Pork and Apple Pie

Thrift has always been something that I take great pride in. I can remember my mother using up every scrap of whatever she cooked when I was growing up. Nothing was wasted, ever. Sadly now, here in the UK, we waste 6.7 million tons of food every year, which is really astonishing, especially when you think of how many people there are starving in the world at any given time, . . .

 

Whenever my mother cooked a roast . . . be it a beef, or pork, or  chicken or a turkey . . . she got as many meals from it as possible. We'd have it as a roast on the day with some veg on the side. Day Two saw us having it again, sliced cold with more veg, or even salad. Day Three  meant that any veg or meat that was left got made into pot pies, a really ingenius way to stretch a little meat, veg and gravy. We loved my mom's pot pies. If there was no veg, a bag of frozen mixed veg was perfect and it was very simple to boil up a few potatoes and chop them up. With some gravy, minced onion and a few herbs her pot pies kept us coming back for more! Pot pie night was our favourite night, even tastier than the roast.

 

Day Four brought us a delicious pot of soup, made from the bones or carcass. My mother made and still makes the best soup on the face of the earth. Thick and delicious we always called it stewp. It was a meal in and of it self. Even today when we go to visit we can trust that there are several ice cream buckets of soup laying in the freezer waiting for our arrival. Beef, or Chicken, maybe turkey and French Canadian Pea soup made from the bone of our Easter Ham.



I cooked us a nice roast dinner on Saturday night to celebrate our Anniversary.  The Toddster does love a roast dinner, but I so seldom (read never) have the time to do a proper one on Sunday, and so . . .  even though our anniversary was today, we had our celebration meal yesterday.



With the leftover sliced pork and gravy I made us a Pork and Apple Pie today . . .

Pork and apples go so very well together. We always eat pork with applesauce, so why not include apples in a pie??? Why not, I say, why not!!

I did.

It was deliciously scrumptious.



Out of that pork shoulder roast I cooked on Saturday night, we got a celebratory roast dinner, plus the pork and apple pie tonight, and I'll probably do a hash of all of the leftover bits, plus the leftover potatoes and carrots and sprouts from the other night . . . that will be tomorrow night.  And I know it will be tasty too.

This  is thrift and economy at it's very best.



*Pork and Apple Pie*
Serves 4
 Printable Recipe

This is one of the favourite things I like to do with leftover Roast Pork. It's also perfect for this time of year because of all the apples we end up with, and that I need to get used up. Pork and apple are perfect partners!

2 1/2 cups, more or less, cold roast pork, cut into cubes
2 medium to large tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup of leftover gravy
salt, pepper
Summer Savoury
Short crust pastry to cover

Pre-heat the oven to 200*C?400*F. Lightly butter a shallow baking dish.

Place alternate layers of the pork and apple into the prepared baking dish, sprinkling each layer lightly with some salt, pepper and summer savoury. Pour the gravy over the top when done layering. Cover the top with pastry, crimping the edges around the dish. Prick or slash the top. Brush with a bit of beaten egg yolk if desired, and sprinkle with some sea salt and cracked black pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the crust starts to brown. Reduce the heat to 180*C/350*F and bake for another half hour, until the apples are soft and the filling is bubbling nicely away.

I usually serve this with some extra gravy, peas and carrots, as well as some mash or chips on the side. It makes Todd a very happy camper, and when he's happy . . . I'm happy too!