Steak Pie
My sister gave me a set of traditional enamel pie tins for my birthday, and as I was planning to do some classic home-made dishes I felt obliged to test them out. The mechanics of making a pie can be so simple; just make a stew, top with pastry or mashed potato and bake. A British institution; shepherd’s pie, steak and kidney pie, fish pie, cottage pie, pork pie… all are established classics. Steak and ale pie has always been a favourite of mine, a steaming hearty beef and ale stew topped with buttery puff pastry. Usually a dark, strong flavoured ale would be used for this, but I wanted to try it with Guinness to make it extra dark and extra rich. To balance the bitterness I added sweet carrots, and plenty of them. Onions will also be there to lend sweetness – how could you serve beef without onions?
Out of all the cuts from the ‘beast’, I have a soft spot for beef shin. I first used it when making ‘Peposo’, the classic Italian peasant dish made with red wine, garlic and tons of black pepper. The meat is slowly cooked on the bone, so you end up with a rich meaty jus as you are effectively cooking the meat and making beef stock at the same time. This is basically what I did for my pie – which should now be called “Shin of Beef, Carrot and Guinness Pie”. I got my beef shin from the butcher and asked for large chunks, along with some beef bones which he threw in the bag for free. I slowly braised the meat and bones in Guinness, using the resulting braising liquid to make gravy. It was fantastic.
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- 1kg beef shin, cut into 3 inch pieces
- 300g beef bones
- 1 + 1/2 an onion
- 5 large carrots
- 1/2 a small leek
- 1 stick of celery
- 2 x 440ml cans of Guinness
- 1/2 a bulb of garlic
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 5 black peppercorns
- vegetable oil
- sea salt and black pepper
- puff pastry
- 1 egg
- some beurre manie
- Place beef bones (small pieces) on a tray and roast in the oven at 200C until lightly browned. While the bones are roasting, put a wide heavy bottomed pan over a high flame until very hot. Take the beef shin, cut into roughly 3 inch pieces and fry in small batches with vegetable oil in the pan, turning occasionally until dark colouration is achieved. Put aside the meat, then turn the flame to medium and using the residual fat in the pan lightly brown 1/2 an onion, 2 carrots, the leek and celery all roughly chopped. De-glaze the pan with one 440ml can of Guinness; boil for 3 minutes.
- Remove the bones from the oven and place in a deep roasting tray along with the shin meat, vegetables and Guinness. Top up with water until completely covered, add the bulb of garlic, thyme and peppercorns, cover tightly with tin foil and place in the oven at 140C for about 6 hours, until the meat is tender and falling apart.
- When the stew is ready, remove the meat, strain the liquid into a large pan along with another 150ml of Guinness, bring to the boil and reduce until you have about 250ml of dark rich jus. Meanwhile, dice 1 onion and stir fry in vegetable oil over a medium high flame until uniformly golden brown. This brings a rich caramelisation that will help counter the bitter Guinness. Add the remaining carrots, coarsely chopped. Fry for a few minutes then add enough of the partly-reduced braising liquid to cover. Simmer until the carrots are tender and the liquid reduced by about half. Check the reduced jus; if it’s a little thin, thicken with some beurre manié. It should be like gravy. Add meat and everything to pan and season with sea salt. Pour into a pie tin and top with a puff pastry lid rolled out to 3mm. Cut two holes in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 170C for about 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
looks good!
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