“Then I would be slap-dashing home, the gravy smell of the dinners of others, the bird smell, the brandy, the pudding and mince, coiling up to my nostrils” – Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales
There’s something intrinsically British about Christmas in my mind. Yes, Christmas traditions from mainland Europe are all well and good, but the Brits have Dickens, Dylan Thomas, Panto, Good King Wenceslaus, mulled wine and mince pies. You’ll forgive my bias if I declare the British Christmas to be my favorite.
In my determination to make Christmas in California into the Union Jack version of itself, I decided to make mincemeat pies one year. To my dismay, the recipe I found did not include actual meat. “Meat” in a mincemeat pie is frequently figurative, like the way they call just about everything a “pudding,” when it clearly isn’t, and how “terrine” is never called what it actually is: cat food. Despite the lack of animal products, I pressed on, combining raisins, sultanas, currants, brown sugar, nutmeg, chopped apple, orange peel, and a dose of brandy and spooning the mixture into pie shells.
It was chewy. And sweet. And not something I’d make ever again.
Somewhere in my half-English heart, I knew that wasn’t the mince pie of my forefathers. I wanted something savory and sweet. Comfort food of the first order.
It turns out that the history of the Mince Pie can be traced back to the Crusaders – when they returned home from the Middle East, they brought with them Ye Olde Food Fusion: the idea that spices and dried fruits could be combined with meat. It’s a Middle Eastern recipe scooped into a British pastry shell. These early pies were big and hearty, only shrinking and ditching the meat in the Victorian era. I wanted a warrior’s pie. So I made one up.
The Original Middle Eastern Fusion Mince Meat Pie: Courtesy of the Crusaders
Ingredients:
- 4 strips of bacon
- 1 apple, chopped fine
- 1/2 onion, choppped fine
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 20 oz ground meat (I used turkey, wished I had pork, would settle for beef)
- 4 whole cloves
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- grated nutmeg to taste
- raisins/sultanas/currants – whichever you prefer
- 1 cup chickpeas (or chopped potato)
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 packet brown gravy mix with 1 cup water
- pine nuts
- prepared pie crust (top and bottom)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cook the bacon in a large skillet, then set aside bacon retaining the delicious bacon grease. Throw in apples, onions, cloves and brown sugar, cooking until nicely browned and beginning to caramelize. Add in the rest of the spices and stir until fragrant. Add in the ground meat and cook thoroughly.
Once the meat is cooked through, add the gravy, honey, raisins, chickpeas, and pine nuts and mix well. Then Taste to make sure the mixture has that perfect combo of sweet and savory.
Scoop into pie shell and cover with the top crust, making sure to cut venting holes.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden – you may have to tent the sides of the pie crust with foil to prevent burning midway through.
What did you make for the Holiday table? Tell me in the comments, and if you have a blog, join the link party!