Thea's Ned Kelly pie

Another week, another recipe. This time around we have a guest contribution from Balearic Kitchen friend Thea Everett. A leader, a hero, and a certified legend, Thea is one of the best home cooks in South London. I was lucky enough to attend a barbque she hosted last summer and I still daydream about 

You can see what she's been knocking up in the kitchen over on her own cookery blog, the incomparably great What's That You're Cooking, Thea? 

For our latest dish, we make a pretty substantial journey as we pack our bags in Greece and follow Thea all the way to Australia. If you've never heard of a 'Ned Kelly pie' before, you probably aren't alone. But after reading the following recipe, I'm pretty certain that you'll be clamouring for one. 

This has got "lazy Satuday afternoon cooking project" written all over it, so why not use your allotted exercise time later this week to pick up supplies for the best pie you've eaten all lockdown? A four pack of Castlemaine XXXX presumably wouldn't go amiss either. 

Actually, if you are Australian or have simply been to Australia for any length of time and know a better Aussie beer to skull while baking a pie please do let us know in the comments. 

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Of the classic Australian dishes, this is one of the most elusive. It starts with the humble Aussie meat pie, but amplifies it to astonishing new heights by eschewing the usual pastry lid for a protein-laden egg, cheese, and bacon one. It’s elusive, because though named after the most famous bushranger of all bakeries that sell the pie are rare as hens teeth, as are Australians who’ve heard of the thing.

'Rich' doesn’t quite do this pie justice. In truth, there is very little that separates the Aussie meat pie from the British one - the heavy dosing of ketchup in the gravy being the only real marker of difference. But with its lid-with-a-twist, no one could argue that the Ned Kelly Pie were not uniquely Australian.

This pie is dear to my heart. It was introduced to me by my good friend T-Bone, who discovered it at a country bakery (near Torquay, Victoria I think). On my last visit to Melbourne, having sung its praises to me so effusively, he and I initiated a pie hunt, ringing round all the bakeries we could find on Google maps within a 30 mile radius of the city. “Excuse me, I just wondered if you sold a Ned Kelly Pie?” I pleaded. “Ned Kelly? He’s been dead for a while, luv,” came the wry response. No one sold the pie. Worse still, no one had even heard of the pie. Five thankless calls later, things weren’t looking good.

Not wanting to give up, T-Bone and I decided to take matters into our own hands and concoct our version. For this recipe, I have amped the quantities up to family-size. Enjoy with chips or wedges and a salad, and a raise of your glass to bushrangers everywhere.

The pie of your dreams?

Ingredients:

Pastry:

300g plain flour
1 tsp salt
200g butter, cut into cubes
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
50ml milk
2 tsp white wine vinegar

Filling:

3 eggs
300g Cheddar Cheese
3 rashers of bacon
1 onion finely chopped
500g beef mince
1 cup water
1 beef stock cube
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 pinch salt and plenty of pepper to taste3 tbsp plain flour

Method:

First, make your pastry. Put the flour into a mixing bowl with the teaspoon of salt. Rub in the cubed butter between your thumbs and forefingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs, milk, and the vinegar. Cut these liquid ingredients in with a small knife and then, using your hands, work the mixture until it comes together to form a dough. Shape this into a ball, flatten into a disc, and cover in cling film. Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This makes a little extra so you can freeze some for some future pasties, or something like that.

Heat a splash of oil in a saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add your finely chopped onion and a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add the mince and break it up a bit. Cook for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it’s nicely browned.

Dissolve the stock cube in most of your cup water, and add this to the pot, along with the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and seasoning.

Combine the flour with the remaining water and add to meat, stirring thoroughly to ensure it incorporates. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In the meantime, roll out your pastry until it’s about 4mm thick. Grease your pie dish, and lay the pastry in it, cutting off the excess (and freezing for a rainy day - or using for a second pie or pastie, as you like). Poke the pastry all over with a fork and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes. This is a very soft rich pastry dough so it needs this time to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Fill the cooled pastry case with the meat mixture and cook in the oven for 15 minutes, keep a close eye on it, if the crust looks too brown, cover it with another dish to protect it. After 10 minutes lower the oven temperature to 190°C.

Cube the bacon, and fry it until it’s just pink (don’t go further as it will crisp up in the oven). Carefully take the pie out of the oven and crack the 3 eggs on the top of the meat, season with plenty of freshly ground pepper and then follow with a showering of the grated cheese. Finally, scatter the bacon atop the pie to decorate, and bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes.

It’s done when the cheese is melting and golden and the eggs are set, retaining only a very slight wobble. Allow the pie to cool for at least 10 minutes before attempting to serve. Enjoy!

Show me heaven!

Playlist:

This playlist should take you from pie start to pie finish. 100% Australian, save for one Brucey track, which frankly could not not be on there: T-Bone won me round to Bruce just as he introduced me to this pie. 

The other 21 songs are a mixture of Aussie classics (Paul Kelly) and Melbourne bangers (Dick Diver) which have soundtracked the last 10 years of my life and which I would sing from the rooftops if I could. The closing Kelly track is in my top 10 songs of all time, and there is no tune better suited to soundtracking you mopping up the last of your meat pie than How To Make Gravy. Don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang! 

Thank you Thea - again, if you want to read more of Thea's amazing recipes please do head over to What's That You're Cooking Thea right this second...

Until we see you in the kitchen again....salud!