It’s hard to go wrong with these core three ingredients – and the result is a pie that even blue-cheese haters will love.
There is something rather wonderful about the combination of salty-sharp blue cheese, sweet caramelised onion and earthy mince. Wrap it all up in pastry and it you’ll be sure to impress – my blue-cheese snubbing kids even devoured it. If pastry making isn’t your thing then use store-bought flaky pastry instead, I won’t judge!
CARAMELISED ONION, BEEF AND BLUE CHEESE PIES
Serves 6
For the pastry
- 125g butter
- 200g flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 100ml milk
For the filling
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 onions, quartered, finely sliced
- 500g mince
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tamari (or light soy sauce)
- 1 cup stock (veg, chicken or beef)
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 75g blue cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Put the flour into a bowl, grate in the chilled butter, mixing it in with a butter knife as you progress so that it doesn’t all end up in one great buttery ball. Add the salt and slowly mix in the milk until the pastry comes together. Put in a plastic bag in the fridge for half an hour.
While the dough chills, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently until caramelised. This will take 20 minutes or so by which time they will be a deep golden colour and have significantly reduced in volume. Tip out into a small bowl. Add another splash of olive oil to the pot if required and brown the meat before adding in the sugar, tamari and stock. Check for seasoning, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and put on the lid and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the flour and the caramelised onions. If the mixture is too thick then add a little water to loosen. Set aside.
Remove the pastry from the fridge, divide into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other. Take the bigger one and roll it out so that it lines the base and sides of a 22cm pie dish with a little pastry hanging over the edge which you can seal the lid on to. Spoon in the filling, dot with the blue cheese and then roll out the remaining pastry to form the lid. Brush the edge of the pastry lining the pie dish with egg then top with the lid. Either using a fork or your fingers, crimp the lid on to the bottom of the pie then brush with the egg mixture. Decorate with any remaining pastry then put into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.
