So, I wanted to make a pie. But, how do I make a pie?! I remembered my cousin’s wife Sandra makes great pies. I’d been on the phone with her earlier that day to ask her tax advice. She’s not only a great pie maker but an even better accountant. I rang her a second time as their whole family was on a long-distance drive to their winter holiday destination. They were at a bakery. Sandra thought I was joking when I wanted to ask a pie question while she was in a bakery. It was an authentic pie question though.
Sandra’s outstanding pies are made from onion, chuck steak, Guinness & beef stock. “Is that it?” I said. Although Sandra’s pies are delicious I wanted a few more ingredients in mine. So I did a bit of a google and mish-mashed a few recipes and came up with the following…it was amazing!
This recipe made 4 generous single-serve pies with a little left over gravy. Of course you could adapt the recipe to make a large family style pie or party pies.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1kg stewing steak, such as chuck or rump, 2cm dice
1.5-2 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 x 500ml can Guinness
300ml beef stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 sprigs thyme
2 sheets shortcut pastry
2 sheets puff pastry
Egg wash
1 egg
100ml milk
Method
In a heavy based pan melt butter and oil together on a low heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon.
In a bag, place flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, and paprika. Add beef and coat well with flour. Add to pan on medium-high heat and brown on all sides. Once browned, return onion and garlic to the pan and add 300ml of Guinness, beef stock, tomato paste & thyme. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for a couple of hours with the lid on. Remove the lid and cook for a further 30 minutes. The mixture is ready once the meat falls apart when poked with a fork and the gravy has thickened. The next bit will depend on personal preference. I prefer to break the meat up slightly so there aren’t huge chunks in my pie. But if you like chunks, leave it alone!
Preheat the oven to 200°C
Depending on what size pies you want to make, line your pie dish/es with shortcut pastry. I used four 1 cup capacity pie dishes. For this, cut out four 15cm shortcut pastry rounds and four 12 cm puff pastry rounds. Line the dishes with the shortcut pastry and fill with the pie mixture. Lay over the puff pastry and crimp down the edges using a fork.
Whisk the egg and milk to make an egg wash. Brush the pies with the egg wash. If you like, decorate the pies with letters or cute little shapes! Poke a couple of holes in the top of the pie to ensure steam can escape.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden.
For another winter warmer try massaman shanks or lamb ragu.
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