Wednesday, 4 June 2014

NIGERIAN MEAT PIE

The best meat pie recipes are moist and delicious filled with minced meat, carrots and potatoes seasoned to perfection to give it the unique Nigerian meat pie taste. This snack is popular in most fast food restaurants in Nigeria.
For this recipe the number of pies you would get depends on the thickness of the rolled out dough and the diameter of the meat pie cutter. I made a total of eight meat pies, five large ones and three medium ones

Ingredients
For the dough
  • 1kg Plain Flour
  • 2tsp Baking Powder
  • 500g Margarine
  • 1/2cup Water
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 1 Egg

For The Filling
  • 2 Medium Sized Potatoes
  • 4 Baby Carrots
  • 500g Minced Meat
  • 1 Medium Sized Onion
  • 2tbsp Vegetable Oil
  • 2 Seasoning Cubes
  • 1tsp Thyme
  • 2tsp Plain Flour
  • 1cup Cold Water
  • Salt to Taste
  • Pepper to Taste

How to prepare:
-Peel, wash and dice carrots, potatoes and onions.


- Heat vegetable oil in a pot add diced onions and fry till translucent.


-Add minced meat then leave without stirring for a couple of minutes, this is important so as to brown the meat. Once meat is brown, add ½ cup of water and leave to properly cook minced meat for about five minutes.



-Add seasoning cubes and thyme and cover for a couple more minutes till the mixture starts boiling.



-Add diced carrots and potatoes, I had some extra sweet corn laying around which I added also, and cook till vegetables are well done. Dissolve plain flour in remaining ½ cup of water and add to the filling, this helps hold the mixture together and also keeps the filling moist.


-Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside to cool completely.

-On to making the dough, in a bowl place the flour baking powder and salt and mix well.

-Cut the margarine into cubes and place into the flour and using fingers rub margarine into flour until the mixture becomes like breadcrumbs.


- Slowly add cold water while folding the mixture till stiff dough is formed. Knead the dough and leave to rest for a 6-7 minutes.



-Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C (335 F). Break an egg, beat it and set aside.

-I got this meat pie maker a while back from Nigeria which makes it much easier to make meat pies.



-However it is not compulsory to use this, meat pie can easily be made using any circular object e.g. a bowl or a large round cookie cutter and a fork. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to desired thickness (I did about 5mm).

-Using  a bowl make round cuts and remove the excess dough.



-Scoop meat pie filling unto center of the round dough cut making sure not to over fill.



-Using a pastry brush or clean hands rub egg wash on the inside edge of the dough, this ensures the meat pie is perfectly sealed and does not open while in the oven.

-Fold one part of the dough to meet the other creating the classic half moon meat pie shape.


-Using a fork, press the two edges together to close tightly, if the fork begins to stick to the dough, rub a little flour on it.

-Place on a greased oven tray till all the dough is exhausted. Rub egg wash on the tops of the meat pies to give the golden brown look.



-Place tray in the pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes. The meat pie is done once it start browning. You would want to remove the meat pies once they are ready and leave to cool slightly before eating so as not to burn your tongue on the hot filling.

I made these for my family and they came out really nice and tasty, unfortunately I was not able to take pictures of the final result because I left them to cool for a couple of minutes and when I got back they were already finished.