I remember when I first had meat pies. I was at a baby shower. I found them very delicious. Then I looked up on how to make them and this recipe is my result. Also when I made them last night, Mr. Riaz was in 7th heaven as he ate the lion’s share of my pies. I made the dough first, the filling and then the actuall pies.
For the dough: I added 2 cups each of all purpose unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, 1 handful of nido, 1 pinch of pink salt, 1tbs of baking powder, 4 tbs of ghee. I have mixed all of these ingredients until it looks crumbly. Make sure you use a large mixing bowl for this. Slowly add up to 1/2 cup of water slowly and kneed until you have a nice dough. add 1 oz of olive oil to coat the dough and kneed until the dough is soft and in good condition. Tear in to pieces that is golf ball sice and make them in to a small ball. Set the dogh balls aside. Cover the bowl to keep them from drying out.
For the filling: I turned on the heat to high and in a cast iron skillet I added 1/4 cup of olive oil. I chopped 1 onion or shallot and fried it until it was brown. I added 1 pinch each of curry powder, thyme, red chili powder, 1 bullion cube crumbled, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 2 cloves of garlic crushed and I stirred. I used 1kg or 1lb of chicken mince. you can also use beef, veal, turkey, goat or lamb. The chicken and turkey mince is a lot lower in fat content and cholesterol. I peeled washed and diced 2 carrots and 1 small or medium potato.
This is how to dice potatoes and carrots, first cut in half and then long ways cut in to slices and then cut crossways. Put this in the cast iron and cook at the same time you start cooking the mince and turn the heat to low. Cook for 10 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are tender. In a small bowl add 2 tbs of cornstarch and 1 oz of water mix this until it is a lump free slurry. Add this to the meat filling. This is the binding agent. The new formed meat filling is now ready for making the pies.
Preheat the oven to 375F or 190C. On a clean surfice for me It is my huge tray I dusted it and my rolling pen with flour and I took my dogh balls I had made earlier. I rolled them out until they were a perfect round circle. It is similar to how you make puri if you remember. The dough must be rolled out thinly. Dusting the dough balls before rolling them out helps a lot too.
Take a tablespoon of the filling and place it on the part of the dough away from you but away from the edge as far as possible. Take the pease of the dough that is nearest to you and fold it away from you. Seal the edges and by using a fork crimp the edges on both sides. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper that has beem sprayed with cooking spray. Prick the top of the pies with a fork to make little holes so the steam can seep out.
Repeat until you have a cookie sheet full of pies. The optional is beat 1 egg and brush the pies with the eggwash and sprinkle with either white or black sesame seeds. Place these in the oven and bake for 10 minutes on one side then flip and bake for another 10 minutes. Repeat this until all of the filling and the dough is used up.
I hope you will enjoy this as we did. This is great for anytime.
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