Beef and potato curry pie recipe
Filling, tasty and budget-friendly, too, this wholesome beef and potato curry pie from Hermine Dossou is the sort of winter warmer that we all need in our repertoire.
As a former Bake Off contestant (Hermine reached the semi-finals in the 2020 series of the show) and a qualified accountant, Hermine knows a thing or two about cooking and saving money. Her latest book, The Thrifty Baker: Shop, Bake & Eat on a Budget, taps into that knowledge and is packed with affordable recipes that taste fantastic. There's also plenty of advice and tips for home cooks on cutting food costs.
Hermine is passionate about cooking from scratch and using easy-to-source ingredients that deliver big on both flavour and comfort. “When you are on a budget, using minced meat – be it beef, chicken, turkey or pork – can be a great way to stretch your protein and make something hearty for the whole family. Bulk it up with frozen of fresh vegetables, add herbs and spices and a sauce of some sort and you’ll have something delicious that can work with pasta, rice, or in our case, inside a pie.”
Things to note:
Hermine says that you can vary the vegetables depending on what you have to hand; cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes and fresh or frozen corn would all work well.
The recipe calls for a 25cm (10in) round pie dish, though you could use an ovenproof pan or shallow casserole dish instead.
For US ingredients and measurements, use the drop-down menu and select 'Cups'.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin
- 3 green cardamom pods, crushed
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
- 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 250 g onions, finely chopped
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 0.5 tsp garam masala
- 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 200 g fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 250 g minced beef
- 400 g potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 beef stock cube
- 0.5 tsp salt (to taste)
- 0.5 tsp chilli powder, cayenne or other spicy pepper
- 300 g frozen petit pois
- 250 g pack filo pastry
- 100 g butter, melted
- 50 ml vegetable or olive oil
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Dinner
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 30 mins
- Cooking Time: 25 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
- To make the filling, set a heavy-based pan with 2 tsp oil over a medium heat, then add the cumin, cardamom, bay leaf and thyme leaves and cook for a minute or so, to release the flavours.
- Add the garlic and onions and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Stir in the curry powder, ginger, garam masala, black pepper and tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes start to breakdown and look mushy.
- Add the minced (ground) beef and cook, breaking the meat up with a spatula, until browned. Add the potatoes and 3 tbsp water, crumble over the stock cube and simmer for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not falling apart and the liquid has almost evaporated.
- Add the salt and chilli powder (or other fiery spice) to taste. Stir in the peas and set aside (don’t worry about them cooking as they’ll do so in the oven).
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6 and lightly grease a 25cm (10in) round pie dish (you could also use an ovenproof pan or shallow casserole dish).
- For the pastry, combine the melted butter and oil. Using a pastry brush, brush a generous amount of this mixture over the first sheet of filo. Use it to line half the bottom of your pie dish, leaving the ends slightly overhanging the rim of the dish. Repeat with the next sheet, this time laying it over the other half of the pie dish, so that the whole base is now covered.
- Turn the pie dish 45 degrees and repeat this buttering and layering process until you have used up half the pack of filo. Pour in the meat filling, spreading out with the back of a spoon to level the surface.
- Working with one sheet at a time, butter each of the remaining sheets of filo and scrunch them up. Cover the top of the pie with the scrunched-up filo and tuck in the edges so it all looks tidy. Brush over any remaining butter mixture and bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Enjoy warm on its own, with more vegetables, or with a salad.
Recipe adapted from The Thrifty Baker: Shop, Bake & Eat on a Budget by Hermine Dossou (White Lion Publishing). Photography by Patricia Niven.
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