Whats for Dinner?

Just made individual-sized Australian-style meat pies for dinner. Ended up with thirteen of them, then Tiffany and I managed to eat 3.5 of them before we got full.

My labmate's from Australia, though, and has lamented the lack of meat pies in the states compared to Oz. I will be surprising him with lunch tomorrow.
Would you mind sharing the recipe? @AussieT (who is not an Aussie btw and I have yet to figure out why he has chosen this name) went to Brisbane during one of his deployments. It was Australia Day while his ship was there and he had meat pie to celebrate. He says they were awesome, especially with ketchup. I'd like to make it.
 
Nope, no eggs. I don't measure anything when I make it so I'll have to estimate amounts.

Basically you have 3 steps: powder coating, liquid dip, crust, and then on the baking sheet

Coat: about 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of old bay seasoning, pinch of kosher salt, pinch of black pepper

Dip: 1 cup buttermilk. Since we usually don't buy buttermilk, you just make your own by taking 1 cup of milk and adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Crust: 1cup panko bread crumbs are great, but I've also used crushed cereal (rice or corn chex/"squares" if you're using store brand) or crushed saltine crackers in a pinch.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. I like to wipe down the baking sheet with a little bit of peanut oil to make sure the filets don't stick.

Cut the filets into roughly 6" long pieces - or whatever's a convenient size for your preparation.

Cover the filet with the coating, then dip it in the buttermilk. Finally, roll it in the panko, then place on the baking sheet.

Once they're all on the baking sheet, put them in a 425 oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the panko starts to brown.
 
Just made individual-sized Australian-style meat pies for dinner. Ended up with thirteen of them, then Tiffany and I managed to eat 3.5 of them before we got full.

My labmate's from Australia, though, and has lamented the lack of meat pies in the states compared to Oz. I will be surprising him with lunch tomorrow.
Are these similar to empanadas? We have meat pockets in western Oklahoma that are supposedly Czech in origin (don't know what they're called there). It's a pastry dough with ground meat, lite-gravy, and onions. They're deep-fried and we ate them with mustard.

I am assuming that lots of cultures have meat pockets/pies in their cuisines.
 
Thanks for the recipe. And since I use buttermilk rarely, I've taken to buying the powder from Bulk Barn, or wherever you can get lots of bulk stuff. It IS different than Milk + Lemon Juice, so you may want to try the powdered stuff in recipes.

Sounds delicious. I will definitely be trying it.
 
Are these similar to empanadas? We have meat pockets in western Oklahoma that are supposedly Czech in origin (don't know what they're called there). It's a pastry dough with ground meat, lite-gravy, and onions. They're deep-fried and we ate them with mustard.

I am assuming that lots of cultures have meat pockets/pies in their cuisines.
Yeah, they do. Basically it's a way of turning leftovers into a second, different meal with just a bit of dough, as well as creating a satisfying, easy to transport meal for people to take to work.[DOUBLEPOST=1412020730,1412020186][/DOUBLEPOST]
Thanks for the recipe. And since I use buttermilk rarely, I've taken to buying the powder from Bulk Barn, or wherever you can get lots of bulk stuff. It IS different than Milk + Lemon Juice, so you may want to try the powdered stuff in recipes.

Sounds delicious. I will definitely be trying it.
It's especially good with "oven fries" - basically baked potato wedges that taste a lot like fries or potato chips. Take 3 baking potatos, wash thoroughly, cut in half the long way, then slice into 1/4 inch thick strips. Coat a baking sheet with peanut oil, or brush each potato slice with it as you prefer. Sprinkle with kosher salt and season to taste (seasoned salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, etc). Bake in 425 F oven for 40-45 minutes. I usually have these in the oven for 20 minutes before putting the fish in.

So there you go - my baked fish and chips.
 
It's especially good with "oven fries" - basically baked potato wedges that taste a lot like fries or potato chips. Take 3 baking potatos, wash thoroughly, cut in half the long way, then slice into 1/4 inch thick strips. Coat a baking sheet with peanut oil, or brush each potato slice with it as you prefer. Sprinkle with kosher salt and season to taste (seasoned salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, etc). Bake in 425 F oven for 40-45 minutes. I usually have these in the oven for 20 minutes before putting the fish in.

So there you go - my baked fish and chips.
I've done something similar with potatoes for years. The difference is I generally make garlic-parsley (or rosemary) and I actually dump my spices and oil in a big ziploc bag, then shake the potato wedges in there, and then dump that whole bunch onto the ALREADY HOT cookie sheet. Same temp/time as yours. Works great. I'll definitely try it more fry-like seasoning like you have it some time.
 
Would you mind sharing the recipe? @AussieT (who is not an Aussie btw and I have yet to figure out why he has chosen this name) went to Brisbane during one of his deployments. It was Australia Day while his ship was there and he had meat pie to celebrate. He says they were awesome, especially with ketchup. I'd like to make it.
Sure! I used this recipe as a base: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/australian-meat-pie-recipe.html

I made some modifications: I substituted the cubed beef for ground turkey, used a little bit more garlic, and used 3 cups (instead of 4) of beef broth. Rather than dredging the meat with flour (like the recipe calls for) I mixed in...some amount of flour with the turkey. Not sure how much. I'm more of a "pinch of this, dash of that" cooker. I also probably reduced it a little more than the recipe calls for, but I think it made for a "thicker" filling (which I enjoy, personally). I'd also cut the volume of soy and worcestershire by 10% or so.

My labmate really enjoyed them and asked for the recipe. He also mentioned that one of his favorite flavors of pie was a burgundy, so--if you like red wine in your cooking--I'd recommend cutting the soy/worcestershire sauce a little more and deglazing the pan with 1/2 to 2/3rds cup of red wine after cooking the garlic/onions before adding the rest of the sauces.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to include how I made the dough!

You can buy puff pastry dough in the store. I made it, though.

I added ½ cup of water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in bowl. Mixed, heated ½ stick of butter along with ¾ cup of milk until the butter melted. Added 4 ¼ cups flour to water and sugar, mixed, then added butter and milk. Mixed, then kneaded dough until it was firm and sprung back to the touch. I let the dough sit for an hour and a half (I’d initially added yeast, yeast weren’t viable/didn’t survive, so not sure if this step is necessary), then divided it into 4.5-5.0 oz dough balls. I rolled the dough out until I thought it was large enough to wrap around ½ cup of the filling mentioned above.

After adding the filling to the rolled dough, I raised two edges together (like a taco) and pinched the edges together to seal the pastry. Then I took the ends, rolled them up and pinched them to the seam. I placed the pies seam-side down on greased tin foil, then baked for 30 minutes or so at 350.
 
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figmentPez

Staff member
This is most certainly not poutine:
2014-10-04 Not Poutine.jpg


The other day I made gravy from bacon fat and chicken broth. It's really mediocre gravy. Would not make again. The first night I made it, I had it with crumbled sausage on toast, and that was pretty good. This time I thought I'd try it on fries, only I used leftover taco meat, and topped it with truffle gouda cheese. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't even as good as the sum of it's parts. Experiment failed.
 
This is most certainly not poutine:
View attachment 16230

The other day I made gravy from bacon fat and chicken broth. It's really mediocre gravy. Would not make again. The first night I made it, I had it with crumbled sausage on toast, and that was pretty good. This time I thought I'd try it on fries, only I used leftover taco meat, and topped it with truffle gouda cheese. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't even as good as the sum of it's parts. Experiment failed.
Bacon makes cruddy gravy. This is something I learned making turkey dinners. One year we added doofy thick sheets of weaved bacon ala Epic Meal Time to the turkey instead of just laying some strips over it and the gravy turned out awful.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
That's why the good stuff happened first ^_^ Sex after pizza makes me feel to much like Jabba the Hutt when he's yanking on Leia's chain.
 
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