Ground beef pies in ramekins

GROYND BEEF PIES IN RAMEKINS

Use ramekins that resemble small glasses.

Their base must be a circle 5 cm in diameter and their upper circle must have a diameter 7 cm.

The height of the beaker must be 5.5 cm.

These individual pies are delicious and are suitable for formal dinners.

Dough

Ingredients

125 grams of margarine

1 cup water

1 egg

Flour

Stuffing

Ingredients

90 grams of olive oil

1250 grams of ground beef

1 large dry onion

80 grams of wine

Salt to taste

Pepper

4 large ripe tomatoes for the sauce

Bechamel cream

Ingredients

180 g. margarine + the margarine you would use to grease the ramekins

200 g. all-purpose flour

2 liters of milk

Instructions

How to make the dough

Let the margarine in room temperature to soften. 
Put it in a bowl.

Pour in the bowl an egg and a cup of water.

Stir with a wire and add slowly the flour.

You are trying to make soft dough.

Your dough should be thicker than a cake batter.

Take some margarine with your fingers and butter the ramekins.

Take care to coat with margarine the base and also the sides of each ramekin.

Get with your fingers a piece of dough as a walnut.

Place this dough in a ramekin. With your finger coat its base and its sides with the dough.  

In this way you make the shell of a small atomic Tart.

Repeat this process on all ramekins.

From your dough you make 22-24 Tart shells.

How to prepare the stuffing

Put in a saucepan the oil and place the saucepan over medium heat.

Clean the onion, mince it and put it in the pan.

Sauté the onion, stir it often to prevent it from burning.

Put the ground beef in the saucepan and stir it.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

The ground beef should be cooked in low heat to produce its fluids.

Stir often and take care to break the lumps that form in the cooking process.

Pour the wine in the saucepan and stir again.

Leave it to braise and stir often to prevent sticking.

Beat the tomatoes in the blender.

Pour the pureed tomatoes in the saucepan and stir.

Let the meat simmer and to absorb almost all its fluids.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it aside to cool a bit.  

With a large spoon divide equally the meat on all molds.

In every ramekin the ground beef rises just above its middle.

You should leave free space to put béchamel cream.

With this recipe you will make 22 to 24 pies in ramekins.

How to prepare the béchamel cream

Put two liters of milk in a pot.

Place the pot over medium heat to boil.

Put another pot on low heat and put the margarine in it.

Stir the margarine until it melts.

Pour the flour in the margarine and stir constantly.

Cook the flour until it gets beige color.

Pour with a spoon ladle the boiling milk little by little into the flour and stir.

Beat for two min the cream with a hand blender, to homogenize it.

Then stir with a ladle until the cream is about to boil.
The cream is delicious if you remove it from heat a min before boiling.

Turn off the heat and leave the cream aside to cool a bit.

With a large spoon put béchamel cream in every ramekin.

You should stop just before filling it.

With a brush coat the béchamel cream on top with a little melted margarine.

Place the pies in the oven, on the first rack from the bottom, next to each other.

Bake at 200 C degrees about an hour.

When the pies are ready they smell nicely and the surface of the béchamel cream has dark beige color.

Let the ramekins to cool completely.

With a knife unstuck each pie from its ramekin.

Turn the ramekin upside down on a platter. The pie comes out overturned.

Turn it again and bring the béchamel cream up.