Y’all know i love baking and i pride myself as a very good pastry chef right. And since Christmas is around the corner, there’d be lots of baking going on during this period. Nothing delights the tastebuds as much as this tasty snack filled with ground beef, vegetables and gravy. It’s also one of the most common snacks sold in fast food restautants here in Nigeria. Today, i’d be showing you how to put a smile on the faces of your loved ones during this festive season with this delightful snack. Thanks to the lovely readers who kept bombarding me with questions on why i hadn’t done a post on this. The truth is, i totally forgot but you all jolted my memory back and once again i’d like to say a big Thank you. If you don’t have an oven to bake this in, use this Method
Nigerian Meat pie recipe
• Prep Time: Over 1 hour
• Bake Time:40-45 minutes
• Makes: 10 meat pies
•5 tbsp. Vegetable oil (For frying)
To start, Wash the meat thoroughly with clean water then slice off the elastic muscles with a sharp Knife. Most times the grinder is not able to grind this part of the meat. Dice the meat into smaller chunks and place in the grinder – Grind. To skip this process, simply get minced meat.
Step 2: Scrape the carrots, remove the potato skin and seeds from the green pepper. Wash and dice into smaller bits – Set aside
Step 3: Place a medium sized empty pot on the burner and turn to medium heat. Add the vegetable oil and chopped onion- Stir fry for about 3 minutes. Gently add the ground beef into the pot and stir-fry till the meat gets a lighter shade of color. Once the color changes, add clean water into the pot, just enough to cover the content of the pot – Stir well.
Step 4: Add the curry powder, thyme, crushed seasoning cubes and salt to taste. Leave to cook for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Add the chopped potatoes, carrots and green pepper. Stir and leave to cook for another 5 minutes.
Step 6:The next step is to make the binder. This is done to keep the meat and vegetable mixture moist in the pastry once done. to do this, make a runny paste with the all purpose flour and water. Once it looks like the liquid in the pot is drying up, pour in the paste and stir. Leave for another 3-5 minutes so it’d thicken.
Turn off the burner and set aside to cool. The next step is to make your pastry.
Directions for making the pastry:::
Step 1: Sift the flour baking powder and salt into an empty medium sized bowl. Add the margarine and work into it with your hand so it’d look like bread crumbs. Gently add the water little by little to bind everything and work into it to form an elastic dough.
Step 2: Flour your flat work surface and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough. Using a round cutter, Cut the dough into round circles. For this i used a round bowl.
Step 3: Before you fill the pastry with the filling, rub some egg white round the edge of the dough. this helps prevent the meat pie from opening up while baking is going on. You could also use a mixture of flour and water for this.
Step 4: Place a little filling in the pastry (make sure you don’t over fill) and fold. Seal the opening with a fork.
Step 5: Grease the baking pan with a little margarine and place the meat pie on it. Brush over the top of the meat pie with the egg white. This makes the meat pie have a glossy look once done.
Step 6: Place in the Pre-heated oven and bake at for 40 – 50 mins at 170°C (335°F). Some ovens bake faster or slower so it depends on the type you’re using. If your oven doesn’t have a temperature gauge, you can always open up the oven to check if it’s done. the meat pie is done once it begins to brown on top.
