Celebrate British Pie Week!
Blog Entry: Thursday 05 Mar 2009
To embrace this week’s pie festivities, why not try out our delicious recipe for Traditional Steak Pie.
Ingredients:
700g/1lb 9oz braising steak
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Knob of butter
2 onions, chopped roughly
2 tbsp plain flour
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
570ml/1 pint beef stock
4 field mushrooms, sliced thickly
1 tsp tomato purée
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pastry:
175g/6oz butter
225g/8oz plain flour
8-9 tbsp water
1 beaten egg, to glaze
Method:
1. Cut the steak in cubes.
2. Heat oil and butter in a large pan and fry the onions for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Then fry the meat for 2-3 minutes until it loses its pink colour. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add the herbs and stock. Stir until thickened.
3. When the stock begins to boil, add the mushrooms and purée, lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 1½ hours until the meat is tender.
4. To make the pastry: wrap the butter in foil and freeze for 45 minutes. Mix the flour with ¼ tsp of salt. Peel back the foil and dip the butter in the flour. Coarsely grate the flour-dipped butter back into the bowl and keep dipping it in the flour as you grate. Mix in the butter with a knife until evenly coated with flour. Stir in the water to form a dough. Gently form into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
5. When the meat is cooked, remove bay leaves, season with salt, pepper and mushroom seasoning (or Worcestershire sauce), and cool slightly.
6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to fit your pie dish. Cut out the lid so it is slightly bigger than the dish. Cut a strip of pastry the width of the rim. Stir the parsley in to the meat and transfer to the dish.
7. Brush the rim with egg, lay pastry strip on top and seal. Brush with egg and put lid on top. Seal the edges, knock them up with the back of a knife. Flute the edge. Cut a slit in the lid, brush with the egg (but not the edges or they won’t rise).
10. Bake for 20 minutes, then brush with egg again. Bake for 10 minutes until the pastry is golden.
Serve with winter greens, gravy and buttery mashed potato.
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