Recipe Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 45-60 min
Cooking Time: 6 hr 30 min
Indulge in warmth and comfort with our Steak and Ale Pie recipe. It’s the perfect cold-weather treat that will fill your home with savoury aromas and your taste buds with rich, hearty flavours.
The perfect autumn family feast – this slow cooker beef pie recipe is a real crowd pleaser.
The ideal beef to use for this is our Diced Beef Skirt
Diced and cubed ox skirt from the hanger steak is ideal for stews, casseroles, pies and curries. This option has a lot of flavour but must be cooked very slowly to ensure optimum tenderness. All our stew is from grass fed traditional breed cattle, dry aged on the bone for 21 days before being expertly butchered to your requirements.
You couldn’t choose a better meat to use in this hearty pie!
Ingredients
Pie filling:
500g diced beef skirt
50g smoked bacon / bacon lardons
1 sliced onion
2 carrots (chopped into chunks)
1 tablespoon plain flour
½ tsp red wine vinegar
½ tablespoon tomato puree
1 garlic clove (diced)
½ tbsp oil
300 ml beef stock (use stock pot or cube)
½ bottle of Ale
1 bay leaf
½ tsp of dried thyme
½ tsp mixed herbs
Salt & ground black pepper (to taste)
Hendersons relish (or worcester sauce if you don’t live in Sheffield)
Pastry top:
For ease you can choose to use ready made pastry OR you can make your own. Here is our preferred pastry recipe if you are making at home:
700g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp English mustard powder
150g lard / trex
150g butter, plus extra for the dish
2 egg yolks, beaten
To serve:
Maris piper potatoes & butter / milk to make a creamy mash
Mushy peas
Hendersons Relish
Method
STEP 1
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan and fry the bacon gently for 5 mins until lightly browned. Remove and add to the slow cooker. In the same pan, brown the beef well for 5-6 mins then add to the slow cooker.
STEP 2
Add the onion, carrots, thyme, mixed herbs, bay leaf and garlic to the pan and cook on a low heat for 5 mins. Stir in the flour, then add the tomato purée and vinegar. Tip the ingredients from the pan into the slow cooker. Pour in the ale and stock and some hendersons relish (if you fancy). Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the lid and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
STEP 3
Once cooked, leave everything to cool slightly, then strain off around half the braising liquid into another container ( this will make a nice serving gravy). Leave to cool.
STEP 4
To make the pastry, mix the flour, mustard powder, lard and butter with a generous pinch of salt until completely combined. Gradually add up to 250ml ice-cold water to make a soft dough. You can do this by hand or using a food processor. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr. (As mentioned above, you can buy and use ready made pastry if you prefer)
STEP 5
Heat the oven to 200°C (fan) and put a baking tray in the oven.
Tip your beef mixture into your pie dish. You will want the filling to be slightly higher than the rim of the dish. Brush the edges with egg yolk. Roll out the pastry and create the lid . Trim the edges, crimp them together onto the pie dish edge. Re-roll the trimmings and cut into decorative shapes (we chose hearts). Brush the top with more yolk and put it on the hot baking tray.
STEP 6
Bake for 20 mins, remove, brush again with yolk and bake for a further 10-15 mins until golden. Leave to rest for 10 mins while you heat up the extra gravy.
Serve with homemade mash, mushy peas and if like us you LOVE hendos, lashings of hendos!Perfect!
