Although I’m getting close, I’m still not quite over my pastry fail a few months back.

I have invested in a food processor which I really think will solve my clammy-pastry-kiss-of-death hands problem.  I’m going to give it a go this weekend and see if I can’t make myself a nice, savoury tart.  I’ll let you know how I got on.

I spotted this fabulously fool-proof looking recipe on BBC Good Food, the site which remains my go-to-guy when it comes to recipes on-line.

Although it took around three hours to make, I found this recipe really easy to make, quite cheap, and the result got about a 9 on the comfort food scale.  Which is pretty comforting.

The Daily Spud had given me some appropriately firm style Colleen potatoes, which she recommended for grating.  This whole ‘pie’ is based on the idea that instead of a pastry crust, you can just cheat by grating a few spuds over it and making a cross between a pastry pie and a shepherd’s pie.

What you need for BBC Good Food’s Beef Pie with Crisp Potato Crust for 4 people

(The recipe said there would be enough for four people but I found that the following made enough for four models/grazers and enough for two food lovers.  Yes, we ate the whole lot between us.  And I’m not ashamed to admit it)

500g of braising steak (I used round steak which was reasonably priced and quite delicious)

1 onion roughly chopped

250g oyster mushrooms, sliced if large (I used regular mushrooms sliced and they were perfect)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp plain flour

100ml of red wine

200ml of hot beef stock

350g of potatoes, peeled (I used The Daily Spud’s lovely Colleen potatoes)

25g butter, chopped into small pieces

Olive Oil

Salt n peppa

Start off by heating a bit of oil in a large pot.  Chop your steak into nice, bite sized chunks.  Add them to the pot and cook at a high heat until browned all over, around 10 minutes will do.  Once browned, remove steak chunks from pot and set aside, leaving behind all the lovely juices the steak has released.

If you need to, add a little bit more oil to the pan and add your onions.  I let me onions cook in the steak juices and only added a tiny bit of oil so it wouldn’t all stick to the bottom.  Cook the onions for around 5-7 minutes, until softened.  Add the mushrooms and continue to cook for another 3 minutes, or until they start releasing juices of their own.

This next part of the recipe felt weird but it worked out perfectly.  Make sure your stock and wine are ready to go.  Add the tomato paste and the flour to the pot and cook for 1 minute, stirring well.  It will go frightfully sticky and the flour will suck up all the juices but have no fear…BBC’s got this.

After a minute, throw in your hot stock and red wine.  Stir everything well so there are no dry chunks of floury bits floating around.

Add the beef back to the pan.  Reduce the heat and simmer for around 2 hours until your steak is tender. I left mine at a medium-low heat (no 3 on my hob!) and it did the job.  I needed to top up the mixture with boiling water three or four times, and I kept an eye on it, giving it a stir every 15 minutes.  But basically, you can sit back and read the paper at this stage, just don’t forget to give it a stir and make sure it doesn’t dry out on you.

When your mixture is nearly done, bring a pan of salted water to the boil.  Pop in your spuds and boil for ten minutes, so they are just starting to soften.  Pour them under cold water to stop the cooking process.  They’ll also be nice and cold so you can coarsely grate them.  There was something strangely satisfying about grating the potatoes.

Preheat your oven to 190C fan, 170C or gas mark 5.

Pour your steak stew into a 2 litre baking dish.  Cover the top with your lovely grated spuds.  Scatter your butter over the top.  Pop into the oven and bake for around 30 minutes, or until the top is nice and crispy.

While the pie was baking, I went to work on The Daily Spud’s lovely French beans from her garden.  Where better to look for a good recipe but from the lady herself!  I used her recipe for the French Beans dressing and it was absolutely amaaaaazing.  So yum, and definitely adaptable to loads of other green veg.  I didn’t have the sesame seeds to hand but even without the dressing was kick ass.

Head here for The Daily Spud’s French Bean Recipe.

I took my pie out of the oven after 30 minutes, and in hindsight I think it could have done with another 10 minutes or so.  However, I was too excited and couldn’t bear to wait even another minute for the pie, so I served up.

I will definitely be making this again.  It was really easy, really delicious, and maybe next time I might even try to put a real pastry crust around it.  This really is a good alternative if you have a pastry phobia.

You’re bleedin’ gorgeous, you are.

Categories: Dinner Tags: Beef Pie no fuss