First make the pastry. Break your egg into a smallbowl. Put the flour into a large bowl and make awell in the centre. Add the egg to the flour and stir in briefly.
Put the lard in a pan with 175 ml water, the saltand sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring as the lardmelts. When it comes to the boil, count to 30seconds and immediately take the pan off the heat.Pour the liquid into the flour mixture, stirringcontinuously with a wooden spoon.
When the mixture forms quite a sticky dough,cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave torest and cool for 1 hour.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Flatten it out with your hands.
Fold the dough into thirds by taking one side intothe centre and pressing down with your fingertips.
Next, bring the opposite side over the top. Press down again with your fingertips.
Flatten the dough into a rough oblong shape, liftonto a baking tray, then cover with greaseproofpaper and put into the fridge to rest for at least 30minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas 4.
While the pastry is resting, make the filling. Dicethe pork belly and shoulder roughly and mix withthe anchovies and sage. Put this mixture into a food mixer with a mincer attachment (use the onewith the larger holes) and grind to the texture ofmincemeat. Alternatively, place in a food processorand pulse briefly, stopping and starting, until youhave the required texture. (By pulsing in shortbursts you will avoid overdoing it and ending upwith meat paste.) If you don’t have a machine, youcan chop all the meat very finely with a big knife; itis just a bit more tedious.
Cut the bacon or pancetta into small pieces andstir into the minced meat. Add the nutmeg, thenseason and mix well. To test that it is seasoned toyour liking, take a little bit of the mixture and fryit in a pan. Make sure it is cooked through, thentaste it and adjust if necessary.
Take the pastry out of the fridge – by now it shouldbe firmer. Roll it briefly on a lightly floured worksurface. Fold it into three and roll outagain about 3–4 mm thick.
Finally, using a pastry cutter or saucer about 12cm in diameter, cut out eight circles. Now use acutter or glass tumbler 8 cm in diameter to cut out another eight.
Lightly grease 8 dariole moulds, then dust withflour, emptying out the excess. Line each mouldwith a circle of pastry, pushing it gently into thebase and against the sides, and leaving about1cm overhanging the rim. An easy way of doingthis is to drape your pastry over a smaller upturnedmould or glass, then put the dariole mould youwant to line over the top.Turn both over and remove the smaller mould orglass.With your fingertips, press the pastry well into thebase and sides of the mould.Repeat with the rest of the moulds. Now you areready to fill them.
Divide the meat mixture between them, then tapeach mould on the work surface to help the meatsettle down. Put an 8 cm circle of pastry over thetop of each mould. Starting in the centre andworking outwards to the edges, press it gently ontothe meat with your fingertips without stretching it.Crimp the edges of the pastry together all around,making sure they are firmly sealed.
Brush the top of each pie with the beaten egg,then use a skewer to make a hole in the top of eachone to allow steam to escape in the oven.
Place the moulds on a baking tray and bake for40 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through(a skewer inserted into the centre of the pies shouldcome out piping hot, or a meat probe should register
87–90ºC). Leave the pies to cool for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the jelly. Soak the gelatine leavesin cold water for at least a couple of minutes to
soften them, then squeeze out the excess water.Heat the chicken stock and sherry in a pan, then
add the squeezed gelatine. Stir well until thegelatine has dissolved. Take off the heat and leave
to cool a little, but not too much or the jelly willstart to get too thick to pour.
When the pies are cool, take a little funnel, pipingnozzle or a syringe (or make a small cone with
some greaseproof paper) and push it into the holeyou made in each pie. Carefully pour or syringe in
enough jelly to come to the top. Put in the fridgefor 8 hours to set, then turn out and eat!
