Beef and Bourbon Pie

I'm not sure why I didn't put the pie on a plate for this pic. No use crying about it now, its gone.

You will need a few items to recreate this instructable.

4-inch springform pans

Cookie sheet to bake pies on in case they leak

Large bowl to mix dough

Large bowl to mix filling

Large frying pan, I use an antique cast iron chicken fryer.

Large spoon for cooking ground beef and stirring veggies

Slotted spoon to strain beef from pan

Measuring cup

Cutting board and sharp knife

Rolling pin

250ml large mouth canning jar, lid and ring not required

1tbsp measuring spoon

Dough blender, I use an antique that has been handed down to me.

Cheese grater

Plate to grate cheese onto

Plastic wrap

Fork to whisk egg

Brush to apply whisked egg to pastry

Refrigerator and oven of course

Ingredients are somewhat fluid. You can adjust most of them to your liking. Just because I use garlic doesn't mean you have to. I'm a garlic farmer so it's a must in my cooking. Just create a filling that you and your family will enjoy.

These are my ingredients for the filling

2 heads of garlic, buy local not from China!

4 carrots

5 small onions

12 large cremini mushrooms

1kg lean ground beef

Hawaiian black salt

Watkins black pepper

Hot pepper powder, I make my own with a mix of organic hot peppers from my farm.

Bourbon, I used 2tbsp of Jim Beam

200g extra old cheddar cheese

A box of Dr. Oetker pie crust If you don't bake often Dr. Oetker is a must. Pastry flour should be fresh. These have a best before date. They make one 10" double crust pie per box. In this case 4 small spring form pies. I no longer have a bag of stale pastry flour in the pantry.

1/2 cup or so all purpose flour for dusting while rolling out dough.

2tbsp cold butter, The Dr. calls for 4tbsp but I tried less and it works out fine.

1 egg, I support my local farmer, you should to. Mine is an 87yr old who supplies the neighborhood with fresh eggs and goes to market twice weekly with his fruit and veggies. The guy is amazing for his age. I helped clean the chicken barn last summer and we kept up the same pace. Fork for fork, it tired me out and I'm only 59.

OK let's get cooking!

Break apart the garlic and cut off the hard ends.

Wrap the cloves in paper towel and microwave for 15 seconds.

The wrappers should slide off with ease now. Careful, they are hot.

With the side of the knife press the cloves firmly.

Now mince them up to your desired size. No one wants to come across half a garlic in their fork full.

OK it's crying time. Just suck it up, this wont take long.

I chop my onions in half, slice them lengthwise 8 to 10 times then turn them 1/4 turn. I try to keep the pieces together, this keeps the surface area exposed to a minimum. Thus keeping tears to a minimum as well.

Eventually you must dice. A pair of swimming goggles could be helpful but I just use this step as a sinus cleans.

Scrape the onions into a bowl with the garlic and set aside. Waaayyy aside!

I like cremini mushrooms for their firm texture.

I slice them 3 to 5 ml thick. I don't want them paper thin or diced.

They look nice when you can see the shape when you fork up a mouthful.

What can one say about the carrot? They add colour and a bit of sweetness.

Cut off tips, peel and dice. I save the tips and peels for my rabbits. They compost nicely as well.

This instructable was inspired by a sale on ground beef. $6.35kg for lean ground is as cheap as it gets these days.

Into the antique cast iron chicken fryer it goes and on goes the lid.

I start on the high side of medium heat and cut back as needed.

Seasoning is a process that is personal to the chef and those he or she is feeding.

My son gifted us a bag of Hawaiian black salt for Christmas this year so it has been our go to salt for the past three months.

The Watkins company has a nice black pepper it's not cheap but always tasty.

I make my own hot pepper powder. It is a mix of six varieties this year. Habanero, cayanne, red chilli, jalapino, cherry bomb and hot Hungarian.

You can use whatever you have in what ever quantities you and yours can handle.

I wait until the meat is cooked then I season to my liking.

I think I sprinkled about 1/2tsp of both salt and hot pepper and 1/4tsp black pepper. I will revisit seasoning later.

With a slotted spoon remove the meat leaving the juices behind.

Add the carrots to the hot juices.

Cook until the crunch is gone but still firm.

Remove carrots and pour the cooking liquid into your measuring cup.

Now toss the onions and garlic into the pot on low side of medium heat and cover.

Stir around after 1 minute or so then add 1/2 the cooking liquid and cover.

Simmer for another minute or two until the onions are soft but not mush

Now we invite the fungi to the party.

Mix the mushrooms gently into the mix trying not to break them to much.

Add the rest of the reserved juices over the mushrooms and cover.

Once the mushrooms are limp add the carrots and beef to the pot.

Mix gently.

I mixed in 1tbsp of bourbon but found the flavour to be to faint so I added another.

Another grind of salt and I was happy.

I put the filling into a bowl and put it into the refrigerator until tomorrow.

See you then.

Good day!

I have my space and tools ready so lets make some pies.

Before we get flour all over the place, the cheese needs to be grated.

I used half of this 400g bar of extra old cheddar.

The Dr. Oetker mix is your flour salt baking powder and milk in a box.

All you do is add butter and water then mix.

The box calls for 4 tbsp of butter. I use just over half that to be a bit healthier.

Cut the butter in until it is the size of peas.

Add 3 tbsp cold water and mix with a fork then add 3 tbsp more and mix until clumping.

Now knead until there are no dry bits then roll into a ball.

I now wrap the ball and refrigerate so I can wash the bowl, Fork and wire butter cutter.

A short wide mouth canning jar will make it easy to add the pastry to the form.

Cut the pastry dough into four equal portions then cut 1/3 off each piece.

Wrap the 4 smaller pieces and refrigerate them.

Wrap three of the larger ones and refrigerate as well.

Sprinkle the counter with flour.

Roll the ball in the flour.

Now roll it out as round as you can.

I know, that doesn't look round.

This is a do as I say not as I do moment.

Lay pastry evenly atop the inverted jar.

Put spring form over top and carefully slide to the edge of the counter and flip it over.

Now slide the jar against the sides pressing the pastry into place then set aside.

Now make 3 more just like this one.

Then roll out the tops as well with the smaller balls of dough.

I now warm the refrigerated filling in the microwave for 4 minutes stir it then heat for another 3 minutes.

You will now need to clean up your work space or there will be flour all over the place.

Now break an egg into a bowl and add 2 tbsp water then mix it well.

Add layers of meat mixture followed by shredded cheese until the forms are full.

Press each layer down a bit as you fill them.

Put the extra filling in the fridge for later.

Now brush the edges of the filled forms with the egg water mix.

Then brush the tops with the mix as well. This will help the tops bond to the sides.

Once the tops are on, collect the extra bits and pinch them into as neat an edge as you can.

Remember the spring form needs to be removed without breaking the edge of the pie.

Once pinched around the edges, brush the tops evenly with egg mixture.

To avoid blowing up like a balloon, make vent cuts to let steam escape.

I made simple X cuts but you can be more artistic if you like.

These baked on a cookie sheet for 23 min at 425°f

Once cooked, let them cool on a rack for 1/2 hour before removing the spring forms.

All ready to eat with a Brothers Brewing craft beer.

The egg does have some water in it but it still cooks up fine.

This is a perfect snack while you wait for the pies to bake.

If you got this far.

Thanks for reading my instructable.

I recently watched a tutorial on how to fix a broken Samsung Note 1 cellphone. I've had a broken one in my desk for a few years. I fixed it to use for making instructables. I found some focusing issues after creating this project. You can't go back and re shoot. Some of my pics are a bit blurry I know. I even left out a few I would have liked to include. Tune into my next attempt and see if I get any better.