Pork and Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

• 500 g lean pork mince (5% fat)
• 1 onion
• 200 g mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp ruby port
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 600 ml pork stock or 1 pork stock cube and 600ml water
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• a few sprigs of thyme
• a handful of sage leaves
• salt and pepper
• 500 g sweet potatoes potatoes
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt

Instructions

1. 1

   --- Make the pork filling ---

2. 2

   Chop the vegetables - Roughly chop the mushrooms (200g) into bitesized pieces. Finely chop the onion (1 onion) and garlic (2 cloves).

3. 3

   Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a large pan. Fry the pork mince (500g) until it browns. Remove from the pan and set aside.

4. 4

   Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan (1 tbsp). Add the mushrooms and onion (not the garlic) and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure that they don't burn.

5. 5

   Add the garlic, flour (1 tbsp) and tomato purée (1 tbsp) and cook for a couple of minutes.

6. 6

   Finely chop the sage (a handful)

7. 7

   Return the pork to the pan and add the port (2 tbsp), worcestershire sauce (2 tbsp), pork stock (600ml), rosemary (1 sprig), thyme (a few sprigs) and chopped sage. Bring to the boil and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally - You want the gravy to be quite thick, if there's a lot of liquid in the pan towards the end of the cooking time then turn up the heat a little. Similarly, if it's becoming too thick, then add a little more water to ensure it doesn't burn

8. 8

   Season with salt and pepper - I prefer to season towards the end of the cooking time once the sauce has reduced. The pork stock tends to be quite salty so you shouldn't need to add much additional salt.

9. 9

   Once cooked, remove the rosemary and thyme stalks

10. 10

    --- Make the mashed sweet potato ---

11. 11

    Peel and chop the sweet potatoes (500g)

12. 12

    Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the potatoes for about 20 minutes, until soft

13. 13

    Drain the potatoes and return to the pan

14. 14

    Mash the sweet potatoes until smooth - I like to use a hand blender to get it really smooth

15. 15

    Add the olive oil (1 tsp) and season with salt. Mix well to combine.

16. 16

    Season with salt

17. 17

    --- Make the pie ---

18. 18

    Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan

19. 19

    Fill the base of an oven-proof dish with the pork filling and spread evenly

20. 20

    Evenly spread the mashed sweet potato on top of the pork filling

21. 21

    Cook for 25 minutes, then serve