Pie Mash and Liquor

 

Pie Mash and Liquor

Aunt Katie used to say, want a quick trip to London’s East End, make this dish and you’ll think you were transported there. She knew because she lived in London for a few years during WWII. She always cooked from scratch and with recipes she gathered from her own Mother and Grandmother while growing up and I was honored she shared these recipes with me to hand down loved ones.

As she used to say, you can’t bake a mincemeat pie without creating a homemade suet base pastry, filling it with tasty, minced beef filling, over it with a thin crust pastry lid, baking it in the oven then serving it with freshly mashed potatoes and smother it with a liquor (gravy) made of a green sauce from stock, flour and parsley. She loved it because she loved the Cockney history of dinners that she fell in love with while in London.

Ingredients

Mince beef filling

1.1 lbs. Ground Beef mince 20% -

2.25 cups Beef stock - Knorr beef stock pots are the best.

½ teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet Browning & Seasoning Sauce

Pie Base - Suet Pastry

2 cups Plain flour

2/3 cups of Suet/Lard

3 Tablespoons Baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ cup Cold water

Pie Lid - Shortcrust Pastry

1-1/4 cups Plain flour

5-1/4 tablespoons Cold butter cut into small cubes - plus extra butter to grease pie tins

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoon Water

splash of milk - to glaze the pastry lid

1 cup finely chopped pecans

1 apple peeled and finely chopped

½ cup dried figs finely chopped

½ cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup brandy

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Liquor - Parsley Sauce

4 Cups Fish Stock – If I don’t have fresh fish stock I use 2 x Knorr fish stock cubes  

5 tablespoon Plain flour

¾ cup Cold water

2 Handful's Fresh parsley - finely chopped

Black Pepper & Salt - to taste

Mash Potato

3.3 lbs White Potatoes – peeled and Chopped

Dash of Salt

Dash of black pepper

2 tablespoons butter

¼ cup milk

Instructions

Mince beef pie filling

Sauté the meat in a cast Iron pan over medium-low heat for about 9 minutes, breaking it into small pieces. Add the apple, pecans, figs and lemon peel, brown sugar, and brandy to the pan. Simmer until blended. Once everything is browned, add beef stock and bring it to a gentle boil before turning off the heat. Stir in browning sauce along with salt and black pepper to taste.  Let it cool while preparing your pastry.

Preheat your oven: to 400° F

For the pie base, begin by sifting flour into a large mixing bowl.  Incorporate a pinch of salt, suet, and baking powder to create the perfect suet pastry blend! Slowly combine the ingredients together. Mixing the flour and suet mix with an electric mixer and pouring water into the bowl with a tablespoon by hand. Increase speed and add cold water a little at a time

Once all water has been added and the dough has formed into a ball. Remove from the bowl onto a well-floured worktop. Knead for a few minutes until soft and pliable.

Divide the suet dough into 4, which should be about 1/3 cup each (this is enough to cover 4 pie dishes measuring 16cm x 12cm).

You will have some left still which you will use later to shape the pastry in the pie dishes, so don't throw it away!

n a cast iron pan, stir the beef mince filling with a black spoon. For the pie base, sift flour into a mixing bowl and mix in salt, suet, and baking powder. Roll out until larger than your baking dish and set aside. Next, for the top pastry—sift flour again, then blend in cubed cold butter until crumbly. Gradually add cold water to form dough before resting on a floured surface. Roll out until thinner than the base pastry.

Mash

Place your potatoes into a large pan of cold water. Bring to a gentle boil. cook for about 30 minutes. Continue making the pies and come back to the mash later!

Once potatoes are soft enough, drain and put back into the pan to mash until smooth. For this recipe, it calls for no milk or butter to be used in this mash, but I can’t make mashed potatoes without adding a little milk and butter.  

Time to make the beef pies!

The 4 sheets of shortcrust should be rolled out smaller and thinner for the pie top.

The 4 sheets of suet pastry should be rolled out bigger and thicker for the pie base.

Four pie bottoms and four pie tops stacked on a floured surface

Use butter to grease the pie dishes well, so that the pies are easy to remove when cooked.

Greasing a pie dish with butter by hand

Place the larger suet pastry base over the dish, and use the ball of leftover pastry to gently push the pastry into the dish without tearing it.

Pushing the middle of the pie bottom down with a lump of pastry

Add the beef mixture equally into the 4 prepared suet pastry bases, and pour any remaining stock in with them too.

Coating four pies' bottom edges with water using a pastry brush

Now place the pastry lids on top, DO NOT push the pastry lid down onto the filling. Think of it more like a drum stretching the pastry across to meet the edges!

Placing the pie tops on top of the bottoms of four pies by hand

Cup your hand and push the lid firmly onto the pie dish edges to seal.

Use a knife to cut down and around the pie edges.

Cut the remaining pastry away from the edges of the pie with a knife

Use a pastry brush to very gently glaze the lid with milk.

Ready to bake, place all 4 prepared pies onto a baking tin. Cook in the preheated oven at 400°F Meanwhile, make your liquor.

Cook for 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

Make up the fish stock from cubes with boiling water in a pan.

Add sieve flour into cold water, whilst whisking, to make a slurry.

When you are positive there are NO LUMPS in the flour and cold water. Slowly pour whilst whisking into the stock. Bring to the boil.

Use scissors instead of a knife to chop the parsley very finely, you want the green parsley juice in the pan, not on the chopping board!

Chopped up parsley on a black plate with a pair of orange and silver scissors on the side

Add parsley, salt and pepper, then lower to a simmer for 5 minutes. The liquor sauce is meant to be a thin sauce.

Placing fresh chopped parsley into the liquor cooking in a cast iron pan

If you want it thicker repeat flour and cold-water steps to prevent lumps from forming.

Ready to serve! Serve pie with a couple of scoops of mashed potato and drizzle the liquor all over!

 

Elizabeth Kilbride is a Writer and Editor with forty years of experience in writing with 12 of those years in the online content sphere. Author of 5 books and a Graduate with an Associate of Arts from Phoenix University in Business Management, then a degree. Mass Communication and Cyber Analysis from Phoenix University, then on to Walden University for her master’s in criminology with emphasis on Cybercrime and Identity Theft, and is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in Criminology. Her work portfolio includes coverage of politics, current affairs, elections, history, and true crime. Elizabeth is also a gourmet cook, life coach, and avid artist in her spare time, proficient in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, Gouche, and pastels. As a political operative having worked on over 300 campaigns during her career, Elizabeth has turned many life events into books and movie scripts while using history to weave interesting storylines. She also runs 7 blogs that range from art to life coaching, to food, to writing, Gardening, and opinion or history pieces each week. 

British Fare, Potpourri of Frugality. Kilbride