Hairy Bikers Chilli Beef Pies Recipe

Fresh from the oven

I got the Hairy Bikers Perfect Pie Book way back when it came out and I’ve cooked a fair bit out of it so far and even combined a couple of the recipes to make a different version but one of the ones I’d really been looking forward to trying  was the Chilli Beef Pies, mainly because the crust was a mix of Parmesan and Polenta and i’ve never cooked with Polenta before. I was also looking forward to seeing how the filling tasted as at first the ingredients looked a little on the boring side.

They turned out really well and the Polenta gave a nice crunch to the pastry and in all honesty the filling was pretty delicious although I’d have possibly liked a bit more depth and maybe some Kidney Beans, which weren’t in the recipe but seemed to be in the picture in the book.  The only issue I had was preventing the pastry from breaking up when trying to form the pies so go carefully when trying to wrap the pastry round the filling.

The recipe makes 8 pies, I cooked 4 and froze 4, I’ve not cooked the frozen ones yet but the cooked ones did taste great the next day too. Having said that I’d quite like to try them with a modified version of my chilli con carne recipe and see which came out on top

Ingredients

• 500g Lean minced beef
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  

  Pie opened up

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 100ml red wine
• 300ml of beef stock
• 40g pickled green Jalapeños, sliced
• 2 tbsp quick cook polenta
• 3 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander
• salt
• pepper

• 100g plain flour
• 200g quick cook polenta
• 150g cold butter, cut into cubes
• 75ml just boiled water
• 50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 1 egg beaten.

Method

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan and fry the onion for 5 minutes, adding the garlic for the final minute. add the mince to the pan, breaking up any big chunks with a wooden spoon. Fry over a medium heat for 5 mins stirring regularly.
2. Sprinkle with Paprika and cook for a further minute.
3. 

   The photo from the book with what looks like a kidney bean

   Tip the tomatoes, red wine, sock and Jalapeños to the pan, stir well, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil and simmer for 25minutes, add 2 tablespoons of polenta and stir until the mix thickens. Remove from the heat and add the chopped coriander. Leave to cool

4. To make the pastry, put the flour and polenta in a large bowl, rub in the butter until the mix resembles breadcrumbs
5. Add the just boiled water and mix with a wooden spoon until the mix comes together, leave to cool for a few minutes then wrap the mix in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour.
6. Remove from the fridge and knead in the Parmesan
7. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees c.
8. Divide the dough into 8 balls, then on a well floured worktop roll each ball out into a 16cm round.
9. Divide the filling between the 8 discs, leaving a 2cm gap around the edge of each disc.
10. Now brush the lip of the discs with the beaten egg and carefully bring the edges up to cover the filling, pinch together to make a small parcel.
11. Brush the completed parcels with beaten egg.
12. Place the pies on some baking paper and cook in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.