Tonight I made 12 meat pies. No frills, just home made meat pies. Suggest this would be a great starter recipe for the kids to start their love for cooking!
Preheat your oven to 225C
Brown a large diced onion (or two small onions) in olive oil. Add your diced Gravy Beef and start to brown. Add your premium mince meat, cracked pepper, Murray River Pink Salt, a teaspoon of powdered Massel chicken stock and a handful of chopped Continental parsley. Let it cook, stirring regularly. Add a cup of water. Let it all cook for about 30 mins as the liquid boils off. We want the liquid to boil off. Add 200ml of Beerenberg Worcestershire sauce (from the German Village of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills) and the same amount of tomato sauce. These two ingredients really flavour the meat so the drier the meat when these two sauces are added, the more they will absorb.
Two types of pastry are required. Shortcrust pastry for the base and puff pastry for the lid. Thawed Pampas Pastry sheets have been my pastry sheets of choice for years. I highly recommend them. They will thaw on the bench top in minutes. Quarter cut each sheet to provide four smaller squares per sheet. Lay the Shortcrust pastry on your pie tin. Add the meat pie filling. Add it hot. The pie filling will cause the pastry to sink into the tray and provide the perfect pie dish shape. Make sure every pie gets a mix of mince and gravy beef. Good chunky meat pies are best!
Once filled, lay your puff pastry on top and gently break away the edges to leave what appears to be an uncooked pie! Prick the top with a fork to allow the heat to flow. Crack and beat and egg and brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg. Add cracked pepper if you choose. I put cracked pepper on four only.
Place into the oven for about 20 mins or until the pastry is golden and shiny. Allow to cool before removing the pies from your pie dish.
These pies do not need tomato sauce because they are so good as they are, but you may be forgiven if you cover them with tomato sauce!