After a delicious Sunday dinner of Lamb Shanks slow cooked in red wine, we had some of the meat leftover so what better way to use the leftover meat, than to make it into individual lamb shank pies!
To start with, I took out a sheet of puff pastry from the freezer to thaw while I made the below sauce base:
~ 2 celery sticks, sliced finely
~ 1 carrot, diced finely
~ salt and pepper
~ 25g butter (about 1 tbsp)
~ 2 tbsp plain flour
~ 1/2 – 3/4 cup stock (I used chicken stock but vege, beef, veal stocks would work as well)
Heat the oven to 180C
Fry the celery and carrots in a medium pan until they are soft
Season with salt and pepper
Add in the butter, and when it is melted, sprinkle the flour in to the mix
You should see the flour absorb the butter and the mix becomes quite thick
Continue to fry for a minute or so, making sure it doesn’t burn or stick to the pan
Slowly add in the stock, stirring until the mix becomes saucy
Once I had the sauce mix ready, I added in the leftover lamb shank meat (about 2 cups worth, so if you had more than this, just increase the quantities in the sauce mix above)
Stir through, breaking up the meat
Split the meat mix into individual ramekins or any other oven proof dish that is suitable
Cut puff pastry into shapes that are slightly larger than the dish/es you are using
Wait for a few minutes for the mixture to cool slightly then pop the puff pasty lid on top
Scrunch the pastry around at the sides of the dish and brush lightly with milk (you could use egg but since I only had 3 small ones, milk did the trick) – make sure you make a cut across the top so the pie has a place for steam to escape
Bake for 15 mins at 180C (they may take a little longer depending how big the pies are)
Purple Sushi 