Ensure your pastry has defrosted and placed in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 180℃/356℉. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Tear the bread into small pieces and add to a small bowl. Add the milk and allow the bread to soak up the milk. Set aside.
Bring a medium saucepan to a medium heat. Add the olive oil and onions. Suate the onions until light brown and caramlized. Note: feel free to add the bay leaf if you'd prefer a more fragrant result.
Once the onions have caramelized, add ginger, garlic, curry powder, ground ginger, mixed herbs, ground turmeric, ground cloves, ground allspice, bay leaf, ground white pepper, salt and raisins. Lower the heat, stir well and sauté for 30 secs -1 minute. Note: be careful to not burn the spices. Remove from the heat.
In a large bowl, add beef mince, soaked white bread, the spice-onion mixture, fruit chutney, and an egg. Combine the mixture using your hands ensuring it well mixed and all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and unroll on to a clean working surface with the length side closes to you. Note: it's important to work quickly, otherwise the pastry will reach room temperature and become unmanageable and won't puff up as nicely as desired.
Mark the halfway point (middle) on the pastry and spread the beef filling up unto this point - my pastry was a total of +/- 42cm so halfway point was 21cm. I use my fingertips to shape the edges of the meat filling so it aligns with the pastries edges. Flip the opposite side (the pastry that has no filling) over, covering the mince filling. The edges won't be closed off. Note: see recipe images and video for reference.
Lightly press the pastry down, ensuring it's adhered to the mince filling. Mark 4 indentations on the length side. Using a large scissor, cut 4 long sections, then cut each in half, yielding 10 pies. Note: I lightly marked with the pastry using the scissor so you know where to cut but guesstimating is also an option.
Evenly spread the pies on to a baking tray. Whisk one egg in a small bowl and cover the surface of the pastries with the egg mixture - use your fingertips or an actual brush. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and puffy. Note: the meat juices with start spreading but continue to bake until these juices have caramelized - trust me!
Serve immediately with a salad of choice and some fruit chutney as the perfect condiment.
