Friz's student pie

Ingredients

• 1 Meat
• 1 Onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• Tin of meat broth/soup
• Assorted veg, chopped.
• Stock Cube
• Booze

Method

Put Onion & Garlic in a frying pan until slightly less than raw Add meat until brown all over Tip in can of equivalent meat based soup or broth Add stock cube, dash of white wine vinegar, beer/ale for red meat, white wine for white meat, herbs etc Throw in chopped vegetable matter (carrots, peas, tin of black eyed beans are all good) Simmer for a while so it all mulches down a bit Put in pie dish, place ready made pastry on top (Just Roll Puff Pastry comes frozen in a red packet and takes 30 secs to unfreeze in a microwave) Cook in oven until it looks edible.

Pro Tips:

Too watery - mix up a teaspoon of arrowroot, cornflour or if all else fails, regular flour with some water and add it to the pie mix to thicken it up. Or just leave the top off the pan and let it simmer down.

Too salty/strong - couple of spoonfuls of natural yoghurt or creme fresh is great for calming it down.

Too bland - add cheese. My favourite is beef with a load of stilton, but it can be very rich. Boursin garlic cheese is good for chicken based pies.

If you're worried about presentation, keep the peas out so you have some green on the plate. A green salad can be just lettuce and cucumber, and dressing is balsamic vinegar and grainy mustard mixed up with some olive oil.

I often buy a bag of cheap chicken bits from tesco, bung em in the oven and eat half of them with plain rice (adding nothing at all), and then use the rest to make a chicken & bacon pie.