Comfort Food

As the temperatures drop, I find myself becoming happier and happier. Winter is by far and away becoming my favourite time of the year. Sure, it's freezing outside, and at our place it's freezing inside too (as visitors can attest, hopefully we've fixed that for this year). But the cold temperatures for me also mean delicious, warm, and comforting stews and pies, with the trade of salads for the steamed vegies and mashed potatoes of my British ancestry.

Just last night I cooked one of my favourite finds from a year or so ago:

Beef and Guinness Pies.


Making home-made pies is a fairly recent development for me, but growing up I used to love the Steak & Kidney pies my dad used to make; And I've always loved the various Beef & Ale-of-some-sort pies from the pub. Last year, I decided I wanted to try my arm at a Beef and Guinness Pie and so went and scoured what is fast becoming my favourite recipe website taste.com.au for a likely looking recipe. After comparing a couple of different recipes, I settled on the recipe available via the above link and, last night, cooked it again but with a few modifications I'd thought of since last time.

serves 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup plain flour
800g beef chuck steak, cut into 3 cm cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, cut into wedges
2 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
50g mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
1 can of Guinness (440ml)
1 1/2 cups beef stock
2 dried bay leaves
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 sheet of ready-rolled frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly whisked with 1 tsp milk
Mashed potato and steamed beans to serve

Method

1. Place the flour in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Gently toss the beef in the seasoned flour to lightly coat it. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan or flameproof casserole dish over  high heat and cook the beef in batches, turning occasionally, until brown all over, then remove to a separate bowl.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and cook, for 5 minutes or until the onion is golden. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute until aromatic.
3. Add Guinness, beef, mushrooms, stock, bay leaves, and thyme and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to very low and cook, covered, stirring occasionally for 2 hours until beef is tender and the sauce thickens slightly.
4. Remove from the heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Spoon pie mixture among four, greased 1 1/2 cup ramekins. Cut the pastry sheet into quarters and place over each pie. Use a small, sharp knife to cut a small slit to allow steam to escape from each pie and brush with the egg mixture.
6. Place pies on an oven tray and bake for 20-30 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden. Remove pies from the oven and serve with mashed potatoes and steamed beans.

These pies taste fantastic with either a nice BBQ sauce, or with my favourite: HP brown sauce.