Lola’s Kitchen: Meat Pies Recipe

Lola’s Kitchen is a feature on Lola’s Reviews where I talk about all things related to food, cooking and baking. These posts can be recipe posts, tens list posts about food or recipes or more discussion type posts about food. I love cooking and spend some time in the kitchen almost every day, so I wanted to give it a place on my blog as well. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.

After seeing a recipe for meat pies on Youtube I decided to give it a try. I made some adjustments to fit my taste and used vegetarian minced meat instead. They turned out well. The dough is nice and buttery and has a great flavor. The sauce is rich and the spices give it some good taste.

This recipe is based on Eten Met Nick’s Australische Meat Pie recipe

Ingredients

For the dough

• Flour – 4 cups /500 gram
• Butter – 1 cup /250 gram
• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
• Cold water – 1 cup/ 250 ml

For the sauce

• Red bell pepper – 1
• Onions – 2
• Carrots – 2
• Peas – 1 cup
• Tomato paste – 2 tablespoons/ 1 small can
• (Vegetarian) Minced Meat – 2 cups/ 200 gram
• Dried Thyme – 4 teaspoons
• Fresh Parsley – 1/2 cup
• Bay Leaves – 3 leaves
• Low salt bouillon cubes – 1 1/2
• Olive Oil
• Butter – 2 tablespoons

Method

1. First start on the dough. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Then add the butter in cubes and with your fingers slowly spread throughout the dough till it has a coarse sand consistency. Now add the water and knead till it forms a ball. Then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for half an hour.
2. In the meantime, start on the sauce. First slice and dice the onion and start baking that in a pan with some oil.
3. Then slice the red bell pepper into pieces. Peel the carrot and slice in small pieces as well. When the onion is translucent add the carrot and red bell pepper to the pan and bake on high heat for a few minutes. If using real meat add the meat first and bake that till brown before adding the carrots and bell pepper.
4. Then add the tomato paste and bake for a minute. Then add some water, the bouillon cubes, bay leaves, thyme and parsley. Let it cook for a few minutes.
5. Now add the vegetarian minced meat if using vegetarian meat. Add more water if necessary.
6. Now let it cook for a bit while you start work in assembling the pies.
7. Preheat the oven to 392 degrees Fahrenheit/ 200 degrees Celsius. Get a muffin tin and/or baking proof dish for the pie. Coat liberally with butter.
8. Now remove the dough from the fridge and take about one fourth of it and roll out. Roll it out it’s a few inches thick. And either it’s slightly larger than the form you’re using. Or when using muffin tins, find a bowl that’s slightly larger than the muffin tins shapes and use that to press circles form the dough. Then drape the dough into the form and press to the sides a bit. Repeat till most of the dough is used, but keep some aside to cover the pies. I had enough to make 12 muffin tins full as well as an oven proof bowl.
9. Now remove the sauce form the heat and scoop some sauce into the pie. Repeat till all the pies are filled. Then roll out the rest of the dough and use a glass or something similar to press circles that are about the same size as the muffin tins or roll it to the same shape as the baking dish you’re using. Then place that on top of the pie and slice with a knife a cuts in the top so the air can escape.
10. Place the pies in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or till golden brown. Then remove it from the oven and elt it cool down for a few minutes and then they’re ready to eat.

Would you give this a try?