Stout Braised Beef Pie

Ingredients

1kg chuck steak beef 3cm diced
2 carrots peeled and 2cm diced
2 sticks celery 2cm diced
2 medium brown onion 2cm diced
2 field mushrooms 2cm diced
1/2 bunch of thyme finely chopped
Few springs of fresh rosemary finely chopped
2 cloves of crushed garlic
60mL veggie oil
A schooner of stout (425mL)
250g corn flour
200g tomato puree
Frozen ready rolled shortcrust pastry, thawed
Frozen ready rolled puff pastry, thawed
1 free range egg beaten

Mashed Potato:

0.5kg Sebago potato peeled
60g butter
120mL thick cream

Mushy Peas:

250g frozen peas
40g butter

Method

Heat one third of the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add half the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a deep baking tray. Repeat the same process for the other half of the meat.

Heat the rest of the oil in the same pot over medium heat, add the onion and cook them gently until they are soft for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat up and add all the veggies, garlic and herbs with 1 level teaspoon of salt and pepper, cook it for 4-5 minutes stirring occasionally. Transfer everything in the baking tray with the meat.

In a separate bowl pour in the stout, stir in the corn flour and mix to check there is no lump. Add the mixture in the baking tray with meat & veggies along with the tomato puree, give it a good mix. Cover the tray with aluminium foil. Cook the pie mix in a fan forced oven at 100 C overnight/12 hrs, take it out and set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 210 C. Line 8 round 4cm deep, 9cm base pie tins with short crust pastry. Divide the pie mix evenly among the cases and brush the edges with little beaten egg. Top with puff pastry, seal the edges with fingertips and trim edges. Brush tops with rest of the beaten egg. Cut a small cross in the centre of each pie. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden, remove the pies of the tins, place on oven tray and bake it for further 5 minutes until the pastry base is cooked through.

Mashed Potato:

Boil the potato till tender, drain the water, add butter and cream, mash to combine until smooth, season with salt and pepper.

Mushy Peas:

Boil the peas for 5 minutes, drain, add butter and mash to combine, leave it bit chunky for texture, season with salt and pepper.

Serve with mash potato, mushy peas and gravy and enjoy with an ice cold stout.