Aussies love a good meat pie.
Its knee-knockingly good comfort food!
Theres plenty of good stuff that falls in between.
Shortcrust base
But if you want to win me over*, bring me a tuna carpaccio or a slow cookedlasagna.
Or a big fat Meat Pie!
- Or just giveDozera lot of attention.
Actually, this is the most effective method!
Meat Pie Filling Your basic meat pie might only be made with beef.
But the addition of mushroom, bacon, celery and carrots only makes it better!
Bacon for flavour, mushroom for just general extra-delicious factor.
It puts your basic store bought pies to shame!
Puff pastry top The traditional topping for Meat Pies is puff pastry.
Shortcrust base
You simply cant top golden, flaky and buttery puff pastry as the lid for a meat pie!
Onion and garlic Essential flavour base for the rich sauce.
Carrots, celery and mushrooms Vegetable add-ins.
Slow cooked beef filling
These introduce a bit of non-meat goodness into the filling.
Without its meat, meat, meat!
Which, while delicious, can be a bit too full-on!
Puff pastry lid
Bacon This is one of my secret ingredients in meat pies.
Also forsausage rolls, for that matter!
Its sauteed at the beginning so other ingredients can be cooked in the bacon fat.
And the bacon releases flavour into the sauce.
But no, it doesnt taste bacon-y at the end!
Yep, we are stealing secrets from the French to make the very best Aussie meat pie!
Nobody wants a meat pie with a pale filling!
Non alcoholic option The best flavour-boosting alternative would be to add anchovies.
It will NOT make it taste fishy but will add some desirable complexity in lieu of beer.
Shortcrust base
See recipe notes for directions.
I think its because beer does so much more heavy-lifting in the sauce compared to wine.
Whichever way you go, Idont recommend using powdered beef stock.
It makes the sauce shiny and thick.
The idea for this pie is as follows.
Adding flour at the start means youre working with an already-thick sauce while it cooks.
We want lovely big chunks, not shredded beef!
It is much, much easier just to use aBeurre Manieinstead to thicken the sauce at the end!
See recipe notes for directions.
But its straightforward, and an excellent leisurely weekend project.
Most of all youll know with just one bite that it was worth every second!
Turn the beef cubes to get a lovely brown crust all over.
Cook ingredients individually We start with bacon, cooked until golden and to release its fat.
We then use the fat to cook the following ingredients.
After the bacon is cooked, add it into the bowl with the browned beef.
We want the mushrooms to get nice and golden and we need enough fat to get there!
Lastly onion, garlic, celery and carrots go in together.
Add liquids Add Guinness, beef stock and water to the pot, then give it a good stir.
Return beef and bacon to pot Then add the browned beef and bacon back into the pot.
Slow cook 2 hours Transfer the pot the oven for 2 hours adding mushrooms at the 1 hour mark.
We add the mushrooms in later so they dont become too soft.
The sauce will have reduced and darkened in colour but will still be very thin.
We are going to thicken it in the next steps.
Simmer for 20 minutes Next, we put it on the stove to simmer for 20 minutes.
During this step, the beef will become fall-apart-tender.
Sauce thickenerBeurre Manie Mix together the flour and softened butter to make aBeurre Manie.
This is going to be mixed into the stew to thicken the sauce.
The butter stops the flour forming lumps when it hits the hot stew (yay!).
The purpose of using a Beurre Manie here is explained in the ingredients section earlier.
It allows us to thicken the sauce without the problem of broken up meat from excess stirring!
The butter just melts in effortless, so you hardly need to stir.
Watch the lump-free thickening magic unfold!
Thickened sauce Continue to cook the sauce for a couple of minutes.
As the flour cooks, it will continue to thicken the sauce.
The goal: A sauce viscosity that is about the consistency of honey, ie.
Thicker than normal stews but not pasty.
When you cut the pie, you want the filling toooze slowlynot run everywhere.
The photo below shows what the filling should look like at this stage fresh off the stove.
It stays crisp!).
Cool filling A VERY IMPORTANT STEP!
The filling must be cooled before using for two reasons.
Firstly, so it doesnt soak into the pie crust base and make it immediately soggy.
Then leave in the pot or transfer to a container.
Let it cool on the counter for a few hours then transfer into the fridge.
Never put a hot pot in the fridge!
PRO TIP:For best results, leave the filling overnight.
As with all stews, the flavour just gets better!
Assembling the Family Meat Pie
Were on the home stretch here!
So close to tasting this magnificent beast!
Blind baking simply means that the crust is partially baked.
It will finish baking once we fill it.
Prevent screen from sleeping
Fill crust Once the crust has been blind baked, let it cool for 15 minutes.
This helps ensure the base stays crispy because the pastry is more porous when hot.
The Pie Filling should be at room temperatureand not cold before filling the pie, for two reasons.
Firstly, fridge-cold filling is stiff and difficult to evenly pack into the pie crust.
Secondly, puff pastry sitting atop fridge-cold filling doesnt cook as evenly.
The edges of the pastry will go beyond brown well before the middle cooks.
Fill the pie crust with the Meat Pie Filling.
It will fill it right to the surface with a slight mound.
The filling sinks a bit as it settles into the casing when in the oven.
Use scissors to trim excess so the puff pastry lines up with the edge of the shortcrust pastry.
Crimp with fork Press down with a fork, to crimp all along the edge.
Nobody wants pie filling bursting out of their pie because of a sloppy job gluing the lid on!
Egg wash Brush the surface with lightly whisked egg so it will bake up beautifully golden and shiny.
PRO TIP:For guaranteed deep golden surface, brush with egg yolk.
Then you need another egg, yolk only, to brush the surface.
Incision Then use a small knife to cut an X in the middle.
This allows steam to escape so the puff pastry lid doesnt distend from trapped steam underneath.
Just bake until that top is golden and flaky!
Voila!Yes, I know its been quite a journey to get here.
But I need you to be patient for just 5 minutes longer!
Its a nice, thick gravy that (mostly) stays in the pie.
Thats exactly what were aiming for!!
Bake ahead and store Let the whole pie cool in the pie dish, then refrigerate.
Once cool, you will be able to lift the whole pie out of the pie tin its solid!
Wrap and refrigerate 4 days or freezer 3 months.
Thaw then bake for 30 minutes to reheat at 180C/350F, loosely covered with foil.
Then refrigerate 2 days (beyond this, thawed puff pastry suffers) or freezer 3 months.
Thaw, egg wash, then bake per recipe.
But for a meat pie, the difference is marginal enough to not matter.
Because nobody ever says no to garlic bread…
Self Saucing Butterscotch Puddingfor dessert.
Warm, soft, caramel flavoured cake AND a butterscotch sauce that magically makes itself?
Its got my name written ALL OVER IT!
If youre about to make this for dinner, Im so jealous.
I want to be you!
I want to be there!
Nagi x
PS See below recipe card for the completeMeat Pie Recipe Collection.
Life of Dozer
Cute when he photobombs day to day candid photos.
Not so cute when he photobombs recipe video shoots.
Oh, who am I kidding.
I think its cute whenever he photobombs ANYTHING!
