Beef & stout pie

This is a truly hearty combination. Make a patterned pie top if you fancy having a go (see opposite), or just drape over plain pastry. It all tastes good. Serve with champ, a potato mash with spring onions.

Serves 4–6

Vegetable oil 1 onion, roughly diced 500g diced beef (any of the stewing cuts, such as skirt) Plain flour 500ml bottle stout (or Guinness) 1 bay leaf 150g baby chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and halved 1 x 375g pack ready roll all-butter shortcrust pastry (or homemade) 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 Put a thin layer of oil into the bottom of a heavy-based saucepan or casserole and place over a medium heat. Tip the onions into the pan and fry slowly until soft and translucent. Remove them from the pan.

2 On a plate, coat the beef in flour, turning so that each side is covered. Pour a little more oil into the pan and turn the heat up slightly, then brown the pieces of meat in batches, removing them to a plate after cooking. You want the heat pretty high so that they actually brown and don’t just stew in their own juices.

3 Once all of the pieces of beef are cooked and removed from the pan, pour about half of the stout in and use it to deglaze the pan, stirring and incorporating all of the browned flour. Pour in the rest of the stout, then add the beef, bay leaf, cooked onions, and mushrooms. You may need to add a little more water at this stage too, around 250ml, to make sure all of the ingredients are well covered by liquid.

4 Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook on a very low heat for around two hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick. (Keep an eye on it during this time and add more water if you need to, but you don’t want to dilute the flavour too much.) Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5 Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/ Gas 6. Remove the bay leaf from the meat and tip it into a pie dish roughly 28x20cm. Flour your work surface and roll your pastry until it is about the thickness of a £1 coin. Paint the edges of the pie dish with the beaten egg, drape the pastry over and crimp it onto the edge of the pastry dish, cutting off any excess.

6 Make a hole in the centre for the steam to escape and use any offcuts to make patterns for the top of the pie, and attach them with a lick of beaten egg. Paint the whole of the top with the egg and then bake for 30–40 mins, or until the top is toasty and brown. Serve hot.