Hi everybody!
Welcome to part three of Fictional Foods, which has been severely neglected that it has been almost three entire years since the last one when I shared a recreation from The Hunger Games!
Thinking back to three years ago seems wils, we were in the height of the pandemic and as someone who was stuck in the house, I felt like I could make more recipes but as per usual, I am very good at starting new things just not very good at sticking to them.
However, I am back with another one and whilst this won’t be a series where I recreate a recipe every month. I think a post a couple times a year would be more fun than making this a regular thing, make it a rare treat.
So, instead of a bookish recipe it is a gaming recipe. I bought a switch back in 2020, and last year worked my way through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The start of a new generation for Zelda and hours upon hours of fun gameplay fighting creatures, swimming and cooking meals to make you strong or fast and more!
I loved the little humming Link does as food is cooking, rooting around Hyrule for ingredients, and finding recipes in stables and the food looks so creative and tasty. I knew I wanted to recreate it.
So, I intended one day of a bank holiday weekend dedicated to making four different Breath of the Wild recipes and I made three in the end. The Meat Pies are the best creation I made, as I did some baking and I do not do baking enough that I forget that I really despise baking.
I’m not the greatest at it but that is mainly cause it needs to be exact, from the measurements of the ingredients to the oven temperature. Not to mention, it is the biggest faff, I did icing and it got everywhere, and baked goods do not taste great the day after so they can’t even keep for a few days.
Keep reading for my recipe. I will say that I am not a professional chef at all, and always judge measurements. So this is a recreation of how I made the Meat Pies that is pretty much correct in making them, I find myself using my judgement a lot when cooking.
NOTE: I am not a professional in any manner, and the recipe I have included is what I thought the process was from the books description. Is this a conclusive recipe? Not really, but it worked for me and I didn’t discover any problems with it.
Makes 4 pies
What you will need:
For the pastry:
- 250g Flour
- 125g Unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp Water
- Pinch of salt
- 1 egg, for wash
Recipe used was the BBC Basic Shortcrust Pastry Recipe and is easy to follow.
For the filling:
- 400 grams Mince Meat
- 2 Carrots
- 2 small onions Onions
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Beef Stock Cube
- Tomato Paste
- Paprika
- Salt, pepper to taste
Method:
- Start prepping the pastry by adding flour and butter and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- When the mixture is ready, add water gradually and start mixing until it becomes a fully formed dough.
- Tip the dough onto a floured surface and start rolling the ddough until it becomes disc shaped and thenwrap in clingfilm and put it into the fridge to cool.
- Heat up a pan with oil to a medium heat.
- Meanwhile, start cutting up the onions, garlic and carrots until finely minced. The pies will be handheld and on the smaller side so will need to be of a matching size to the mince meat.
- Add vegetables to pan and cook until soft.
- When vegetables are cooked, add the mince to cook, adding paprika, salt and pepper as it cooks.
- Whilst the meat is cooking, mix together a beef stock cube with 400ml of hot water and stir until combined.
- When the meat is cooked add the stock water to the pan and some tomato paste and bring the pan to a simmer for 20 minutes until the water reduces.
- The filling should be thick, so it can be spooned onto the pastry.
- When that is all done, bring out the dough onto a floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin until the dough is around 0.5cm thick or the thickness of a pound coin.
- Grab a round cutter (or a breakfast bowl works really well for the right size) and cut out eight discs. Place four of those on a tray lined with baking paper.
- Spoon the mixture onto each pastry disc, two to three spoonfuls of mixture should be enough for each pastry.
- Add the remaining pastry discs to the tops of the filling filled ones and press down the sides so the filling is trapped between the two discs.
- Using a fork, press down the edges of the pastry again so they are sealed and for a textured effect.
- Grab an egg, whisk it with a fork and using a pastry brush, brush the tops so they will go golden when cooked.
- Put into the oven at 190C for 20 to 25 minutes until the pastry is golden.
I am going to make these Mighty Meat Pies again, they were so flavourful, and the pastry crispy. They actually got a seal of approval from some of the pickiest people I know, my siblings. This is something I will definitely be making again, I feel like it wouldn’t be too hard to batch prep the filling and then buy ready made pastry (I want to save a little time) so I can make them throughout the week!
