Yield: A generous meal for four people with the possibility of seconds.
Prep time: Approx. fifteen minutes
Cooking time: Approx. two hours and ten minutes
Ingredients:
-300 – 500 grams of stewing beef
-four parsnips or four carrots (parsnips will be slightly sweet, while carrots will be more neutral)
-one onion
-three cloves of garlic
-a good handful of fresh rosemary
-four smaller sweet potatoes
-one package of puff pastry
-a can of peas
-a can of ale (such as Guinness)
Method of preparation:
1) Wash, peel, and cut all of the vegetables (except for the garlic) into bite-sized pieces.
2) Get a medium-sized pot of water boiling and place the sweet potato chunks inside to cook for fifteen minutes.
3) Place the other chopped vegetable pieces into a large pan with olive oil and a few cracks of fresh black pepper and cook on medium heat until they’re soft.
4) When these pieces are soft (breakable with a fork), slice three cloves of garlic very thin and let them simmer in a well-oiled section of the pan for a minute or so.
5) Cut the beef into small pieces on a cutting board. Push aside the vegetables in the pan and with the remaining space, sear the meat on all sides with a few cracks of salt over the meat. When no pink parts are visible on the meat, slide off rosemary leaves from the top to the bottom of their stalks until you have a generous handful. Cut them very finely so eating the pie isn’t like biting into a Christmas tree. Then, distribute this around the pan and stir until it’s well integrated.
6) When the sweet potato pieces in the adjacent pot are soft, strain out any water and add the pieces to the meat pan along with the can of peas. Mix everything thoroughly. It’ll probably be a bit crowded, but that just means we’ll have an especially hearty pie.
7) Eventually, the pan will start to have bits of meat and veg stuck onto the sides and bottom. This is a good thing, because we’re about to deglaze the pan. Pull out the can of ale and pour almost all of it into the pan (you can sip on what remains). The contents of the pan should be submerged in ale. This will be the pie filling.
8) Turn the heat down very low and keep things bubbling for approximately eighty to ninety minutes.
9) At this time, take the package of puff pastry out of the freezer and leave it on the counter to thaw out fully. Within sixty minutes, you should be able to roll out the dough a bit more with a rolling pin. Place half of the rolled out dough onto the bottom of a circular baking dish.
10) Preheat your oven to 180 °C (approx. 350 °F).
11) When the liquid of the pie filling pan has almost evaporated fully, turn off the heat completely and scoop the filling into the baking dish, distributing it across the pie base. Roll out the other half of the dough and place it on top of the filling, pressing down on the sides so the contents are contained. Cut four lines into the top of the dough to act as steam vents.
12) Cook the pie in the oven for thirty minutes and then check to see if the top has become browned. If not, keep it going a few minutes at a time. Once it’s done, let it sit for a few minutes outside of the oven before slicing and serving.
Head isu! Bon appétit!
