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
- Brown the chuck steak in pan, get a nice amount of colour on it. no need to dice it, just as it comes.
- One brown transfer it to the slow cooker, brown off the onions a little.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook these off a little too.
- Add the red win to the pan to deglaze, cook it off a little then add everything to the slow cooker.
- 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.
- Once everything is at this stage, cut up the meat and mix it into the sauce.
- 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.
- Chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour or more.
ASSEMBLY
- Pre-heat your oven to around 200c (check the pack of pastry for exact temperature.
- 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.
- lay down the first sheet of pastry covering the base.
- Add the filling and top with the second layer of pastry.
- Brush the top layer of pastry with the egg yolk, this helps the pastry to go golden brown.
- Bake in the oven for around 20-30 mins (depending on the pastry your using)
- Enjoy.