Thursday, October 16, 2014

Meat Pie


This is a really easy recipe and a throwback to a meal I used to eat at a friend's house as a kid. All I remember about it is that it was a big hunk of ground beef and I used to put loads of ketchup on it. We didn't eat red meat in my house very often, if at all. Believe me, I make up for it now. I think the original recipe had potato cubes in it but I opted for sautéed onions instead.

Ingredients
1 whole organic onion of any kind chopped
1 pound of ground grass-fed beef
1 pound (approximately) of seasoned pastured pork sausage removed from casing- I used Herondale Farm's sweet italian
6 oz can of organic tomato paste
1/4 cup of red wine
1 tsp sea salt
2 pastured eggs

Crust
2 and 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour
1/2 cup of tapioca, arrowroot or sweet potato starch
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp grain-free baking powder
1 pastured egg
1/4 cup water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while you prepare the crust.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl before adding the egg and water. With a fork, mix the liquids through the dry ingredients until the crust sticks together without sticking to your fingers. If you need to add more water, do it in small amounts so the mix does not become too sticky. Powder up your hands with a little of the dry starch or flour and press about 2/3rds of the crust mix into a greased pie pan. Make this base as even as possible and bring it all the way up the sides. The remaining 1/3rd of the mix will be rolled out in between two sheets of parchment paper in the same size as the pie pan. Place the bottom crust in the oven for about 2 minutes, so it sets up just a little. You should see some bubbling in the bottom. Now prepare the filling.
With a spoonful of bacon grease, lard, butter or your preferred fat add the chopped onion to a pan and sauté until soft. Add both meats and break into pieces, cooking until almost fully browned. Add the remaining filling ingredients to a bullet or food processor and blend until smooth. Once the meat is done turn off the heat and add the liquid mix thoroughly. 
Now you can fill the pie and add the top crust. Peeling back one of the pieces of parchment paper on your top crust, you should be able to lay it onto the filled pie and pinch or roll the excess to the top of the bottom crust.
Once this is assembled, bake it for about 30 minutes or until there is a nice golden brown color on the top crust.