Make Beef pot pie with this simple recipes.
Level: EASY
Nothing beats a warm hearty beef pot pie on a cold day! Having gone through my freezer space and found some off cuts puff pastry, I can't think of anything better to make.
In this recipe, I used the leftovers from my home made puff pastry but you can use store bough puff pastry. If you have never attempted making puff pastry at home, I would highly recommend that you give it a try one day because they are phenomenally so much better than the store bought version. If you are interested, hop on to my Pastry Academy post on "Puff pastry" and check out how to make them.
RECIPE
This recipe serves 2
Pie Filling
Round cut / chuck beef 500 g
Carrot 1
Onion (Macedoine) 1/2 white onion
Celery Stick 2
Beef Stock 500 ml
Water 300 ml
Bay Leaf 2
Plain Flour 2 1/2 tbs
Salt and Pepper to taste
Worchestershire sauce 1 tbs
Red cooking wine (optional) 2 tbs
Olive oil
Home Made Puff Pastry
Egg wash
Egg 1 egg
Milk 50ml
1. Start by cutting the beef in to chunks of cubes, roughly about 2cm x2 cm.
2. Cut the carrot, onion and celery sticks to equal cubes around 1 cm x 1cm.
3. In a pot, heat up the beef stock and set aside.
4. Heat up a seperate pan oiled with olive oil until it starts to smoke, add in the cut beef and seared until they caramelises. You do not need to fully cook the beef at this point, you just want to give the beef some flavours by caramelising them. Remove the beef from the pan once they form a golden crust on the outside.
5. At the bottom of you pan you will have that nice caramelised fats, you want to keep that for you are going to deglaze them with some of the warm beef stock. So start by pouring in some of the warm stock on to the pan. Be careful, because as the liquid is hot the pan is going to sizzle and let out a lot of steam, so move your face away from the pan! Once you are able to get the fat off from the bottom of the pan and it is mixed with the part stock, transfer the deglazing stock back in to the pot and add in the cut vegetables and bay leaves and bring them to a boil.
6. When the vegetable beef stock have come to a boil, reduce the heat and add in the beef. Add in the Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. Keep stewing the beef on low heat until the stock reduces to 1/3 of its volume. Test to see if the beef is tender enough, if it is too chewy, you will need to cook the beef out further. This process took me roughly around 45 minutes to an hour. If your stock have reduced too much and your beef is not ready, simply add in a little more stock or water. Adjust seasoning again.
7. Mix 300 ml of water and 2 1/2 tablespoon of plain flour until they are well incorporated, stir them in to the beef stock mix and keep stirring until the sauce thickens. If you desire a thicker sauce, simply add in more flour mixed in with some water to make a slurry. Do not add the flour straight in to the hot stock as they will create clumps of flour.
8. Now that your beef gravy is ready, leave it aside until ready to use.
9. Roll the puff pastry to around 3 cm in thickness, docked the puff pastry with a dough docker or with a fork for even rise, then use your pie dish as a guideline and cut around with at least 1 cm excess.
Spoon the beef fiilings in to the baking dish, top with the puff pastry, gently pressing down on the edges, brush egg wash on top of the puff pastry, then cut a small hole in the centre to enable to filling to let steam out during baking.
10. Place the pie dish in to a preheated oven at 180°C and bake for around 45 minutes or until the puff pastry puffed up and turn golden brown in colour.
Serve!
