You will need
2 kg lamb on the bone (shoulder or knuckles) or mixture of the two, cut into 4 cm pieces.
Ina Paarman’s Meat Spice
2 cups (500 ml) water
2 x 25 g Ina Paarman’s Liquid Beef Stock
1 onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
5 cloves
sour cream pastry or bought all-butter puff pastry
1 t (5 ml) ground coriander
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ t (2.5 ml) Ina Paarman’s Chilli & Garlic Seasoning
2 t (10 ml) mustard powder
2 t (10 ml) sugar
4 T (60 ml) balsamic vinegar
2 T (30 ml) cornflour (or potato flour) mixed with a little cold water
½ onion studded with 7 cloves
1 egg
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
Method
Adjust the oven rack to one slot below the middle position and preheat the oven to 160°C.
Season the lamb with Meat Spice. Place the water, Beef Stock, onion, bay leaves and cloves into a large heavy-based cast iron pot with a lid. Add the seasoned lamb and cook the meat in the oven until completely tender and starting to fall away from the bones (± 2 ½ hours).
Spoon the meat out with a slotted spoon and cool it a little. Remove the bones, excess fat, gristle and bay leaves, then flake the meat.
Fill up the stock remaining in the saucepan with water, you should have ± 1 ½ cups. To that, add all the sauce condiment ingredients. Thicken it with the cornflour or potato flour. Add the flaked meat and taste for seasoning.
Dish the meat mixture into a heat-resistant pie dish of ± 25 cm.
Position the spiked onion half in the centre to prevent the pastry from sagging. Leave to cool down. Ideal to refrigerate overnight.
Put an extra pastry strip on the rim of the pie dish, then cover the pie with pastry.
Scallop the edges. Glaze with the egg wash ingredients beaten together. Turn up the oven temperature to 190°C. Bake for 45 minutes until golden-brown. Cover with foil, shiny side up, for the initial 15 minutes to prevent over browning of the pastry.
These pies freezes beautifully.
