Savoury Ghoulash – The Best Meat Pie Ever

Savoury Ghoulash is (as one of my Son-in-Laws described it) “The Best Meat Pie Ever”.

It’s crispy and buttery micro-thin layers of filo pastry, encasing the tastiest minced beef filling that’s been seasoned to perfection.

Anyone who’s got a fear of making pastry doesn’t have to worry. The pastry comes straight from the shop or supermarket – you don’t even need to roll it & it’s perfect every time. Fantastic!

Ingredients

• 1 pack filo pastry – de-frosted for at least 2 hours if frozen
• 250g melted butter
• 2 stock cubes dissolved in 500ml boiling water

For the Filling

• 500g minced beef
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 onions – finely chopped
• 1 pepper – finely chopped
• 1 tomatoes – finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 stock cubes grated
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 250ml ( a mug) hot water

• you need a deep Rectangular baking dish about 30cm x 45cm to cook your Ghoulash in

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C

method

First make the filling for your Savoury Ghoulash

Heat up the oil in a large frying pan.

Put the mince into a bowl and break it up so it’s loose and not in clumps.

Add the mince, onions and peppers to the hot frying pan. Spread the mix evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Don’t stir it until it browns

Then don’t stir it or move it around. This will allow the meat to brown and take on a lovely colour and flavour. If you keep stirring it that won’t happen and instead it will start to cook in the steam you create, and the meat will go a greyish colour with much less flavour. Only, once the meat starts to brown should you stir it.

Keeping it still will also allow the onions to caramelise a little and brings another layer of flavour.

Fry you meat for about 10 – 15 minutes until it starts to brown and the onions soften.

Add the tomatoes and the remaining ingredients for the filling.

Bring it to the boil over a medium flame and then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stirring regularly. By this time the sauce will have thickened and reduced to a much thicker consistency.

Remove the bay leaves.

Take the pan off the heat and put to one side.

Now let’s start making the Ghoulash pastry layers.

Butter your baking dish

Lay one layer of pastry in the base and then brush over with the melted butter, then repeat this process 7 more times.

Pour the cooked meat sauce in the baking dish, over the pastry. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to level the surface .

Next, lay another 8 layers of pastry over the meat filling, buttering between each layer.

Drizzle any excess butter you may have left over the top layer of pastry.

You need to cut the Savoury Ghoulash BEFORE cooking

Your ghoulash now needs to be cut with a sharp knife.  This needs to be done before cooking because after the pastry has been cooked, it becomes lovely and crisp and the whole thing would just break up if you tried to cut it then.

Cut straight down the centre lengthways and then into 4 equal portions in the other direction, making 8 rectangles.

Pour the stock all over your Savoury Ghoulash

Put your Ghoulash into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 30 – 40 minutes until the pastry becomes a lovely golden brown.

Remove your tray of Savoury Ghoulash from the oven & wait for it to cool down a little before serving.

I’m confident that you will love this recipe. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

• Savoury Ghoulash is a wonderful flavourful dish in its own right. But, when entertaining, it’s quite often served as an extra side dish rather than as the main star of the party.