Barbecue Pork Pie with Potatoes

This is my own recipe and I use pork shoulder steak because it tends to remain moist (if you don't eat pork, you can certainly use boneless chicken white meat, dark meat or mixed, although I haven't actually used chicken for this specific recipe). You can make your own pie crusts, but it's much easier to use store bought pie crusts, the type you have to unroll, as you will need 2 crusts for each pie. You can cook the pork on the stove top in a skillet, or on the grill or in the oven, but I prefer to bake it for a longer period of time at relatively low heat (started at 325F, but after 20 minutes, turned down to 275 F) until it is nice and tender (the time naturally depends upon how thick the pork steak is). Regardless of the way you choose to cook the pork, first season it with (dry) adobo seasoning, a common dry seasoning mix in some Latino cultures, especially in that of Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States,* and it is easily available in supermarkets and grocery stores and it is not expensive. This is an excellent dish, but it requires balance in getting the filling to a proper thickness; too little and it will be runny, too much and it won't have a good texture. It took me a couple of times making this to get it fine-tuned, but then again, I was a senior in high school before I could recite the alphabet beyond just "A-B-C."

 

Ingredients (for 10 inch pie):

1 to 1 1/4 pound cooked chopped pork shoulder steak (seasoned with adobo seasoning before cooking)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup finely chopped onion (red or white) 

2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons flour mixed with water

1 to 1 1/4 cups barbecue sauce (your preference)

1 1/2 cups potato, peeled and diced into small pieces

1 can (15 to 16 ounces) corn kernels, well drained

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon adobo seasoning

2 pie crusts 

 

First, season both sides of the pork steak with adobo seasoning. In a skillet over medium heat, add the butter and olive oil. Fry the pork steak until done and nice and brown; remove to a plate. In the same hot skillet, add the onion and garlic and saute until softened (it doesn't have to be totally cooked, as it will cook further in the oven with the pie). Slice the pork into bite size pieces and set it and the onion/garlic aside. Simmer the diced potatoes in some lightly salted water until they are just done (you don't want to overcook them and make them mushy, and again, they will cook a little more in the pie), then remove them from the heat, drain them and add them back into the pan. Add the pork pieces, drained corn kernels, pepper, adobo seasoning, barbecue sauce and stir carefully to mix well (you don't want to break up the potatoes). Cook until bubbling, then gradually add the flour/water mixture to thicken the sauce (you may not need all of the flour mixture, or you may need to add a little more, but the sauce needs to be thick, or when you later slice the pie the filling will run out and you'll have to chase it down the street; on the other hand, you don't want the finished pie to be so set, that you need a hammer and chisel to eat it; it requires some balancing here). Heat the oven to 400 F. Put the bottom crust into the pie pan or dish and cover the crust with parchment paper or foil, then fill with dried beans or rice. Bake for 7 or 8 minutes, remove, empty out the beans or rice and carefully remove the parchment or foil. Alternatively, poke numerous holes in the crust with a fork and bake for 7 or 8 minutes until it firms up a good deal, but it doesn't have to be completely baked. (NOTE: If you don't prebake the crust somewhat, the bottom will become soggy when you add the filling and bake it. Poking holes in the crust allows the steam from the baking crust to escape, thus keeping the crust from puffing up. If you use the other method, using parchment/foil and then filling with beans or rice weighs down the crust to prevent puffing up, and it also helps prevent the sides from sagging. Pies like apple or cherry generally don't need to have the bottom crust prebaked, but cream pies or pies with a good deal of liquid will not allow the crust to bake properly and it will be soggy.) Fill the pie crust with the thick barbecue pork mixture (you may have a little left over) and then add the top crust and crimp the edges to seal it to the bottom crust. Cut a few slits in the top crust and bake at 375 F until the top is golden brown (about 60 to 80 minutes, so you need to keep checking once the baking time reaches 45 minutes). Remove the pie from the oven and let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes, or let it cool and then refrigerate it (you can then slice it and briefly microwave slices for about 30 seconds before serving). 

* To make your own adobo seasoning, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/adobo-seasoning.html

WORD HISTORY:

Fair (1)-English has two words of this spelling, and this is the noun for a "place or an event where people gather to buy, sell or trade goods, or to promote products." "Fair" is related to "feast" and "festival," both words of Latin derivation borrowed by English via Latin-based French, and to "fest," a word borrowed from German, which had gotten it from Latin (note: the noun is not related to the adjective/adverb;^ which is from a different source). "Fair" goes back to Indo European "dhes," meaning, "holy, sacred, of a deity or deities." This gave Latin "feriae," with "dhes" taking on an "f" sound in Italic and the derived Latin. "Feriae" meant "religious days;" thus, "holidays," ^^ as seen from the perspective of such days recurring, but then the singular form developed as "feria." The religious holidays brought people together to celebrate with food, drink and entertainment, and the meaning was expanded to include such. The word passed into Latin-based Old French as "feire/faire/foire," and in the increasingly Anglicized French dialect in England as "feyre" (also "fayre?), and English borrowed the word, initially as "feyre/fayre," before the modern form. The idea of places, usually outdoors, that marketed food and drink for special occasions added this element to the meaning of the word, which still continues today, although the products marketed have since expanded beyond food and drink to all sorts of things, like: books, paintings, sculptures, etc, and these are sometimes held indoors (example: "The university is sponsoring an art fair next week"). 

 

^ "Fair" the adjective/adverb has many meanings, including: "relating to pretty and clear or light features" (usually of face and/or complexion and/or hair), "clear" (of weather conditions), "just, imparital" (usually of someone's judgment), and "proper, fitting, not foul" (often of batted baseballs, of certain American-style football catches, points in a debate, then as 'fair game').   

 

^^ German borrowed the word from Latin in the 1400s with the "religious holiday" meaning, but by the 1700s, the idea of being off from work to celebrate the holidays broadened the meaning and gave modern German "Ferien," which means "holiday, vacation."