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Description
Someone posted a recipe for cheddar cheese pie crust, and ever since then I've been wanting to see how well it would translate to making some meat pies.

These took forever to make, and I burned myself on the oven getting them out... but they were totally worth it!

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The Filling (will make enough for two batches of crust):

1 Onion, diced
4 Carrots, diced
2 Stalks of Celery, diced
1 lb. Ground Beef
An unhealthy amount of minced garlic
Frozen peas
Rosemary
Thyme
Beer

Cook the veggies to a mostly done state with a little of the beer for moisture, then pull them out and set them aside. Cook down the beef and drain, return the beef and veggies to the pot. Add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, and more beer and simmer for about five to ten minutes. Sprinkle some flour generously overtop, and stir to combine. The flour will act as a binder and bring everything together. Cook for at least two more minutes, at medium high heat. Add the peas.

With this crust, it helped to cool the filling before trying to make the pies. This filling will also work smothered in mashed potatoes and baked into a mock shepherd's pie.
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I think that when I do this again, I will tweak the filling to accommodate the awesome cheesiness of the crust. It's so rich that it needs a filling with more bite to it, so I might try adding a little cumin and a generous dash of Tobasco to the filling to wake it up a bit. Or I might try substituting a Granny Smith cider for the beer and adding some tarragon vinegar, or just using a dry white wine... but while I don't like beer to drink I do like it to cook with, it does something magical to stews like this. So I'll probably try the Tobasco first.

Description
Someone posted a recipe for cheddar cheese pie crust, and ever since then I've been wanting to see how well it would translate to making some meat pies.

These took forever to make, and I burned myself on the oven getting them out... but they were totally worth it!

---
The Filling (will make enough for two batches of crust):

1 Onion, diced
4 Carrots, diced
2 Stalks of Celery, diced
1 lb. Ground Beef
An unhealthy amount of minced garlic
Frozen peas
Rosemary
Thyme
Beer

Cook the veggies to a mostly done state with a little of the beer for moisture, then pull them out and set them aside. Cook down the beef and drain, return the beef and veggies to the pot. Add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, and more beer and simmer for about five to ten minutes. Sprinkle some flour generously overtop, and stir to combine. The flour will act as a binder and bring everything together. Cook for at least two more minutes, at medium high heat. Add the peas.

With this crust, it helped to cool the filling before trying to make the pies. This filling will also work smothered in mashed potatoes and baked into a mock shepherd's pie.
---

I think that when I do this again, I will tweak the filling to accommodate the awesome cheesiness of the crust. It's so rich that it needs a filling with more bite to it, so I might try adding a little cumin and a generous dash of Tobasco to the filling to wake it up a bit. Or I might try substituting a Granny Smith cider for the beer and adding some tarragon vinegar, or just using a dry white wine... but while I don't like beer to drink I do like it to cook with, it does something magical to stews like this. So I'll probably try the Tobasco first.