• Blog

    Taste of Tuesday – an Aussie Meat Pie Recipe

    8/19/2014

    Four n Twenty Meat PieIn honour of my novella release this week I thought I would share a recipe for an Australian meat pie with you.

    I think most countries or cultures have some form of a pie or pasty be it an empanada , a Cornish pasty or a pot pie.

    In Australia we have local cake shops in every suburb that sell meat pies and sausage rolls. They are the ultimate take-away food. Long before the Colonel, Golden Arches or various pizza chains graced our shores in the 1970’s this was the food we ate. We enjoy them at sporting events in the same way an American might have a hot dog.

    (My dad has a sister who lives in LA. When they come to Australia my mother gets out the good silver and serves up Aussie meat pies to them at the dining room table. It’s the sort of food you dream about when you are far, far away.)

    In Any Way You Slice It, Piper the main character has a chain of food trucks that sell only pies and while she serves a variety of flavours, the classic meat pie is the corner stone of her business.

    This is a family pie that I make in a family sized pie plate but it can also be made as 4 individual pies if you have individual pie plates. This is one of my daughter’s family favourites.

    Australian Meat Pie – serves 4
    1 quantity of shortcrust pastry or one pie shell (I’ll post my recipe soon)
    olive oil
    2 small or 1 large onion diced
    500g beef mince
    1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
    2 tablespoons of soy sauce
    1 beef stock cube
    2 cups hot water
    2 tablespoons cornflour
    2 tablespoons water (extra)
    1 sheet puff pastry
    1 egg yolk.

    1. Heat oil in pan and add onions, cook stirring until soft. Add mice, cook stirring until browned.
    2. Stir in sauces, stock cube and water (I dissolve the stock cube in water first) simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cornflour and extra water. Stir over high heat until it boils and thickens. Cool.
    3. Grease a pie plate with butter or olive oil and roll pastry to fit pie plate. Cover pastry with baking paper, fill with dried beans or pie weights and bake in moderate oven 8 minutes. remove beans and cook a further 8 minutes.
    4. Fill pie shell with meat mixture. Brush edges or pastry with egg yolk and press puff pastry on top. Cut to fit. You can use any scraps to decorate. Brush pie with more egg yolk. Bake in oven 20-25 minutes until golden.

    Enjoy!

    Don’t forget Any Way You Slice It, An Upper Crust Novella will be out later this week.
    Any Way You Slice It - Upper Crust Novel - Monique McDonell - Original Cover

  • Blog

    Release week for my first novella Any Way You Slice it and Musical Monday

    8/17/2014

    Any Way You Slice It - Upper Crust Novel - Monique McDonell - Original CoverBy this time next week my new release Any Way You Slice It, An Upper Crust Novella will be out.

    This book is the first in a series and so I’ve gone with a new look to distinguish it from my other stand alone titles. I love my illustrated covers but I adore this one too. It’s bright and fresh in a way that I hope reflects the story inside.

    This novel is a little bit like Grease meets The Proposal. Below is the blurb, which I am still tweaking, but I wanted to share it so you can get a feel for what the book is all about.

    ***

    Anyway You Slice It, An Upper Crust Novella

    By Monique McDonell

    Piper has one month to find a husband, and get a green card, or be kicked out of the country just when her chain of Aussie Pie trucks is about to start making some serious money.

    Aaron is an ambitious lawyer keen to make partner but his Boston law firm only promotes lawyers who are married.

    A marriage of convenience could solve both their problems if they keep it strictly business but convincing everyone else that this is true love while trying to convince themselves that it isn’t is a sure recipe for trouble. All the kissing and touching to prove that this is a true love sets the heat rising faster than the pies in Piper’s kitchen.

    While Aaron is happy to be friends with benefits, Piper knows better than to mix business with pleasure, despite the undeniable chemistry. Getting married to save her business is one thing, but falling in love would mean risking her heart. Any way you slice it she’s getting more than she bargained for.

    ***

    Fun right? I’ll tell you more about the book and where the idea came from throughout the week.

    And now for Musical Monday – it is wet, wet, wet here in Sydney. I live in a house with an aluminium roof (and no that’s not a typo that’s how we spell it down under) so I can here every raindrop and there are millions of them. In fact it’s so dark in my glass walled living room right now I almost can’t see the keyboard.

    So here is an 80’s classic from the band Wet, Wet, Wet. Love I is All Around.