An amateur chef has shared her recipe for slow-cooked beef and Vegemite pies which Australians are hailing the ‘most magnificent’ they’ve ever seen.
The woman, who lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland, used pantry staples like dried herbs, tomato sauce, olive oil, stock cubes and flour to make a rich filling for the meat and onion pies in a slow cooker, marinating the mixture for four hours.
Facebook photos show how she assembled the pies by piling rich filling into sheets of ready-made puff pastry, covering them with more pastry and baking them until golden.
The recipe has been liked by 821 people since it was shared in a cookery group on Saturday, with many saying they looked so delicious, they planned to make their own that night.
The beef and Vegemite pies filled with slow-cooked steak, onion and garlic and covered in oven baked puff pastry
The beef and sauce mixture (left) in the Breville ‘Fast Slow Cooker’ (right), which is currently reduced from $329 to $249 at Myer in its end of financial year sale
To make five pies, set your slow cooker to ‘sear’ mode. Once it’s reached searing point, pour a tablespoon of olive oil inside to heat.
Add 700 grams of steak in four lots, cooking each batch until full browned. Then set the meat aside to cool.
Pour another tablespoon of oil and a knob of butter into the cooker and fry one diced onion and two cloves of chopped garlic until the onion turns transparent.
Add a tablespoon of red wine, which should evaporate from the heat in roughly one minute, followed by two tablespoons of flour which should combine in seconds.
Add a tablespoon of tomato pasta, a tablespoon of tomato sauce, half a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, half a teaspoon of Vegemite and plenty of salt and pepper, mixing well before throwing the steak in on top.
The inside of the pie, which should be moist, tender and packed full of flavour after being slow-cooked for four hours
Cook the mixture on a low heat for three to four hours, depending on the settings of your pot, checking the meat’s tenderness by sticking a sharp knife into the skin every hour.
Once you’re satisfied with the consistency, return the cooker to ‘sear’ and throw one tablespoon of parsley and two tablespoons of cornflour loosened with a drop of water in, stirring until fully combined.
Leave the lid off and let the mixture simmer for roughly five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius and cut the ready-made puff pastry to the size of your pie dish or individual pie tins, with tops and bottoms for each.
Fill the bottom with the meat and sauce and cover with a top, taking care to firmly seal the edges. Trim excess dough and press around the edge with a fork to ensure the pastry has fused together.
Cut a small slit in the top of each pie and brush with a beaten egg, which causes the pastry to brown and crisp in the oven.
Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until the pies are puffy and golden.
The recipe delighted other home cooks who said they couldn’t wait to try it.
‘Thank you for this recipe, I would have never tried it in a slow cooker!’ one woman said.
‘Well done making a recipe from scratch, your pies look absolutely delicious. I am going to try this recipe myself to the letter. Thank you!’ said another.
The woman who created the recipe said she used the Breville ‘Fast Slow Cooker’, which is currently reduced from $329 to $249 at Myer, but similar devices are available from other retailers for a fraction of that cost.
Kmart sells five litre pots for just $19 while online retailer The Good Guys stock a 3.5 litre Russell and Hobbs machine for $35.
Myer also has a Sunbeam slow cooker marked down from $59.95 to $39.95 in its end of financial year sale.