Pies

I want to make a meat pie for dinner, does anyone have a recipe?

Also add your favourite pies recipes here mmm

ha ha yip not a diet food, got beef & want to use pudgy's pastry recipe

Here is my steak and cheese recipe- please note: I made this up for a (very) learner cook so that's why its so spelled out!!

Ingredients to make one large pie:
500gm steak
Packet of savoury pastry- flaky is good
Cheese- whatever type you like
Beef stock- the dry kind- oxo cubes are great
Salt and Pepper – for taste
Cornflour – this is a thickening agent

1. Cut up the steak into cubes. Smaller pieces cook faster and are easier to eat, but make sure they aren’t too small, as they might break apart
2. Add a little oil to a frying pan (not too shallow) and brown the steak (until browned all over, but not burnt). Best to brown it over a high heat for a few minutes and then lower the heat to a low temp, so that the meat can simmer.
3. Mix up 2 cups of stock. One oxo cube = 1 cup of cold water. Add to the steak and let simmer (mid-low temperature, until you see bubbles, but only very small ones or some movement in the water) for around 30 mins. The liquid will still be quite watery, but that’s ok. This is the time that you should season to taste with the salt and pepper.
4. While the steak is simmering, turn the oven on to 180° C and make sure the tray is about half way down- too high and the top of the pie will burn.
5. Get out the dish that you are using and tear off some baking paper and place inside. It wont sit nicely for now, but that’s ok- just as long as it covers the entire inside of the dish.
6. If your pastry isn’t pre-rolled, roll it out quite thin. Line the dish with one piece of pastry to make the crust- use your fingers to mould to the dish, even if it means folding over edges etc. make sure there is some excess around the sides so that the pastry lid can stick to the base and seal in the filling. Also roll out the lid at the same time.
7. Tear off another piece of baking paper and place inside the crust. Fill with something like uncooked rice or dry lentils or even a small bowl so that it weighs the pastry down. Make sure the things you use don’t touch the actual crust, or it will be a pain to un-stick them. Bake in the oven for 10 mins. This is blind baking and is explained above.
8. Now is the time to thicken the sauce which the steak is sitting in. Add 1 tablespoon of cornflour to a little cold water (needs to be cold or it wont work) and stir until it’s a paste. Add to the simmering steak mixture. Stir and stir and stir until you feel that its starting to thicken- it should pretty much straight away. If it doesn’t thicken within a few mins, add another cornflour mix until you get a better consistency. It will thicken very slightly in the oven, but rather have it a bit thick than too thin or the filling will fall out when you cut it.
9. Once the crust has cooled, remove the blind baking stuff and fill the crust with the steak mixture. You need to remember to keep some pastry crust free to stick the lid onto it.
10. Cut up slices of cheese and layer on top. You just need enough to cover the steak.
11. Fold over the excess pastry on the sides- this will make things a bit prettier and easier to seal. Brush this pastry with a little milk to make it stick
12. Place the lid on top of the pie. If theres a bit too much lid, fold over the edges toward the middle, and if you are awesome, you could even add a bit of cheese to it before you fold them over as an incredible stuffed crust thingy.
13. Brush the whole top with milk- makes it more crispy, and stab a few times (gently) with a fork so that the whole pie doesn’t explode in a ball of meaty goodness.
14. Bake for about 30 mins or really until its golden brown- the inside is cooked anyway, so its all good.

Jazzy try adding some garlic, soy sauce (really brings out the flavour) and other herbs that you like as well. A bit of worchister (oops can't spell) sauce is good too.

also its better if you cook up the meat now and let it cool till its cold and then make the pies tonight, that way the pastry won't go soggy when you cook it.

The pie is in the oven FX

can only take pics of empty plate ha ha. Lucky DS1 was at a sleepover as the 2 littlies fought over the last piece.

Nearly had a bit of a cry as when I went to take the paper off after cooking it...it stuck go most of it off but it did cause part of the pie to break...should I have taken it off after blind baking it?

Am so making it again..will need to be a bigger one though to stop the fighting