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Friday, September 19, 2008

Just like your Tuck Shop used to make, only better.

Righto, back to the food.

Like any red-blooded kiwi lad, I like a nice pie. Especially when you can pull some leftovers out of the freezer , grate some cheese and roll out some pastry and away you go.

Ok, I'll be honest. Dessert Chef C made this one, and the filling was actually from Liz E. Bear's Bolognaise. I even think that the cheese was pre-grated! So given all those conditions, I'll try to represent as accurately as I can how to whip up a luverly Mince 'n' Cheese Pie from scratch. Of course, if you too have Liz E. Bear's leftovers in the freezer then you can just use them!

Mince and Cheese Pie

(Serves 4)

For the filling, fry up an onion and some garlic, then add 400g of Beef Mince. Brown and cook well. Add a handful of chopped mushrooms and courgettes towards the end. Add about 400g of pasta sauce, preferably a thick one. Heat through and reduce until the sauce is nice and thick. In other words, make up a Bolognaise sauce and thicken it. Put aside to cool.

Grease a 30cm pie dish, then sprinkle it with flour. On a floured bench, roll out a sheet of flaky puff pastry. Drape the pastry over the dish and ease into the corners of the dish without tearing it. Roll out a second sheet and stand by.
Spoon in the filling. Grate 1 1/2C of cheddar cheese and a 1/4C of parmesan cheese over the mince, followed by a few twists of freshly ground pepper. Place the top sheet of pastry on the pie and press the edges into the base firmly with a fork. Brush lightly with milk. Trim away the excess pastry and poke the top with a few airholes to let the steam escape.
Place in the oven at 200C on the centre rack for about 40-45 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for at least 5 mins.
Dish with care. Filling will be hot and delicious.

Isaac doesn't seem to do too well with mince, so Dessert Chef C made him little bacon and egg pies instead. Lucky Boy!

3 comments:

susan said...

that looks sooo good.

Leasmom said...

That beef mince pie looks so delicious. I hope I can make it using vegetarian soy burger meat-lol.

lbs said...

I made this for dinner last night and it was surprisingly good. I wasn't too sure how it would turn out being that it was made with pasta sauce, not gravy, but it was really really yummy. I used green peppers (capsicum) in mine, instead of courgettes, and used deer stewing meat cut in small chunks instead of minced, and it was really good. I have to admit that I cheated and used shop bought pastry, already rolled out, but if I had tried to make my own pastry, I'd still be in the kitchen!! I also made mashed potatoes to go with it. Kind of forgot to salt the potatoes when I cooked them (blech!), so it's just as well the pie was so tasty to cover up the bland potatoes. Dummy!