Beef
Beef and onion pie
The pastry in this recipe takes a little time, though the effort involved is more than made up for by the satisfaction you’ll have when this comes out of the oven. It’s best to make it ahead the day before.
Ingredients
main
- for the pastry:
- 250g strong white flour and more for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 200g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1cm dice
- 100ml red wine
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp sage, thyme or rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- 25g Dijon mustard
for the filling
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500g minced beef
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp English mustard
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 400ml stock (ideally beef)
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
Method
main
-
Step 1
For the pastry:
-
Step 2
Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and butter in a bowl using your hands. Separately mix the wine, egg, chopped herbs and mustard. Combine both and work them into a ball. Don't over work the dough though, the butter should stay in lumps. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll the pastry into a long rectangle, about a 1cm thick.
-
Step 3
Fold the two ends into the middle so it's now 3 layers thick, then roll and fold again using the same technique that you would use for regular puff pastry. Chill for an hour, then roll and fold twice more.
-
Step 4
Chill again for an hour, rolling and folding twice again. It should now be a beautifully smooth pastry with thin layers of fat running through. The wine, mustard and herbs will have turned it into an attractive 'Farrow and Ball' sage green.
To make the pie
-
Step 1
Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Soften the onions and carrots in the oil on a low heat.
-
Step 2
Add the meat and brown it off, stirring to break it up. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring occasionally, and cook for an hour. Check the seasoning and put into a pie dish.
-
Step 3
Roll out the pastry and top the pie. Trim the edges but leave a little hanging over the sides as the pastry will shrink in the oven.
-
Step 4
Brush with beaten egg and make a couple of slashes on the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes until lovely and golden.
