Lamb, Mushroom & Sweet Potato Pies

A beautifully buttery pastry encases tender lamb and mushroom in this homely recipe. Serve with green veges or a salad. Delish!

Difficulty – Medium

Prep time – 20 minutes
Cook time – 1 1/4 minutes
Serves – 6

Ingredients

Pie filling:

500-600gm diced lamb shoulder
3T flour
2-3T oil
2T Westgold butter
1 onion, chopped
½ stick celery
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1-2T chopped herbs
150gm mushrooms, cut into wedges
1 1/4c beef stock
2T worcester sauce
1T tomato paste
1t cornflour (if needed)
salt and pepper
extra thyme to sprinkle

Pastry:  

2c high grade flour
pinch salt
180gm cold Westgold butter, cut in 1cm dice
1/2c cold water, refrigerated

Sweet Potato mash:

500gm sweet potato, peeled
70gm Westgold butter
½ – 3/4c Westgold Full Cream UHT milk, warmed
salt and pepper

Method

Pie filling:

1. Heat a large heavy frypan and melt the Westgold butter.
2. Add onion, celery and garlic and cook on a medium heat until starting to brown, then spoon into a bowl.
3. Toss the diced lamb in the flour.  Add oil to the same pan and brown the lamb on all sides in 2 batches over a high heat.
4. Add the vegetables back to the pan with the herbs, stock, tomato paste, worcester sauce and mushrooms.  Cover and simmer very gently for about 1 ½ hours until the meat is tender. 
5. Thicken the sauce slightly with cornflour diluted in a little water if needed.  The sauce needs to be fairly thick so pastry can hold the meat & sauce mixture.
6. Season and set aside to cool, then refrigerate.

Pastry:

1. Put flour & salt into a bowl, add the Westgold butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until half rubbed in.  You want to still see small knobs of butter. 
2. Tip the flour & Westgold butter mix onto the bench and make a well in the centre.  Pour water into the well and work in a circular motion using your fingers to make the dough.  You may need an extra tablespoon of cold water to sprinkle around to pick up any flour that hasn’t properly mixed in.
3. Knead gently with the heel of your hand to form a ball, wrap in plastic and rest in fridge for 30mins.
4. Remove from fridge and roll out on a floured bench to a thickness of about 3mm. Cut the pastry into 6 circles to fit your pie tins, (we used 10-12cm tins) and line the individual tins, allowing a 1/2cm overhang of pastry. 
5. Rest in the fridge until needed.  There will be some extra pastry leftover to use for something else, which can wrapped in plastic & frozen until needed.

Sweet potato mash:

1. Cut the peeled sweet potato into large chunks and place into saucepan.  Cover with salted water and & simmer for around 20mins until tender. 
2. Strain and press through a ricer or mash with a potato masher. 
3. Add the Westgold butter and stir until melted. 
4. Add the hot milk a little at a time and stir until you reach a consistency that is creamy but still holds it shape. 
5. Season and set aside to cool.

To assemble pies:

1. Heat the oven to 200deg.  Spoon the cold lamb mixture into the chilled pastry lined pie tins. 
2. Top with mounds of cooled sweet potato mash. 
3. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with picked fresh thyme.

Cook 25-30 mins until pastry is crisp and golden.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool down in the tins for 20mins.  Serve with fresh green vegetables or salad and your favourite chutney.

NB: The lamb mixture, pastry and sweet potato mash can all be made the day before and assembled & cooked on the day needed.

Original recipe sourced from: Westgold