For the filling

300g/10½oz good-quality sausages, such as Lincolnshire, skins removed

300g/10½oz pork mince

150g/5½oz cooked ham hock, cut into roughly 1.5cm/½in pieces

2 banana shallots, finely chopped

4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 Teasp dried sage

5 hard-boiled eggs, shelled

1 Red, 1 Orange and 1 Yellow Pepper

Salt and Pepper


For the hot water crust pastry


450gm  plain flour, plus extra for dusting

100gm strong white flour

75gm unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1cm cubes

½ tsp salt

100gm lard, plus extra for greasing

1 Large egg yolk, beaten


  1.  Preheat the oven to 200CFan. Grease a 1kg/2lb 4oz loaf tin measuring about 10x20cm with lard, then cut a long strip of baking parchment, and place it in the tin so that there’s an overhang of parchment at each end, which will help remove the pie later.
  2.  Place the peppers in a roasting tin, drizzle with a little oil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. When cool de seed and cut in to strips, set aside.
  3.  Make the filling. Put all the ingredients, except the hard-boiled eggs and peppers, into a large bowl and season lightly with salt and white pepper. Mix together thoroughly using your hands and keep the mixture cool while you make the pastry.
  4.  To make the pastry, place the flours in a bowl, add the butter and rub in lightly with your fingertips. Heat 200ml water with the salt and lard in a saucepan until just boiling. Pour the mixture onto the flour and mix together with a spoon. Once cool enough to handle, tip onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough.
  5.  Working as quickly as you can as the pastry will become more crumbly as it cools, roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use it to line the prepared tin, leaving the excess hanging over the edges. Press half of the meat filling into the pastry-lined tin and then lay on the roasted peppers.
  6.   Take a thin slice off the top and bottom of each boiled egg (this helps them sit next to each other and makes slicing the pie easier), then place the eggs lengthways down the middle of the pie. Add the remaining meat filling and press down firmly.
  7.  Brush the overhanging pastry edge with egg yolk. Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid and place over the pie. Pinch the pastry edges together to seal and flute the edges neatly.
  8.  Make three steam holes in the top of the pie and brush with more egg yolk.
  9.  Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180C and bake for a further hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
  10.  To remove the pie, turn the tin on its side and use the parchment paper to slide out the pie. Serve cold.