Meaty Mushroom Pie

Difficulty: Medium

Serves Four

I guess you could call this my “signature dish”. I started making meat pies about a year and a half ago, making gradual improvements as I went along. The best thing about this pie is that you can make so many variations, don’t like mushrooms? Leave them out or add some lentils or beans instead! If you can’t get beef style chunks, substitute with TVP and add some beef style stock for a more meaty flavour.

Ingredients

• 1/2 bag of beef style chunks (you can find these in a lot of Asian supermarkets), defrosted
• 2 sheets of thawed puff pastry (depending on the dish you’re using you made need extra)
• 1 small brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups of button mushrooms, chopped
• A handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of Gravox Traditional (be careful to read the ingredients, some look similar but contain milk!)
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C
2. Chop the beef style chunks into smaller pieces and set aside.
3. Add onion and garlic to a frypan and cook until onion starts to brown.
4. Throw in the mushrooms, basil and beef style chunks.
5. After about 5 minutes, turn the heat down.
6. In a saucepan, combine the Gravox and water. Stir occasionally until boiled then simmer for a further 2 minutes.
7. Add the gravy and barbecue sauce to the frypan, add salt and pepper.
8. Grease your pie dish with spray oil and lay one sheet of pastry down (or 2 if required).
9. Fill with the meaty mixture and lay pastry on top. You should turn the overlapping pastry inward to make a crust.
10. Spray with a light layer of oil and place in the oven until golden.
11. Cut into pieces and serve with mashed potato, mushy peas and more gravy.

Variations: Use TVP instead of beef style chunks. You can also add lentils, chilli, corn or basically anything else you can think of. You can also forgo the top layer of pastry and replace with mashed potato for shepherd’s pie!