My version of a party pie. These are technically a "shepherd's pie" since they have a potato top.
Ingredients: When I cook, I rarely do so with measurements.. I just bung stuff in..... so I haven't bothered with measurements for this recipe. Pastry
sheets (Puff pastry - I buy this, making it is too hard)
Method: 1).. Get your frozen pastry out and let it defrost while you make the filling. 2). Put a saucepan on the heat and add the mince (no oil). Fry this until no pink is remaining. Add diced onion and fry until the onion is soft. Add finely chopped garlic and fry until the garlic starts to go brown. 3). Add your peas, corn and carrot (I cut my carrot into slices, then cut each slice into quarters, so it cooks quicker), and about a handful of pasta (depending on how much mince you used). If you aren't a vegetable fan, by all means leave these out. The pasta (which should be something like small spirals or something else small), helps to give it substance (and stretches the mix further!) 4). Put about a tablespoon of gravy powder in a coffee mug, fill with water, mix and add this to the pot. Add more water if needed to just cover the ingredients. Add about a teaspoon of tomato paste, about the same of wholegrain mustard, and herbs to taste. 5). Simmer this until the pasta is soft. At the same time (in another pan), make some mashed potato with the potatoes. You can add cheese to this mashed potato if you are feeling decadent! Certainly some Salt and pepper is a good addition. Mash this well... we want no lumps... Think KFC's mashed potato.... really smooth! 6).. When the mince is cooked, allow it to cool (you can use it while still warm, but its best not to be hot). 7). Cut the pastry sheets into 9 (3 rows of 3), and use spray oil to grease a 9 pan muffin tin (or if you have a 12 one like I do, use more than 1 pastry sheet). Place the squares of pastry into the muffin trays. You'll have some little bits poking out - that's ok, leave them. 8). Put a spoonful of filling mix into the muffin pans, and fold over those "wing" bits that were poking out. Place a spoonful of mashed potato on top, and smooth it out so that it covers the whole top of the pie. (This stops you needing to worry about glazing the pastry! 9). When all pies in the tray are done, you can give the top of the pie (the potato) a quick spray with oil if you wish, and perhaps a sprinkle of finely chopped fresh parsley (if you are feeling artistic), and put them in the oven to cook. 10). They should go in a hot oven (pastry needs to cook in a hot oven or it just goes bleerrgh instead of crispy), cook until the potato is browning. You can check to make sure the pastry is cooked by half lifting one out, but you'll probably find it is cooked when the potato is. Probably about 10-15 mins? 11). These can be eaten straight away, or allowed to cool and put in the fridge for the following day and reheated (If you are intending to reheat them, I'd advise only half cooking them, so that they don't burn in the oven when being reheated). They might go a touch wrinkly/soggy if left till the next day, but it's mostly cosmetic, and they'll still taste fine.
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