Nigerian Meat-pies

Photo Credit: Okalo Ikhena (My lovely brother :D)

Hello everyone!

Happy Christmas Eve!!! Even though this isn't a Christmas recipe lol, I figured I'd finally make a blog-post about one of my favorite recipes, the Nigerian meat-pie. It is a very popular snack in Nigeria, because it is tasty and moist! PS If you're pescatarian, you could easily substitute ground beef with fish. Now, on to the recipe..

Total Time:  1 hr 45 mins

Prep Time: 1 hr

Bake Time: 40-45 mins

Yield: This depends on the size of the cutter you use. If your cutter is 10 inches in diameter, you'll make about 10 meat pies. 

INGREDIENTS

For the Dough

• 7 cups of All Purpose Flour 
• 2 teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 4 cups of Butter (Margarine) 
• I tablespoon of sugar (or 2 pinches of Salt)
• 1/2 cup of cold water

For the Meat Filling

• 2 medium Irish Potatoes (optional)
• 1/2 a cup of Frozen Vegetables (optional)
• 4 cups of Ground Beef (Minced Meat)
• 1 medium sized onion
• 2 cooking spoons of Coconut Oil (or Vegetable, Canola, Olive Oil)
• 2 Maggi/Knorr Cubes 
• 1 teaspoon of Thyme
• 1 teaspoon of Pepper
• 1 teaspoon of Curry
• 1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon of Ginger
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 teaspoons of Flour
• 1 cup of water

Ornamental Ingredients

• 1 Egg

DIRECTIONS

Meat-pie Filling:

Step 1: Peel the potatoes, wash them and cut it into tiny cubes.

Step 2: Slice the onions

Step 3: On medium heat, heat your cooking oil in a pot, and stir in the diced onions.

Step 4: Stir in the ground beef vigorously until it turns pale

Step 5: Add all of the seasoning, and stir.

Step 6: Add one cup of water

Step 7: Cover the pot and once the contents start boiling add in frozen mixed veggies (optional), and potatoes (optional) and cook until it is all done.

Step 8: Mix the tablespoons of flour in half a cup of cold water and add to the meat-pie filling. This is to ensure that the filling does not dry up during baking.

Step 9: Stir the contents and turn off the heat.

Time for the dough, the fun part! :D

Meat-Pie Dough:

Step 1: Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and the sugar (or salt). Mix well!

Step 2: Use a tablespoon to put the margarine into the bowl of flour. 

Step 3: Using your finger tips, rub the margarine into the flour, till its like crumbs (look here). Do not use melted butter!

Step 4: Add cold water in little amounts, while folding the mix until it turns into a ball of dough is formed. (look here).

Step 5: Knead the dough well, and leave to rest for 5 minutes, this makes it more elastic.

Cutting the Dough

Step 1: Set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and leave it to preheat.

Step 2: Rub some of your margarine on the insides of your oven tray and set aside.

Step 3: Break your egg, whisk it, and set aside

Step 4: Knead the dough until it's quite thin (not too thin).

Step 5: Use a cutter (this could be a bowl turned upside down, or a tea cup turned upside down, and cut around it), to make round cuts on the rolled out dough. 

Step 6: Put some meat-pie filling into the center of the cuts (look here).

Step 7: Rub the edges of the meat pie cut with eggs, before folding it. This is to make sure the meat pie is sealed and doesn't open up during baking.

Step 8: Fold one part of the dough to meet the other, and use a fork to press the edges together to close tightly. (Refer to pictures below, here and here).

                                                                        PC: Okalo Ikhena

Step 9: Rub the egg of the meat pies using a cooking brush (honestly, I just used my hands). This gives the meat pie a golden brown look when done. I didn't rub enough on my meat-pies, but normally it should look like the picture below (I made those a while back. Excuse the somewhat low quality picture, took it with my iPhone haha).

Step 10: Set the meat-pies on the tray, and place the tray in the preheated oven, allowing it to bake for 30-40 minutes. Once it starts browning, you know it's almost done! (Open the oven to check).

And you're done! So I found a similar British recipe I want to try out. I might not make another blogpost since it is so similar to this one, but if you're interested, look here.

Also, my apologies for not putting up pictures of each step, I am still getting around having pictures taken while I bake, I get carried away haha. I'll try to include steps in my next post! If you have any questions, leave a comment below or shoot me an email at ikhena@me.com :)

Later on that night, my sister made Lemon and Blueberry Pancakes, so delish!!! (Check out this recipe here, made it sometime ago) and I decided to capture the moment :). (Well my brother took all the pictures, what would I do without his photography skills? Lol).

                                                               Photo Credit: Okalo Ikhena

Bon Apetit,
Onivie