Mince and onion pie with cream-cheese pastry
Recipe Ingredients
600g beef mince
30ml olive oil
3 large red onions
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
225g cake flour, plus extra fordusting
1 heaped tsp English mustard
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp balsamic or red-wine vinegar
1 beef stock cube
650ml boiling water
100g unsalted butter
big pinch of cayenne pepper
100g full-fat cream cheese
1 large egg
Recipe Directions
1. Place a large pan on a medium-high heat, then put in the mince and oil. Fry for about 15 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated, breaking it down with a wooden spoon as you go.
2. Peel and roughly chop the onions and add to the pan, strip in the thyme leaves, and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and starting to brown.
3. Stir in 1 heaped tablespoon of flour, followed by the mustard, tomato purée and vinegar. Crumble in the stock cube and pour in the boiling water. Simmer for 30minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Season to taste.
4. While the pie filling is simmering, put 200g of flour, the butter, cayenne pepper and cream cheese in a food processor and pulse until it starts to come together.
5. Tip out onto a flourdusted work surface and pat and bring together. Try not to overwork it, otherwise you’ll have chewy instead of crumbly pastry. Wrap in
clingwrap and leave to rest in the fridge until needed.
6. Preheat oven to 180°C. Once the pie filling is ready, tip into a 25cm pie dish.
7. On a flour-dusted work surface, roll out the pastry so it’s slightly bigger than your dish. Beat the egg and brush the edge of the dish with it. Roll the pastry around your rolling pin, then unroll on top of the pie. Roughly trim away the excess, and pinch the edges to seal. (Use any leftover pastry to decorate the top, if you like.) Brush the pastry with egg and bake for about 30 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven (45minutes if cooking from cold), or until golden on top.
