We have been inundated with CFLB supporters offering to help, like John Hunter, a self-confesed food obsessive who loves cooking and writing about good old British grub. So here’s Johns first installment of his Great British Food blog. Enjoy.

For our American cousins who’ve never been fortunate enough to have one, I give you: The Great British Pork Pie.

I have such fond memories of cracking that golden-baked pastry crust and chomping down for those silky nuggets of perfumed pork. For me, it’s one thing that represents the best of English cooking. My mother used to buy them in family sizes, perfect for slicing thickly at home to pair up with beans and mustard, or wrapping in brown paper and taking along to a picnic or school for the best packed lunch ever. I was the envy of all the other kids who only had Mother’s Pride fish paste sarnies. Pork Pies, or ‘Growlers’ formed a popular part of my childhood diet, because I was hand-reared in the North of England, home to the World’s finest pork pies.

I live in Brooklyn, New York, a land blessed with some fine pies, albeit of the fruit variety. My hunger for pork pies and Cornish pasties went unabated until another Limey told me about the incredible Myers of Keswick, a Greenwich Village-based purveyor of all things British, and Peter & Irene Myers make their own pies and pasties on the premises. I am a regular visit at Myers, and I always make a short detour to the White Horse Tavern for a Newcastle Brown after a few of Myers’ handmade delicacies.

Hudson Street is a bit out of the way for this Brooklyn resident, and I decided it was time to get the apron on, and try building my own at home. I didn’t expect the bloody ingredients to cost $40, but I wanted to test myself and see what I could manage. I followed this recipe and look at the results…It was delicious. Meaty, crusty, very satisfying.