ALTOGETHER after us: “Five pies of Yuletide, Christmas in a crust, fillings all so festive, smashing mash a must.” OK, not quite Ed Sheeran yet, but Taste of Manchester is working on it as the official ditty for our Christmas bash. Not such a half-baked idea when you consider the quality of pies out there these days. Who needs roast turkey? Here are five festive pie options we are eyeing up.
IT was a close-run thing but their confit turkey pie with pork and apricot, sage and onion stuffing, port and cranberry jus demonstrated why it has scooped gold at the British Pie Awards. OK, we tasted in the optimum surroundings, their smart third branch in the former Hickson and Black premises in Chorlton. Just £4.65 and in a special festive deal for £11.75 you could have it with mash, gravy and a pin of draught ales. We accompanied it with a Tzara, Thornbridge Brewery’s take on a Kolsch style. Lord, which opened by Oliver Doyle in 2011, also has outlets in Stockport and Macclesfield, and is a serial award-winner. 559a Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton, M21 8AN.
THESE peripatetic piemakers have established a cafe in faraway Ambleside but are best known locally for their presence at Altrincham Market. Former policeman Neil Broomfield made an arresting start to his change of career by winning five categories of the British Pie Awards as well as the title of North West Fine Food Producer of the Year. We caught up with his wares on Albert Square next to the Town Hall. Rival pies everywhere but none in the same class. Just the four types on sale, mind, and no concession to festive flavours.
Still we’d love to find a box of Great North’s 14 Hour Braised Beef and Ale (above) under our tree. The ingredients are testimony to Neil’s keen sourcing: Swaledale rare breed beef, Tarn How dark ale, roast carrot and celery, onion puree, redcurrant jelly, bone marrow, mustard and coriander seeds, black onion, pepper. Just £3.95 to take away, too. Handforth-based regulars at Altrincham Market, with a stall currently on Manchester Christmas Market, Albert Square.
YOU can source this nationwide brand from branches of Pi Bar and elsewhere but Pieminster central is certainly their Northern Quarter outlet on Church Street, where there’s a range of specials as punny upfront as a Christmas jumper: Deer Santa (venison, bacon, red wine and green lentil); The Cracker (free range British turkey and Wiltshire cured ham with cranberries, parsnips and sherry); Mistle Moo (British beef steak, bacon, port and chestnut); Christingle (honey roast parsnips, chestnut, West Country Cheddar and leek). If we had to pick a winner it would be that veggie one, the savoury equal of the rest. Not that its target audience will be taking up the option to “pimp up your pie with a pigs in a blanket stick” for £1.50. Prices vary. 53 Church St, Manchester M4 1PD.
THI NQ stalwart, an offshoot of Bakerie, is offering a standrad Christmas menu, albeit with a strong vegan presence, but no pies. So go to the standard pie menu and pick the most seasonally suitable. If it’s on, we’d suggest the Venison and Stilton Pie (£11.95 to eat in with Stilton gravy and mash). The deer meat is British and wild – like the perfect festive bash.Unit 1&2, The Hive, Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN.
Barking Dog Alehouse & Kitchen
YOU have to go out of town to catch up with perhaps the greatest Christmas roast tributeb in a crust. In this converted post office local entrepreneur Mark Rackham has been wowing regulars with a Sunday Roast Pie; now every Sunday in December (and for Christmas party bookings) it is transformed into the Roast Turkey Christmas Dinner Pie with all the seasonal trimmings for £9.50 a pop. As we said, who needs conventional Roast Turkey? 9a Higher Rd, Urmston, Manchester M41 9AB.