Ingredients: 

• 500g prime beef mince
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 cups beef stock
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 sheets butter puff pastry
• 100g tasty cheddar cheese, chopped into 2cm chunks
• 1 egg yolk, whisked
• 2 kumara, peeled and diced
• Salt and pepper

Heat a large frying pan and brown mince in batches, transfer to a large saucepan once it is well browned.

Heat olive oil in the frying pan and gently cook onions, carrots, celery and garlic for 5-10 minutes until onions are tender.

Transfer mince back to the saucepan and add stock and tomato paste

Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours, topping up with a little water if mixture gets too dry

Rub butter into flour until you get a smooth ball, you may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky.  

Gradually add small balls of mixture into the mince to thicken

Once you get to the desired thickness of sauce then you won’t need to add any more.

Simmer for a further 15 minutes to cook the flour and then remove from the heat.  Once cool, refrigerate until cold.

Place kumara into a pot and boil till just soft, strain water and dry a little over a hot element.

Mash the kumara and season to taste, keep warm

Preheat oven to 200 C.  

Roll out the pastry and cut out circular shapes (use the rim of a glass if you don’t have a proper shape cutter).

Put the bases in a greased shallow bun tin and spoon in the mince and then scatter on the cheese. 

Spoon the kumara mash into a piping bag and pipe over half the pies. Seal the rest with pastry making sure the base and tops are pinched together to prevent the mincemeat from escaping.

Glaze pastry covered pies with a beaten egg and prick the centre with a fork.

Cook for 30 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden