I’ve been craving pies lately. Okay, I know this is nothing new (I always crave pie!) but this time I found myself near the supermarket and thought -why not? I’ll make a pie today.
I like all kinds of pies… except pies with mushrooms in it – I just can’t get aboard the mushroom bandwagon, they taste like soil to me – bleurgh!!! But I digress… as I was saying, I like most pies but today, I had a hankering for a steak and ale pie so I popped into my local supermarket for the following ingredients to make my pie.
INGREDIENTS:
- Vegetable oil
- 450g braising steaks
- 1 large Onion chopped roughly
- 3 Large Carrots chopped into discs
- 500ml Original Guinness
- 4 Beef Oxo cubes
- Flour or Thickening granules
- Thyme, Paprika, Tumeric and any other seasoning you want
- 375g Ready to roll puff pastry
- Potatoes
I already had the oil and onions at home to be fair. I did end up duplicating the stock cubes purchase though. It actually turns out this is not the first time I’ve forgotten that I have stock cubes at home and so I always end up buying them again and again regardless of how many I already have. I now have a cupboard full of stock cubes with no clue what to do with all of them. Maybe I should do a stock cubes giveaway to get rid of all them… or go on a steak pie baking binge…
THE PROCESS:
- Dice up the beef, carrots and onions.
- Also cut up the potatoes into chips (or large wedges).
I should have used a knife to cut the beef into cubes but using a pair of scissors was a lot easier than trying to use the know to cut up uncooked beef. I also ended up using a butter knife to cut up the carrots… Why? I honestly haven’t got a clue why… *shrugs*
- Boil the beef until it is nice and brown (shouldn’t take long at all – 5 mins or so should do). Add in a bit of salt and some spices and seasoning…
- Add in your stock cubes, spices, carrots, onions and if you decide to get creative – any other vegetables you want. Leave it to cook for 7 minutes.
- Next up, add in the star of the show – The Guinness! Then simmer for another 10 minutes.
- While this is simmering, it’s time to get started on the chips. Boil (yes boil), the chipped potatoes for 5 minutes. This will help make them crisper and cook a lot quicker. Do NOT cook them for too long. You’re not trying to fully cook them here, just parboil them.
- Next, add a tiny bit of oil, some salt and seasoning.
- Pop a lid on the pan and shake it around to get the tiny bit of oil all over the chips along with the salt and seasoning. This ensures you use very little oil and still end up with nice and healthy chips that contain a much smaller calorie-count than “oven chips” or “chip-shop chips”. They also cost much less (bargain) and are waaaay tastier as they’re fresh and seasoned juuuuussssst the way you like them!
- Put your chips onto a baking tray and pop it in the oven for 25 mins (Gas mark 200°C)
- Next, check up on your pie filling. It should be getting thicker now. If it isn’t add in some thickening granules or flour to get it as thick as you’d like it to be.
- Now that your pie filling is ready, get our your puff pastry and roll it out of the tube.
- Pop your filling into a pie dish. I didn’t have a pie dish on hand (broke the last one and haven’t gotten round to replacing it) so I used the next available option – a pyrex dish (which did the job, to be fair).
- Cut your pastry into a shape that suits your bowl and put it over the lid of the pyrex (or pie) dish.
- Pop your pie into the oven for 25 minutes (Gas mark 200°C) and voila you’ve got yourself a nice and tasty Steak and Guinness pie!
Confession: I should have glazed over the pie (pre-baking) with some egg or milk but I kinda forgot till it was already in the over and seeing as it just makes the pie look glazed and doesn’t chance the taste much, I just didn’t bother. Point it, remember to glaze your pie with some egg or milk but brushing them onto it before popping it into the over to bake.
If you coincide things properly, the chips and pie should come out around the same time and you’ve got yourself a nice piping hot dinner!
The chips were cooked with their skin on and season and so have come out the perfect shade of brown!
Would love to stay and chat but gotta go fulfil that pie craving! Catch you soon!!! 🙂
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
