Christmas meat pies

Every time I see the word ‘Mince Pies’ my brain will automatically process meat pies. Not once but every single time. May be it’s just me, who subconsciously wants to associate the word ‘mince’ to meat. There are all sorts of mince pies sold during Christmas season. These mince pies are made from fruits not meat, just you don’t get cross-line like me. So, just to feed my Christmas fancies, I will be making Christmas meat pies which consists of real chunks of beef and chicken. In other words, they are like steak pies. Don’t get all messed up like me.

Ingredients

(serves 10 beef pies and 10 chicken pies)

Main Ingredients

1 pack of store-bough puff pastry

20 pie cups (3″ diameter x 1.5″ depth)

10 chat potatoes (pra-boiled, remove skin and cut into same cube size as the meat)

300 gm frozen baby peas

Roux

200 gm butter

5 Tbsp plain flour

Beef Steak Fillings

a drizzle of olive oil

400 gm rib-eye beef steak (0.7″ thick)

1 Tbsp BBQ mesquite smoke sauce

1 Tbsp pink peppercorns

sea salt to taste

crushed black peppercorns

1/2 cup water

Chicken Steak Fillings

a drizzle of olive oil

2 de-boned chicken thigh or chicken breast (whichever preferred)

1 sprig of rosemary herb

sea salt to taste

crushed black peppercorns

1/2 cup water

Method

1. Prepare the roux by heating up the pan, sieve flour into hot melting butter and stir until a thick paste is formed. Leave it aside for later.
2. Start by making the chicken pie filling. Brown the chicken in olive oil and throw in the bruised rosemary herbs. Take out the chicken and cut into small cubes almost the same size as the potatoes. Place the diced chicken and potatoes back into the pan. Add 1/2 of the roux prepared earlier in the pan and water. Bring to simmer and put in 1/2 the frozen baby peas. Stir a minute, season and cut off the heat.
3. Sear the beef steak in hot olive oil until brown on the outside but not completely cooked through. Take the the steaks out to rest for 3 minutes then cut steak into the size of the potatoes. Return the beef and potatoes back into the pan, add the BBQ sauce and pink peppercorns and seasoning. Put in the remaining roux and water, followed by the baby peas. Stir a minute and cut off the heat.
4. Spoon the chicken fillings into 10 mini pie moulds and the beef steak fillings into the other 10 pie moulds.
5. Leave the ready-made puff pastry to soften at room temperature and cut to fit the top of the pie. Feel free to design your own pies.
6. Pop them into a pre-heated oven at 210 degrees celsius for 15 – 20 minutes. Check the pastry, when puffed and lovely golden brown, remove from oven and serve hot.