Meat and Curry Pie | AUSSIEQ BBQ
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After trying so many types of pies from all around the world it is extremely difficult to say where the absolute best pies come from. Many years ago my Kiwi best mate who was a baker competed internationally with his bread and dogs eyes aka pies, brought the best of the best back to Australia for me to try. I can say the best pies in Australia vs New Zealand and abroad are indistinguishable.
So - who has the best pies? New Zealand, Australia or Britain?
Slow cooker vs Oven vs High pressure cooker Smoker: One of the most common questions I get is which produces the most tender cuts of meat. Well there is no clear winner in regards to tenderness, but if you want the ultimate flavour and texture you can't beat smoking the meat. Even using a wood chip basket in your gasser barbecue will yield great results. The lack of smoked meat is one of the biggest drawbacks with even the best pie houses in the pacific.
Simple and quick homemade leftovers beef curry pie
John from AUSSIEQ BBQ
6-7
25 minutes
6 hours
820
Indian/Australian Fusion
Mains
When making beef pies, it’s important to select a secondary tough cut of beef, that can break down and become tender during cooking. The best bit about cheap cuts is the PRICE!! A brisket or chuck beef is ideal; they are affordable, accessible, have bags of flavour and can be cooked on a smoker, gas oven or stovetop. My preference is to smoke the beef beforehand and utilise the leftovers - it just makes life easier on pie making day and the flavour from wood smoke is unmatched.
What if I don't have a smoker? - If you have a slow cooker, crockpot or an oven you're set. When I show steps about smoking the chuck beef, replace those steps with your slow cooker etc.
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Ingredients
1.5 kg / 3.3 lb chuck beef or leftovers
300 g Curry spice paste (if you don’t have this use 4 tbsp curry powder and adjust to your taste)
3 med red Onions, peeled and diced
4-6 tbsp of Curry spice paste from Patak or similair
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
3.5cm / 1.5 Inch piece Fresh ginger, minced
3 tbsp Ground cumin
600 g Tin of diced tommys aka tomatoes
3 tsp Garam Masala
1.5 tsp Sea salt
1.5 Beef stock cubes (or beef bbq rub equivalent)
Shortcrust pastry for base
Puff pastry for lid
2 tbsp corn flour mixed in 75 ml water (if you need to thicken pie mix)
Directions
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Gather up all of the ingredients required, and lay them out in the order you will use them. Great if you get easily distracted like me! or have a few to many tins.
Trim silver skin and any daggy bits off the chuck. Silver skin can be chewy if left on, so remove as much as possible.
Season lightly with salt and pepper, because we want the curry spices to sing for this recipe. This can be done the night before cooking to save some time on the day.
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Preheat your smoker to approx 250F / 120C. Or your slow cooker to med or if using a crock pot add a touch of butter and set to the lowest setting known to mankind. If you are using leftovers skip the cooking steps!
Smoke beef until a deep mahogany colour has formed and surface has started to form bark (approx 75C internal temp). This will take approx 4 hours
Whilst beef is cranking, neck some tins and prep up all your veg and throw everything including the spices into a crock pot (hold corn starch slurry). No heat at this stage.
Dice up the beef into 1-2cm cubes once smoked and add to crock pot with other ingredients. Lid on and throw crock pot in the oven at 140C until the beef probes with a toothpick with bugger all resistance. You don’t want the beef to be mush so it holds better in the pie. You can brown onion etc and cook off spices if you want. This will take approx 1-2 hours
Once your happy with beef tenderness taste and adjust curry levels if req. if you need to thicken up the mix, place pot on low heat on the stove top and add a little corn starch slurry at a time and mix through the pie mix.
Lid off and let pie mix cool
Use a bowl to make pie base (15% larger than pie tin) and lid from your pastries
Bang your cooled pie mix in the pie, rip on the puff lid and seal with a fork around the edge
Store them in the freezer at this point or cook them at 180C with bottom heating element on until golden and crispy. If your oven doesn’t heat from the bottom, you can bang them in the barby and cook them on the flat plate. This will ensure you get crispy bottom and it won’t collapse on you.
1 comment
So this recipe uses approximately 10 tbsp of curry powder if you don’t have the paste?
2 amounts listed in the ingredient list