British Pie Week

Last week was British Pie Week. I'm never sure what we're meant to do with this information. Personally, I'm doing all that I can to support the UK pie industry throughout the year, week in week out. As I've mentioned on my blog before, my favourites are from the Great North Pie Co. We bumped into Neil Broomfield at his stall on Sundays Altrincham Market and gladly took some of his current Winter flavours off him. It was hard to choose between our favourites (like choosing a favourite child) they were all lovely, but in order of preference, on this occasion, we enjoyed;
Beetroot, goats cheese, spinach & hazelnut. Five mile goats cheese, beetroot marinated in honey and sesame, beetroot cream, spinach, toasted hazelnuts, sesame and black onion seeds. (Our surprise favourite this time, it really was gorgeous).
Venison, Stornoway black pudding, bramble jelly. Minced Scottish venison, Charles Macleod's black pudding, shiraz wine, swede and carrot with star anise, bramble jelly, mustard, fennel and sage.

Classic Lancashire Cheese and Onion. Dewlays Tasty Lancashire cheese, caramelised white onion, white pepper, nutmeg and Japanese panko breadcrumbs. The classic, you can really taste the onion.  
Goosnargh Chicken, Chorizo and Apple Cream. Corn-fed chicken from Goosnargh, Chorizo cream, apple butter from Galore Wholegrain mustard, smoked salt, tarragon, coriander, poppy seeds and caraway. 

I was thinking about why I enjoy these pies more than any other and I think it's because Neil is a proper food lover and clearly has a good palate, so you can really taste all the individual flavours rather than being a homogenised sludge like you get in industrially made pies. They also have a bit of a twist on the usual varieties that you find. As long as they keep making them, I'll keep eating them.

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