Nigerian Meat pie (deep dish version)

Meat pie is a popular Nigerian snack sold on street corners and even at fast food outlets. Meat pie is a savoury food because it doesn't have any added sugar. I don't like meat pie as a snack I think the crust engulfs the meat filling which I don't enjoy, eating short crust pastry is not my thing.


Recently I was looking through a cookbook that had lots of deep pie dishes made with short crust pastry. Immediately an idea struck me..... why don't I make our popular Nigerian snack into a deep dish pie.

I tied my apron string and went to work......... the outcome was phenomenal - oh yes it was now I can eat my pie and have it ( or not, dunno). I paired it with a side of salad and it made for a delicious dinner even my hubby enjoyed it and asked for seconds.

Try it at home you would see that it takes this simple snack and turns it into this beautiful meal!

Short Crust pastry

750g Flour

375g cold butter/margarine( I skipped salt because I was using margarine)

16 Tbsp cold water

1. Sieve the flour into a bowl add the margarine and mix by rubbing both ingredient together, it should resemble fine bread crumbs or garri when it mixes in well.
2. Create a well in the center of the flour add the water and combine. It should form a ball of dough refrigerate for about 30 minutes before you start to assemble the pie.

The rule to making a great crust is not to over mix you want the dough cold which will produce the crispest crust. So work quickly and only with your finger tips because your palms generates much heat and will warm the fat, so work with your finger tips.

Meat filling

500g minced beef

3 large carrots

4 large Irish potatoes

1 medium-sized onions

1 tsp dry pepper( optional)

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup of water

1 tsp thyme

2 Cube seasoning

Salt

1. Cube the carrots and potatoes and boil until tender.
2. Slice the onions and fry in the oil until translucent about 5 mins.
3. Add the meat and fry until it turns brown.
4. Add the pepper,thyme, seasoning and salt to taste.
5. Add the boiled veggies and the water stir together.

Grease a deep pie dish set aside. Take the crust out of the fridge, divide into two parts, roll one half into a round shape and place in the dish. The secret to getting a crisp deep dish meat pie is to bake blind. This means to bake the lower crust empty for about 15 minutes before filling it up.

I lay parchment paper over the crust and pour beans unto the paper then bake it. The weight of beans holds the crust down so it doesn't puff up.

Once it is out of the oven fill up the dish, roll out the remaining dough and cover the top of the pie you can get creative here and style and design the top as you would like. My kids designed the top of the pie I used here. Glaze with an egg yolk before putting it into to the oven, bake for about minute, I bake for about 30 minutes then change my oven setting to broil for about 10 minutes to give it a lovely golden brown colour.

 

Serve and enjoy!

Air Buns ( Nigerian Puff Puff)

I made puff last Sunday, my nieces came over to my house and I wanted to make a fast snack that was easy to make and didn't involved the oven. Puff puff is very easy to make and it involves very little washing up which is very ok by me.

If you are familiar with Nigerian snacks, have you ever noticed that we don’t usually have a structured recipe for many of our street snacks? It is usually just put this, this and that you basically eye ball all the ingredients! I have tried to get a recipe for puff puff and it was always the same answer just put flour, sugar, yeast, water, etc. No right recipe even food bloggers all seem to differ in their recipes. The only consolation is that puff unlike cake or bread is a hassle free pastry.

So after some experimentation I came up with this recipe which I keep tweaking whenever I want to make another batch and depending on whom am serving the ingredients changes! But this is the one kids love more, because it's so sweet.


Ingredients

4 cups Flour

1.5 cups Sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 to 3/4 cup warm water

1.5 tbsp yeast

1 tsp dry pepper (optional)

Vegetable oil for deep frying


1. Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of water put a little sugar on top set aside. This would help to quickly activate the yeast.

2. Let it stand for about 5 minutes.

3. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

4. Pour in the yeast mixture into the dry mixture and stir, gradually pouring in the remaining water, do not pour all the water at once just do it gradually. If you want the puff puff to be very light and airy add more water but if you want it a bit stiffer then go gently with the water.

5. Add the pepper for a little kick

6. Allow to prove for about 30 minutes to an hour

7. Heat the oil for frying to a high temperature then scoop small balls and drop into the oil. Make sure that it's small because it puffs up in the oil as it fries.

8. Once it turns golden brown scoop out and drain the puff puffs.

9. Once drained roll in a bed of sugar and serve with an iced cold drink

10. Ebe ano!