Brawn Pork Pies (or what to do with a pigs head)

I made brawn a little while ago, while it was pretty tasty, I wasn't convinced we were going to eat it as it is a bit firm for spreading on bread - perhaps in the summer with salad. It reminded me a little of pork pie meat, so I thought I would try making this head in to 'brawn pork pies' which would be excellent snack and lunch food.

For the filling I started the same as making brawn and halved the head (they are very small, you need to quarter a full sized head) and boiled for 3 hours until the the meat was falling off the bone. I then diced all the meat and most of the skin and fat - I kept the skin and fat I didn't use for dog treats. I seasoned the mixture with some salt, nutmeg and white pepper and mixed in some sundried tomatoes and dried apricots. I left the mixture in the fridge until cold and set. I then minced it on the course setting and added a bit of fresh minced pork (probably about 1 part fresh pork to 6 parts brawn).

I made pork pie pastry from one of our cookery books (there are lots on the internet) and used the filling as instructed in the recipe.

I reduced some of the gelatin/stock from boiling the heads and when the pies were cooked I poured some of it in to the holes on top. All the pies seem to have a little hole somewhere so I didn't manage to fill them up so there was jelly on top of the meat, but it did add a lot of flavour.

They came out really really delicious. I was very impressed, I think next time I will try without the fresh pork, I just thought they might need it for flavour and texture.

I made some mini ones too which are good too, I used a muffin tin which was a handy hint I saw on the internet somewhere... I put a bit too much meat in so the tops got pushed off during cooking, but they sank back on as they cooled cooled.