RUSSELL Clarke has got his ‘pies’ on the prize after his vegetarian recipe was short-listed for a national pie competition last week.

The Bournemouth photographer from Queen’s Park, was competing against 700 people in the contest run by Dorset-based brewery Badger ales. “I can’t cook to save my life, but I do enjoy food,” he explained.

“I particularly like a glass of real ale and a pie for lunch, but I’m a vegetarian and most pubs don’t offer vegetarian pies, so when I saw the competition, I thought I would come up with my own recipe.”

Russell’s mouth-watering recipe includes wild mushrooms, acorn squash, puy lentils and Badgers Poacher Ale in a short crust pastry.

Anna Corbett, brand manager at Badger, said: “We launched this competition to find the perfect pie made with a Badger beer. We believe good pies typically consist of three things: a crust, a delicious filling and of course a Badger beer. We are delighted with the variety of entries we’ve received which all sounded delicious with great flavour combinations.

“It was a hard task sifting through the entries to choose the eight pies to go through to the awards ceremony at Hall & Woodhouse in Bath.”

The semi-final judging took place in early February and included well-known food and drinks writer Fiona Beckett on the judging panel.

The winning pie will be professionally produced and launched as a special in selected Hall & Woodhouse public houses in autumn 2014. The winner will enjoy a two-night beach break at The Lulworth Cove Inn, a VIP brewery tour, a gift box and £200 travel and subsistence.

The finals were taking place on the day Taste went to press, so find out next week how Russell does.