PiEcon

The Humble Pie-Peppersteak Pie

2008-07-28T20:57:00.006+10:00

The Humble Pie, Elizabeth St Hobart, Main Rd Moonah & two locations at Eastland shopping Centre, Hobart, Tasmania

I’ll confess straight up & say I used to make all the fillings for the Humble Pie up until two months ago, so reviewing it before then wasn’t an option.
Now enough time has passed enough for me to come back & taste the pies that I once knew so well. When I was a part of the business, the thing that I most liked about the pies we made was the pastry. The bottoms were excellent & strong & the tops were flaky. I always tried to push that the pies could be ‘finished off’ better, that their presentation could be the thing that makes them stand out as a superior product & I always thought that the pie fillings tasted on the commercial side of the ledger.
I felt & still do, that there was an opportunity to break away from this type of pie, that there was an audience out there who’ll appreciate a pie that doesn’t lean on flavour enhancers, thickeners & emulsifiers. Maybe I’m wrong?
The Humble Pie has three stores with a fourth on the way. The staff in the Elizabeth St store, the flagship, were smiling & friendly, an excellent start & knowing the owner of this store that’s no surprise as he has excellent customer service skills himself.
Today’s pie I tried was the one that I always thought came the closest to a very good product, the pepper steak pie, $4.50. It looked well browned & crisp. It was very hot, straight from the warmer, another good sign.
I consumed it in the Ute, tradie-style. After the first bite though, its structure quickly weakened, not surprising but still made it difficult to handle. The flavour was not what I had remembered. I recall a significantly complex pepper flavour profile which contained white, black & green peppercorns, with a wallop of seeded mustard. This was decidedly simpler, less robust & hardly any pepper flavour at all. What made it even more disappointing was a faintly metallic tinge to the taste, kind of strange in a fake kind of way? The meat could have been cooked a tad longer as it still had a bit of ‘chew’ factor. I have to say though, the consistency was really quite good.
All in all, not bad at all, but not the pronounced & assertive taste that I would have liked & remembered.
We also tried a Sunday Roast pie which is a mixture of stewed lamb & rosemary, veggies with a potato top. This was again a pale echo of the heavy rosemary flavour that I remember which set this pie apart from the pack. The filling was also quite gluggy & not only lacked the rosemary flavour but seasoning in general. Very disappointing.

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Main Street Deli - Beef and Burgundy Pie

2008-07-16T19:05:00.014+10:00

Main Street Deli | 53 Main Street, Mornington, Victoria

Pop.Pop.Ouch!

That was the sound of the blisters bursting on the roof of my mouth, as my tongue probed about for the damage done by this Beef and Burgundy pie.

To my horror, this delectable looking golden object of desire had seemingly emerged from a nuclear reactor and in all its radioactive glory, had burnt a toxic trail across my palate.

The pastry had withered to a soggy damp sponge that clung to my gaping gums as I tried to expel the steam from my mouth.

Technically the dough was adequately short, which is probably why it recovered its form as it cooled. But after such a vigorous burst, nestled in the steel chamber of a countertop microwave oven, it would never again be a crisp pastry. Surprisingly it was still possible to eat it without cutlery.

The filling had congealed in the nuking process to a dark jelly, but as it too cooled, it was redeemed. An ooze of purple sauce hit my withered tongue. Tasty, though vaguely sweet, it sadly lacked substance. And then, raking through the crusty reactor for content I turned up a few clusters of glowing hot grains of ground beef. Then finally a single centimetre cubed of stringy meat emerged. Some faint evidence of a mirepoix lurked within but overall there was little indication of solid nutrients in the the fallout.

On the surface this pie was full of the promise of good things, but once consumed was a wipe out, leaving misery and devastation in its wake.

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Kerrie Road Bakery Chunky Beef Pie

2008-05-10T10:51:00.004+10:00

Kerrie Road Bakery
20 Kerrie Road,
Glen Waverley, 3150
Tel: (03) 9803 9979

FINALLY!! A pie worth blogging about. I have to confess the Muse has abandoned me over the past few weeks. I think She cracked the sads as I consumed too many pies that were at best mediocre, at worst, disgusting pap. Like a fresh relationship, there's the thrill of the first meeting, the hope that the interior will live up to the beauty of the exterior, the frisson of pleasure as you moisten your lips to plunge into intimacy followed by the bitter disappointment of reality. It's hard to keep getting up, dusting yourself off and reminding yourself that there's plenty more out there and one day.. if you long enough, hope enough, Manifest the Secret long enough, that THE ONE will come.

And last Sunday, I think I might have snagged THE ONE... It's only early days in our relationship.. only one week.. but we have a second date scheduled for later today, and I am hoping that he is as excited about meeting again as I am.

So before we become just another jaded old couple, each other turning a blind eye to each other's faults, I thought I'd describe her/him with the heart-stopping, pulse-racing thrum of the newness of it all.

He's perfect. Buttery, flaky top, perky and proud. A sturdy short base that passes the initial test with flying colours. Both types of pastry are definitive and discernible all the way through to the end of the experience.

But here's where he really shines. Beneath that Chesty Bond chiselled exterior, he is exactly as described... big meaty pre-sautéed CHUNKS OF BEEF... chunky yet tender that retains its meaty, beefy note. Fall apart moist and succulent. The gravy HAS FLAVA.. real roast meat pan-scraping-just-like-Nanny-used-to-make gravy. Nary a hint of Gravox or cornflour, this is gravy like it should be. I detected black pepper and maybe a hint of onion.

This is the SNAG of pies... rugged and strong on the outside, with a heart like Phar Lap, but sensitive enough to be who he says he is... this is the George Clooney/Matthew McConahey/Brad Pitt of pies. This pie will adopt limbless war orphans while wrangling crocodiles and writing me Sonnets.

And whether it is a fleeting relationship or a life long bond, as the sock puppet says "I’m in LERVE!"

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Choux Choux Patisserie - Steak & Mushroom Pie

2008-04-19T19:42:00.003+10:00

Choux Choux Patisserie | 12 Byron Street, Bangalow NSW

Touting traditional French training and employing these techniques, owners of Choux Choux Patisserie have helmed this 50+ year old bakery for the past 5 years. In an area where felafel and lentil burgers seem more likely than the iconic pie, this place gets a lot of airplay.

The shop is a mixture of 1950’s diner with a slick, modern display counter with a mix of French pastries, aussie cake shop treats, and of course, the pies.

The mince pie is bypassed in favour of a steak and mushroom pie. On opening the white paper bag something is awry. The base pastry is raw white, yet the cap, also a short crust pastry, is nicely browned. In the words of Julius Sumner Miller, why is it so?

Chomping into the pie, my co-taster notes with disappointment that this is not a steak and mushroom pie, rather a mince pie with mushroom, and the reason for selection had been based on not wanting a mince pie…

On closer reflection this is a mince pie with a few slices of mushroom on placed on top of the mixture before “capping” (you can see where the pastry has adhered to the mushroom in cooking). The mince mixture holds no trace of mushroom and in itself has little flavour. Clearly the traditional French techniques (or any technique for that matter) are dropped when it comes to filling these pies, and I’m left thinking of Gordon Ramsay rebuking a French chef in Chelmsford!

This is a lazy, lacklustre pie – it causes little offence, but does nothing to please either.

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The Bush Bakery Steak, pea & mushroom pie

2008-04-13T19:01:00.005+10:00

Bush Bakery- 682 Leslie Vale Rd. Leslie Vale 7054 TAS tel: 03 6239 6196

My love affair with pies began when as a kid living in New Zealand for a couple of years I experienced a pie epiphany. It was during a rowing regatta at Lake Karapiro, home of the 1980 World Rowing Championships. After a particularly vigorous morning, famished I was dispatched to get edible fuel for my teammates & I returned triumphant, with some pretty deceptively ordinary looking General Foods meat pies. To this day I can still taste the meat, the pastry, the peas & the potatoes that made this pie stand out, highlighted in my hands by a column of golden light emanating from the heavens & with the chorus of angels announcing its excellence. The standard had well & truly been set.

Fast forward to me to today, living in southern Tasmania.

Picture a bucolic paddock, bordered by scraggy gums, a mob of sheep grazing contentedly at its edge whilst some riders on horseback trot past on a perfect Saturday morning ride. Out here in Leslie Vale, you might as well be a zillion miles from Hobart, which is just ½ hour away, but the pace is so much slower, moving to the rhythms of the country. Its here in this bucolic valley that the Bush Bakery can be found, a tin shed next to a house in a paddock.
I had heard many good things about this bakery from my neighbors but to my shame I had dismissed these endorsements as merely proud local chest-thumping. The pastie I had from this bakery was one of the best I have ever eaten so they had my attention.
As I mentioned, the bakery is a fairly modest tin shed erected next to family home. Several Mini Minors in the adjoining carport, in various condition indicate, to me at least, a passion of sorts, a good sign. Inside, the bakery is workmanlike, a packed pie oven conveys about 10 different varieties whilst the pastry counter displays many typically represented offerings that you would find at a traditional country bakery, the custard slice, the apple slice & the fruit tart etc.
Again I was to be surprised, the vanilla slice was the best I can ever remember having!
Perhaps Sticky et all better hightail it over here!
They provide hot or frozen pies only. My eyes were finally open to this place & I decided to stock up as I realized this was one out of the box.
We took a few pasties, sausage rolls & some pies.
Finally the pie in question was the bush bakery Steak, pea & mushroom pie $3.50.
Its pastry was as fine as the pastie which I had hoovered earlier. Buttery without being overwhelming & smelling as many do, rancid. The filling was good without being as inspiring as the pastry & presentation of the pie. It was light brown in colour, verging on the insipid however the great flavour made up for this. The meat was plentiful & very tender & it didn’t taste like a bunch of commercial pie seasonings were evident even though I did spy some beef booster in the ingredients panel of the same frozen pies.
All in all, the best Tasmanian pie I have reviewed.

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Chunky Beef and Mushroom Pie

2008-04-11T14:32:00.004+10:00

Douglas Hot Bread & Cakes

43 Douglas St Noble Park VIC 3174 - map
ph: (03) 9547 7751

Look guys, it's not hard. It's one, maybe two types of pastry, with some meat and some gravy, maybe some vegies. It's not rocket science. So my question is this: WHY DO SO MANY OF YOU GET IT WRONG???

At first glance, this pie looked promising. A nice deep-dish pie, with a cute peaked cap. Unfortunately, like several men I dated in my 20's.. it didn't survive past the first winsome glance. On cutting it open, the cute, jaunty cap crumbled under the pressure. Second thing I noticed was that pie-aficionados nightmare... the filling stayed put. A clear sign of an over-abundance of gelatin or cornstarch. And it was barely luke warm

I suspect that a container of Home Brand "mushrooms in butter sauce" was used in the filling.

Look, I've blogged about these boring, tasteless piles of pap before, so I won't bore you with the blow-by-blow details. Suffice it to say that I cannot conceive a cooking technique that combines beef, mushrooms, pastry and a WHOLE lot of poppyseeds, and still manages to have no discernible flavour. None. Not a jot. Nothing buy a greasy mouth feel.

No stars.

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Steak Pie

2008-03-20T18:59:00.007+11:00

Top Pies 285 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, Victoria

In the window of the shop, little party pies nestle cosily in a warmer. You are enticed in for a morsel, a snack, a hint of a pie. Whilst in the queue of men in dirty shorts and work boots, you decide to go the whole hog and have a regular sized pie.

Handed over in a white paper bag, it's big and high, but too big for me to bite open. Ack-ack! The pastry is thick, has crunch and pulling it apart reveals no gush of sauce, no sog factor, just solid filling. The anticipation leaves you salivating.

You eat a mouthful and like inhaling a packet of dry crackers, every last drop of moisture is evacuated from your mouth. This fatty tasting pie with its peppery seasoning is a mouth sponge. It could be used by dentists instead of that saliva vacuum they wedge into the corner of your mouth. Vrrrrruhh!

I lurched for a hot and milky cup of tea in order to raise the courage for another mouthful.

The filling of steak is so finely ground as to resemble Pecks Devilled Ham Paste and tastes similar. Add the 'Big Red' condiment - it takes the edge off the seasoning. I get half way through the gluey mass and give the rest to my cats. It could after all, be out of a can of Whiskas with a heavy dose of commercially ground pepper used for flavour.

This is a pie to be eaten when the tastebuds are deadened and you're so drunk that you're crawling along the pavement post F1 Grand Prix Celebrations - in a heatwave - where you thoroughly need to mop up before hitting the next pub. Only then is it a top pie.

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Garlos Pies

2008-03-17T08:45:00.006+11:00

Garlos Pies | 1145 Botany Rd, Mascot

Now a franchise, the team behind Garlos is pastry chef Nathan Garlick, and his brother Sean, a former captain of Rugby League’s underdog turned celebrity-owned working class team, Rabbitohs.

The Mascot shop, open 24 hours, is a stone’s throw from Sydney’s sea- and air- ports and the industry embedded around that, and deeply positioned in bunny territory.

English Andy spurs me on to review Garlos – he gives their steak and kidney pie kudos for an “aboondance” of kidney. In the shop, there’s a variety of pies, offerings of mash and mushy peas, with a uniformed lady behind the counter. I feel like I’ve stepped into a temporary tardus where northern England meets working class Australia.

I don’t notice the foil pie pan until I get back to the car and open the paper bag. I’m developing a theory about pies that come in foil pans…

The base is an anaemic looking short crust, not quite cooked, and predictably it splits under the weight of the filling when lifted out of the pan. The lid is golden, flaky puff pastry, and otherwise unremarkable.

The minced beef filling has a meat to gravy ratio is generously balanced on the meat side of the equation - but that’s the problem, we’re short on flavour. The “peppery goodness” factor isn’t there and the home cooked wholesomeness of onions and celery absent. Heck, it’s not even salty!

This is a mild mannered pie that pulls no punches; probably just the ticket at 3am en route t’port.

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Black Welsh Beef & Merlot Pie

2008-03-10T00:15:00.017+11:00

Mt Bellevue 469 Bellavista Rd, Myrhee, Victoria.
Purchased at St.Kilda's Veg Out Farmers Market and Albert Park's Gasworks Park Farmers Market.

If I were personified as a pie, this would be it. From the cute pastry cut out of a cow on the lid, to the saucy interior, this is me. Underneath a flirtatious facade, it's all about what lies beneath the surface.

I eat this pie once a month. A slice of Slow Food at its most earnest, it comes from my favourite Welsh Australian Cattle Farmer, Winnie Jones of Mt Bellevue in the King Valley. Made with her delicious rare breed Welsh Black beef and Redbank Merlot - the grapes of which she also grows on her property - it is a credit to her spirit and passion.

I like to think that this is the kind of pie that I would bake for myself. But really, why should I when this marvel already exists, ready to take home, to be heated and savoured in private?

The shortcrust pastry is crisp and the top is flaky. It droops a little and there is a slurry of gravy made vaguely purple by wine. But it tastes delicious, full of honest ingredients supporting a particularly wonderful beef. Like any good stew it contains a mirepoix of celery, onion and carrot - vital to the flavour. Rounding out the show are a few peas, suspended in the red wine flavoured sauce made with beef stock and a touch of tomato.

Inside there is both ground and large chunks of beef. Utilising one of the oldest breeds of cattle, this filling is lean and a wake up call to how beef should taste: intense and rich in complexity, while melt in the mouth in texture. It is comfort food deluxe and like a gentle kiss from a loved one, it soothes the soul.

The pies are available from Winnie at the two Farmers Markets she attends in Melbourne. Try one and you will remember what good old fashioned beef is all about.

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Boscastle's Morroccan Lamb Pie

2008-03-07T15:52:00.003+11:00

Available at Garden Street Cafe.

Crn Garden Street and Powder Works Road

North Narabeen, NSW

02 991312 33

Also available in Family size.

Greetings from muggy Sydney, all you lovers of pie perfection!! After a long morning of hanging out at Narrabeen beach, a quick trip to Buddah's Belly and a morning nanna nap, I had a pie jones of MONUMENTAL proportions. Thanks to the very lovely Marrianne at Garden Street Cafe, I hooked myself up with the above morsel. The pic doesn't do it justice... in fact it looks a bit like road kill. Sorry 'bout that.

Terry Creamean, Boscastle's founder, named the company after the town famous for Cornish pasties, where he apparently worked for some three years. On return to Aus, he founded Bostcastles in Melbourne.

I am led to believe that they aren't all that common here in Sydney, but are beginning to catch on.

The Moroccan Lamb pie. The crust was suitably short. Not quite as buttery as some, but for a mass produced pie it was very good. The top pastry was flakey and egg washed, the sesame seeds being more for show than for flavour.

The filling was lovely. The lamb had been pre-braised and was fall apart tender. This can be a real downfall of lamb in pies. If it's not pre-braised it can retain its "gamey" taste and stay tough. The gravy was gelatine-thickened, but in good proportion to the large chunks of meat. I clearly detected some cinnamon, some cumin and a hint of fig in the gravy. Noice.

The final addition of a few chick peas made for a nice suprise.

The also do a Certified Black Angus pie. Hmmmmmmmmm!!

Three stars on all fronts.

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Venison and Apricot Pie

2008-02-24T10:00:00.005+11:00

Slow Food Festival,
Birrarung Marr,
Melbourne.

Slow Food Sydney Stall

My loathing of all things fruity and meaty is well documented, so imagine my angst this past Saturday when, while strolling through the various stalls as the Melbourne Slow Food Festival, I spied pies and thought immedietly of my duties as a contributor here, Only to find that the pies available were either Venison and Blue Cheese or Venison and Apricot. My partner LOATHES blue cheese and I hate fruit and meat combo's.

Please note, that due to my committment to you, dear reader AND because I love my husband so much, I defered to him and chose the Venison and Apricot.

We asked for the pie to be cut in half, to share and thus canna report on its "sog" factor.

The pastry was luscious and buttery but the absolute winner was the filling.

I was prepared to hate it and donate my half to my other half, but the first bite had me begging for more.

Remove, from you mind, any memories of Apricot Chicken, circa1970 and follow closely:

The venison was chunky and fall-apart tender, obviously slow braised and delectable. It retained a slight gamey taste. But what took this pie from the ridiculous to the sublime was the second note of apricot.

Imagine you are biting into an apricot. Before the sweeteness of the fruit hits, you experience the pure, unadulterated esscence-of-apricot on the back palate. The sweet/smokey APRICOTNESS of the fruit.

The baker of this pie managed to capture that aroma/flavour and add it to this pie.

Tender meaty gamey venison with a hind note of pure apricot esscence.

Not a hint of cloying sweetness. Just a perfect marriage of the soul of each ingredient.

Pie Perfumery perfection.

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Plain Meat Pie

2008-02-19T17:09:00.013+11:00

Syndal Hot Bread 242 Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley, Victoria

In my dreams there are two ultimate beef pies. One is thick with juicy big chunks of meat with rich gravy. The other is packed solid with quality ground meat. Both are deep dish and have rich, short, pastries. They are storybook pies upon which all good fairy tales are based.

In a suburban High Street shopping strip the last thing I expected was to find a storybook pie.

When I asked for a pie in this bakery the response was, "Just a plain meat pie?"

Yes, a plain meat pie. My expectations were low. The shop was after all, a humble Hot Bread shop surrounded by cheap Asian food outlets.

The plain meat pie looked average, but was deep and had the required substantially solid pastry for ease of eating. Like the same shop's Chicken High Pie, the pastry was perfect in flavour, texture and structure. The dish was deep, the smell aromatic, but it was when when I sunk into it that I felt weak at the knees.

Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! I had discovered the buried pot of gold, the holy grail, the dragon's treasure. I'd tricked the goblin, slayed the beast, rescued the maiden in distress and claimed the reward.

There was no avalanche of gushing filling. The cavity inside this pie was packed chock full to the rafters with ground meat of mixed sizes and each grain was perfectly lubricated with a touch of delicious beef gravy. There would be no discussion here of how thick the sauce was or how it oozed into the palm. This was perfectly balanced, forming a delicious mortar around the building blocks of pie heaven. I wondered if in the manner of a pork pie, it had been filled with meat first and then the gravy had been added?

Like all fantasies it was perfect in every respect. It was my ideal combination of golden crustiness encasing a hearty beef filling which relied on nothing but good produce. And it was substantially filling.

Then I woke up. If I was to give this pie the perfect score how was I ever to eat another pie and not feel bereft? Like an adrenaline junkie of a storybook hero, I resolved to continue the quest and ride off into the sunset no matter what the odds.

Besides, there is still my ideal chunky pie to find.

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Pie Shed, "Tradie's Pie"

2008-02-18T08:20:00.003+11:00

The Pie Shed
295 Canterbury Road
Bayswater
Ph: 9720 7711

The Tradies Pie. It's a pie and a half. No. Really. That's what it is. A pie, half as big again as a normal pie. Filled with Chunky Beef Burgundy filling.

The cap pastry was crisp and golden, Deliciously crunchy and flaky. The bottom pastry was discernibly short. The filling was delicious! Slow cooked, melt-in-your mouth chunks of beef, in a gravy redolent with spices. Ahhhh!! despite the disturbing dog's-water bowl dish in which it is served, finally a pie worth rating!!

The gravy:meat ratio was good. The filling generous.

The downfall.

It wasn't uniformly heated. Like a public swimming pool, there were disturbing luke warm patches, interspersed with cold.. not quite cold bits, and the occasional blazingly cheek-scorching lava.

Hmmm. Micronuked, perhaps.

And to the name.. the Tradies pie. Yes, it's a big feed for a big man. It's fit to feed a hungry plumber. It's not too pretentious AND it tasted great with or without sauce.

Only problem??

It's so big you canna hold it in your hand without it falling apart and risking the traditional Aussie scorched palm. This is a pie you need to eat with a knife and fork. And NO self-respecting tradie would do that!

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Chicken High Pie

2008-02-17T23:32:00.019+11:00

Syndal Hot Bread 242 Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley, Victoria

This little beauty sported looks that would make a mother weep. Gloriously golden, thick and short pastry meant it weighed in like a champ. The capacious lid was an enticing dome and it had puckered slightly where allowing the steam to escape, a flourish of sesame seeds differentiated it from the other pies.

As it heated the smell was divine. When it came time for the publicity shot, it posed artfully with a wicked purge of thick Bechamel sauce cascading over chicken and vegetables. It is was enough to make me swoon. There was never going to be any sogginess or droop to the base as the pastry was just right and crisp.

First bite: Bechamel and celery......Second bite: Chunky dice of onions and potato......Third bite: Fresh peas and finally some chicken.....Hmmm...

...The chicken was as expected precooked - it looked as though it had been flaked off the bones of a roasted bird - promising. This was not a pie made with fillets cut into chunks and although it was tasty the unexpectedly disarming provenance of the vegetables showed through as flavoursome, deliciously firm but disappointingly overpowering against the lowly bird.

It broke my heart, this looker. It should have been called vegetable pie, for amidst that velvety white sauce, the poultry was paltry.

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(Read about Syndal Hot Bread's wonderful meat pie)

Beef & Guinness pie

2008-02-17T17:12:00.003+11:00

The Local Bakery, Huon Village Huonville, TAS 7109 (03) 62642532
Beef & Guinness pie $3.95
The Local Bakery was formerly known as Trendy Bake. What a wonderfully evocative name
‘The Local Bakery’ is. If you image is of an old rickety wooden building, with an ancient, broad & shady veranda in which to shelter from the elements whilst queuing for their baked wares. This ‘aint it.
It is tacked onto the Huonville Safeway with a large coral of chairs & tables outside & usually filled with people who apparently can’t consume food without drawing heavily on cigarettes between mouthfuls. I mention this because I had to walk through wafts of smoke before getting into the door.
On to the pie. From a smallish range I chose the Beef & Guinness pie. I say smallish because this bakery has had a makeover. In its former incarnation it tried to do everything & not much came off well. This time they have consolidated their offer, in my opinion, a good thing.
The said pie was handsome in an evenly brown & nicely shaped kind of way. I liked the cut of its jib immediately. Oh dear! I’ll try not to sound like Uncle Monty from ‘Withnail & I?’
Anyway once bitten into, it released its very pleasant meaty perfume, tinged with a bit of acridness, a familiar calling card of stout aroma. This was a good start.
The flavour was rich, herby & long, the meat tender, though some pieces hadn’t quite become as unctuous as others, but I’m being picky. The tail end of the taste performed well, with a respectful hint of Guinness being quite evident. To clarify, it tasted like stout. I’d like to believe that it was Guinness. The consistency was quite wet, plenty of meat so I wasn’t complaining & a sauce that seemed not to be thickened quite enough. I imagine some would prefer this though.
The pastry was not a puff on top. It seemed to be a like a short crust with some gluten development to give it some strength. It reminded me of Polish Piroshki pastry & was very good. The only minor quibble I would have is that it wasn’t quite hot enough.
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Simmone Logue - Chunky Steak Pie

2008-02-15T15:44:00.008+11:00

Simmone Logue Fine Food Company | 2 Cross Street, Double Bay (also 349 Darling Street, Balmain)

Gourmet. Gourmet! Gourmet?

When did something as simple as a pie, arguably working class food, “an egalitarian food comestible” as the-gobbler puts it, take on the gourmet title?

In this marketing-crazy world we live in, everything old is new again; what might have been eaten at grandma’s the day following a roast, is suddenly gourmet! She’d have a chuckle at “gourmet” – for her making the most of food was a necessity, a single tomato made sandwiches for 7 kids!

“Gourmet Pie” is a misnomer.

At Simmone Logue there are only Gourmet Pies. I sample a Chunky Steak Pie.

The pastry is slightly scorched. The top isn’t flaky and the case isn’t short enough to hold. The only way to eat this with the hands is by cutting it in half and folding it souvlaki style.

Speaking of contents, chunks of beef are braised in rich gravy, well seasoned, and drawing depth from celery onion and carrot. There’s no thickener in here and it’s a delight, although combined with the pastry issues it’s more of a sit-down-and-eat-on-a-plate pie.

This is a delicious pie that would be comfortable served atop some of grandma’s buttery mash on a winter’s night. Red wine or ale optional!

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The King Meat Pie

2008-02-13T15:42:00.014+11:00

Pastry King 60 Vincent Street, Daylesford, Victoria

When you enter a place called Pastry King you expect to be impressed...

....Or perhaps not.

Instead of pastry royalty I found a pie here that was the epitome of an Aussie blue singlet and stubbies. Not surprising after you realise that it's being made in a country bakery turned kebab shop. And that's exactly how you could describe this pie: A combination of homestyle baking and a kebab.

This is not the king, but the 'hard man' of pies. It's serviceable and workman-like. It was filling and would probably hit the spot at morning tea smoko.

The pastry was tasty and tanned, but like a Roustabout, the lid was a little undercooked. Square in shape it was easily bolted down from the bag without the need for daintiness. And it smelt more of the filling than the pastry, like a robust country feed should.

The same pastry was used on the base as the lid, which gave it the droop mid bite, but the ground meat was just as tasty as a kebab. Probably employing the same seasonings - and potentially some of the same meat - it floated in a cornstarch thickened sauce. No condiments required. Inhale this little beauty, suck down a smoke and get back on the horse quick sticks.

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Banjos meat pie

2008-02-11T17:12:00.000+11:00

Banjos meat pie-$3.20
Banjos-8 main Rd. Huonville ,Tasmania. 03 6264 8755
Public holiday today, Regatta Day. Traditionally a huge day for any food business in Tassie brave enough to gamble on the time & a half to open on a public holiday. It was however, quiet as we walked in at midday & not all of the ample heated displays were choko. This could mean though, that heaps of punters had already come & gone.
To flesh it out a little more for you, Banjos is the major franchise bakery in this state & has a mainland beachhead in Acland St, St. Kilda, an indicator of its global aspirations.
To us, their pies have always been average. The kind of pie that we all love to hate.
I was surprised.
It smelled promising, the pastry looked well cooked & presented not too shabby. Upon handling it though, its weakness became apparent. It needed to be handled with care, lest it disintegrate in my hands. The pastry on its base seemed to be the same flaky pastry on its lid. I cannot confirm this but my sources say this is so. Knowing that the base pastry is slightly more expensive to make than the top I can make the educated assumption that it was a fiscal decision to keep the costs down.
Unfortunately the pie suffers.
The filling however is a real surprise. Expecting a full-on olfactory assault featuring boosters, additives & fillers I was instead lured & indeed persuaded into believing a tender hand had crafted this filling. It was beefy flavoured, not too thick, perhaps on the thin side but only from the point of view that I were to consume it one handed, it may pose a problem. The weak superstructure of the pie, I admit, must have contributed to my conclusion, however, the filling was…good actually. Should they decide to strengthen their pastry, perhaps this pie could have aspirations of greatness. Having said all this, I was genuinely & pleasantly surprised. Knowing that this kind of pie costs approximately 60 cents to make, a few cents more, could make this pie even better.
Curiously they still persist with the most basic of condiment packaging, being the single serve tomato sauce square that you peel back. It’s never enough sauce in my book. We took our own bottle of course & before you can say ‘You Scabs’ we also take our own Tartare to the Fish & chip shop cause they never have enough & it’s always shit!

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Bourke St Bakery - Chicken Pie

2008-02-11T10:42:00.000+11:00

Bourke St Bakery | 633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, NSW

This trendy little shop is often credited with reviving the old-fashioned bakery in Sydney. In trendy Surry Hills, the “trendy people” are happy to queue for a couple of minutes to get their fix of sourdoughs, pork&fennel and Moroccan lamb sausage rolls, and delicious pastries. But this time we’re there for the pie…

Nestled in a foil pie pan, the pastry on the pie is slightly scorched, but still has a mild butter undertone. Flaky on top, the case has the “sog factor” that was the undoing of the beef pie from the same establishment.

The chicken filling is bright orange - a tomato/carrot base rather than the roux style gravy one might expect - definitely no glug factor here folks! It’s laden with peas, frozo variety overcooked peas. I expect when there are this many peas in food I should be forewarned. I am quite fussy about peas and these are redolent of the hour.on.the.stove variety my nana was known for.

The chicken is white meat, shredded. And there’s not much of it either. It’s a bit stringy and leaves an impression of left over chicken pulled off the carcass. The cacophony of flavours is hard to pick, with the only distinct flavour reminiscent of a bunch of parsley in water, left on the kitchen bench for too long.

This isn’t a great pie. Hell, it’s not even a good pie. And for $4.80, it should be!

My conclusion: chicken pies are not trendy.

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The Pie Shed, Crocodile pie.

2008-02-10T16:13:00.000+11:00

The Pie Shed
295 Canterbury Road
Bayswater
Ph: 9720 7711

This Sunday, Furry and I set out with high hopes for The Pie Shed, a well-know bastion of pie-y goodness. It purports to serve over 40 varieties of pies, and we were keen to sample a few.... least of all, their famous "game" pies.

The Pie Shed it set back from the road just up from a typical suburban industrial estate. It's themed like a shed (duh!!).. wooden clapboard siding, twee tables and "country" furnishings.

The first thing I noticed was the lovely smell of baked pastry. I yearned for more.

The menu is daunting. There are, indeed 40+ pies. Everything from "plain pie (3.20) to Curried scallop (5.95), via Chicken and Camembert (4.95). They even provide a fax sheet, so you can bung your order in the fax and pick it up via their DRIVE THRU service.

Furry picked a "Tradesman's pie", which I shall review later, and I picked one of their signature "award winning" game pies.

The Crocodile Pie.

My crown as purveyor of putrid pap, my sceptre of Empress of inedible ooze.. Nay my REIGN OF REVOLTING RUBBISH.....

is BACK!!!

This pie was simply the most ghastly thing I have ever ingested. The pastry held out good hope. It passed the sog test. And the smell hinted at the hope of real shortcrust and possibly the tenuous hope of real lard in the puff.

The pie itself was served to the table in something resembling a dog's water bowl.

At first bite, I was confronted with a pie filled with luke warm mornay sauce.... and that's being polite.

It was foul.

I have eaten Croc on many occasions; it has the consistency and texture of crayfish meat. What I bit into was a solid wall of flavourless mornay/custard.

Think Vanilla Slice texture.. slightly warmed and NOT sweet.

The filling left a nasty oily smear on my teeth that, 4 hours and 2 attempts with Listerine, I am still trying to shake.

The 2 solitary pieces of **ahem** meat. Let me tell you about them. One appeared to be a semi-cooked piece of grey gristle, and the other... It looked and tasted like velveted chicken.

Neither piece of **ahem** meat resembled Croc in any discernible way.

The rest of the pie was filled with an atrocious solid mass of...of.... of..

I can't describe it.

You can probably still see the mark of my incisors (or is it my bicuspids??) as they cleaved thru the tasteless, flavourless solid wall of muck that filled this pie.

It.

Was.

F@!&ng awful.

And that's being polite.

When we arrived there was no queue, there was no wait.. There was no indication that the pies weren't at temp. The service was friendly and prompt. The smell was heavenly.

All the indications were that we had arrived in pie heaven.

Alas, it failed to deliver anything but nausea in its Crocodile pie.

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Beechworth Steak Pie

2008-02-08T13:08:00.001+11:00

Beechworth Bakery 27 Camp Street, Beechworth, Victoria.
Also in Albury, Ballarat, Bendigo, Echuca and Healesville

Like a copper burnished socialite this pie is all about the exterior. The pastry's so crisp as to crunch each time you bite it. The thickness of the skin determines a zero droop factor. It smells divine. It's flaky, golden and addictive, you go back in for more and more.

And that's where the party stops.

One bite in and I get nothing. Beneath the vivacious oval blonde exterior is a mousey wall flower who will not dance. Beyond the heavenly scent of the shortcrust pastry there is nothing. Where's the beefy flourish that a good country pie should always have?

Beechworth Bakeries claim to use 100% local steak, but the filling is so finely ground that it could be camel snout and Aunty Mae's undies.

The clear brown sauce is viscous and so salty that I wince on my first tasting. It can not be eaten without condiments.

I hit finely ground crumbs of gristle, but continue on because the pastry is just so good. As I brush the last crumbs away I am left with an enormous thirst. Take this one with a fine ale from around the corner at Beechworth's Bridge Road Brewery - you're going to need it. Once you're wearing the beer goggles you won't care what's under the surface.

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munch steak, cheese and bacon pie.

2008-02-07T13:00:00.000+11:00

"munch proudly made for 7-Eleven Stores P/L.
357 Ferntree Gully Road,
Mount Waverley, 3149

OK, I am going to cop some crap for this, but today, I bring to you a review of a commercially cooked pie. After the god-awful crap I've consumed in the name of this blog over the past two weeks, I dared not tempt fate. So deciding to type-cast myself as the "eater of bloody awful pies", I thought a commercially prepared one would do the trick and launch a stellar career as a reviewer of BAD pies.

"Oh, pg, yeah, I've heard of her, she's the chick who's never given a pie a single star".

So, in that vein, where else to start by my local 7-eleven! Imagine my suprise when I saw in their pie warmer, their new range of "munch" pies.

"Super cheesy! Munch into real bacon, cheese and tender steak to satisfy the biggest appetite. Not for vegos!"

the labeling extols.

This pie is shaped like a sausage roll.. long and thin. This is apparently for ease of eating on the run. And it came in a plastic bag......

Seriously, I thought to myself "HERE is the pie to bring my lasting fame and adoration as the purveyor of pastry poopiness, the self appointed Empress of Inedible Ooze, The Countess of Cornflour Caa-Caa

(somebody stop me, I'm alliterating!)

Umm... Nup.

it was good.

thick crusty pastry topped with some herb/pepper mix. The base pastry was clearly shortcrust and held up well all the way through the eating. There was a definite difference in mouthfeel with both pastries. The filling, as you can see, was clearly cheesy. Cheese, that is, as defined by pre-fab Kraft Slices. Strangely though, the cheese wasn't uniform throughout the whole pie. It was present in heavenly over-processed, salty goodness at only the two ends. The filling was as described, a good ratio of mince to bacon in a slightly tomato-ey gravy. Not a hint of over gluggy, conflour snot

And this shape made it really REALLY easy to scoff. I am sure a basquillion dollars was sunk into some think-tank to come up with the overall shape, but it does work. It's exactly a mouthful wide, a mouthful high and about 6 hearty bites long. And the quality of the short pastry case meant it held its shape the whole way through.

Look... the mere presence of the Kraft cheese slices means this pie has no pretensions. It's NOT a gor-may chunky Guinness, Caviar and Foie Gras pie. Hell, I bought it at a 7-Eleven, ok!!

This is a pie for grabbing, scoffing and (spookily) enjoying while driving long distances, or filling ya belly when there's nothing else available. It certainly rivals, nay exceeds, the two other pies from "award winning" pie shops I have reviewed.

It's the Chiko Roll of pies. The Marathon "dim sim" of pies. The micronuked "nachos" of pies.

It's like a dirty little secret.....

Look, I wouldn't go out and eat another in a hurry, but yeah.. it was surprisingly good for what it purports to be.

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Welcome aboard Tassie Pie eaters

2008-02-05T21:56:00.000+11:00

And now, it is with great pleasure that we introduce our favourite Tasmanian Blogger...

**crowd goes aaah**

... The Gobbler!

**Thunderous applause**

He has joined our ranks to review the delicious pies south of Bass Strait.

We have included a post on his pie passion, also added to our side bar as defining "the pie".

We know you'll enjoy his posts as much as we do and I just can't wait to see his first pie review. Welcome Gobbler.

Parker Pie

2008-02-04T14:03:00.000+11:00

Parker Pies 86/88 Main Street, Rutherglen, Victoria.

One bite and my gnashers came through cleanly, no gravy on my chin, no droop. The menu at Parker's in Northern Victoria lists the Parker Pie as the one kids love. This overgrown kid certainly did. It was the perfect antidote to a morning of wine tasting at the local Rutherglen wineries.

Fred Parker's handcrafted country pies have ticked all the boxes at numerous awards for good reason. This one tastes just as you remembered, from pies eaten with grubby hands as a little tacker. You sink into it and then the heavenly waft of gravy fills your nostrils as you go in further.

The thin golden, buttery flaky pastry doesn't allow for it to be a deep dish pie - unlike suet based pastries - but the filling is generous, rich and satisfying. Local coarse ground lean beef is anchored in a deep brown roux based sauce, flooding the mouth with flavour.

In keeping with the palates of minors and footy scoffers, tomato sauce is a mandatory on this one. You need it to offset the slight saltiness of the gravy and I suspect it'll encourage the kids to buy some fizz. Get stuck into this pie for a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane and don't forget the "Dead 'Orse".

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Bourke St Bakery

2008-02-03T18:23:00.000+11:00

Bourke St Bakery | 633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, NSW

When I arrive it seems something is a little awry; the scene is a bit frazzled instead of its usual frantic. The new oven is gleaming with its contents; it looks like the pastry is a bit too brown and once I get one this is confirmed.

The pies have been heated quickly, brown on the outside and the filling barely lukewarm. Despite being slightly scorched, the pastry still has a buttery taste that lingers too long post pie. The top flakes so I am able to peel back a layer of the crust and still have a skin-like film of pastry covering the filling – a little game of mine.

The pie has come in a foil tray and once removed there is evidence of pie leakage. It’s a matter of moments before the pie begins to implode – it simply can’t stand up, the pastry is sagging at a rate of knots!

The filling is chunky beef. Roasted carrot and onions are evident, and there is a good balance of seasoning. Some of the chunks much large than bite-sized and not trimmed in accordance with its price tag - heck, when you’re paying $4.80 for a pie it should be near perfect!

Whilst tasty enough that no sauce is required, the Bourke St Bakery beef pie fails to deliver a "good pie" experience, and at the price, one feels a little fleeced...

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Harry's Cafe de Wheels - Chicken & Mushroom Pie

2008-01-30T14:16:00.001+11:00

Harry's Cafe de Wheels | Cowper Wharf Woolloomooloo
(Also at Haymarket (Hannah's Pies), Newcastle, Liverpool, and opening at Sydney airport.)

It is rare that eating a commercially made chicken pie induces glowing praise. Not only does Harry's boasts iconic celebrity status, it makes a bloody good chicken and mushroom pie!

Made using the same pastry as the beef pie, the crust is quite short producing a strong case that holds well during eating, and a top crust that is not particularly flaky.

Only white chicken is used in the filling, present in bite sized succulent pieces. Fresh mushrooms have been used (as opposed to the tinned, sliced variety) and additional flavours are clear and concise, namely chives (possibly dried before use), pepper and dare I say, a little white wine?

It shouldn't have to be said, but as it is rarely the case with chicken pies, the filling features the above ingredients, lubricated with a little thickened stock from the mix. This is what it should be, not a mid winter flu sneeze wrapped in pastry!

This pie is a winner.

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Noble Park Bakery

2008-01-30T12:56:00.000+11:00

Noble Park Hot Bread.

4 Douglas St
Noble Park, VIC 3174

(03) 9547 3247

Sigh, another no scorer. No discernible difference between top and casing pastries. First bite reveals chewy... nay rubbery undercooked pastry and tastes more than slightly stale. Filling was generic tasteless pap. The only thing making this pie easy to eat was the cornflour holding it all together.

Even the little nipple-y bit, looking browned and tempting in the photo turned out to be soggy and nasty.

This pie was supposed to be curry, and I guess I should be grateful that it wasn't the normal overpowering Keen's curry flavoured muck, but this pie, it was only the last bite that had any hint of curry flavour. And it wasn't too bad. Fragrant and fruity. But it only was the last solitary mouthful that revealed any curry whatsoever.

This pie committed the ultimate sin.

I ate the entire thing with not a single crumb visible, post postprandially, on my ample boosum.

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The Aussie Pure Beef Pie

2008-01-25T17:47:00.000+11:00

Boscastle Pies
260 Barkly Street, Brunswick, Victoria.
ph: O3 9092 8113

A high fashion pie turned mainstream? Yes indeed.

The Aussie Pure Beef Pie started out as a boutique pie made by a man inspired by several years living in Boscastle, North Cornwall, in the UK.

Twenty years on it has transitioned from the fancy award winning, supermodel of pies, to a high volume, commercial pie made on premises. It can be found in many cafes and boutique grocers, David Jones included.

But don't let that put you off. The pie is still high, the pastry golden and the perfect thickness to support the weighty contents. There's no trace of sogginess, it does not droop. As it starts to cool down, a faint lingering fatty taste to the crust indicates a traditionally heavy shortening used in the pastry to bolster it. This adds a soft richness and satisfyingly complements the filling without needing an overcomplicated or gluggy gravy.

With a name like 'Aussie Pure Beef', you would expect to be smacked down by a butch, chunky meat experience. But this is a metrosexual morsel with an excellent meat to gravy ratio. The ground beef and light coloured sauce that binds it with onion, beef stock and tomato goes down too well. I inhaled it like a supermodel sucking down Gitanes.

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A crushing disappointment

2008-01-23T13:05:00.000+11:00

Vic Pies, 238 Springvale Road, Springvale. ph: 9547 5665
(also at Cairnlea Town Centre, shop 6, 100 Furlong Road, Cairnlea and 17c Chester Street, Oakleigh)

Being the diligent researcher I am, I discovered that one of the greatest bakers of meat pies is, surprisingly, a Vietnamese bloke called Vuong Dong. A quick Google search throws up this, but not much else.

Not really that surprising when you understand the link between Viet cooking and its French colonization.

So, with that in mind, I headed off for lunch today into Springvale. Little Vietnam. Little Saigon.

I chose Vic Pies and ordered a Steak and Mushroom.

Bloody awful.

The very fine puff pastry had mostly flaked off the top by the time I got back to the office, a total time of maybe, 5 minutes, leaving a thin cardboard-like layer of...well... nothing.

It didn't pass the sog test, and the bottom short crust was thin and pallid, already cracking when I pulled it from the bag.

The filling was bog-standard mince in a cornflour paste. This filling had not been pre-casseroled. Strangely, I felt like I needed to add salt. It was completely without flavour, well, except that nasty kind of boiled-mince-in-cornflour "flavour" The mushies were pre-sliced, tasteless and microscopically thin, clearly laid on the vile minced pap prior to baking.

At mid point (the delicate bite where the pie becomes structurally unsound and you risk a traditional Aussie pie-scald of the palm), the only thing keeping it together was the sheer amount of cornflour in the **ahem** gravy

Do.

Not.

Bother.

If anyone knows the whereabouts of Mr Vuong Dong and his bakery, PLEASE drop me a line.

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(no, that's not a glitch, I gave it no stars on any account)

Mornington Peninsula Farmer's Market.

2008-01-23T11:34:00.000+11:00

Mornington Peninsula Farmer's Market.

Gourmet Meat Pie Stall

A roving circus of pie goodness and other assorted yummy things.

When critiquing a pie, there are certain criteria. There must be a definite difference between the pastry on the top and the pastry underneath. The filling needs to have a good meat:gravy ratio. It has to taste like it sounds (All Aussie Chunky Beef pie cannot contain mince and veggies, for example) and it must pass the sog-test.

The sog test is simple.

Before you bite into it, you hold the pie aloft in your cupped hand.

The perfect pie has no "give". The bottom doesn't sag and the sides don't flex.

So, to the Shepherd's pie.

Which was made with mince, not lamb. Strike out!!. Despite this, the filling was well-cooked, the meat obviously having been braised and seasoned to a good casserole standard.

It didn't pass the sog test. The bottom was not cooked enough, and it became very VERY messy to eat, whilst walking around, although this may have been due to the lack of a structural "top". At the mid-pie mark, it folded in two and the filling fell out into my hand.

Probably more a pie to eat with a knife and fork.

The potato topping was made of real, live mashed tatties, A thumbs up. And it had been baked to allow the edges of the potato to develop a lovely caramelized crust.

Also, a trick for young players.... When eating a pie outdoors, nominate your fly shoo-ing hand and your pie-eating hand.

Do not confuse the two. Otherwise you risk, splashing boiling hot pie intestines ALLLLLL over your shoulder, and the volcanic fall out landing on an unsuspecting shoe string-clad shoulder of the young lady next to you.

A social gaffe, I assure you!

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Now THAT's a chunky pie!

2008-01-23T08:05:00.000+11:00

Mornington Peninsula Farmer's Market.

Gourmet Meat Pie Stall

This is the Chunky Roast Pork pie, and as you can see from the photo, it had great potential.

The top pastry was perfect. Flaky puff pastry goodness, with a crispness yet buttery mouthfeel

It certainly lived up to its name, the pork was slow roasted and fall-apart tender, in chunks large enough to bite into.

The gravy was a little sweet for me, possibly seasoned with allspice but the meat:gravy ratio was perfect.

The case pastry was shortcrust. Unfortunately it didn't pass the sog test and the mid-section of the pie became rather messy, but I put it down to it only being 9.30 am. Maybe if we'd tried on later, they would have had time to crisp up.

No matter though.. I can always tell a pie that hasn't been baked blind ;)

Good, but not great.

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Harry's Cafe de Wheels

2008-01-21T16:58:00.001+11:00

Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Cowper Wharf, Woolloomooloo
(Also at Haymarket (Hannah's Pies), Newcastle, Liverpool, and opening at Sydney airport.)

Perhaps the most famous pie in the land, Harry’s Café de Wheels in Woolloomooloo has iconic status with photographs of notable customers Colonel Sanders, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Brooke Shields, Kevin Costner, and Pamela Anderson amongst many others.

The crust is short-ish. A "light" short crust if you will. The case holds up well holding the pie and its contents through the duration. Pie pastry purist might prefer the top a little flakier or with a puff pastry top, but for hold in your hand stability, this pastry works.

Beef pies are made from 96% fat free topside steak, in visible bite sized chunks. The noticeable difference in this pie is the texture and flavour still remaining in these little chunks of beef. There are no gristly bits either.

The pie has the right amount of peppery goodness. The surrounding gravy is on the thick side of the spectrum yet still viscous. This is a pie that can be eaten with or without tomato sauce, and that’s a real thumbs up.

For a real dinky-di Harry’s experience have the tiger pie. Named after founder Harry "Tiger" Edwards, it's topped with mashed potato, mushy peas, drizzled with gravy and served with a fork in the top.

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where's my pie?

2007-11-01T12:57:00.000+11:00

If you've got a pie you would like to see reviewed that we haven't got to yet, please feel free to let us know.

In the comments form (below) simply give us the details of your favourite pie, the shop & address it comes from, and a few words on why you think this pie is so good.