A cheese and onion pie recipe with a perfect home-made touch

-- Simon Hopkinson is a softly spoken and almost self-effacing chef who never needs to shout to gain attention. For Bloomberg, he’s agreed to share one of his most famous recipes, My Mother’s Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie. Ingredients: For the pastry: 60 grams butter 60g lard 200g self-raising flour pinch of salt 2-3 tablespoons ice-cold water For the filling: 25g butter 3 onions, thinly sliced 1 teacupful of water salt and plenty of freshly ground white pepper 250g-300g Lancashire cheese, coarsely grated a little milk to both seal and glaze the pastry Preparation: To make the pastry, cut the butter and lard into small chunks and place in a large bowl with the flour and salt. Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius/356 Fahrenheit/gas mark 4 and also place a flat baking sheet in there, which will help to cook the base of the pie more evenly. Put the pie on the preheated baking sheet and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 40-50 minutes, or until golden and with a clear indication that tiny oozes of cheese and onion juices are bubbling up through the holes in the middle.