As the winter chill sets in, there's nothing quite like a comforting homemade pie on a cold night – and this is one of our favourite recipes to date. A flavoursome filling of tender beef and a rich, ale-infused gravy is topped with a Lancashire cheese pastry for added indulgence. Bake until golden and serve with steamed seasonal vegetables for a special occasion-worthy supper.
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Yields:
6 serving(s)
Prep Time:
45 mins
Cook Time:
2 hrs 20 mins
Total Time:
3 hrs 5 mins
Cal/Serv:
656
Ingredients
For the filling
900g
stewing steak, such as chuck, cut into 2.5cm pieces
4Tbsp.
plain flour
2Tbsp.
vegetable oil
450ml
beef stock
200g
smoked lardons
5
shallots, each quartered into wedges
200g
button mushrooms, halved if large
few fresh thyme sprigs
400ml
ale
For the pastry
250g
plain flour, plus extra to dust
125g
chilled butter, chopped
11/2tsp.
English mustard powder
100g
Lancashire cheese, finely chopped
1
medium egg, lightly beaten
Directions
Step 1
Dry beef with kitchen paper, then put into a bowl and toss through flour. Heat some of the oil in a large pan (with a lid) over medium-high heat and brown beef well - do this in batches using the remaining oil as needed. Set beef aside in a bowl. Add some of the stock to the pan, then scrape the base with a wooden spoon to pick up sticky bits. Add mixture to browned beef.
Step 2
Return empty pan to low-medium heat and add lardons, shallots and mushrooms. Fry for 10min until veg are beginning to soften. Return beef to the pan (with any liquid). Add thyme, ale and remaining stock. Bring to the boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer gently for 1½hr or until beef is tender.
Step 3
Put flour, butter and mustard powder into a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add cheese and pulse again until it's as fine as before. Add 1½tbsp chilled water and pulse until pastry starts to clump, then tip on to a work surface, bring together into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill until needed. Alternatively, rub butter into flour and mustard powder with fingers, then stir in cheese (finely grated rather than chopped). Mix in water with a cutlery knife, then bring pastry together.
Step 4
When beef filling is ready, season and remove thyme stalks. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Empty beef into a rough 2 litre ovenproof serving dish. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and roll out pastry until large enough to cover the dish. Brush rim of the dish with egg, then cover filling with pastry. Cut a steam hole in pastry, trim edges and crimp on to the dish. Brush with beaten egg. Cut shapes out of trimmings, if you like, to decorate (remember to glaze with beaten egg).
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
