A Thistle on My Scottish Mince Pie

Meal planning is mostly an afterthought (for me), maybe day ahead at best.  However, the decision to make extra Scottish 'scran' (minced beef mixture from a couple of days ago) was a conscious one.  A minced beef pie was aleady beckoning, not too far back, in the furtive culinary brain.

In honour of Scotland (and a pie filling already made) a few minutes were spent trying to make a thistle.  The song, often thought of as a Scottish anthem was playing in my head, "Flower O' Scotland..."

The flavoured mince and gravy (deliberate leftovers, carefully kept in a lidded tub in the fridge) were tipped into a pie dish and topped with bought puff pastry. 

Line the rim of the pie dish with a strip of pastry for an extra bubbly crust.  It's also easier to make the crimp (it's not really a proper crimp) use your first finger like a chopper to seal the lid on the pie.  Smiling is allowed.

Decorate in a creative manner (thistle today, pie's the limit...sorry).

Bake for 25 or so minutes at 185 celsius fan (in my oven).

We just want the pastry cooked, ideally fluffy, crunchy edges and a little softer in the center.  Both textures of pastry to enjoy.

Puff pastry is fabulously unpredictable in my oven, the thistle was still recogniseable though.

Served here with buttered peas and halved baby salad potatoes.

There's 125g of mince meat in each pie filling and a supermarket pack of puff pastry makes 4 pies.  If you don't need to use a whole pack, the pastry freezes well if tightly wrapped and can thaws either in the fridge overnight (or on the counter if needs must).

The Minced meat filling:

Scottish Mince and Tatties