Meat and Potato Pie

I have had a pack of shortcrust pastry in my freezer for forever! So I am very happy to say I've finally used it! You may think this would be used up quite quickly but I actually work on a pie counter so I spend all day making meat / fruit pies, pasties and slices. This typically leads to if we fancy a steak and kidney pie for dinner, I'll grab some or make some fresh just before I leave.

Well I was off work today and what with it coming to the end of the month and payday being tomorrow.. We've slightly rationed over the last week or so using up whatever we can. What do I find in the back of the freezer among the frozen onions (who'd have thought I would use those either..)? Shortcrust Pastry!

Now I'll emphasise on the rationing here! I didn't have any fresh ingrediants, they were all from my 'emergency tinned/frozen stock'! Anywho, the recipe:

Ingredients

Pastry:

I used my frozen pack and followed the instructions on the back for defrosting.


- 300g Plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- Salt
- 75g Butter
- 75g Lard, or Vegetable Fat
- 5-6 tbsp Water
- 1 tbsp Milk, to glaze

Filling:

- 1 Onion, finely dieced
- 2 Carrots, diced
- 250g Minced Beef
- 2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tsp Marmite
- 1 1/2 tbsp Plain Flour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1 Large Baking Potato, finely diced

Directions

(Skip this if you cheated like me! Probably best to check the pastry is properly defrosted before starting though!)
Rub the butter and lard into the flour and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 5 tablespoons of cold water and form the mixture into a ball adding a little more water if necessary. Chill for 20 minutes.

Dry fry the onion, carrots and beef together in a medium saucepan over a high heat until browned, then reduce the heat and add the tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Marmite, flour and seasoning.
I skipped the Marmite as I am definately NOT  a lover!

Cook for one minute then add the diced potato, 150 ml water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
Make sure the veg is cooked properly as it doesn't really cook furthur in the oven.

Heat the oven to 200C / Gas 6. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out two thirds of the pastry into a square large enough to cover the base and sides of a 20cm square 4cm deep cake tin.
Add the cooled mince, then roll out the remaining pastry for the lid. Dampen the edge of the pastry and place on the lid on top of the pie and press the edges well to seal.

Using a fork pierce the top of the pie several times and brush with milk. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot with mashed potatoes, peas and gravy.

From:

http://uktv.co.uk/