Old Fashioned Beef Pie

This isn’t the cheapest meal I’ve ever made, but for a mostly meat dish, it isn’t too bad. A frugal meal for meat lovers. This pie is one of my husband’s favourite meals and I cooked it this week for his birthday.

I purchased the meat for $8 per kilo. I could have got it a bit cheaper if I went to the wholesale butcher, but I’ve been really disorganised lately. All up, it cost around $16 with side vegies and serves 4, so $4 per serve for a family of 4.

We had casserole to spare, so meat pie for two nights and another meal of casserole: three meals for two for $16 makes it about $5 per meal or $2.60 per serve.

The recipe comes from the cookbook “Cooking Under the Influence: Food to Drink to” by Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan Powell.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 120C.
2. Toss the beef in the flour. Heat the oil and brown in batches over medium to high heat. Transfer to a casserole dish.
3. Sauté onions and bacon until brown. Add to casserole dish along with the mushrooms.
4. Pour the red wine into the frypan and scrape up all the bits on the base of the pan. Let the wine simmer for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by half. Add to the casserole.
5. Pour the stock or water into the casserole so the dish is about 1/3 full.
6. Slow cook covered in the oven for 2-3 hours. Allow to cool.
7. To make the pastry, process the flour and butter and a sprinkle of salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour in the beaten eggs, a squeeze of lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp of water and process until the mixture becomes dough. Shape into a disc and freeze in glad wrap for 10 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 170C
9. Divide dough into two pieces, one third and two thirds. Roll our the liner using the bigger piece and line a 2 ltr capacity pie tin.
10. Pour the milk into the base of the lined tin and add the cool mixture. If it is too liquid, don’t add all the liquid.
11. Roll out the remaining pastry and cover the pie, sealing the edges and adding a cut at the top for air to escape. Bake for 45mins or until golden. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
12. Serve with mash and vegies. Serves 4.

If you have a flame proof casserole dish, then do all the stovetop cooking in that instead of the fry pan and save some washing up.

If the casserole is too liquid, stir through some cornflour dissolved in water and simmer on the stove to thicken.

If I’m too lazy to make the pastry, I usually just use puff pastry. You could use store bought shortcrust pasty or pie cases also.

You could also serve this just as the casserole with potatoes and vegetables.