Moo 'n Blue Pie
I absolutely love pie, albeit I more often than not top them with puff pastry. The Beef & Ale Matchday Pie from Simple Comforts by Mary Berry reminded me that pies don't all have to have puff pastry on the top (incidentally, the Paneer and roasted vegetable curry recipe from that book is awesome too!), hence this pie is shortcrust all the way. If you like pie, my Steak and Guinness Pie and Chicken and Ham Pie are definitely worth a look too.
Stats
Makes: 4 portions
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 1/2 hours
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 500g stewing steak, cut into bite size pieces
- 20g beef dripping
- 2 heaped tbsp plain flour
- 2 medium red onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 140g carrots, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 250g new potatoes
- 250ml red wine
- 600ml beef stock
- 80g Stilton
For the pastry:
- 300g flour
- 150g butter, cold
- 1tsp salt
- 1 egg, beaten
Method
For the filling:
- Put the flour, with some salt and pepper, onto a plate and toss through the pieces of steak to coat well
- Heat the dripping in a pan over a medium heat and brown all the pieces of steak, in batches, before setting the beef aside
- Add the onions, carrots, celery and bay leaf to the pan with a generous sprinkle of salt, lower the heat and allow to soften for ten minutes before setting the veg to one side
- Add the red wine to the pan slowly, using it to de-glaze the pan, before leaving to reduce for 5 minutes
- Add back the steak, cooked veg and potatoes before adding the stock and cooking on a low heat, partially covered, for an hour and a half or until the meat is tender. Stir from time to time to ensure it doesn't catch
- Leave the pie filling to cool
For the pastry:
- Put the flour, butter and salt into a food processor and blitz until breadcrumbs form
- Add 75ml of cold water and pulse the food processor briefly to form a rough dough
- Lay out a piece of cling film, drop the dough out onto it, bring together and wrap tightly
- Refrigerate for at least half an hour
To assemble:
- Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees, fan assisted
- Split the pastry into 2/3 and 1/3 pieces
- Roll the larger piece of pastry out on a floured surface until it's big enough to line a 22cm pie dish
- Oil the pie dish lightly and then place the pastry into it before trimming the edges
- Fill the pie dish with the cooled pie filling
- Crumble the blue cheese evenly over the filling
- Roll the smaller piece of pastry out until it's big enough to top the pie with a decent overlap
- Lightly brush the pastry edges with the egg before laying the pastry over the top and trimming the edges
- Crimp the edges of the pie with a fork
- Use the excess pastry trimmings to decorate the pie, if you feel the urge to
- Brush the pie with the beaten egg
- Cook in the oven for an hour, though check at 40-45 minutes for doneness, let the pie rest on the side for 10 minutes and then serve