So enter the humble pie, crunchy on the outside and tender and mouth burning on the inside. It does take a little time to make, but in between there is nothing to be done but sit around and exclaim about how much you love pies, it is lovely and simple. So lets carry on dear piglets with the most wonderful lamb pie you may ever make. Oink.
Lamb Meat Pies
Feeds: 4 Hungry Piglets (just add sides).
Prep Time: 15 Mins. Cooking Time: 1hr 20 Mins.
Ingredients:
400g x Lamb Sliced into stirfry strips by your lovely butcher.
2 x Rosemary Sprigs
1 x Tbs Olive Oil
1 x Red Onion
3 x Garlic Cloves
2 x Puff Pastry Sheets
½ x Parsley Bunch
For the seasoning (it’s not all essential so don’t panic if you don't have it all piglets):
1 x Tbs Barbecue Sauce
1 x Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
1 x Tsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 x Mixed Herbs
1 x Tbs Sumac
1 x Tsp Paprika
1 x Tsp Nutmeg
1 x Tsp Brown Sugar
2 x Bay Leaves
1 x Tsp Salt
1 x Tsp Pepper
1 x Beef Stock Cube
¼ x Cup White Wine
Extra’s:
Butter for greasing the ramekins
A little milk for brushing the pastry with
4 x Ramekins (although you could make one big pie instead)
Serving suggestion: with silky mashed potato & lemon broccolini.
Perfect Perfect Pie Making Method:
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
- Take your puff pastry out of the freezer and allow to defrost on the bench.
- Skin and finely dice garlic (3) and red onion (1).
- Finely dice your parsley (1/2 bunch).
- Heat olive oil (1 Tbs) in medium sized pot on a high heat.
- Add in your onion and garlic and stir until starting to soften.
- Add in your lamb pieces and stir until starting to brown.
- Pour over your spices; paprika (1 Tsp), salt, (1 Tsp), pepper (1 Tsp), nutmeg (1 Tsp), sumac (1 Tbs), mixed herbs (1 Tbs), brown sugar (1 Tsp), bay leaves (2), crumble in your stock cube and scatter in your rosemary leaves (2 stems worth) and stir through until the spices are starting to coat the meat and get a little fragrant.
- Add in your Worcestershire Sauce (1 Tbs), barbecue sauce (1 Tbs) and balsamic vinegar (1 Tsp) and stir through the meat.
- Add in 1.5 Cups of water and ¼ cup of white wine (or red wine) and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble away gently for around 40 mins to an hour or until meat is completely tender and delicious – stir occasionally.
- Take one of your ramekins and place upside down on the puff pastry. Using a sharp knife (be careful of your bench underneath piglets) and giving an extra 2 cm space around the lip of the ramekin cut a circle around the ramekin (i.e. so you have a bigger circle than the ramekin).
- Cut out 4 of these sized circles and then cut another 4 the same size circle as the ramekin (these are the lids).
- Grease your ramekins and pop the bigger circles in the bottom of your ramekins – use your trotters to push them into the walls a little.
- Pop into the oven for around 15 mins or until golden, puffed up and crunchy. Now at this stage the baking piglets in the audience are probably yelling “but what about the blind baking you fool? It's going to be a mess of puffiness!” This Little Pig is an exceptionally lazy swine in the kitchen when it comes to pies and is of the belief that “what you can’t see, won’t hurt you.” In this case the meat filling will completely cover these little puff pastry gems – becoming like a sort of Yorkshire pudding down the bottom of the pie. So fear not and pop those beautiful ramekins into the oven.
- After 15 mins, pull out and using a fork, smoosh down the puffs in the pastry so it is once again flat.
- After you have stewed your lamb to perfection, stir your diced up parsley through the stew. Ladle it into your ramekins – ideally filling them to around ¾ full.
- Pop your pastry circle lids on top of your glorious meat.
- Using a pastry brush (a paper towel folded up will suffice if you’re desperate) brush the milk onto the lids of the pies – this makes them golden and beautiful.
- Take a sharp knife and cut two small holes in the middle of the pies, to allow steam to escape.
- Pop these little beauties into the oven and cook for around 20 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden brown on top.
- Remove, serve with tomato sauce and ideally creamy mash and lemony broccolini or just eat two of the pies. That should fill you up. Oink!
