Chunky Beef & Mushroom Pie

An Australian meat pie... unofficially our National Dish.  It can be made using ground beef or for a more gourmet pie, big chunks of melt in your mouth meat, beautifully sauted mushrooms and a thick gravy in a gorgeous flaky crust. It is the takeaway food of choice in many places, most often at the Footy or Cricket and I remember always ordering one from the Tuck Shop on the days mum let me put a lunch order in at school.  Normally they sold as individual size pies, in a foil pan but since I was feeding the family I made one large pie. I haven't tried making too many meat pies in my life but since we moved here to the States I have been thinking about them a lot.  Such a great Saturday lunch!

Essentially a good meat pie is all about the pastry. You need a good shortcrust on the bottom and a flaky puff pastry on top.   I kept this fairly simple and my gosh, it was perfect.  The right smell, the right flavor, the right consistency.  I was thrilled and my girls absolutely devoured it.  They remain Australian in their hearts, despite their 2.5yrs under the influence of American junk food. Australian junk food still trumps in my house! Now if I just had a bigger freezer I would make a dozen individual ones and send hubby off to work with one every day!

Makes 1 family size pie or filling for four (double pastry recipe for 4)

Ingredients:
2 lb chuck steak, cubed

1 T butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms,
2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion, diced

1 Cup beef stock

2 Tblspn cornflour
1/2 cup water

1/2 tspn vegemite

2 Tblpsn worchestershire sauce

1 sheet puff pastry - store bought

Shortcrust pastry

200g all purpose flour
100g butter, chopped
100g iced cold water

Method:

For the pastry base:

• Place the bowl and blade of your food processor in the fridge for 10mins to ensure it's chilled
• Place the flour and chopped butter into the cold bowl of the food processor and process until it looks like breadcrumbs, about 30sec - 1 min, on pulse.
• Remove and pour the flour into a large bowl.
• Add the iced water in a well in the middle and using your hand, twist and turn gradually combining the water with the flour/butter mix
• It should take about 2-3mins to bring it all together.
• Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead it, not too much (you don't want it to get too hot) until it is a soft elastic dough and shape it into a ball.  Place it in a floured bowl and cover it with clingwrap and place in the fridge for at least 30mins.
• When ready, roll the dough out to cover the inside of a lightly greased family pie pan.  
• Preheat your oven to 350'F and cover the pie with foil, and then pie beans and blind bake for approx 15mins.
• Allow to cool completely at room temperature

For the meat filling:

• Cut your chunk steak into large 1.5"cubes
• Season with salt and pepper.
• In a large non-stick pan, heat your oil and add your diced onion.  Cook until soft and lightly browned.
• Now add your beef, in batches if needed until seared on all sides and well browned.
• Remove beef and onions into a separate bowl (or straight into your slow cooker)
• Add butter to your non stick pan and heat until melted, add your mushrooms and season well with salt and pepper.  Add your garlic and saute well until the mushrooms are browned.
• If using a slow cooker, transfer the mushrooms to the slow cooker pot as well and continue to add the remaining ingredients.  The beef stock, vegemite, worchestershire sauce, water with cornflour and cook on high for 3hrs or low for 6hrs.  
• I actually added the beef back to the non stick pan and combined the sauce ingredients and cooked it down for about 45mins until the flavors came together.  I then transferred it to the slow cooker for another 2 hrs while I had to go out.

Stuffed thick cut pork chops

Pork is still not a natural choice of meat for me.  We never ate it much in Australia, as our preference was always lamb, so I wanted to experiment and see whether stuffing the pork chop like this would be something that interests us.   It was very very tasty but I have to say, it didn't totally convert me. It was a massive piece of meat to get through so unless you have BIG eaters, we found one too much for one person.  I think I would like to try this idea with a tenderloin so I could slice it, as the flavors were delicious and the meat was cooked perfectly and still tender and juicy.  It was a really yummy way to eat pork.

We didn't need much on the side, a simple salad was great or if you prefer, a baked potato would go nicely too. I made one mistake.... I stuffed the chops with the filling before grilling the outside.  I think I would grill and char the outside (and that nice fatty bit on the top) briefly first and then slice, stuff it and bake it.  Just to ensure every inch of it was golden brown.  

This was really simple and quick to do and you could use whatever filling ingredients you liked really.  You could add sautéd mushrooms and sage or olives, feta, anchovy and spinach... whatever combination you like, experiment and see what you fancy. 

Serves 2 

Ingredients:

1 cup drained and chopped cooked spinach (fresh or frozen)

2 cloves of roasted garlic

2 tblspn semi sundried tomatoes

75g feta

sea salt and cracked pepper

Method:

• Heat a grill plate or BBQ and set your oven to 400'F
• Make up your mixture, remember to drain the spinach, then add the crumbled feta, diced semidried tomatoes and roasted smashed garlic.

• Season the outside of the pork chop generously with sea salt, pepper and olive oil
• Grill the outside of the chop on both sides leaving char marks and frying the fat off the chop, approx 3 -4 minutes per side and top
• Allow to cool for a minute or two then slice down the center creating a pocket that goes almost to the other side.

Do this AFTER grilling the outside for best results

• Stuff with your filling and use a toothpick or two to secure the cavity
• Place chops upright on a baking tray and cook in a preheated oven for approx 20mins until cooked through
• Allow to rest for 3-4 mins before serving, and remove toothpicks