Recipes

A Classic Australian Meat Pie

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment
Classic Australian meat pie

Master 10 has recently upped his pastry game. The ‘game’ being the eating of pastry, not the making of it. After years of solid allegiance to the sausage roll he is branching out … thanks to a trip to the pool and a Mrs Mac’s Famous Meat Pie. This then triggered a request for a classic meat pie for dinner so we borrowed some pie tins from my parents and I searched the web for a recipe. For his first birthday party I’d actually made party pies but didn’t save the recipe and also recalled them being a little dry, so it was useful to take the opportunity to revisit.

I based my recipe on this one from bestrecipes but baulked at the idea of adding tomato sauce so substituted in tomato paste.

Classic Meat Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 500g mince (beef, obviously!)
  • 1 cup (ish) of beef stock – substitute stock cube & water if you prefer
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • salt & pepper
  • corn flour
  • pastry – I used puff on both top & bottom

Method:

  1. Heat some oil in a pan and sweat down the onion.
  2. Ensure the pan is hot and add the mince. Break it up and ensure you brown it.
  3. Add stock, tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce, stir well and then bring to the boil.
  4. Cook well – keeping an eye on the liquid level. Taste and season with salt & pepper.
  5. Create a slurry of the corn flour & some water and stir in to the meat – this will thicken the gravy.
  6. Allow filling to cool. 
  7. When ready to assemble the pie, preheat your oven to fan 180C and beat an egg to use as the glaze. Line your prepped pie tins, fill and top. Glaze with egg & decorative pastry. Cook for about 20 minutes or until pastry is golden.

For a different take on a pie using beef, check out the beef & stout pie.

Marion Hotel, Marion, SA

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment
Half chicken parmi with chips and salad

date of visit: 26 Jan 2020

Something of a hiatus between posts but let’s see if some belated new year enthusiasm has some steam.

The Marion Hotel has had a ton of publicity of late, with its revamp being much vaunted. It’s a pub I’ve driven past many times and for some reason we’ve never got around to going. A friend and I discussed going late last year but the calendar gods didn’t line up until this last weekend.

Being a weekend (Sunday) AND a public holiday we did the sensible thing and booked for our group of 6, even though we did our usual early dinner of 5:30. Turns out that this was a good thing because the Dining Room was busy (if not full) by the time we left shortly before 7:30pm.

So … how was it? Décor wise it’s obviously all very new and fresh and the use of some green is a bit more interesting than the 99% of all-neutral colour schemes that seem to be terribly du jour. The menu isn’t quite as modern … There is a selection of Yoder smoked mains and entrées and what feels like a strangely out of whack selection of ‘bowls’ (all vegetarian or vegan but you can add chicken, smoked salmon or halloumi). But then we’re into very comfortable pub-grub territory (schnitties, fish & chips, pasta, burger … you get the idea). If there are daily or chef’s specials – we weren’t told about them.

One big plus is that the schnitzels do come in half or full portions – which was the clincher for me to choose the (half) chicken parmi. It was still generous in size, moist and served with a small side salad that, mercifully, wasn’t drowned in dressing. The chips? Must try harder.

Unfortunately, the children’s meals didn’t come with salads (seriously … the picky child will never eat anything green if he/she isn’t presented with it and some of our children actually love salads and veggies – either do a salad bar or do a salad on the children’s plates!) so that’s a bit of minus.

The noticeable weak point of the evening was definitely the service. I don’t know if the pub was understaffed (even though most of the tables looked like they’d been booked, people still call in sick and things go wrong) or whether there were just too many new staff. But from a muddled drinks order, to delays in food, plate clearing, and (that old chestnut) getting the bill everything felt a bit slow and unpolished.

Would I go again? Yeah, but it wouldn’t be my first preference.

Marion Hotel, 849 Marion Road, Mitchell Park 5043

RECIPE: Very Easy Leek and Potato Soup

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

2018-08-07_11-55-31
Leek and potato soup

A very long time between posts and plenty of new content planned but I thought I’d start with something quick and easy. Both to cook and for me to write up while I get my blogging mojo back into gear.

Here in Adelaide we’re in the depths of winter. After a couple of deceptively sunny days, Mother Nature has spent this week throwing everything at us. Not only has it been cold but it’s been wet too. Great for the garden, not quite enough rain for those involved in agricultural pursuits …

My go-to winter food is soup. I love it. Unfortunately, Andy isn’t such a fan so we don’t eat quite as much of it as I’d like … but fortunately the need to very quickly dream up a meal meant that leek and potato soup, topped with tons of bacon and chives was on the menu. It’s also fortuitous that I’ve just completed a bread making course, thanks to Le Cordon Bleu (details on that to follow) so we had some potato and rosemary sourdough bread ready to go – the perfect accompaniment!

I’ve written about soups before – and this is in the same vein. It’s hardly a recipe – it’s more about the flavour combinations. If you like your soup thicker, use more potato and less water/stock. If you like it thinner … use more water/stock. I think that a good rule of thumb is to cook the soup with the water just covering the ingredients and then let it down if you want to, after you’ve blitzed.

Serve with fresh bread, or toasted bread, thickly spread with butter!

Print
RECIPE: Very Easy Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

  • olive oil
  • ½ brown onion, chopped
  • 1 large leek, chopped
  • 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped finely
  • chicken or vegetable stock
  • bacon
  • chives

Instructions

  1. Warm the olive oil in a big pan and add the chopped onion and leek. Sweat them down until they're relatively soft, but avoid the temptation to crank up the heat, as you don't want them to pick up too much colour.
  2. Add the chopped potato and the stock so that the vegetables are just covered and boil (covered, otherwise you'll evaporate off the liquid!) until the potatoes are cooked. The smaller you cut the potatoes, the less time this will take. Keep an eye on it as it cooks, as even with the lid on you may need to add a bit more liquid.
  3. As the soup is cooking, cut the bacon up into small pieces (lardons, if you like) and fry them off in a separate pan. We like them nice and crispy.
  4. Once the potatoes are soft, turn off the heat and blitz the soup until it's nice and smooth. At this point, add more stock or water if it's looking too thick for your taste. Adjust the seasoning too.
  5. When you're ready to serve, ensure everything is hot, then ladle the soup into bowls, topping with bacon and chopped chives.

https://eatingadelaide.com/very-easy-leek-and-potato-soup/