whine & dine

There are no words to describe this pie. You need to make it, you need to eat it. There’s no two ways about it, so get to it already. The first crunch of your serving spoon breaking through the puff pastry top, releasing the steam and aroma into your dining room will be more than worth the effort. And then you’ll get to the pie. Oh god, I think I might pass out from happiness, just thinking about it again.

I’m considering this pie for one of those last-meal-ever stock answers. It’s that good.

PS: For those of you who read this from a feed reader, I’ve recently changed the look of the blog, so you should click into a browser and check it out. I’m more or less done with the small tweaks to the theme I’m using, so this is pretty much how it should look until I next get bored with the layout. :)

Steak & Guinness Pie
(Adapated from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie At Home)

Olive oil
3 medium red onions, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
30g butter, plus extra for greasing
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped
4 field mushrooms (I used portabellos), peeled and sliced
1kg beef brisket (or other stewing beef – I used a combination of brisket and shin), cut into 1-inch cubes
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
sea salt & black pepper
1 x 440ml can Guinness
2 heaped tbsp all-purpose flour
250g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
500g ready made all-butter puff pastry (I used the ready-rolled sort to cut down the work even more)
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 190C. In a large ovenproof pan, heat a couple tbsp of olive oil on low heat. Add the onions and fry gently for about 10 minutes – try not to colour them too much. Turn the heat up, add the garlic, butter, carrots and celery, then scatter in the mushrooms. Mix everything together before stirring in the beef, rosemary, a pinch of salt and a level teaspoon of pepper.

Fry fast for 3-4 minutes, then pour in the Guinness, stir in the flour, and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan with a lid and place in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours. Remove the pan from the oven give it a stir. Return it to the pan (uncovered, this time) for another hour, or until the meat is very tender and the stew is rich, dark and thick. A perfect pie filling needs to be robust, so if it’s still quite liquidy, place the pan on the hob and reduce until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in half the cheese, then correct the seasoning if necessary (I usually add quite a lot more pepper), and leave to cool slightly.

If you’re not using ready-rolled puff pastry, cut about a third of the pastry off the block. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll both pieces of pastry out evenly with a floured rolling pin until they’re both about 2-3mm thick. If you’re using ready-rolled, you might have to patch 2 squares together to make one large one, plus another single sheet – base this on the size of your dish. Butter an appropriately sized pie dish (I used a well-seasoned 10 1/2-inch cast iron skillet), and line with the larger sheet, leaving the edges dangling over the side. Tip the stew into your lined dish and even it out, before sprinkling over the remaining cheese. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg.

Cut the other rolled sheet of pastry to fit the top of the pie dish and criss-cross it lightly with a sharp knife. Place it over the top of the pie and fold the overhanging pastry onto the pastry lid to make it look nice and rustic. Brust the top with beaten egg, then bake the pie directly on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes, until the pastry is cooked, puffed and golden. Delicious served simply with peas.

Yield: Serves 4-6