I decided to try to make a meat pie just like the ones
you can buy in any dairy (convenience store).
It was an epic effort which was only partially successful.
First I had to buy the pie tins. Then on one day I made the filling and the
next day baked the pies. That's a lot of
work for something I could nip down the road and buy cheaply.
Ingredients:
1/3 onion
Garlic oil/olive oil
1/3 stalk of celery
2/3 kg of cross cut blade steak, cubed
2 tsp tomato paste
1/3 cup red wine
1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
1/1/3 cup beef stock
1 dessert spoon cornflour (cornstarch)
Salt and Pepper
Store bought shortcrust and puff pastry
1 egg (for an egg wash for the pastry)
Note these ingredients were based on making 2
individual pies.
Method:
Fry the finely chopped onion and celery very gently in
your oil until nice and soft. If you are
ok with garlic you could add a minced clove of garlic here. Take the onion/celery out and then turn up
the heat and brown the steak in batches.
Once all the meat is browned put the onion/celery back
and add the tomato paste, wine, Worcestershire sauce and stock. Stir well with a wooden spoon to get the bits
off the bottom of the pan to be incorporated.
Simmer uncovered for 2 hours. At
that stage there shouldn't be too much liquid left. Thicken with the cornflour (which you mix
with a little cold water first). Taste
and add salt and pepper as required.
Then let the mixture cool. I left it in the fridge overnight. Apparently it is a big mistake to try to bake
the pies while the mixture is hot.
The next day I buttered the pie tins (which might on
reflection have been a mistake). I
covered the base and sides of the tin with shortcrust pastry. I then spooned the filling in and popped a
round of puff pastry on top. I then
brushed the top with the egg wash.
So far so good.
Into an oven preheated to 180 degrees C for 30 minutes. The resulting pies looked and smelled
fantastic.
I took pics while they were in the tin – which was just
as well since the bottom fell out of both pies when I tried to turn them out. So we ended up eating them from the tin. Flavour good, pastry on top, fab. Pastry on the bottom undercooked and soggy.
Any ideas as to what went wrong much appreciated. All I can think of is that maybe I should
have blind baked the pastry (although the recipe didn't call for it), maybe the
buttering of the tins was a mistake too.
And I did put them on a oven rack toward the top of the oven…. Sigh.
mmmm...this looks amazing Carole. Maybe spray with Pam cooking spray and then let them cool a bit before popping them out.
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