Meat and potato pie – the ultimate bloke food

My father-in-law was fending for himself a few weeks back when my mother-in-law was away visiting family. He rang me up proudly to tell me he’d made a pie from scratch – pastry and all!

I insisted he emailed me some photos, so check out this little beauty…

I was well impressed and felt truly inspired to give it a whirl myself.

Being a Geordie, my husband is rather partial to a pie, so I knew it’d be a hit with him. Sam and Arlo I wasn’t sure about but I was willing to take a risk. It certainly wasn’t going to go to waste as Matthew never tires of meat wrapped in pastry!

It’s a good thing to make in advance and either freeze or chill in the fridge, ready to be whacked in the oven when needed. The recipe makes enough to feed 6, so Matthew’s getting it for his packed lunch. Beats making sandwiches!

Here’s the recipe I used.

Spiced pork and potato pie (BBC Good Food Magazine, June)

Serves 6, Prep 25 mins, Cook 30 mins, freeze it uncooked

Ingredients
1 medium potato, cut into chunks
1 tsp sunflower oil
500g pack lean minced pork
1 onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg
100ml stock
400g ready made shortcrust pastry
1 egg beaten, to glaze

Method

1. Heat oven to 200/180c fan. Boil the potato until tender, drain and mash, then leave to cool. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the mince and onion and quickly fry until browned. Add the garlic, spices, stock, plenty of pepper and a little salt and mix well. Remove from the heat, stir into the potato and leave to cool.

2. Roll out half the pastry and line the base of a 20-23cm pie plate or flan tin. Fill with the pork mixture and brush the edges of the pastry with water. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the pie. Press the edges of the pastry to seal, trimming off the excess. Prick the top of the pastry case to allow steam to escape and glaze the top with the beaten egg.

3. Bake for 30 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden. Serve cut into wedges with a crisp green salad. Leftovers are good cold for lunch the next day, serves with a selection of pickles.

It was a great hit with Sam and Arlo – it’s a very simple filling and only gently flavoured with spices. So they really enjoyed it. Matthew and I found it a little on the bland side but enjoyable.

Using ready to roll pastry defo takes the stress out of the preparation, it only costs around a quid and the results were really crisp and lovely.

The great thing about making your own pie is that you have total control about what’s in it. I have some horrid memories of pies you’d get for school dinners with VERY suspicious morsels floating around in them. And then the frankly disappointing pies that are all pastry with a pathetic amount of filling.

It’s definitely got me thinking about what I might try next. I’m loving the idea of a roast chicken pie with some tarragon thrown in. I’m guessing you’d just need to bind it with a simple white sauce.

If anyone has any good pie filling ideas let me know!