What happens when you combine the finest Australian boer goat meat with the rustic recipes of international cuisine? An ethnically-diverse menu spanning fragrant Nepalese curry, spicy Goan vindaloo and stodgy English fare. The best part is The Goat Pie Guy has wrapped all this slow-cooked goodness up in pastry.
Fresh from several wins at The Official Great Aussie Pie Competition, including Most Innovative Pie, Mick and Meg Hobson are working hard to deliver more of the gourmet offering that has Brisbane locals lining up with cult-like devotion.
A chef by trade, Mick created The Goat Pie Guy in 2012 as a way to showcase the distinctive flavour and melt-in-your mouth quality of Australian boer goat meat. All the meat is sourced from Booma Boers Premium Goat Meat in Dorrigo, a pristine New South Wales region that, with some clever preparation from farmers, promotes year-round breeding. In turn, The Goat Pie Guy is able to sell freshly made pies week in, week out.
“The interesting part about beginning The Goat Pie Guy journey as a culinary chef rather than as a baker is all my creations have begun with an incredible stand alone Boer Goat dish, which has been adapted to a pie filling. It was then up to me to create a delicious pasty casing that could be made for each new invention,” Mick says.
At the moment, The Goat Pie Guy is selling its handmade pies at up to seven local and seasonal markets every week, including the Brisbane Farmers Market and the Eagle Farm Markets. However, Brisbane’s insatiable appetite for goat meat has prompted Mick and Meg to open a retail arm of the business.
“You should expect us to open Goat Pie Guy Gourmet Kitchen at the beginning of November. It will be a place for food lovers to eat, learn and be inspired,” Mick says.
“I love to share my food creations so it feels like a natural progression to deliver chef-quality dishes to the public with the informality of a not-so-humble pie.
The Goat Pie Guy’s menu is fairly extensive, even including a Jamaican-themed spicy Caribbean curry with turmeric, cumin, allspice, chili and dried thyme pie. Nonetheless, the Tuscan Goat Pie is undoubtedly the crowd favourite.
And, with tender, slow cooked goat meat combined with a rustic recipe of roast tomatoes, Italian wine and rosemary, topped with dried herbs, it’s no surprise.
“Everyone loves Italian flavours, and the smell of this one cooking is enough to drive you crazy!” Mick says.
TUSCAN GOAT PIE
WHAT YOU NEED
• 10kg diced goat meat
• 2.5kg onions diced (we used leeks on this particular day, which add a nice taste)
• 2 bunches celery diced
• 20 large truss tomatoes roasted with garlic rosemary balsamic vinegar and olive oil salt and pepper
• 2L of red wine
• 500g tomato paste
• Bunch of fresh rosemary
• 150ml balsamic vinegar
• 500g caster sugar
• 100g salt
• 6L vegetable stock
• 1.25kg pie thickener
• 1.5L water
WHAT TO DO
• Sauté onions, celery and half of the rosemary in olive oil until soft.
• Add tomato paste, red wine and tomatoes.
• Add meat and combine well.
• Pour over vegetable stock and bring to a slow boil for five hours until meat is tender and liquid has reduced by a third.
• Place sugar in pan over low heat until dissolved, add balsamic vinegar and bring to the boil.
• Pour into meat mixture and combine well with salt and fresh rosemary.
• Combine water and thickener and stir into pie mix.
• Chill pie mix.
• Form short crust pastry into base ring and fill with the chilled mix, egg wash rim and crimp puff pastry lid to base.
• Bake at 210°C for around 34-35 minutes.
• Cool to 70°C and remove pie from pastry ring. Now they are ready to go!
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