Indonesian Pie (Pastel)

This is an typical Indonesian pie and another Beb Vuyk recipe where, when you look at the ingredients, you might think: this tastes like nothing. But the opposite is true and that’s often the case with Het Groot Indonesisch kookboek.

I do think something went wrong with this recipe in the book, because for example it doesn’t say that some salt is allowed. So I add 1 vegetable stock cube to the minced meat mixture. It gives exactly the right amount of flavor. This recipe is enough for 2 people and ready in 45 minutes.

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Indonesian Pie I (Pastel) #459 from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesië Kookboek, page 369.

• mashed potatoes from 1/2 kg potatoes
• 1/4 kg raw minced meat or leftover fried minced meat
• 100 grams cooked carrots
• small tin of peas
• 25 grams laksa
• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 raw egg
• 1 large leek
• 2 tablespoons chopped celery
• breadcrumbs
• butter

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1. Soak the laksa in lukewarm water.
2. Slice the leek and fry it in 2 to 3 spoons of butter or the fat from leftover gravy.
3. Fry the minced meat along. If leftover fried minced meat is used, the balls must first be mashed with a fork.
4. Add the carrots and the peas, 1 to 2 dl of pea liquid or leftover gravy.
5. Add the squeezed laksa and let the mixture simmer gently for a while.
6. Mix in the celery and put everything in a buttered ovenproof dish. Slice the hard-boiled eggs and place them on top.
7. Make mashed potatoes in the usual way, but use a little more pepper and mix in a beaten egg.
8. Cover the layer of egg slices with a layer of mashed potatoes, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over it and spread knobs of butter over the entire surface.
9. Put the dish in an oven at 250 degrees C (gas mark 5-6) for +/- 1/2 hour.
10. Let it get a brown crust on it.

Of course, this recipe once came about because people had leftovers. Beb also mentions that you can use cooked mince. But the few potatoes and some boiled carrots could all be leftovers. I don’t use canned peas or carrots. I use a winter carrot and frozen peas. I also use a few more ingredients than in the recipe, because there are 3 of us. First, the noodles (laksa) have to be soaked. I pour some hot water over it and let it stand for a while.

Then I fry the carrots and then quickly add the minced meat. I add a vegetable stock cube. Then I add the leek, the peas and the drained laksa.

I let everything simmer with 100 dl of water for a few minutes.

Then everything can go in a greased oven dish. I press everything neatly so that it becomes a nice, firm layer.

In the meantime, I cook the potatoes and make mash with a little bit of butter, lots of pepper, a little salt. A raw egg also has to be added according to Beb’s recipe. I first spread a layer of hard-boiled egg over the minced meat mixture.

And then the mashed potatoes.

Now the breadcrumbs with a few knobs of butter can be added.

The oven dish can go in the oven. I do it with hot air, so at a slightly lower temperature: 200 degrees and shorter (25 minutes).