Beef & Baharat Pies
When I’m craving a pie for a quick and easy dinner, I usually grab a packet of those fancier-looking pies from the supermarket. I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit shocked at how outrageously expensive they’ve become lately.
So, one Sunday afternoon, I decided to flip through my cookbooks in search of a good homemade pie recipe and came across this Beef, Black Garlic and Baharat Pie by Helen Goh from Ottolenghi’s Comfort Cookbook. According to the book, Helen is a huge fan of the classic Four’n Twenty pie. It’s apparently the first thing she hunts down when she returns to Australia to visit family. This recipe is her delicious tribute to that iconic Aussie meat pie, with her own unique twist.
I made a few tweaks to the original recipe since some of the ingredients weren’t available to me at the time. The recipe was designed to make one large family-sized pie that serves 6-8 people, but I opted to make smaller individual ones so I could freeze them. I didn’t measure out the vegetables, so I ended up with quite a bit of filling, enough to make 15 pies in total. As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many pies….however my freezer clearly disagrees!
Ingredient cost ~$50.00 or $3.33 per pie
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
15g unsalted butter
2 onions, cut into 1 cm dice
2 celery sticks, cut into 1 cm dice
1 large carrot, cut into 1 cm dice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 floury potatoes, cut into 1.5 cm dice
200g turnips (or 1/4 swede), peeled and cut into 1.5 cm dice
800g minced beef
1 1/2 tablespoons baharat - I was unable to find so found the following recipe online
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
50g black garlic, roughly chopped - I was unable to find this so omitted
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar - I didn’t have on hand so used apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
600mL beef stock
75g pitted green olives
1 pack of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
1 pack of ready-rolled puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt and black pepper
Directions
Put 2 tablespoons on the oil and butter into a medium heavy-based saucepan, for which you have a lid, and place on a medium high heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrot and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring from time to time, until softened and taking on a little bit of colour. Add the garlic, potatoes, and turnips, cook for another 5 minutes, then tip everything out into a bowl.
Increase the heat to high and add the remaining oil. Add the beef and cook for 10 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring a few times, until browned. Add the baharat, tomatoes, tomato paste, black garlic, and bay leaves, along with 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and a little black pepper, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the red wine vinegar and let it bubble away for a few seconds, then stir in the flour. Return the vegetables to the pan and give everything a good stir. Pour over the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, and then partially covered, for another 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce is thick and glossy. Remove from the heat and stir in the olives. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate until cold.
When ready to make the pie, preheat the oven to 190oC fan forced. Brush the base and sides of a 23cm springform cake tin with butter. Place a large baking tray in the centre of the oven to heat up.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the shortcrust pastry so that it is a few centimetres wider than the cake tin. Using a rolling pin to help you, transfer the pastry to the cake tin and press evenly into the base and corners and all the way up the sides of the tin (you may need to trim some of the pastry and patch it on to other parts to make it fit evenly around the sides). Spoon the beef filling into the centre of the tin, mounding it slightly in the middle so that there is room around the edges for the pie lid.
Lightly flour your work surface once again and gently roll out the puff pastry so that it is large enough to cover the whole pie. Drape the pastry over the filling, pressing it against the sides of the tin to seal the puff and shortcrust pastry edges together. Trim away the majority of the excess pastry, leaving around 2cm all around. Roll of fold the excess pastry inwards, then use a lightly floured fork to press against the sides and create a decorative edge. I like to leave the pastry ends hanging over the sides, so they crisp up beautifully in the oven. Then I always tear them off and enjoy the crunchy goodness as soon as they’re out. I couldn’t resist sneaking those crunchy edges when I was little, they’re always the best part!
Brush the pie with the egg wash, add a good grind of pepper and then, using a sharp knife, make a few small slits in the middle of the pie to act as vents. Place the pie on the hot baking sheet and bake for 1-1/14 hours, until the pastry is golden brown and crisp, and the filling is starting to bubble up through the vents: you might need to cover the pie with foil towards the end if it is taking on too much colour. Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and serving.
I followed the same method but used individual pie tins instead. For the ones I planned to freeze, I covered them with foil to prevent them from browning too much. That way, they can be defrosted and crisped up in the oven later without overcooking. I also topped them with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds for a bit of extra texture and flavour.
