Recipe: Umble Pie joins the menu at The Minnis

As summer draws to its close, the popular Minnis Bar & Restaurant overlooking the coast at Birchington-on-Sea in Kent, has announced that it will be serving old fashioned home-made pies every Wednesday night throughout autumn and winter from 1 October.

“Proper” pies

The award winning kitchen, renowned for its use of local, seasonal fayre, will be serving “proper” pies – with a top, side and bottom: “These will be proper, big English pies, with home-made pastry with delicious fillings – not the pretend variety with silly bought-in puff pastry lids plonked on top of a casserole,” said The Minnis’ chef patron, Jason Freedman, who will be offering a minimum of three pie varieties.

These will include Kentish Beef and Gadds’ Ale, Local Fisherman’s Pie, Beef & Whitstable Oyster, Wild Venison, Caramelized Onion, Butternut Squash & Merlot, Free Range Chicken & Gourmet Mushroom and Kentish Ashmore Cheese, Broccoli & Potato.

Freedman will also trial such dishes Umble Pie (pictured) using a medieval recipe with deer offal, and a gourmet version of a classic Victorian Pie & Mash with green parsley liquor.

The pies will be offered as part of two- and 3-cou​rse menus at £12 and £16 respectively, but the pie will be the centre piece of a  warming, wholesome fixed price meal, which can be enjoyed whilst looking out across a bitterly cold North Sea from the beach front restaurant.

Recipe for Umble Pie

“Umbles” is an archiaic term for deer offal or entrails. Umbles were eaten widely by servants and peasants in the middle ages, when venison was the preserve of the aristocracy. The saying “To eat Humble Pie” is derived from this dish.

This recipe is sufficient for about 8 people, and preparation time is about 45 minutes

Ingredients

• Filling
  • entrails of a deer – heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, stomach and intestine.
  • beef suet to the same weight as the deer entrails
  • 10 cloves
  • 1 tsp mace
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 pounds of currants
  • ½ lb pound of caramelised orange and lemon peel
  • ½ lb dates
  • large glass of red wine
  • salt
• Pastry
  • flour, salt and water

Method

1. Remove the offal from the deer.  Clean and wash the stomach and intestine thoroughly.
2. Parboil the umbles
3. Remove the fat
4. Add the beef suet and mince finely
5. Season with the cloves, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
6. Stone and dice the dates and add along with the  currants, candied citron to the umbles and suet.
7. Whilst the mixture marinades, prepare your pasty. Line the bottom and sides of a large pasty dish. Fill the pie and lid
8. Bake until cooked.  Add red wine and serve.

The Minnis Bar & Restaurant, The Parade, Birchington, Kent CT7 9QP

For more information click here

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