dish 7) MEAT PIES... from scratch

Keep Rollin Rollin Rollin Rollin (what) keep rollin rollin rollin rollin (c'mon!) Shut up Fred Durst, I have to tell everyone about the pies i made!!

Well! I am getting more and more ambitious in my cooking, so I decided to make meat pies from scratch. Ive made pies before with frozen pastry in a pie machine... but i knew i'd at least once in my life have to do it from scratch. So last week i went and bought some pie tins and collected some recipes and planned to set aside some time on saturday to make them. Little did i know that it would engulf my whole day and drive me slightly crazy. So i started off with a new ingredient in my shopping basket...

correct. that is lard. It was for the puff pastry. And it is really weird and gross. I still have 190g of it if anyone needs it. I'll post it to you :) Oh and of course i had to pick up some MEAT for the meat pies. My friend's dad owns a butcher near where i live so i went and visited him. He is lovely - he cut some fresh blade steak off and diced it up by hand for me :) what a guy! He is Maltese so i will need to consult him for my Maltese Rabbit Stew recipe!! Woo! Here's the meatz:

So i made the filling first... in the Dutch oven (of course!) and slow cooked it for about 3 hours. I started off by caramelising some onions and then added my portabella mushrooms, spices, garlic, carrot, celery, red wine and meat! Then i stocked the shit out of it and also put in a tin of tomatoes. mmmm

While that cooked away i started on the pastry(s)! I had to make a shortcrust for the bottoms and a puff for the top.

Here is the shortcrust... I didnt take photos of the process haha

Then i had to make the puff pastry. Do you have any idea how puff pastry is made? Well I know that the people at the party i was at on Saturday night certainly know all about it haha. But seriously. it is nuts. Here are some pictures of how it is made. I read the instructions and was like "uhhhhhhh...wtf" so i had to youtube it. I watched 2 idiot girls who studied at the cordon bleu school in France make it and they thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. If you can't make it to master chef, i don't wanna hear about it ladies. Anyway. You rub a tiny bit of lard into flour, and add salt and chilled water. Then knead it, then fridge it. Then.... place butter on it...

fold two flaps over the butter...

then the other two..

then beat down on it with your rolling pin and release all that tension...

now you have a butter filled pastry parcel. Now you have to fold it in thirds like so...

then roll it flat. Then repeat. Then fridge it. then repeat that double roll thing, then fridge it. then repeat it another 2 times - so thats a total of 6 folds. Then put it in the fridge again until you're ready to use it. So thats a total of like 2.5 hours just for the puff. its just the refridgeration time that drags it out, its actually quite quick.

Check the meat mixture... perfect:

Then I got lazy and didnt take a picture of assembling them... but here are the finished product:

They were quite yummy! Now that i've made my very own puff pastry, i'll probably never do it again. Well i say that now... but it seriosuly took it out of me! I was explaining to my dad about how i made it and half way through i remembered that he was a pastry chef for 9 years when he was younger and he knew exactly what i was talking about. He doesnt really bake anymore because after 9 years he became allergic to airborne flour... haha. poor dad.

OMG I have to write a poem today for AUGUST!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxx