With my expansive family of enthusiastic eaters, I ALWAYS cook in large quantities. This covers the meal of the moment, plus allows for lunchtime leftovers the next day. Sandwiches are sensible, but it is deliciously appealing to open a Thermos or food safe container and find the previous evening’s dinner carefully stored and ready to be enjoyed at work or school. 

When making pie, I usually bake one or two satisfyingly large, deep dish versions. Last night I retrieved my single serve Pillyvuit ceramic ramekins and piled the pie mixture into these instead. My husband took one of the Petite Pork Pies to work today along with a deep container stuffed full of the Garden Salad. The Sweet Corn was snaffled up by the kids – must make even more next time. 

The great advantage of baking single serve pies is the reduced cooking time in the oven. This is particularly useful when time is of the essence, like it was last night. With a Taylor Swift concert looming and hungry children to feed, these pies were a manageable and moreish way to feed everyone up and head out the door on time. My children are HUGE fans of this talented 24-year old songbird and after last night’s concert , I can understand their devotion.The music is catchy, the lyrics lively  – yes, I found myself humming along too – and the performer appears to be sincere, delightful and entertaining. An enjoyable way to kick off the school holidays.  

Petite Pork Pies this will make 8 generously stuffed ramekins. It is best to make the pie mixture in advance, allow it to cool and then pile it into the ramekins. This allows for a crispier pastry finish. It should only take you 20 minutes to prepare the mixture, then another 30 minutes for it to simmer on the stove. 

Olive oil
50 g unsalted butter
1 large Spanish onion
2 cloves garlic
2 little leeks – white part only
1 baby fennel
2 carrots
1 medium zucchini
2 small or 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled
2 medium parsnip, middle fibrous core removed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon plain flour
500 ml chicken stock
1.5 kg pork fillets, cut into bite sized cubes
2 x sheets of butter buff pastry

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot over a low/medium heat. Dice all of the vegetables finely and add them together to the pot.  Sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring to make sure they do not burn. 

Add the pork to the pot. Do not remove the veggies. Increase the heat to medium/high just until the meat has turned opaque. This should take about 5 minutes. Then add the thyme, salt and flour and stir to combine. Cook off for 1 minute. 

Finally pour in the chicken stock, bring to the boil briefly, then simmer on the lowest heat setting for 30 minutes. When cooked, cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge until needed. 

To assemble the pies, first off all pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees on a fan bake setting. While it is warming up, pile the mixture evenly into the ramekins and top with a round of pastry. Use the ramekins as a guide to cutting out the pastry. Brush the top of the pastry with egg and milk whisked together, This will give it a golden glow. 

Bake for 15 minutes. If serving to little ones, cool the outside of the ramekins by sitting them in a dish of cold water. The mixture will be very hot, so you may even want to scoop out the pies out onto a plate for them.