After sifting through the hundreds of entries - our judges have whittled it down to our final 3.
All week we're meeting the women behind the pies - yesterday we met our first finalist, along with judge Jean-Christophe Novelli and today it's the turn of Sirah Parkes' Jubilant Game Pie.
Voting will open at 8am on Thursday 8th November at 8am and close Friday 9th November at 12pm.
Sirah's Jubilant Game Pie recipe
Ingredients
For the pastry
225g butter
350g plain flour
1 medium egg
50g dried Parmesan
2tspns dried tarragon
Sea salt & ground black pepper
For the filling
100g fresh spinach
300g field mushrooms
2shallots
2 garlic cloves
200g red potatoes
200g sweet potatoes
50g butter & tbspn veg oil for frying the mushrooms
Sauce
100ml Verne fraiche
45g plain flour
250ml vegetable stock from jelly
3 tbspns dried tarragon leaves
1tbspn Dijon mustard
45g butter
Ground pepper
300g sunblush tomatoes drained for topping
Method
For the pastry
1. Rub the flour and chilled cubed butter together between your finger tips until the mixture reaches a fine breadcrumb state.
2. Add the dried tarragon, dried parmesan, salt and pepper according to taste then add one medium egg with a tablespoon of chilled water and bind the dry crumb mixture together.
3. Knead together just long enough to form a ball, take a quarter away for the lid then roll out the remainder on a lightly floured surface into a circular shape with a thickness of a £1 coin.
4. Once rolled out smooth over with a light dusting of plain flour then line the tin.
5. Using a loose bottom tin you can pop it under the pastry circle once rolled, fold the overlapping pastry onto the base then drop the base with pastry into the tin. Once in the tin gently unfold the edges up the tin sides and smooth out to form the lining.
5. Pop in the fridge while the filling is being prepared. I use a deep loose bottomed, non stick tin around 18cms diameter and around 9/10 cms deep, this gives me a deep filled pie to comfortably feed 8 main course portions.
For the filling
1. Peel and slice the sweet and red potatoes and boil for 6 minutes, once cooking time is finished, drain and cover in cold water to stop cooking process and set aside.
2. Meanwhile fry the shallots in the vegetable oil and butter with the crushed garlic cloves until translucent, then add the sliced field mushrooms until lightly browned.
3. Set aside with the fresh spinach.
For the sauce
1. Dissolve one jelly vegetable stock in 250mls of hot pre-boiled water, then add the creme fraiche, mustard, stir until smooth, then set aside.
2. On a medium heat melt the butter and then add the plain flour and whisk until all lumps are gone, then let it rumble for a minute. Take off the heat and add the stock mix and whisk in.
3. If you prefer your sauce thick place back on the heat whilst stirring for another minute.
4. Stir the sauce gently into the drained potatoes, mushrooms and then lastly add the fresh baby spinach until all filling ingredients are evenly coated.
For the rest
1. Take the prepared pie tin out of the fridge and carefully place into the pie case the filling, ensuring an even distribution of vegetables and sauce.
2. Once the filling has gone into the pastry case, roll out the lid as you did with the pie tin lining and brush the edges with beaten egg then place on top.
3. Pinch the edges between your forefinger and thumb all the way around the top to seal.
4. Cook for 25 minutes at 200 degrees for a fan oven.
5. Remove from the oven and arrange the drained sunblush tomatoes on top then place back in the oven to cook for a further 6 minutes.
6. Allow the pie to stand for 10 minutes then sit the tin on top of a jam jar or similar and gently push the sides of the tin downwards to release the pie from its tin.
7. Slide off the tin base onto its serving plate.