Best Ever Meat Pie
- Replies 21
With the cold weather we need comfort food and what is better than a chunky meat pie.
Where the meat is slow cooked first. See right at the bottom for a mince meat version
Where the meat is slow cooked first. See right at the bottom for a mince meat version
Ingredients
PIE Base
- 3 frozen shortcrust pastry sheets, thawed
PIE LID:
- 3 frozen puff pastry sheets, just thawed
- 1 egg , lightly whisked
FILLING:
- 1.25 kg beef chuck , cut into 2.5cm cubes
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
- 2 – 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , diced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 5 tbsp flour , plain/all purpose
- 3 cups beef stock, salt reduced
- 1 cup dry red wine or add another 1/2 cup beef stock
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp black pepper , coarsely ground
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
FILLING:
- Sprinkle beef with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Add 1/3 of the beef and brown aggressively all over, then remove. Repeat with remaining beef, adding more oil if needed.
- Turn stove down to medium high. Add garlic and onion, cook 3 minutes.
- Add flour, stir through.
- Slowly add beef stock while stirring constantly. Once flour is dissolved, add wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire, pepper and bay leaves.
- Return beef into pot, cover with lid, adjust heat so it’s simmering gently.
- Simmer 1 hr 45 minutes. Remove lid, increase heat slightly and simmer 30 – 45 minutes, stirring regularly, or until beef is fork tender and liquid reduces down to a thickish gravy, just about covering beef . Do not reduce liquid too much – thickens more as it cools & in pie.
- Remove from stove, cover and cool filling (I usually leave overnight).
PASTRY:
- Preheat oven to 180C or 160 fan-forced
- Cut out 6 rounds from the shortcrust pastry, then gently put pastry into pie tins – don’t stretch and pull pastry, causes shrinkage.
- Place pies on tray. Top each pie with large sheets of baking paper and fill with pie weights (Note 7).
- Bake 20 minutes, remove, then use paper overhang to carefully remove pie weights.
- Return crusts into oven for 5 minutes or until base is light golden and dry (can skip, Note 8). Remove from oven.
ASSEMBLE PIES:
- Fill pies with cooled filling, push down to fill. Should be slightly mounded.
- Cut rounds from partially thawed puff pastry – cut them slightly larger than the edge of the cooked pastry bases.
- Brush edge of pie crusts with egg, then place lid on filling, pressing edges to seal puff pastry to the shortcrust pastry.
- Brush lids with egg, then cut a 1cm incision in the middle using a small knife.
- Bake 30 minutes or until deep golden and puffed.
- Serve hot and fresh, topped with tomato sauce if desired!
Recipe
Cutting rounds– I use the top of a pie dish that I am using
1. Make sure rounds are big enough so it covers the lip of the pie tin as well – better to have pastry too large than too small, it will shrink slightly.
2. I get 4 lids out of each
3. Beef– chuck beef is ideal for this recipe. Do not try this with gravy beef – too lean.
4. Beef stock– I use store bought. Or if I have previously made a homemade batch
5. Pie tins– I used reusable pie tins from Woolies or big W 10 cm
6.Fitting pastry into pie tins– drape and gently push in, do not stretch and pull pastry (this will cause pastry to shrink when it bakes).
7. Pie weights– that weigh down the pastry to stop it from puffing and shrinking while it bakes. I use dried rice, dried beans or similar
8. Pastry 2nd bake– this is just to dry the base out and make it crisp, if not needed then skip the 2nd pastry bake.
9. Beef mince– old school meat pies are made with beef mince but chunky style are more highly regarded for flavour and eating experience!
MINCE MEAT PIE
- Cook onion and garlic, then add 1.3 kg beef mince and brown
- Add flour and remaining ingredients per recipe including pepper but DO NOT ADD SALT
- Add 1 beef cube, crumbled
- Simmer gently, covered, for 1 hr 20 minutes
- Uncover and reduce for 20 minutes
- Add up to 1 tsp dark soy sauce or extra worsteshire sauce to make the sauce colour a nice brown and adds flavour , simmer for 5 min. Add normal salt if you want it saltier.
- Cool then use as filling per recipe.
10. Storage– Cooked pies keep in the fridge for up to 5 days
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