Meat pies with pea and potato mash

The Australians love their meat pies, and their traditional version is a tasty meat and gravy mixture. The addition of mushy peas is a particular speciality of the late-night pie cart called Harry’s Café de Wheels, in the suburb of Woolloomooloo, Sydney. An icon in Australia since 1945, this pie cart is now world famous. This recipe, a variation on the traditional recipe, is for an open pie with a pea and mash mix for the topping, and serves four.

Ingredients

500g minced beef

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon beef stock powder

1 tablespoon corn flour

½ cup water

2 tablespoons butter

Readymade shortcrust pastry

1 cup peas

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

Method

Add the butter to a pan and then the onion. Sauté the onions for a few minutes until soft, then add the minced beef to brown. Mix the tomato paste, stock powder, corn flour and water together and add to the beef mixture. Simmer until thickened. Set aside. Fill four pie or tart moulds with short crust pastry and blind bake at 200°C for 10 minutes. Boil the potatoes, then drain and mash. Boil or microwave the peas until tender. Blend the peas and add them to the mashed potatoes with a dollop of butter and plenty of salt and pepper. To serve, fill the pastry cases with minced beef and top with the pea and mash mixture.