A Tribute to my Inspiration, my Mummy - Pie Meat & Mushroom buns with Sesame

Two weeks ago I was happy and excited to let my inspiration, my Mum know of some new developments with regards to G'Gina's Kitchenette and even before I let my readers know, I wanted her to know as she is the very being of my culinary adventures. Unfortunately I did not get that chance and my Dad confirms that she did not know of the new development either. Little did I know that soon after my angel, my inspiration was preparing for the most important journey of her life...her journey to Heavenly Abode!

My mum for all of you who do not know her was way beyond just my mum...She was an angel, a guide, a friend to the needy and all who walked into her life. Never have I heard of such words of praise, respect and gratitude of any other human being. Her leaving us is a big loss to each and every one of us. She has saved lives with just her intuition and experienced advice each time. I feel privileged to be born the child of such a mother. 

Once someone with great vision of things beyond the physical world, told me of how blessed I was as I was born with two guardian angels unlike others who had only one. My mum she said was my guardian angel on earth! I cannot tell you the loss I feel with Mummy going to Heavenly Abode. She is my everything. I only pray that she will be with me every breath and step of the way guiding me as I go through this challenging life ahead!

I have always wanted to bake bread and have to tell you that I was skeptical regarding any success I may have in doing so. I had already started my bread baking adventure with a little success in the past and more successful recently since Christmas 2014 actually. I have in the past mentioned how my culinary adventure began with baking and how I literally burned the house down with my cake bakes when I was all of 12 yrs.

My mother has always been an inspiration to my cooking/baking feats. She has always cooked and baked creations from around the globe and I was always inspired and in awe of her cooking. Although I was never a foodie growing up, I knew somewhere back then that I would want to do something related to cooking (mostly baking). Also a lot of friends and family growing up would ask me to pursue the food line or to even start my own entrepreneurship or write my recipe creations through books (there were no blogs back then!)

Recently a couple of friends of mine have been inspiring me with their recipe creations around #bread. Among them Dr. Reny Thomas, my school friend has been an immense inspiration with her creations with breads, buns, etc. Also my college buddy and fellow food blogger Shireen had recently posted regarding this fabulous and inspiring group called #BreadBakers, a wonderful group of bread lovers who inspire each other every month to bake theme based bread or with a common ingredient. I am proud to be associated with this group and this will give me a chance to whip out some bread baking skills. This was the much needed leap I required to get me out of my shell.

What inspired me to make this bread was the renowned chef Jamie Olivier's pie creation. I always wanted to try a serious savoury pie and though I have made mince pies and the like during school/college days, I still wanted to perfect my pie making skills. The filling for this bread has very much been inspired by Jamie's pie creation whose recipe I will share very shortly with you.

You need:

For the stuffing/filling:

• 500 gms beef skirt/ tender beef, cut into 1/2 cm chunks
• Ground pepper
• Olive oil
• Rock/sea salt
• 1/2 of a  nutmeg, grated
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced into cubes
• 1 red onion, peeled and diced finely into cubes
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, separated from the stem
• 125 ml pale ale / non-alcoholic beer / ginger-ale / chicken broth
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp Homemade Tomato Puree
• 125 g button mushrooms, diced small
• 1/2 litre cold water

For the bread:

• 2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• 300 gms plain flour
• 3/4 cup Milk
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 tbsp lukewarm water
• 1/3 cup Oil
• 2 tbsps Sesame Seeds
• 1 egg, beaten (to brush on the buns)
• 1 tbsp water
• 2 drizzles of oil

The Make:

Preparation time (including proofing/proving time and resting time for the meat): 1 hr, 50 mins  + 3-4 hrs or 8 hrs for resting the meat| Baking Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 1 hr, 53 minutes | Yields 7-8 medium sized buns

For the buns' pie meat filling:

Source for the pie meat filling: Jamie's Olivier

1. In a large bowl, add the beef chunks, 1 tsp of ground black pepper, a good pinch of rock salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil and massage well.
2. Next add the grated nutmeg, toss and coat well. Set it aside.
3. In a wide pan or wide-deep bottomed pot, add a drizzle of olive oil followed by the prepared beef chunks and brown on all sides, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Then uncover and allow and liquid to evaporate over the next 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Simultaneously in another flat pan, heat a drizzle of olive oil and cook the veggies including the rosemary over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until caramelised and softened. Stir frequently to ensure even cooking. Remove from the heat.
5. Next add the ale to the beef, turn up the heat to high and allow all the liquid to bubble ensuring you are scraping all the delicious sticky bits from the bottom of the pan.
6. Add in the flour and tomato puree and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until a thick paste is formed.
7.  Stir in the softened veggies into the larger pan with the beef and then pour in 1/2 litre of cold water. Add the mushrooms and bring to a boil.
8. Lower the heat to medium, cover and simmer for about 1 hour. Then take off the lid and simmer for another 30 minutes or the liquid has thickened and the beef is tender.
9. Season to taste and set aside for a few hours or preferably overnight in the fridge. The longer you rest the beef the better it gets. 


For the Dough :

1. Remember to use the yeast which has not expired. In a small bowl, mix the yeast and  2 tbsp sugar and dissolve it with 3 tbsp lukewarm water. Mix well and set aside for about 5 mins until it froths. In case it does not froth, throw away and use new yeast.

2. In a large bowl, add the flour,1 tbsp sugar, salt, oil and mix well.
Gradually add the milk and make a loosely formed dough.

3. Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface, take the dough and knead it with your hands until the dough becomes soft and supple. Knead up to 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky but still soft.

4. Take a large bowl, add a light drizzle of oil and put the dough and make sure it is coated with oil so that it does not dry out. Cover it with a cling wrap and let it sit at room
temperature for about 90 mins or until the dough doubles in size.

5. Line a flat baking tray with parchment or butter paper. Or you could directly grease the baking tray with a drizzle of oil and use directly (like I did!)

6. This part is going to be fun. Take the doubled dough onto a flat surface and punch down the dough with your hands and knead it well so that all the air held in escapes
from the dough. 

7. Next divide the dough into 8 equal parts.

8. Take one of the 8 parts of the dough, roll it into ball and then flatten it out into a disc about 3-4″ in diameter.

9. Add a tbsp of pie meat stuffing in the center of the disc and fold the corners the disc towards the centre to cover the stuffing well. Keep a kitchen towel at your side to wipe your hands in case your fingers get messy with the filling in the process. Fight the instinct to wash your hands each time as you would get the dough sticky with damp hands.

8. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until the remaining 7 bun dough is formed. Line them on the baking tray, folded side facing down and equi-distant giving enough space for the buns to rise and form. 

9. Set aside the buns at room temperature for about half hour or until they begin to swell.

11.  Preheat the oven to 180°C.

12. Right before popping the bun dough into the oven, whisk 1 tbsp of water with the egg and brush all over each bun. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of each bun.

13. Carefully set the buns in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. Trust me the smell emitting from your kitchen will woo you to come in time to open the oven and take these beauties out.

14. Remove the baking tray from the oven and let the buns cool and rest on a rack before serving.

Now for my vegetarian friends, remember you can use other fillings such as Aloo Jeera (Potato with cumin seeds) or Kadai Paneer or mushrooms or the like.

Bon Appetit!