Week 10: Australian - Mini Meat Pies [Cooking]

Intro from Cooking Challenge: Lamb is more common than beef in Australia, so if you're going for a meat dish this week, lamb is probably the way to go. Apparently, meat & three veg is popular in Australia. Seafood is also very popular in Australia because of the coastal cities, so seafood is another good choice for this week. Just remember, they're called prawns over there, not shrimp. For dessert, pavlova (a type of meringue dessert) is super popular. Here are a few links to get you started: Recipes from Australia's Best Chefs, About Australian Food, 40 Foods Australians Call Their Own.

I had never had authentic Australian meat pies before, but I fed these to a room full of Australia-philes and they went over fantastically.  I've already gotten requests for more.

I modified this recipe to make mini pies - I cut the pastry sheets into 1/6ths, put a dollop of meat filling in the middle, and folded/sealed.  It made 12 mini pies, plus a little extra meat filling (probably enough for about 3-4 more mini pies, but I didn't have anymore pastry dough).