It’s Australia Day tomorrow! Amongst the madly preparing for school going back in two days time, baking and covering books, I asked my family what they would like to eat on Australia Day. I loved their first choice… MEAT PIES! Yes! I even had some lamb in the freezer and some pastry sheets, including a gluten free one I had purchased to try out, perfect!
Meat pies with sauce are so Australian to me, I love a good meat pie. I sold all my gadget appliances when I got my Thermomix, but the pie maker is one that I kept and still gets a good work out. Here is my simple and quick failsafe version I whipped today that got three thumbs up from my cherubs.
2 large garlic cloves
1 leek
30g Rice bran oil
6 Brussels sprouts
80g celery
1 teaspoon dried chives
1 teaspoon Vegetable Stock Concentrate
20g of carob powder
¼ teaspoon salt
150g Failsafe BBQ Sauce
50g water
800g lamb mince
4 or 5 frozen pastry sheets **
Place garlic & leek in TM bowl. Chop on speed 7 for 3 seconds. Scrape down sides. Add oil, sauté for 2 ½ minutes at 100deg speed 1.
Add Brussels sprouts, celery and chives. Chop on speed 7 for 4 seconds.
Add veg stock, carob powder, failsafe bbq sauce, water and mince. Cook for 18 minutes Varoma temperature reverse speed 1. Place the basket on top of the lid instead of the MC (measuring cup) to allow it to reduce and thicken. After 3 minutes of cooking, stir through the lid with the spatula to help loosen up the meat.
Pour into Thermoserver to keep warm while preparing the pastry.
Gently separate your pastry sheets and allow to thaw for 5 – 10 minutes.
If using a pie maker, cut pastry with the cutter that comes with your machine. Place base piece into the pie maker, top with approx. 1/3 cup mince mixture, top with the top piece of pastry. Repeat for remaining sections until machine is full. Close and cook for your machines recommended time.
Another way to cook the pies is in muffin pans, little individual pie dishes or a large pie dish. Cut pastry to size and mould into the dish to fit. Spoon in mince to fill. Lightly brush water around the edges of the pastry with your finger. Place another piece of pastry on the top to fit. Use a fork to pinch together to seal. Bake in a moderate oven for approx 10 minutes or until lightly golden.
Serve your pies with either Pear ketchup or Failsafe BBQ Sauce. If you can tolerate salicylates, try my Chilli Pear Ketchup.
** Pastry – Here is the list of suitable failsafe pastry sheets. I used The Pastry Pantry Gluten Free puff pastry sheets and Pampas short crust.
Hints: My pie maker makes 4 pies at a time, so 4 pastry sheets makes a total of 8 pies in my pie maker. With this mince recipe I usually have left over mince. I either make more pies to freeze or freeze it as is to have on toast for a quick re-heat meal on days we get home late from sports training.
Have Wonderful Australia Day, stay safe! xx
Do you cook the extra pies before freezing if you make them in individual foil pie trays? Normally we use our pie maker however I’m looking for other ideas while we are away in a holiday kitchen.
My daughter loves Egg Free custard pies as a treat, have you ever frozen something like this?
Yes, I always cook the extra pies before freezing. Sorry I haven’t frozen pies with custard in before, so not sure how well it will defrost. You could always trial it. I have frozen custard on it’s own and it is like ice cream straight from the freezer. Delish!