After trying out a few pie crusts, some with success and many with failure and at the request of dearest I decided to try a savoury pie. Actually, the meat pie was made because I wanted to make a lard crust. I learned that lard made the flakiest pie crust but then I read that it was best used for savoury pies so meat pie it was. Maybe I'll try it in a sweet pie one day though. Who knows? It might turn out, they put cheddar cheese in apple pies after all. In comparison, it doesn't seem like a very big risk.
I choose a Jamie Oliver recipe to make the stew. I love Jamie Oliver recipes. I've tried a few of his with great success, like melt-in your mouth shin stew and the even better Jool's favourite beef stew. Yea we make a lot of stew but they are delicious so I thought his Guinness Stew would be perfect for meat pies for my man! (cheesy I know but they're called Manly Meat Pies for a reason!)
I have tried other items from his Cook with Jamie book like a shrimp salad with avocado and feta yum! I think there was one with watermelon and feta which was delicious too. This book is filled with great recipes, tips and pictures for all the items which I love. What's a cook book with out pictures? Like a blog without pictures, which brings me to apologizing profusely because I didn't take pictures of all the steps. I promise I will make this again and fill in the pictures.
Lard Crust
Fortunately this time I made the pie crust with lard instead of butter; fortunate because Lard has a higher melting point than butter meaning it wasn't as messy to make, meaning I was able to take pictures. For flakey pie crust, what you want is to have big thin layers of fat in between layers of dough. So how do you achieve this?
Step 1 of Crust making: Cut the lard into cubes and cover them with flour:
Step 2: Flatten the cubes of lard with the rolling pin. You'll have to do this a couple times to get big thin pieces of lard and make sure to cover the pieces with flour each time you roll them out, so they're less likely to stick to the rolling pin or your table.
Once you're done that it should look like peeling paint or this:
Step 3: Scrap it all back together and add your liquids. Remember pie recipes need to be adjusted sometimes to get the right consistency. Humidity in the flour and the amount of water in the fat you use can vary dramatically, giving you a dough which is too dry to hold or a dough which is too wet and sticky.
Tip: To make sure you get the perfect dough measure out the amount of liquid called for in the recipe plus a little more. Slowly add the cold liquid and knead the dough until you get the right consistency. Pie doughs usually yield a very soft dough which can be slightly sticky in warm temperatures but should be firm and easier to work with once taken out of the fridge. If you find your dough gets sticky while you're rolling it out, just stick it back in the fridge or freezer for a bit.
Step 4: Line the pie dishes and put them in the fridge to cool while you make your stew.
Cook the stew
Step 1: Prep the veggies:
Give them a good wash and cut them into bit sizes. Try to make them all the same size so that they cook evenly too. Stew is one of those things that you don't want to think about eating. You just want to eat it. No cutting, dipping or any post cooking pre-assembly . It's an easy hearty meal.
Carrots, celery and onions are what I call the holy trinity of American cooking. Cooks call them the aromatics which is very accurate even though you might not realize it. Think about it, do you know what celery smells like? Can't recall can you? Or at least its very hard to recall but if you smelled it, you'd know definitively that was celery. It's very subtle. The same can be said for carrots but no one can deny onions are an aromatic. The fussiest of them all, not only are they the most aromatic, they're the most difficult to cut and tolerate.
Thanks to Food Network however and a bit of mom's advise, I've learned how to deal with them and get a nice chop with almost no tears!
Mother's Tip: Always blow out while making a cut into an onion. I know it sounds strange and you'll look strange doing it but it works! Try it out and let me know if it works for you.
Step 1 of Onion cutting: Cut the bottom of the onion so it sits flat:
Step 2: Cut it in half. and peel off the outer layer.
Step 3: Place the flat side down and cut slits, make sure you don't make the cuts all the way across the onion though so it stays together while your making the other cuts. Thanks to the little sister for helping me take pictures of this, she got distracted though and started taking pictures of the dog, who was more entertaining than I was I guess.
So I leave you with this:
and also this:
For now I'm going to say, just follow the steps that I'm linking you to here but soon I'll show pictures of each step so you know what things are supposed to look like.
Last note on the stew: Our stews never turned out as thick and dark as the ones in Jamie's book. I think next time I'll spend the last hour of stewing on the stove top without any covering so that some of the liquids can evaporate. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Also, Jamie tends to have small ingredients he adds to his stews after they've finished stewing, THESE ARE KEY! They completely change the flavour of the stew making it even more delicious than they were before. So if you taste your stew and you think, oh that nice but nothing special, you probably missed that last ingredient. This time it was the cheese, but once we added that cheese, oh my, that's a meat pie fit for a man!
Assemble the Pie
Let the stew cool to at least room temperature and spoon the stew into the pie dish. Not too full or it might burst at the seams. Sprinkle in that magical last ingredient all over the top and finally cover the top. Cut some holes for steam to escape. I labeled mine just in case it wasn't obvious. >.>
So unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the final product, as I did not bake the final product. I know >.<! How could I? It's like on a cooking show where I didn't taste the meal after I've made it so I could tell everyone in T.V. land how delicious it was. Guh! I must plan my epic weekends a little better.
I made a total of 3 pies and I had prepped them all for the dearest to have for lunch or dinner sometime. He advised the the stew was delicious.
FYI: A Google search of Manly Meat Pie turned out this. Apparently there's a place in Australia called Manly! There's your something-new-you-learn-everyday today...maybe.
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