Comfort Food: Meat Pies

​Recently the weather went from summer to almost winter, seemingly skipping fall all together. The cold weather means soft cozy sweaters, warm jackets, and comfort food. A delicious, warm and hardy meat pie is comfort at its best.
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One of my favorite things about this dish is I can make the pie using almost all home-grown or raised foods: carrots, potatoes, onions, and peas from my garden and beef from the family cattle ranch. Only the crust and few seasoning weren’t grown or raised by me or my family.

Start by boiling a couple of large potatoes and dicing some carrots and onions. Make the dices small and all about the same size.

​Add the onions, carrots and a little oil to a large pan.

​Use medium heat to cook the onions and carrots to just shy of tender then add the ground beef.

​Cook until the beef is cooked through, then add the pre-cooked diced potatoes and some frozen peas. Stir gently to combine.

​Mix a cup of cold beef broth with some cornstarch. Add the liquid to the meat mixture and stir until the broth thickens to a gravy.

Now choose your way of presenting the meat pies – individual hand pies or a large casserole. If I’m pressed for time I choose the large casserole version.
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For individual pies use pie crust cut into rounds or refrigerated canned biscuit dough for the pastry. Top with a little meat filling, place another round of dough on top of the filling then crimp with a fork to seal.

​For a faster version. Place the meat mixture into a casserole dish and top with pie crust or puff pastry.

​For either version brush the pastry with an egg wash before baking. Then bake until pastry is golden brown.

Meat Pies serves 10-12
1 Tbs canola oil
1 ½ cups diced carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 pound ground beef
1 ½ cups diced cooked potatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup beef broth
1 Tbs corn starch
Pie crust, refrigerated biscuit dough, or puff pastry
1 egg
 
Place oil in large pan over medium heat. Add carrots and onion, cook until crisp tender. Add ground beef and cook until beef is browned and cooked through and vegetables are tender. Add diced potatoes and peas, heat through. Add corn starch to cold broth mix well until corn starch is dissolved. Pour liquid over meat mixture, cook stirring gently until broth becomes a gravy.
For individual pies. Press biscuits or cut pie crust into rounds about 3 inches across. Top with a spoonful of meat filling, top with another round and use a fork to crimp and seal edges. Place pies onto a baking sheet. In a small bowl, beat egg with a fork. Brush top of pastry with egg wash and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
For casserole scoop meat mixture into a 2 ½ to 3-quart casserole. Top meat mixture with pie crust or puff pastry. In a small bowl, beat egg with a fork. Brush top of pastry with egg wash and bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.