THERE'S nothing better than a homemade meat pie - even better if it's made using your own pastry recipe.

This traditional filling is easy to prepare and can be made ahead of time.

Add some frozen peas and some carrot batons if you want to make it a little more elaborate.

The trick with the pastry is not to have it too thick, but to leave it just thin enough to hold the filling when the dish is all assembled.

It's worth investing in some small springform pie dishes, which make it all the easier to prepare your single-serve pies.

Just in case there's any chance of spillage during the cooking, it pays to put your pies on a baking tray as they go into the oven.

No messy oven cleaning, and it's also easier to pull them out of the oven when they're done.

These look great served in individual pie dishes, but if you don't have any to hand, simply use one large pie dish.

You can cook the pie mix ahead of time, freeze and defrost when you want to use it.

Makes six individual pies.

STEAK AND MUSHROOM PIE

  • 2 tbspns vegetable oil
  • 500g diced beef
  • 250g mushrooms
  • 500ml beef stock
  • 250g shortcrust pastry (you can use puff pastry sheets if you wish)
  • 2 red onions, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • A generous pinch of salt and ground black pepper
  • 2 egg yolks

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan and brown the meat on all sides.

You may need to fry the meat in batches in order to get a nice brown colour.

Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the garlic and onions until soft.

Add the beef stock, meat pieces, salt and pepper and combine.

Lower the heat, cover and cook over gentle heat for about 90 minutes.

Make sure to give the mix a stir every now and then to prevent it sticking at the bottom.

The aim is to get the meat as tender as possible, so you may need to add a longer cooking time depending on the meat you buy.

Add more liquid - water will do - if the mixture goes dry before the meat is tender.

About 10 minutes before the mix is finished cooking, add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir through to combine.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

You can prepare ahead to this stage and refrigerate the mixture for a day or two, until you are ready to make your pies.

The advantage of this, aside from allowing time in a busy day, is to allow the flavours to develop further through the meat.

You can also freeze the mix for even later use.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 220C.

You can take two options with the pastry when assembling your pie: a lid-only version or a full pastry case.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about half a centimetre in thickness.

If you are using only a pastry lid, spoon the steak and mushroom filling into your chosen pie dish, or dishes, and drape over the pastry.

Leave about 1cm of pastry over the side of the dish and then push the pastry in to the dish, so you end up with a nice crust the whole way round.

If you are completely encasing the filling in pastry, roll out the pastry and carefully line the pie dish.

Rather than adding a separate pastry topping, I prefer to allow plenty of overhang and then to fold this neatly on top of the filling, leaving a small central hole.

Using a pastry brush, coat the pastry topping with the egg yolk; this will produce a delicious golden coloured crust.

Place in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry turns a nice golden brown.

Serve straight away with a salad. These pies also freeze well.