How The Porlock Pie Was Born

A couple of years ago I wrote the following article for the Western Morning News - and it was one which had its genesis in yet another feature which I’d written some years before that when the fabulous Porlock Oysters began to go on sale…

I try the first Porlock Oyster in a century - this was a few years ago

The oysters are still on sale and are still fabulous - which is why I’d like to give them all the publicity they deserve…. You can find them at Porlock Weir where they are grown or in some local shops…

A chef is smoking them in the ancient coaching inn where he works; a gallery owner is belting around the area with a big dripping box full of them; various folk are busy organising the local food festival as well as a special event at a seaside hotel that will feature them; and I’ve been given the challenge of making something called a Porlock Pie using them. 

Exmoor has been going just a little bit oyster crazy this week as the area’s annual food festival prepares to kick off. At the same time some people have been inspired by the news that the local community-run shellfish business has now come of age. 

Even the TV News people turned up to film the first harvest of Porlock Oysters in years

I have covered the tale of the Porlock Bay oysters before, explaining how the long defunct shellfish beds on the edge of Exmoor had been rejuvenated by a group from a parish council which hopes to build a business that will create local employment. 

Initially the Porlock Futures group was successful in producing some oysters in the bay, but the problem has been in taking the business up through the gears so that it can provide continuous reliable supplies to local chefs and restaurants. 

My old friend Clinton Rogers of BBC Points West (3rd from right) talks oysters at Porlock

At the time of writing this article the Exmoor Food Festival is preparing its annual month-long bout of activities, and a volunteer team overseeing the oyster business has announced the shellfish are ready to be sold on a proper commercial basis - which is why various chefs, like Barrie Tucker of the Luttrell Arms in Dunster, have begun dreaming up new ways of serving them. 

Hence the smoking of oysters. And if you’ve never tried a fresh-smoked oyster then I’d recommend you give it a go. Few morsels I’ve ever tasted have been so intensely flavoured. 

Barrie, who was born and bred in Porlock so has oyster juice in his veins, also pickles the shellfish in a light solution which renders them a truly sensational mouthful. Both are served as part of an immense seafood platter at the 1000-year-old inn which has been doing some great things on the food front in recent times. 

Barrie will also be preparing Porlock Bay oysters in various ways at a special Eat Exmoor food and drink trade show being staged in Minehead in February 7.

Barrie told me: “Local produce is very important to us. We try to involve the smaller producers but that can be difficult because we are such a busy inn. It’s just tying it all in and making it work.

“Chefs need a constant supply when we want it - that would be ideal to showcase local food. At the same time, if people do come in having caught some local fish or whatever, we can put that on the menu as a special. But it does help to get the supply side worked out. 

“I’ve tried doing different things with the oysters - we have pickled them - 27 hours in the a light pickling solution and washed off in spring water. And we smoke oysters over a mix of hickory chips and coffee grounds. Both appear on our seafood platter which is a fruit de mare. The idea was to have a rock-pool on a plate. We also do deep fried oysters.

“All these oyster dishes are easily do-able by your readers at home. And I also think the idea for a Porlock Pie - with local Exmoor venison and oysters - is a good one that could be made by anyone locally.”  

The pie was the idea of local businessman Will Rayner who first tasted cooked oysters at the Hesp household 18-months ago when I made a classic beef and (Porlock) oyster pie, which we featured in the newspaper food pages. I had volunteered to have a go at making a venison version of the pie, which Will says will encapsulated two great ingredients from the immediate area.

“As I run a local gallery business I think it’s important to attract people out of season as well as in the main summer season - and it’s times like this in January and February when we could attract a lot more people into the area if we had a great food product,” he said.

Famous food writers like Lucas Hollweg (right) try out the new pie

“I’m talking about the kind of people who would like to drive out into the countryside and try new things - like these amazing oysters. The thing to remember about any business is that it will always face hurdles in the first two years. And the oysters have managed to clamber across some fairly major hurdles to get to this point. 

“Supply is now much more guaranteed and the oysters are going to go on to greater things. We have a new system in place to look after orders from restaurants etc, and we have a dedicated person in charge of that.

“We hope not to just to create jobs down on the beach but also in local restaurants and so on,” said Will who can’t eat raw oysters in the classic way, which is why he was keen to meet Barrie and talk about other ideas for the shellfish. 

In the meantime I took some oysters home via a West Somerset butcher’s shop where they sell local wild venison and set about what, as far as I know, were the first brace of Porlock Pies ever to be made…

Hesp’s Original Porlock Pie

Because I was using the amazing Judge Pie-Maker I created two individual sized pies, but this recipe could just as well be used for a larger single Porlock Pie which would feed three or four…

400g of Exmoor venison steak, diced

1 large carrot, quartered and cut into 2cm long pieces

6 to 10 oysters, shucked - saving all juices through a sieve 

3 medium onions, chopped

flour for dusting

Half pint of Exmoor Ale or stout or Guinness

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of thyme

Seasoning

For the pastry

300g of plain flour

100g of unsalted butter

100g of suet, shredded

salt

iced water

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 160°C/gas mark 3

Dust the venison with flour and brown all over in a mix of oil and butter in a heavy pan - add onions and carrots for a few minutes more, then pour in the beer or stout, and add herbs. Bring to the boil then place on the lid and put on a low shelf in the oven for 2 to 3 hours. 

Check on the pan regularly because you don’t want the meat to dry out. I used the oyster juices which are salty and sweet and delicious and easily had enough to keep the sauce moist.  

For the pastry, combine flour, butter, suet and salt in a large mixing bowl and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Pour in water and create a rough dough - wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour or more. 

Heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and ladle the stew into a pie dish, distributing the shucked oysters evenly. Place pastry on a floured work surface and roll out to a 1cm thickness, ensuring it is larger than your pie dish. Drape it over the pie dish, trim the edges, then crimp them by using a fork so the lid is closed tightly.

Brush lid with egg-wash before baking on a low shelf in the oven until it has turned  golden after 40–45 minutes.

If you use an electronic pressure cooker to make the meat sauce and a Judge pie-making machine you can follow more or less the same recipe but do the entire job in under half an hour.

Barrie Tucker’s Pickled Porlock Bay Oysters at the Luttrell Arms.

For the pickling solution

650g water

280g sugar

5g juniper 

1 x cinnamon stick

5g star anise

2g cardamom 

10 x black peppercorns

2g thyme

1g rosemary 

1g salt

Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 mins, pass out the aromatics, leave for ten minutes then add the oysters and leave for 22 hours. Remove and store. 

Barrie Tucker explains his recipe to me in the Luttrell Arms kitchen

Luttrell Arms smoked Porlock Bay oysters

Put a handful of hickory chips with a few spoonfuls of dry coffee grounds in a deep metal tray or pan (a wok would be ideal) and place over a hot hob in a place where there’s plenty of ventilation. Seal the tray with foil and heat until you see smoke escaping from the foil.

Having already dried your shucked oysters on paper towels, place them on a metal rack over the smoking bed inside the tray and once again cover with the foil. Smoke for around three to four minutes.  

These smoked oysters are tiny explosions of flavour which would flavour all manner of dishes. Some connoisseurs like them as they are, served on thick buttered toast - but I like Barrie’s idea of incorporating them in a fruits de mare with other marine morsels. At home I had them for lunch with a simple green salad served in mustardy vinaigrette dressing. 

Porlock Pies being made at the Luttrell Arms, Dunster