This recipe makes about 7 small pies. Be sure to use a cut that is suited to slow cooking, which I believe is the best meat you can eat. It has far more flavour that a piece of sirloin steak or any other fancy steak.
Names for slow cooked steak - chuck or blade steak, oyster blade steak, gravy beef and skirt steak.
A stew is slow cooked in a pot on an element and a casserole is cooked slowly in the oven or crock pot.
You can make and freeze in labelled bags ready to put into pastry for a pie, or use straight away.
Browning the meat first is for FLAVOUR not to seal the juices in , thats a myth.
Beef and Mushroom Pie Recipe
prepare all ingredients before you start.
Makes about 7 small pies
2 large white onions finely chopped
4 large cloves garlic smashed and chopped
bunch fresh thyme washed
2 bayleaves
3 tbsp brown rice flour / mixed in a small amount of water
800 g stewing steak - trimmed and cut into small cubes
1 litre beef stock
4 portabello mushrooms sliced
200 mls of a dark beer
Coconut oil for frying
fry pan
large heavy base pot
Method
1 - Melt 2 tbsp coconut oil in a large heavy base pot and add onions and sit the fresh thyme on top with the stalks. With lid on cook the onions on a low heat until soft, 10-15 mins or longer, until soft.
2 - Dry meat with paper towel or a clean tea towel. Its important to have your meat dry for frying.
3 - In a hot fry pan melt oil and add small batches of meat at a time. Don’t turn over until brown. Put browned meat in a dish as you go. We are only browning not cooking.
3 - Once the meat is all brown (don’t wash the pan) add the beer to your fry pan and simmer for 3 mins scraping all the brown bits, stuck on the base of pan.
4 - In the large pot add the garlic and mushrooms to the onions, cook for 2 mins, with the lid on.
5 - To the onion pot, add the meat, bay leaves, stock, beer and if you like the thyme stalks and remove them at the end of cooking.
6 - Very quickly whisk in the rice flour that is mixed with the water.
7 - Bring to boil, turn down and simmer with lid on for 2 hours or until meat is really tender. Stirring every now and then towards the end.
8 - I now like to remove the meat with a slotted spoon and reduce the liquid, by boiling the liquid with the lid off until the liquid is thicker. STIR regularly so it does not burn.
9 - Add the meat and taste, season with salt and pepper - cool.
If I was going to serve this on brown rice I would not reduce the liquid at the end.
Pies need to have a thicker mixture.
pastry
500 gr plain flour
400 gr butter
1 cup sour cream or you can use thick yogurt but not as much.
Method
1 - In a food processor, put in all ingredients ( if using yogurt add slowly why motor is running until mixture has formed a ball and not sticky )
2 - Blend until mixture has formed a ball.
3 - Remove , place into a bowl , cover with glad wrap and rest in the fridge for 20 mins.
- any left over pastry can be frozen.
Making pies - grease tins with butter and flour them.
1 - Roll pastry into even size balls for the base and even size balls for the tops (they will be a little smaller.
2 - Roll your balls to fit the pie tins.
3 - Place bases in tin. Spoon cooled meat mixture into pastry so that it is 3/4 fill.
4 - Dampen with water the edge of the pastry and lay the top on.
5 - Push together the edges and then pick holes with a fork on top.
6 - Brush tops with melted butter , this gives a golden crust.
7 - Cook for about 20 mins or until golden brown and the base is cooked.
8 - Leave in tins to cool. Reheat in tins before eating
For freezing, remove tins and sit the pies them on a tray in the freezer until frozen and then place in a bag. This way they will not break up.
The other option is, you can make one large pie.