I don't consider myself an expert on pies, or even good at pies at that, though my husband did point out that the last one was great (blueberry pie)! I don't make the pastry myself either, which feels like cheating too. I guess I lack the experience with pies to know if I am making a good one or not, but that doesn't put me off trying.
We had some stewing beef in the freezer to use up, and because my husband loves pie and stew I decided to combine the 2 and hopefully make a winning dish. The beef wasn't the highest quality to be honest so I was a little concerned about how tender it would, so some slow cooking would help and I also decided to use corn starch instead of flour as a thickening agent and browning agent because it helps to tenderise meat, not sure if I would do it again as it makes it really gluey almost rather than a thick liquid.
You start by seasoning some flour, or in this case, corn starch, with some garlic powder, chilli flakes, coriander, oregano, steak spice and salt and pepper. I cut the beef into small pieces, small enough that they wouldn't take over a pie basically, then tossed them in the flour and fried them to brown them. This process really helps to give you flavour in the meat, to keep it moist and to thicken the stew later on when they flour dissolves into the gravy. I would say it was about 4-5 cups of cubed meat. I put the browned meat into a large pot.
I then cut up an onion and fried it in the same pan, along with some garlic, a couple bay leaves and a chipotle (still using up that stuff!!). I also put in a couple dry beef stock cubes to up the flavour, a tsp of Marmite and a squirt of tomato ketchup. Ideally I would have used tomato paste but I didn't have any.
I then took the other main ingredient, good old Guinness, and poured about half a can into the frying pan and scraped up all the good brown bits (all the flavour!).
I added the onions and liquid to the pot and topped it up with the rest of the can of Guinness and then some water to just cover the meat. I sprinkled in some of the leftover seasoned starch too, put the lid on and let it cook in a low-medium oven for a couple of hours. I did check on it from time to time, stir it, added some more water when it got too thick and after nearly 3hrs I decided the meat was tender enough and the flavour was good so it was done. I did add salt to it along the way, I found it needed quite a bit. I was looking for a consistency thicker than stew because I knew it was going into a pie and needed to not slosh about or make the crust soggy. Adding that flour and not over adding liquid along the way achieved this.
Because the meat was fried in 3 or 4 batches in the browning stage you will find that there is a lot of oil on the top of the stew. Tilt the pot so all the oil drains to one spot and scoop as much of it off as you can.
I put the beef into a bowl and let it cool, then covered it and put it in the fridge. I made this on Friday and we ate it today on Sunday, the meat had had a chance to take on more flavour. I was using frozen pie shells for this. I guess normally you would put the meat in a dish then cover it with pastry, however, my husband loves pastry and because the shells come in pairs, I decided it would be a fully encased pie (that and I didn't know what else to do with another pie shell other than make something sweet that we didn't need!).
The pie took about half an hr in a hot oven to warm through and colour nicely. I brushed some milk over the top to help with the goldening. We ate it with some roasted potatoes and steamed brussels sprouts.
I used a left over half bag of mini red potatoes, with their skins on, and 2 sweet potatoes that had been peeled and cubed to about the same size as the minis. I threw in some peeled garlic cloves, rosemary, salt pepper and oil and tossed it all around. I look it at about 350 for about an hr first, to get it cooked through, them they crisped up as the pie was cooking on a higher heat. The sweet potatoes don't actually get crisp because they are peeled, they go mushy and take on the rosemary and garlic flavours amazingly!
I thought the meal needed an uncomplicated vegetable, simply cooked, great flavours. These did the trick and gave the meal a good colour balance too.
For someone who isn't an expert pie make and who doesn't particularly like pie, this meal was pleasing. I liked the contrast of the pastry with the beef, and the beef had some really good flavours from the Guinness and chipotles too. For my husband who loves pie and stew, it was wonderful! He was a happy chappy!
There is quite a bit of stew left too, which will be good for lunches for him too, as well as half a pie! Definitely well invested time in the kitchen.
