Happy Pi Day, everyone!
March 14 is celebrated around the world as day (no, really!). My beautiful, amazing and talented girlfriend and I, being geeks who love to cook, decided to celebrate in appropriate fashion.



That, my friends, is a single-serving Australian meat pie.

Incidentally, this will also be my submission for Mini Pie Revolution #3: Pot Pies.



It's not chicken, there's no cream sauce, but it's savory and there's crust atop and crust a-bottom, so it still counts.

The recipe came from here, but it was poorly written in parts (not to mention ill-advised in others: a tablespoon of coriander?!), so some artistic license was required.

First, we make the meat mixture. This was basically Manwich, but from scratch.



The grocery was fresh out of kangaroo meat, so I substituted ground round and added some jalapeño for that extra kick. (See what I did there? Because kangaroos kick, but in a different way from the jalapeño? That is what I call a pun, or a play on words. I am so funny.)

Anyhoo, we must then fill the pastry, because a pie without filling is just crust. Tasty, tasty crust.



I used mini tart pans that my wonderful, lovely and prescient girlfriend got me for Christmas. Top right is just an empty bottom crust. Top left is bottom crust plus meaty filling. Bottom right is after it's been covered and sealed. Bottom left is ready for the oven, with egg wash, sesame seeds, and a festive vent cut into the top.

This is me workin' it.


(The t-shirt requires explanation that is beyond the scope of this post; suffice to say, it's a talking lemon that glows in the dark. Actually, I doubt that suffices, but it's gonna have to, unless you want to click this link.)

This is how my girlfriend works it.



This is how she rolls.


Aww yeah.

This is my cat looking annoyed, because we're making tasty little pies and she knows she won't get any. Also, this is the Internet and you must have pictures of cats. It's the law.





Ready to bake. We managed to get five pies out of two of those ready-made roll-out crusts (don't judge me because I want to eat something the same day I start to make it, judge me because I'm lazy). The last one was a little thin, but it came out of the oven okay. Speaking of.



One more:



The recipe doesn't stop there. No, apparently it's not enough to fill buttery pastry with meat, you need to put it atop corn mush. Or, as it's more fun to say:


"MOOOOOSH."

That consists only of fresh corn cut off the cob, boiled until soft, blended, then seasoned with salt and pepper. And cream and butter. I'm honestly not sure if the Australians hate themselves, or really really love themselves. A case could be made either way, I suspect.

Anyway, this is what it looks like when it's plated: a couple spoonfuls of corn MOOOSH, and a pie atop that.


It's a sandwich plate, sure, but a little pie requires a little plate. A bit monochrome, but it looks better when it's been cut into:


Satisfaction, guaranteed.

Oh, also because I can't leave well enough alone, I made a full-sized fruit pie as well.



I discovered a can of blackberries with an enticing recipe under the label. It required two cans, but (again) because I can't leave well enough alone, I used blueberries.


(That, by the way, is the plate that my miscellaneous superlative adjectives girlfriend gave me for my birthday.)

Blackberry-blueberry pie. Sounds tasty, don't it? Alas, it wasn't the most photogenic pie I've ever made:


Neither was it the tastiest. It would probably be better with fresh fruit, or at least frozen, but Something Was Missing™, to be sure.