This is a take on the classic Kiwi bacon and egg pie. More like a quiche in some ways (there’s no pastry top), it’s rich, comforting and delicious whether eaten warm or cold the next day. To be fair, it’s not that easy to purchase food cooked in the hāngī (traditional Māori earth oven) so you might need to replace the pork with fat smoky bacon lardons or some regular roast pork belly, adding a little smoked paprika to give it that lovely smoky hāngī flavour. At Homeland, we get my old friend Rewi Spraggon – aka the Hāngī Master – to cook various ingredients in his pits at Te Henga Bethells Beach.

Peter Gordon is a restaurateur, writer, food consultant and co-founder of Homeland.

Hāngī pork, kūmara and mushroom pie
Serves 6–8
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes chill time and 30 minutes resting time
Cooking time: Around 45 minutes

Ingredients
20g melted butter
500g puff pastry
50g butter
1 large white onion, peeled and diced>
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
300g thinly sliced mushrooms (button, chestnut and shiitake all work well)
500g hāngī pork belly, diced into 1cm pieces
600g cooked kūmara (steamed or boiled), diced into 2cm pieces
9 eggs
250ml cream
60g grated parmesan, gruyere or cheddar-style cheese
Salt and pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 180˚C. You need a loose-bottomed 30cm round pie tin 3–4cm deep, or you can serve straight from the tin if you use a ceramic pie dish.

Brush the melted butter generously over the pie tin and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Roll the pastry out into a circle 40cm round and around 4mm thick – it needs to be large enough to cover the base of the pie tin and come up the sides with a little overhang. Press it firmly into the chilled tin making sure no air bubbles and fold excess over the rim. Rest in the fridge for 20 minutes. Prick the base with a fork, line with baking paper and half-fill with baking beans.

Place on a tray and blind bake for 15–20 minutes until golden. Leave for 5 minutes then carefully remove the paper and beans and trim the overhanging pastry.

While the crust bakes, heat a fry pan and cook the butter to a nut brown colour over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and 1 tsp salt and cook until softened and beginning to colour, stirring frequently. Add the mushrooms and cook another few minutes until they collapse. Add the hāngī pork and cook for 2 minutes, stirring several times. Mix in the kūmara, take off the heat and spoon half the mixture into the pie crust.

Crack 3 eggs into a bowl. Add the cream, season well with salt and pepper, then beat with a fork for 10 seconds. Stir in the remaining hāngī pork mixture and pour into the pie shell.

Crack the remaining 6 eggs on top of the filling.

Sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake until the egg mixture is set – about 25–35 minutes. Leave to rest in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing.