Monday morning after a wet weekend. And, judging from the weather forecast, it ain’t going to brighten up anytime soon.
Do we feel down? Hell, no!
This sort of weather is the perfect excuse for drawing the curtains, putting the heating up and pulling the cork on something rich and red.
Being sensible sorts here at the 5pm Dining blog, we would never recommend drinking without eating something at the same time.
To this end, our chums at Quality Meat Scotland have given us a recipe for a pie filled with Scotch beef and mushrooms.
It’s rib-sticking, hearty stuff that will make you want to stick your head out the window and shout ‘Come on then, winter! Do your worst!’
Enjoy.
Scotch Beef Steak and Mushroom Pie from Quality Meat Scotland
_Serves: 8
Preparation: 90 mins (plus cooling time)
Cooking: 60 mins_
Ingredients
For the pie filling
20 g dried mixed wild mushrooms, soaked in 200 ml boiling water
1.5 kg Scotch Beef braising steak cut into 3 cm cubes
3 tbsp plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 medium onions, peeled and thickly sliced
6-8 large flat mushrooms cut into quarters
1 litre hot beef stock ( made from cubes if you wish)
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf for the topping
500 g ready-made puff pastry
1 small egg, beaten (to glaze)
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C/ 150 C fan/ gas mark 3. In a small bowl cover the dried mushrooms with 200 ml boiling water, set aside. Heat some of the oil in a deep sauté pan and gently fry the onions for 5-10 minutes till softened then, with a slotted spoon, transfer to an oven-proof casserole.
Toss the cubed meat in the seasoned flour, shake off any excess the fry the meat in the remaining oil in the sauté pan, you will need to do this in batches, using a little more oil as necessary, till all the beef is well browned.
Pour the beef stock and the mushroom soaking liquid into the frying pan and stir to gather up all the sticky bits from the bottom. Pour this mixture over the beef in the casserole dish along with the soaked mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf.
Bring to the boil then cover with a lid and cook in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat is tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Lightly sauté the quartered mushrooms in a little oil and set them aside until the meat is cooked.
Stir the mushrooms into the meat mixture then spoon it into a 2 litre traditional pie dish with only a minimum of the gravy and allow the meat to cool completely.
If the gravy is a little thin, set the casserole over a medium heat, bring back to the boil then simmer for 5-10 minutes without the lid for the gravy to reduce and thicken. Spoon some of this into the pie dish to just sufficiently coat the meat and reserve the rest to serve with the pie.
When the meat is cool, set the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a pound coin (3-4 mm), cut two strips to stick to the thumb-rim of the pie dish, stick by wetting the rim with water and placing the strips of pastry to cover it. Then cover the whole dish with pastry, moistening the base pastry first, and press to seal all round with the side if your thumb.
Trim off any excess pastry and use to decorate the top of the pie. Lightly brush with the beaten egg, pierce a hole in the top with a sharp knife, to allow steam to escape.
Cook for about 50 minutes until the pastry is nicely risen and golden brown, and the filling piping hot. Reduce the oven temperature to 180/160 fan/gas 4 after the first 15-20 minutes cooking.
Cover the pie loosely with a double sheet of baking parchment if you feel the pastry is browning too quickly.
Serve with lightly buttered steamed cabbage and the reserved gravy, heated.