Loaded with tender morsels of meat and creamy ground pork all packed up in a melt-in-your-mouth flaky crust, this is definitely a meat pie to be remembered.
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 6 hourshours
Total Time 7 hourshours
Servings 24
Calories 457kcal
Author Sonia! The Healthy Foodie
Ingredients
Part I
5kgpastured pork shanks8 to 12, depending on size; yields about 900g cooked meat
In a heavy skillet set over high heat, melt a good amount of cooking fat, preferably lard.
While the pan is heating up, mix all the spices of "Part I" together in a large plate. Pat the pork shanks dry and dredge them in that spice mixture, making sure that all sides are well coated.
Add the shanks to the hot pan, 4 at a time, and sear them nice and good on all sides, until a nice golden crust forms, about 3-4 minutes per side. Add more fat when/if necessary.
Place the shanks in a Dutch oven, add the water, onions, savory, mustard, parsley, as well as the rest of the spice mixture that didn’t get used to coat the pork shanks.
Cover and place to cook slowly in the oven for about 4 hours, or until meat falls off the bones.
Remove shanks from the cooking liquid and set aside to cool. Strain cooking liquid if necessary and return to Dutch oven.
Add ground pork, ground beef and spices included in "Part II" of the recipe. Mix well with a large spoon until the meat is completely broken down into what almost looks like a puree.
Place this back in the oven, partly covered, for about 1½ hour, taking care to mix well from time to time.
While the meat is cooking, and when your shanks are cool enough that you can safely handle them, pick the meat out and set it aside; discard bones and fat.
Toast the hazelnut flour over medium high heat in a dry skillet, constantly whisking until the flour takes a nice caramel brown color and starts to smell really good.
When the minced meat is fully cooked and the liquid has pretty much completely evaporated, add toasted hazelnut flour and shank meat and mix well.
Return to oven, uncovered, for another 20-25 minutes or until the cooking liquid has completely evaporated.
Allow your meat mixture to cool then divide between 2 large pies or 24 individual pies. (see this post for pie crust recipe and instructions)