food Brendons Bacon and Egg Pie Serves 68 Ingredients 150g unsmoked back bacon rashers 2 tbsps finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 810 medium eggs 1 medium egg, beaten, or milk or cream, to glaze salt and ground black pepper tomato ketchup, to serve For the pastry 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting a pinch of salt 125g lard Method n Preheat the oven to 220C and put a baking tray inside to heat. To make the pastry, put the flour and salt in a large bowl, and rub in the lard with your fingertips until it resembles fine crumbs. Using a fork, stir in 45 tablespoons of cold water until the dough just begins to hold together. Bring the dough together into a ball and knead lightly for a few seconds. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes before using. n Cut the bacon into pieces of roughly 2 x 1cm and cook in a frying pan over a medium heat, without any additional fat, until the lean is pink and the fat is white and opaque. Leave to cool. n Take two-thirds of the pastry and roll it out to make a circle 25cm in diameter. Use this to line a 20cm pie plate. Scatter the bacon pieces over the pastry and sprinkle with a little of the parsley. Season with black pepper. n Break the eggs, one by one, into a saucer (trying not to break the yolks) and gently slide each one onto the top of the bacon. Add salt, pepper and parsley to each as you go. n Roll out the remaining pastry to make a circle large enough to cover the top of the pie. Brush the edge of the pastry base in the pie dish with water and cover with the pastry lid, trimming nicely and crimping together well. Cut a hole in the middle and brush with beaten egg. n Put the pie on the heated tray and cook for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180C and bake for a further 10 minutes to set the eggs. The pie is excellent hot, warm or cold. The traditional Australian accompaniment is tomato ketchup, which helps to cut the slightly dry richness of the yolks.