Beef & Red Wine Pie

by | Oct 3, 2011 | Mains

 

Nothing beats a good quality pie and really there doesn’t need to be much to it. I have a pretty much fail safe beef ragu recipe I use for a few different things (cooked in the slow cooker), the pie filling is an adaptation on this. Then I use store bought pastry and we are done. Easy As.

Ingredients

  • 600 grams chuck beef
  • 1 – 2 onions, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 250 mls red wine
  • 1 packet of beef stock syrup (or simply use stock powder)
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • salt & pepper
  • corn flour (to thicken)
  • cooking oil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 sheets of puff pastry (If you want you can use 1 short crush on the bottom and puff on the top, I don’t bother as it is easier and cheaper to buy the one variety).
  • 1 egg yolk

Directions

RAGU / Pie Filling

  1. Brown the chuck steak in pan, get a nice amount of colour on it. no need to dice it, just as it comes.
  2. One brown transfer it to the slow cooker, brown off the onions a little.
  3. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook these off a little too.
  4. Add the red win to the pan to deglaze, cook it off a little then add everything to the slow cooker.
  5. Add in the rest of the ingredients (besides corn flour, pastry and egg yolk) into the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for about 8 hours. You want the mean to be able to be broken up with a fork.
  6. Once everything is at this stage, cut up the meat and mix it into the sauce.
  7. Thicken the sauce as required with the corn flour and a little water. I usually do a little at a time until I am happy with the result.
  8. Chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour or more.

ASSEMBLY

  1. Pre-heat your oven to around 200c (check the pack of pastry for exact temperature.
  2. Grease a pan, if you have pie dish that will be great, otherwise use what you have, it doesn’t matter too much. You could do individual pies as well.
  3. lay down the first sheet of pastry covering the base.
  4. Add the filling and top with the second layer of pastry.
  5. Brush the top layer of pastry with the egg yolk, this helps the pastry to go golden brown.
  6. Bake in the oven for around 20-30 mins (depending on the pastry your using)
  7. Enjoy.