Hot Pork and Turkey Pies with a Red Wine Gravy

With a fraction of the saturated fat found in its buffet-dwelling cousin, these pork pies are guaranteed to please! A budget-friendly meal which is ideal accompanied by roast potatoes and fresh vegetables. Serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

• 250g diced turkey
• Two strips of pork belly
• Two large shallots, chopped (or one red onion)
• Red wine
• Worcester sauce
• Wholegrain mustard
• Two cups of stock
• Cornflour
• Pre-rolled puff pastry

Cut the pork belly strips into pieces, removing any small pieces of bone that you may find. Pork belly is quite fatty, but don't throw anything away just yet - the fatty bits will add a lot of taste during cooking and can be removed before you assemble the pie.

In a large casserole dish, brown the pork and turkey pieces. Add the shallots and return the lid to the casserole dish for a few more minutes, turning the mixture regularly.

Now add a good slug of red wine and about the same quantity again of stock, then bring to the boil. Add a dash of Worcester sauce and a teaspoonful of mustard. Season with salt and white pepper to taste and leave, covered, to cook on a low heat for 20-30 minutes.

Remove the pork from the heat and, while it cools, roll out the pastry and preheat an oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Spoon the meat mixture into ramekin dishes, first removing any large pieces of fat which remain. You can thicken the gravy if necessary by returning it to the heat and adding a small amount of cornflour mixed with cold water. Add a few spoonsful of gravy to each ramekin dish. As the pies cook, the steam from the gravy will help the pastry to rise. Save any leftover gravy to serve.

Cut some discs of pastry which are about twice as large as the ramekin dishes. Place one over each dish and, rather than cutting away any surplus pastry, tuck it all in to make generous folds. Brush the pie lids with egg or milk and bake until golden.