What to eat AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺 Meat pies

Meat pies

Australia’s national dish, meat pies, are among the culinary things the British Empire left scattered around the world. Unlike some of the rather aging conflicts the old empire left behind, whether in the Middle East or the Asian subcontinent, Australia, with its outlaw reputation as the original penal colony for an empire that once spanned the seven seas, absorbed far less of the indigenous or aboriginal cuisine into its national dish.

Meat pies, a fist-sized fulcrum of delicious dough and filling, are quintessentially British in origin. Often consumed as a takeaway snack, they hit the spot as a worker’s lunch, to soak up booze during or after a pub crawl, and many occasions in between. No picnic, sporting event or popular event is complete without meat pies.

The average Australian eats an estimated 12 meat pies a year, an example of restraint more than anything given the level of deliciousness packed into each one. Overall, Aussies eat 270 million meat pies annually as a nation. Nonetheless, the discipline to restrict one’s self to but a dozen a year, or one a month on average, is even more remarkable given that Australia began as a home for those scofflaws deemed by the empire to lack personal limitation.

There is a fair amount of disagreement around when the first meat pies arrived in Australia. Several sources point to the nineteenth century, while other sources suggest meat pies arrived down under as early as the late 1700s. By the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the popularity of meat pies in Australia took off.

A traditional meat pie truck in colonial times would have been a horse-and-buggy affair, with the cart displaying meat pies in the windows. In modern times, the meat pie carts of yore have given way to bakeries, food trucks and of course, the ever-ubiquitous present-day supermarket. Many popular bakeries in Australia today will tie themselves to these scattered histories in an effort to emphasize the Australianness of both the product and the production.

To this day, meat pies tend to be manufactured locally, on the state level, where certain brands or bakeries dominate. Many are also sold at smaller outlets that are not necessarily branded but are locally produced. Traditionally, the long distances across Australia and the outback required products that did not necessarily require refrigeration.

The Australian government prohibits the use of wild game in commercially sold meat pies. However, some of the more exotic meats one may find in meat pies in Australia include buffalo, camel, deer, goat, hare, kangaroo and rabbit, in addition to more widely consumed meats like beef, pork, poultry and lamb or sheep meat.

Recipe

There are two types of dough used for meat pies, a short crust for the pie crust and a puff pastry for the top of the meat pie. These can either be pre-made or store bought or homemade. For this recipe, we will make them from scratch.

In between the crusts is a delicious filling of meat and mushrooms, though there are several other possible fillings that can be used, including steak and stout; lamb and rosemary; chicken and leak; beef, bacon and cheddar; spinach and feta; curry steak; pork and pepper; ground beef; a breakfast pie, or you can invent your own.

This recipe will combine steak and stout and steak and mushroom. Additionally, with one vegetarian guest, the mushrooms will be given a solo performance.

Ingredients:

For the puff pastry:
2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Half teaspoon of sea salt
200 grams of butter
Ice water

For the pie crust:
400 grams of flour
200 grams of butter
Half teaspoon salt
Ice water

For the meat pie filling:
Three yellow onions
Approximately half a kilo of fresh seasonal mushrooms (we used chantarelles, bread stubble and trumpet)
350-400 grams of beef
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Half to 1 cup Guinness beer 

Directions:

Step 1: Whisk the flour, sugar, and sea salt together in one bowl.

Step 2: Grate 200 grams of frozen butter into the mixture. Lightly toss the butter with the flour.

Step 3: Pour about fifty grams of ice water over the mixture until you can make a dough. Add water only little by little as you cannot subtract, only add.

Step 4: Shape it into a mass that is a few centimeters thick, cover in plastic and place in the refrigerator for one hour.

Step 5: Now we turn to the pie crust. Whisk the flour and salt together.

Step 6: Cut the butter into small pieces and add into the mixture and fold it together with your hands.

Step 7: Pour about 50 grams of ice water to bring the dough together.

Step 8: Shape into a ball, cover in plastic and place in the refrigerator for thirty minutes.

Step 9: Now we turn to our meat pie filling. Chop three yellow onions and place on low heat in a pan with olive oil. Add a few pinches of salt and leave to caramelize.

Step 10: Slice your mushrooms and set aside until onions caramelize.

Step 11: Now we return to our puff pastry. Pull from the refrigerator and roll on a floured surface, folding into thirds and rotating and rolling three times. Wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for two hours.

Step 12: After the puff pastry is refrigerated, watch your onions to see when they begin to turn golden brown. This is the moment to add your mushrooms. Add a few pinches of salt some crushed black pepper. The salt will bring out the natural juices in the mushrooms and some crushed black pepper. Stir.

Step 13: Time to cube your meat. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 14: Take your pie crust dough out of the fridge and your meat pie tins, ramekins or whatever you plan to use (muffin trays can work too) and grease them with butter.

Step 15: Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Step 16: Roll out your pie crust dough on a floured surface. Then fit your crust into your meat pie tins, ramekins or whatever you plan to use. Set aside for now.

Step 17: Take half of your mushrooms from the pan and set aside for your vegetarian guest(s). Allow to cool.

Step 18: Add your cubed steak and three tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and half to a cup of Guinness into the pot. Turn up to low-medium heat and stir until tender.

Step 19: Place your pie crust tins in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Step 20: Turn the meat off and pull from pot and let cool.

Step 21: Pull out your puff pastry from the refrigerator when your meat and mushrooms have cooled. Roll it out on a floured surface.

Step 22: Fill your pie crusts with meat (and mushrooms).

Step 23: Cut your puff pastry to top it. Pinch the edges.

Step 24: Cook until golden brown 25-30 minutes. Serve with salad.

Learn where to eat Australian food in Switzerland.

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