Welsh Lamb and Mint Pie

Another bake-along-with-GBBO success! I think that I am through to the finals, so to speak. Biscuit week was dodgy, but my cookies were good, just not as special as I wanted them to be-- and it was, after all, early.

S01E05 was pastry, and the signature bake was savory pies. I happen to love meat pies, and when I visited Wales the summer before last, I sampled several. I had some middling ones and at least one bad one (at the nicest restaurant of our visit)-- it was stringy, soupy, sour, tomatoey, and the little puff pastry lid was difficult to eat and not very satisfying. But in Hay-on-Wye we stopped in a tiny little bakery and I got a lamb and meat hand pie ("oggie"), then carried it around in my bag the rest of the day before eating it for dinner that evening. It was perfect, and I made special note of its attributes and have been brainstorming a re-creation ever since.

It had big chunks of lamb, and little chunks of potato-- but really, mostly lamb. There were leeks, but no peas or tomatoes. It was entirely savory. I've found a few recipes that call for mint jelly, but this one did not use mint jelly. I noted that the use of mint was almost like spinach-- it was used abundantly, as a leafy green. I don't even like mint in sweets, but I found it really worked in this savory pie.

So for my signature bake, I did some research and pulled together a recipe. I think it made a very good pie, and one that almost matches my sense memory. It's delicious hot but too stodgy cold, and it turns out it's hard in a practical sense to replicate "room temperature" in a full pie rather than a hand pie. I'll try hand pies next time, maybe!

Happy St. David's Day!

2 lb lamb, trimmed, 2.5 cm pieces--  toss with ¼ c AP flour; brown in batches (4-5 min) in olive oil over high heat-- set aside.

In butter over med high—2 garlic cloves, crushed, 3 fat leeks, chopped, fresh thyme, salt, pepper.--> Cook, stirring, till soft. 

Return lamb to pan and stir in 1/2 oz fresh mint leaves, chopped, 3 sprigs rosemary, 1.5c beef stock, and 1 huge or 2 normal russet potatoes (peeled & cubed). Bring to the boil and reduce to med-low. Simmer 35-50 min till lamb is tender. (Thicken with flour if needed-- I threw in a bit near the end.) 

Remove rosemary; season to taste. Stir in another  1/2- 1 oz fresh mint,* chopped. Bake in pastry case, sealed/glazed with egg, topped with pepper.

**Over the two additions, somewhat more than 1 1/2  0.75 oz clamshells of fresh mint, and I think it's just about right. Although it could probably absorb the full 2 clamshells.