaining pie dough until 3 mm thick and cut into 13 cm circles.

Spoon a generous helping of the pork filling, about ¾ cup–1 cup, into the tins, then top with the pie lids. Fold the overhang from the bottom crust over the pie lid and crimp to seal. Use a fork to prick holes in the top. Beat the egg with a splash of milk or water and brush the top with the egg wash, then sprinkle with a bit of flaky sea salt.

Finally, bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool briefly and serve!

Note

• This does yield a fairly rich and heavy pie. You can halve the amount of pie dough and make pies with the crust on top only.

• For ease of preparation, these can be made in several steps, and all the components can be frozen before assembling, after assembling, or even after baking. To bake an unbaked pie from frozen, cover the edges with foil to prevent burning, cut small vents in the top, and bake at 220ºC for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 180ºC and continue baking for 20-30 minutes or until top is golden brown and filling is bubbling. After reducing the heat, check often to ensure it doesn't burn. To bake a fully baked pie from frozen, reheat at 180ºC for about 30-40 minutes, checking every 5-10 minutes. Do not thaw in either case.

Recipe from Two Red Bowls [http://tworedbowls.com] by Cynthia C., with photographs by Cynthia C.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

The pies are filled with Shanghainese red-cooked pork, or hong shao rou, which is one of my all-time favourite dishes. It’s traditionally made with fat-laced pork belly, pan-fried in a bit of sugar until deliciously caramelised, then slowly braised (oh, how I love braised meat) in soy sauce and magical aromatics until fork-tender and coated in amber syrup. My favourite iterations serve it with hard-boiled eggs and knots of toothsome tofu skin to soak up all that pork flavour.

For these, I went with a simple pork-only filling, and to balance out the buttery pie crust, I used (barely) leaner pork ribs. The result was even better than I expected. It turns out that rich, flaky pie crust and savoury-sweet, garlicky-soy meat fillings are meant to be together.