My reliable butcher David Chilcott from Chilcott’s Butchery, recommended I try freshly diced veal chuck steak as a change to the usual beef that I use for home cooked goulash and pies. I’m so glad I took his advice. This pink tinged, moist cut became the base of a melt-in-the-mouth pie complete with from-scratch pastry that my mother made for us to enjoy this evening. 

This is a generous, deep dish pie that adequately fed our family of seven plus my mother and we still had a portion left over for someone to enjoy as part of lunch. A big bowl of steamed broccoli and cauliflower tossed through with a little butter and ground pepper further boosted the vitamin intake for the overall meal. 

My Mother’s Very Special Veal Pie

Ingredients
extra virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion
4 cloves garlic
3 medium carrots
2 long sticks of celery
2 parsnip
2 zucchini
1 potato (peeled)
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 apple (peeled and finely diced)
1 handful of dried cranberries
finely grated rind of half an orange plus the juice of the whole orange
2 kg veal chuck diced into 4 cm pieces
2 tablespoons plain flour
500 mls chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large cast iron pot, add all of the vegetables and sauté over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until they start to deepen in colour and become glossy. The onion and garlic should be finely diced, the remaining vegetables cut into larger 3 cm pieces. If you don’t have a cast iron pot, then use a large stainless steel pot for this stage, then transfer into your chosen casserole pot for the slow oven cooking stage. 

Add the marjoram, apple, cranberries, orange rind and juice and cook for a further 5 minutes until the apples just start to change colour. 

Remove the mixture into a clean bowl and set aside. 

Toss the veal with the plain flour, salt and pepper (about 2 teaspoons sea salt). Add some more olive oil to the pot and brown off the veal in 4 batches. 

Add back all of the meat and vegetables, pour over the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Clamp on the lid and place in a preheated fan forced oven at 150 degrees for 2 hours. 

Remove from the  oven and set aside to cool down to room temperature. 

While the mixture is cooling make your pastry. Mum used a pastry recipe from a well worn cookbook by Margaret Fulton called My Very Special Cookbook, published in 1980. I’ve referred to this marvellous manual of cookery in my previous posts. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make pastry from scratch, then use a top quality commercially made variety like Careme available from good grocers.  However it doesn’t take very long to make when enlisting the power of a food processor. 

Pastry in a Food Processor

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
125 g frozen butter cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 whole eggs

Put the flour, butter and salt into a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut up into the flour so that the mixture resembles small granules. 

Add both eggs and process until the ingredients have combined into a smooth ball of dough. If it’s too soft and sticky, just sprinkle in an extra tablespoon or two of flour. 

Remove from the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour which reduces shrinkage when baking. 

When you are ready to assemble the pie, first preheat the oven to 220 degrees fan forced. Spoon the veal and vegetable mixture (which by now should have cooled to room temperature) into a large, deep pie dish measuring about 35 cm in length by about 26 cm in width. We used a ceramic Pillivuyt brand of pie dish which has a decent glaze, distributes heat evenly and is a cinch to clean.  

Roll out the pastry on a clean bench or table top, first sprinkling the surface with flour to prevent sticking. 

Carefully place the pastry over the top of the pie dish, making sure the pastry goes all the way to the edge of the dish. Seal the join all the way around either by pressing with your thumb or a fork. Cut slits across the top of the pastry to allow excess steam to escape. Brush the pastry with egg-wash (1 beaten egg and a dash of milk). This will give the pastry an appealing golden colour as it bakes. 

Place in the oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.