I managed to make good headway last week on the information system proposal and bid. I wasn't able finish it, but I have enough data to wrap it up, hopefully this week. For that reason, future post may be sporadic rather than daily, at least for the nonce. Thanks for bearing with me.
Okay, then. I've titled this post Almost Aussie Pie because, while the result tasted good, it really wasn't Aussie Pie. Actually, it tasted more like pie-shaped Cornish Pasties, but that's a recipe for another time. Anyhow, here's the recipe I used.
2 lb eye-of-round (beef) roast.
1 large Spanish or yellow onion, rough chopped (1/2-inch dice).
1 carrot, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces.
1 celery stalk, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces.
2 packages store-bought 9-inch pie crusts (enough for 2 pies with top and bottom crusts).
2 heaping T all-purpose flour.
3 bay leaves.
1/4 t whole mustard seeds.
6 C tap-water.
Seasoned Salt.
Black pepper.
Onion powder.
Garlic powder.
Vegetable oil.
Cooking spray (aerosol vegetable oil).
Coat all surfaces of the roast liberally with the seasoned salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.
Pour enough vegetable oil into a heavy skillet. Over HIGH heat, sear all surfaces of the coated roast.
Place the roast in a pressure cooker. Add the water, carrots, celery,1/4 of the chopped onions, bay leaves, and mustard seeds. Cook (according to the
instructions for your pressure cooker) for 1 hour. When you're done, remove the roast from the pressure cooker (keep the cooking liquid and vegetables - you'll use them to make gravy) and let cool. Shred the roast, then chop the shreds into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces.
Note: If you don't own a pressure cooker, you can get the same results using a Dutch oven and more time. Just follow the directions for pressure cooking, but put the ingredients in a Dutch oven. Then braise in your oven at 350 degrees for 3-4 hours, or until the roast is tender enough to shred.
While the roast is cooking, place the remaining chopped onions in the skillet you used to sear the roast, and sweat them over LOW heat until they're translucent. Remove onions from skillet and reserve. When the onions have cooled sufficiently to be handled comfortably, mix them, using your hands, with the shredded and chopped meat.
Reduce the cooking liquid, by boiling, to a generous 2 cups in volume (here's where I screwed up, incidentally - I blended before I had reduced the liquid, which action resulted in the Kitchen Katastrophe I described in detail earlier).
Remove the bay leaves and discard. Allow reduced liquid to cool, then pour the reduced cooking liquid, along with the vegetables and mustard seeds, into a blender and blend until the vegetable are pureed.
Into the same pan you used to sear the roast and sweat the onions, pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix the flour thoroughly in the oil to form a paste, and cook gently, over LOW heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until the oil-flour mixture turns the color of peanut butter. Remove pan from heat and let cool. (Congratulations! you've just made a roux, considered by many to be a bane of home cooks.)
Into the cooled roux, pour the cooled reduced liquid/pureed vegetable mixture. Place over LOW heat, and whisk, constantly but gently, in order to incorporate the roux and cooking liquid. Be patient, because this may take awhile.
As the mixture cooks, your constant whisking breaks up any lumps of roux that may have formed. Also, the mixture begins to thicken. When the mixture is thick enough to just coat the back of a spoon, your gravy's ready to make Almost Aussie Pie. Don't be concerned that your gravy is too thin. It will continue to thicken in the course of baking, the next step.
Spray cooking oil into two 9-inch (preferably non-stick) pie tins. Following package instructions, place a sheet of crust dough in the bottom of each tin. Using a fork, make holes in the dough to prevent steam pockets from forming between crust and tin while baking.
Place half of the meat/onion mixture in each tin and arrange evenly.
You should have at least two cups of warm gravy. If not, add warm water until you have 2 cups, and mix thoroughly (you have enough roux to thicken two cups of gravy). Pour half of the gravy (1 cup plus) evenly over the filling of each pie.
Following package instructions, apply a top crust to each pie. Be sure to crimp the top and bottom crust together to prevent leakage. Also, be sure to cut vent holes in the top crust to prevent steam pockets from forming as the filling cooks. If you don't vent the top crust, your pie can explode in the oven (actually, it'll only look like it exploded, if you're lucky; in any case, it will not be pretty).
Brush (or spray) top crusts with vegetable oil (or you may also use dollops of butter or margerine).
Place pie tins on cookie sheet (to catch any pie filing that oozes out during baking) and bake as directed by the instructions printed on the pie-crust package. Alternatively, or if the package your pie crust came in doesn't have printed baking instructions, you can bake at 350 to 375 degrees for about an hour, or until the top crust is golden brown. In either case, you may want to cover the crust over the seam between the top and bottom crusts with aluminum foil to prevent this area of crust from scorching (don't cover the entire top). You should remove the foil when you think the pies have 20 to 30 minutes of baking time left.
As with most pies, it's not a good idea to slice or serve these pies immediately after removal from the oven. Don't let them cool to room temperature, but do let them cool some before slicing and serving.
Well, there you have it, for what it's worth. A visually attractive and tasty pie, but genuine Aussie Pie it ain't. In a future post, I'll give you a recipe for the real McCoy.
Happy cooking!
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