Ingredients

• 2 lb cooked meat (turkey, sausages, ham or whatever is available), loosely forked
• 250 g (8 oz) mushrooms, sliced fairly finely (use open ones for flavour)
• 70 g (2½ oz) margarine
• 50 g (2 oz) plain flour
• ½ pint milk
• ½ pint turkey stock or chicken stock made from a cube
•   salt and pepper
• a pinch ground mace, optional
• 500 g (1 lb) self-raising flour, sifted
• ½ level teaspoon salt
• 175 g (6 oz) shredded suet
• about ½ pint water
• a little beaten egg, to glaze

Method

1. Put the meat into the dish, leaving it loosely forked to allow the mushroom sauce to circulate between the pieces.
2. Wash the mushrooms (there is no need to peel cultivated ones) and slice them fairly finely.
3. Melt the margarine in a fairly large pan, then add the mushrooms and cook them gently until they are almost tender.
4. Stir in the flour, milk and stock and stir the sauce over a gentle heat until it comes to the boil. Season carefully with salt and pepper and a suspicion of ground mace, if available.
5. Pour the sauce over the meat then leave it to cool.
6. Sift the self-raising flour into a bowl with the salt, then mix in the shredded suet. Bind the pastry to a dough with the water — it should be just a little softer than shortcrust pastry.
7. Roll the pastry into a circle to fit the top of the dish. Moisten round the edge of the dish then lift the pastry over the pie; press it firmly to the dish and trim it neatly with a knife.
8. Use any scraps of pastry to make a few leaves to put round the top of the pie. Flute round the edge of the pie with the back of a knife, then brush the surface with beaten egg. Put on the leaves and brush these too with egg.
9. Bake in a fairly hot oven, about Gas Mark 6 / 400°F / 200°C, for about 40 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas.

Notes