Meat Pies

Irresistable crisp pastries with a fantastic ground meat filling. These taste great with lemon squeezed on top!

INGREDIENTS

1kg beef mince
½ kg onions
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. garlic and ginger paste
bunch of chopped coriander
pepper, salt, turmeric, and if you have cumin powder or any other spices of your choice
garam masala
2 chopped green chili
1 tbsp. butter
1 egg (separate yolk from white)

1 pastry block (you can buy this from any bakery)

INSTRUCTIONS

Dry in a pan over medium heat the mince meat with all the spices, salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, chili and coriander. Once completely dry pour it all out into a bowl. You will re-use the pan later.

Peel and grate or finely dice the onions. Using the same pan that you had used to dry the mince, put the spoonful of butter and lower the flame until the butter melts. Pour in the onions and stir fry until they become soft. Add a bit of turmeric powder to color them slightly and powdered black pepper.

Once the onions are nice and soft, pour in the dried mince from before. Stir together and leave on the heat for some time, about 5 mins or so, stirring constantly so the mince doesn't stick. Check for salt/pepper. Switch off the heat once you find the mince dry enough such that it sticks to the bottom of the pan. Squeeze some lemon and sprinkle a bit of garam masala.

Let this mixture cool completely.

Cut the block pastry into squares of about 5 cm. (You can cut them bigger if you prefer big pies). Roll the squares out flat and then pour in some mixture. (Some people like adding a bit of mashed potato to hold the mince together but I normally don't because potatoes don't keep well in the freezer, they release some water and spoil the food later. So unless you're sure all will be had within a couple of days, avoid mixing potatoes with the mince! Instead use egg white as I will explain in the next step)

Before folding over to close the square, drizzle a bit of the egg white on the mince that’s in the pastry to hold the meat together so it doesn’t drop while eating. Fold the square diagonally to form a triangle and then press down the edges with the end of a fork to give it a nice finish.

Poke the top of the pie a few times with the fork to make a way for the air to escape while baking otherwise the pies will swell too much in the oven.

(PS: At this stage, you can lay the pies out on a flat tray and freeze them, and once hardened you can pack them in cellophane bags and store in large tins in the freezer for future. That's what I normally do when am free so that all I have to do when I next want meat-pies and don't have time to make them (or have sudden unexpected guests) is to take them out of the freezer, apply the yolk and put them directly into the oven. You won't even need to thaw them out, just preheat the oven while you're brushing them with yolk and put them right in!) :D

Before baking, brush the tops of the pies with the yolk. Pre-heat oven to about 175 degrees C before putting the greased tray in. Let them bake for about 25 mins to half an hour depending on the size of your pies. You can adjust and lower the heat if you want them to get baked longer so that the end result becomes more crispy.

Serve hot or cold!!