Ginger's Home Cooking: Rustic Beef and Vegetable Pot Pie

Ingredients:

600g (1.3 lbs) diced or cubed stewing beef

½ large onion – roughly chopped

1 large Rooster potato – peeled & cubed

1 very large carrot or 2 medium carrots – cut into rounds (half-rounds at bigger end)

12–14 normal mushrooms – washed & sliced into chunky pieces

1 Knorr Rich Beef concentrated gel stockpot

575ml water (1.2 pints)

45g real butter

26g flour

3g salt

1 Tbsp. dried Thyme

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. Paprika

1 tsp. cracked black pepper

½ tsp. Onion Salt

Jus.Rol Shortcrust (frozen pack of 2 – thawed, but cold)

A deep casserole dish (I use a nearly 14 inch oval dish that’s almost 3 inches deep)

A large slow cooker (crockpot)

This dish is great comfort food – something you’d be happy to get for Sunday dinner in the local pub. If you want to give it an even more authentic ‘pub grub’ taste, you could also add a few tablespoons of stout or ale to the initial mixture. I used to make beef pie regularly, but stopped as I was finding it a bit plain. Last night I decided it was time I tried again, but this time I took my time with it and came up with a new recipe to give it more flavour and richness. It was a big hit and we’re looking forward to the leftovers. You can easily feed a family of 5 with this. As with many of my recipes, I used a slow-cooker. Although this dish doesn’t stay in the slow-cooker until serving time, it’s essential for softening the meat and making it tender, while keeping the veg from going too mushy.

Method:

Once you’ve chopped all of your vegetables appropriately, you will need to briefly brown the outside of your pieces of diced beef in a non-stick pan in order to seal the meat on all sides, which holds in the juices while slow-cooking. Put all the veg, the Worcestershire sauce, the Thyme, Paprika, pepper and onion salt into the slow cooker. Next, put in the sealed beef, along with any cooking juices from the pan.

Make 575 ml of stock with 1 Knorr Rich Beef concentrated gel stockpot. (It’s supposed to make 500, but the extra 75ml will not over-weaken it, as we will be using cooking juices from the meat and veg with it). Pour 475ml of this stock into the slow cooker mixture (setting aside the remaining 100ml for later use), stir everything around, put the lid on and cook on high for 4 hours. It will initially look low on liquid, but within half an hour, as the mushrooms, etc break down a little, more liquid will be produced.

About 15 minutes before the 4 hours is up, you can begin preparing your crusts and thick gravy for the pie. I tend to use a Jus.Rol 2-pack of frozen pre-rolled shortcrust sheets for convenience, but you can make your own and refrigerate ahead of time if you prefer. For the gravy, you will need use the 100ml of beef stock that you had leftover, along with 375ml worth of juices and stock from the slow cooker mixture, which you can remove with a large spoon and put into the measuring jug. To make your thickening roux, melt 45g of real butter on a medium heat. When the butter is melted, reduce to a low heat and add 26g of flour and 3g of salt. Stir constantly with a small whisk for 1 full minute to bind it all and cook out any floury taste (I use a flat oval ‘Wonder Whisk’ which is usually used for single eggs or small portions of liquid. It makes the smoothest roux.). You should have a thick glossy yellow mixture after 1 minute. Add the 475ml of stock and juices to this roux and stir on a medium heat with a spoon until it thickens into beef gravy. You can also add a little more pepper at this stage. Next, you can make the crusts. Roll your pre-rolled crusts out just a little more on all sides so that it’s nice and thin and will fully line your dish. Line your deep casserole dish with crust dough, pressing it up the sides to the top. Roll the next sheet a little more to thin and stretch it as well. Cut 2 knife slits in the middle of this sheet and set aside while you fill the pie. Remove all meat and veg from any remaining juices in the slow cooker with a slotted or perforated spoon, as too much liquid will make the filling watery. Place the meat and veg into the crust-lined casserole dish (it should fill it almost all the way, but leave a little room at the top). Pour the thick beef gravy over the meat and veg, covering it all. You can then gently place the top crust on. There should be some over-hanging pastry. Fold this all over until it no longer over-hangs in order to make a nice double-crust edge all the way around. Go around the edges, pinching together the top folded crust with any of the bottom crust that meets it around the top of the dish. After this, go around again, pressing a fork gently into the crust to make it look nice and add to the crispiness of the edge crust. You can brush the crust with a little milk at this stage if you like it extra browned.

Put into an oven at 200 Celsius (just over 390 F) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown with gravy visibly bubbling through slits. I served this with some creamy cheddar mashed potato and an extra portion of rich beef gravy that I made with the remaining slow cooker juices, some black pepper and another roux.