Beef Mince and Vegetable pie

I loved the good old Aussie meat pies. LOVED them. Knew exactly what went into the prepackaged pies and continued to eat them, preferring to turn a blind eye to the list of ingredients, the ‘meat’ or lack of.

I talk in past tense because of an unfortunate incident one day that combined too much alcohol and a late night Harry De Wheels ‘Tiger’ that I was made to taste twice. Blah.

The pie was delicious, but once you associate a smell with being sick it’s really hard to go back for more and it’ll stay with you forever.

Should I be talking about vomit on a food blog? No, definitely not, wrong wrong wrong, however I’m pretty sure I’m not the first and certainly won’t be the last person to have enjoyed a food item and can’t bring themselves to eat it anymore.

So, to fill the pie void, I started making my own and now I’ll never go back to those awful gravy and fat filled road kill meat labelled ‘beef pies’.

Beef Mince and Veggie Pie. Makes 2 large pies. An original Gourmet Wog recipe.

• 500 grams beef mince
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 large potato, diced
• ½ cup frozen peas
• 3 tablespoons corn flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Cracked pepper to taste
• 4 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg
• Sesame seeds

Start by cubing your carrots, potatoes, onions and slicing up your mushrooms. Make sure the potatoes and carrots are cut up a similar size, as small as you can get them.

sauté onions in the olive oil in a large pan until translucent and add the mince, breaking it up into small pieces until nice and brown.  Add all your vegetables except for the peas and season well with salt and pepper. Add cinnamon, and ½ glass of water. Bring it to the boil and then cover and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes or until the potato is half cooked. Remove the lid and let the liquid cook down for a further 10 minutes.

Combine the corn flour with ¼ cup of cold water until it makes a paste. Mix it into the beef and veg mix and stir well. Take it off the heat and let the mixture cool down.

Preheat the oven at 190 Degrees Celsius.  Remove 4 sheets of puff pastry from the freezer and allow them to thaw for 10 minutes. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper.

Place half the cooled down mixture onto the middle of a puff pastry sheet. Don’t completely cover the pastry, leave a 1cm border around the edges. Top with the second sheet to make a pie. Use your fork to seal the edges. Repeat to make the second pie.

Whisk the egg and brush over both pies evenly. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with a green salad for a healthy and light lunch.