The finished product
Hello blog, long time, no post. I’ve been a right sicko recently, but have been racking up the recipes to write about, and I’m opening up with a great one.
I’ve never understood Britain’s passion with pies, at least, until now. Gingsters, Pukka, Supermarket-own-brand, it’s all weak flavoured filling in clangy pastry that holds no appeal to me what so ever. But I do see so many people enjoy them, and I want in on that. And now with this, I can see exactly why a good pie is just, gosh darn it, one of the nicest things I’ve ever made. I admit, the pastry part of the pie is irrelevant to me, it’s just as good as a stew with a bit of mash, but it does make it look pretty.
Ingredients…
- 900g of braising steak in bite sized chunks
- 25g Plain Flour
- 5tbsp sunflower oil
- 25g  unsalted butter
- A punit of button mushrooms
- 2 onions thinly sliced (I used a packet of shallots, not realising what a bitch they are to slice)
- Some sugar
- 300ml Beef Stock (get the real stuff rather than stock cubes… you’re going through all this effort, not point skimping on this one)
- A bottle of stout, like Guinness
- Thyme, Bay Leaves and whatever herbs you think would go, tied up together.
- Worcester Sauce
- Salt’n'Pepper
- Egg and Puff Pastry (egg is just to egg-wash it)
What to do.
- Toss the beef in flour, season with salt’n'pepper, add some oil to a very large saucepan/casserole dish, brown the meat in two batches and put on the side.
- Put a big dollop of butter into the pan, add the mushrooms and fry for a little while, and then put it on the side with the beef.
- Put in a spoon of sugar in the pan and over a medium heat, sweat and brown the onions, it should take about 20 minutes.
- Add the flour (that you tossed the meat in), herbs, stout, Worcester sauce, some salt’n'pepper and stock. While stirring, bring it to the boil, that way the flour dissolves properly. Then add the mushrooms and meat, put the lid on and simmer for about two hours. Warning, don’t taste it now, it taste rank, but by the time it’s finished simmering, it’ll be amazing.
- Spoon out the meat, mushrooms and whats left of the onions (they’ve basically dissolved), and put it in your pie dish.
- Remove the tied up herbs/bay leaf, turn up the heat and reduce down to about a pint or soo. Pour over the mushrooms’n'meat in the pie dish and leave to cool. This is basically what it’s going to taste like now, so here is your chance to add a bit of seasoning, or maybe a bit of sugar if it’s to bitter.
- Roll out the pastry, put it over the top, make a little hole in the middle for the steam, egg wash it (and maybe do a few pretty bits with the excess pastry), and bung it in the oven at 190ish for about 30 minutes, until the top looks done and the pie-guts are all bubbling.
- …… serve and enjoy, I had it with mash, and believe me, you will enjoy.
Get everything you need out on the table, to make life easier.
Dust the meat with flour and seasoning
Once browned, remove the meat
Use the butter to de-glaze after browning the meat.
Shalots browning in the butter and meat juices
Stout, flour, stock and herbs; boil then simmer
Add the meat and mushrooms to the liquids.
Give it a taste if you want before it's finished simmering for two hours, but it won't be nice (yet).
Once cooled, this is your time to adjust with salt/pepper/sugar.
Put a hole on top of the pastry for steam and use some trimmings to make pretty bits.
With some left over pastry, I made twists with cheese, chilli and egg-wash.
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY !
Does that look good, or does that look GOOD?
Serve that bad-boy with some mash and a crap film on the telly; evening - sor'ed !
Delicious